Melton West Primary School

Year 5/6 News 

 English

Reading

In reading this term the grade 5/6 students will be building on their understanding of summarising a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. The students will practise giving oral and written summaries, demonstrating their understanding of the important details in a text. This will be their major unit of work for the term, with minor focuses on making connections to texts and determining the text structures and features of a text. The students will be working on making connections between the themes of texts, settings and plots. They will practise making connections between a range of genres of both fiction and non-fiction texts. The grade 5/6  students will also continue building on their knowledge of text structures and the features. Throughout this focus, the students will continue to discuss and identify how illustrations, graphics and photographs work together in texts to convey meaning. The students will work on analysing and evaluating the similarities and differences in texts on similar topics and with similar themes and plots. 

 

Writing

This term the Grade 5/6 students will be writing an information report on a topic they are interested in. They will follow the writing process which involves researching information to support their idea development, drafting, revising and editing and publishing. The students will work on continuing to build their understanding of the text features that are essential to information reports (introduction, description and concluding paragraph). Throughout the unit, the students will also have the opportunity to extend their vocabulary through the use of subject specific vocabulary and the use of adjectives that are factual and precise.

            

 

Mathematics

This term in mathematics the grade 5/6 students will have a major focus on ‘Fractions and Decimals’ and ‘Addition and subtraction’. Throughout the first major unit, the students will begin the term building on their knowledge of decimals, visualising them and representing them using materials. They will work on comparing and ordering fractions and decimals to thousandths and exploring equivalent, improper fractions and mixed numerals. Each week, throughout the major units, the students will have a couple lessons a week with a focus on their minor units. The first minor unit will be around ‘Data’, where students will build on their understanding of the difference between numerical and categorical data. They will explore a range of graph types and choose an appropriate graph type to represent their data. The students will practise interpreting real world data and provide statements relating to the information they discover. The cohort will then move onto their next major unit focus around adding and subtracting using a range of mental and written strategies such as the ‘split strategy’. While building their knowledge on addition and subtraction, the students will focus on a minor unit on Geometry, where they will explore the features, properties and nets of 3D shapes. The students will then finish the term with a focus on ‘Length’, using their knowledge of length for finding a shape’s perimeter. They will then investigate and convert between units of length and compare these to the decimal system. 

 

 

Inquiry

In Inquiry this term, the Grade 5/6 students will explore our Law and Order unit. The students will develop an understanding of how Australia’s legal system aims to promote equal opportunity and justice for all. They will investigate how laws are developed and enforced in Australia, what it means to be an Australian citizen and how the Australian legal system compares to the legal systems in other countries.

 

 

Science

During Science in Term 2, students will be learning about the Earth and Space Sciences. The prioritised standard that students will be working towards is: Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting around a star (the Sun). They will be learning about planets in the solar system; identifying that all planets orbit around a star called the Sun, whilst moons orbit around their closest planetary body; the relative sizes of the planets in our solar system; building a 3D model of our solar system called an orrery; and the planet’s location in relation to the Sun. 

 

 

LOTE - AUSLAN

Welcome to Auslan, Term 2! It is an exciting time as teaching and learning will begin this term. Grade 56’s will learn about Auslan being a signed language using the  hands, with no voice, which is used by the Deaf Community. They will learn the Auslan  Alphabet, and frequently use signs associated with Colours, Family, School, Farm Animals, and Describing Animals. Grade 56’s will also learn to sign Numbers in Auslan  using their dominant (writing) hand. This learning will be introduced through explicit sign teaching videos, games, stories, and  group practice. Learning Auslan will involve both expressive (signing) and receptive  understanding skills (reading back what others’ sign), hence activities are designed to develop these skills. Students will be encouraged to participate in lesson related  activities and to share their learning and understanding with their peers and teacher.

At this level, along with increased expectation regarding non-voicing, students will be

taught to respond and ask questions in Auslan. They will be encouraged to work more independently, in some activities with a partner and learn to comprehend Auslan in stories developing their receptive/’reading back’ skills.

 

 

 Art

Welcome to term 2 Art, this term the students will be learning about Monochromatic art, and its use of variations of just one colour. Through the use of only using one colour the students will be able to learn more about the tonal, textural and compositional elements of painting by stripping away the distraction of numerous colours. Students will then use their knowledge from Monochromatic art to explore art pieces by Edvard Munch, The Scream, from there students will use their knowledge of how to create different tones and textures using one base colour to create their own “The Scream” paintings. Looking forward to a fun and creative term in art with the grade 5’s and 6’s. 

 

 

P.E.

This will be another busy term for the grade 5/6 students with more interschool sport for those students lucky enough to represent the school. In this term we have the cross-country running event and the winter sport lightning premiership which includes the sports of netball, tee-ball, and football. We have students who will be attending all these events. It is a great opportunity to play and represent Melton West primary, our school community should be proud of our students and how they represent the school at these events. Good luck to all those attending and thanking all the staff in advance who attend and help our students.

In addition to these opportunities there will again be a lot of learning taking place for the students in 5/6, firstly students will begin the term with soccer, students will first develop the required skills for soccer which include kicking to pass and kicking to score and then move towards a games-based approach for this sport playing in small-sided games. Each 5/6 class will engage in a class tournament which will allow everyone to follow rules and participate in a competition-based program. Students will be able to work on skills needed for soccer which include passing, shooting, and dribbling. Once this unit of work has been completed, we will then move to athletics. All students will participate in various events found in athletics carnivals such as discus, shot put, sprints, relay races, and long-distance running. Towards the end of this term the whole school will be participating in athletics week. The Grade 5/6 students will be active and involved in this week which should be very engaging and fun for everyone. I am looking forward to working with each student and helping them all develop their skills in physical education.