Level Five

Level 5 have had a fantastic start to Term 3! This term, we have begun our Level Assemblies, where the Grade 5 cohort comes together to celebrate our achievements, talents and successes. It has been wonderful to see students cheering each other on and celebrating the hard work of their peers. We have also begun presenting our Student of the Week awards, recognising students who have demonstrated our school values, shown fantastic effort and made positive choices. We are incredibly proud of the way our Grade 5 students continue to support and encourage one another!

Writing

Earlier this term, students had lots of fun exploring Limericks. We learnt about the structure and rhyme scheme of this type of poetry and enjoyed creating funny and entertaining poems designed to make our classmates laugh. It was fantastic to see students experimenting with rhyme, word choice and humour.

More recently, we have moved into Information Reports. We began by learning about the structure and language features of an information report, using bushfires as our shared topic. Students then put their skills into practice by researching, drafting and publishing their own information reports on droughts, floods or cyclones.

Students have been working hard to include accurate facts, subheadings, topic-specific vocabulary and detailed explanations in their reports. We have also been exploring how the same information can be presented in different ways. Students are now adapting their information reports into engaging and informative posters in preparation for our upcoming Science Expo. We can't wait to see the fantastic posters our students create!

Reading

In Reading, we have been developing our comprehension strategies of summarising and connecting. Students have been learning to identify the most important information in a text and put it into their own words when summarising. We have also been making deeper connections between texts, our own experiences and the wider world, helping us to think more deeply about what we read.

We have also been enjoying reading the novel Blueback by Tim Winton. This beautiful story has provided us with many opportunities to explore the author's language and writing choices. While reading, we have been identifying and analysing metaphors and similes, exploring how authors use figurative language to create vivid images for the reader.

We have also been examining character development and setting description, looking at how characters change throughout a story and how authors use descriptive language to help us picture and understand the places in which stories take place. Students have enjoyed using evidence from the novel to explain their thinking and have developed some fantastic insights into the text.

Maths

Maths has been busy in Grade 5! We have been developing our understanding of angles, including identifying different types of angles, measuring angles and using our knowledge of angles to solve problems. Students have enjoyed using protractors and applying their understanding to a range of practical and problem-solving activities.

We have also been exploring fractions, building on our previous knowledge to compare, represent and work with fractions in a range of different ways. Students have been developing their ability to explain their mathematical thinking and justify their answers rather than simply finding an answer.

We have now moved into decimals, where we are exploring the relationship between fractions, decimals and place value. Students have been learning to read, represent, compare and order decimals and will be moving to apply their understanding to real-world problems.