Grade 5 Excursions

Grade 5 Westgarth Cinema excursion

On Thursday the 6th of November the Grade 5 students went to Westgarth cinema to see ‘Future Council’; a documentary about the director Damon Gameau taking eight child environment activists for a road trip across Europe to seek solutions to the climate crisis. The film asks students what they can do to be more sustainable and to think about how companies can change their practises to help the environment. The film’s themes had connections to our Inquiry unit How We Organise Ourselves with the Central Idea- ‘Economic activity relies on systems of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services’.

In the interest of Sustainability the Grade 5 students, teachers and parent helpers walked to the cinema and enjoyed some playtime at All Nations park. A big thank you to our parent helpers; Cameron Osbourne, Justine Rouse, Monica Duggan and Rachel Levin for all their help keeping our students safe on the walk to cinema.

When we arrived back at school we reflected on our favourite student activist from the film and the reasons why. We also thought about the actions we can take to tame ‘Groth (“Growth without the “W” for wisdom”), the creature in the film who thanks to rising consumerism and the unregulated use of fossil fuels, is now a monster wreaking havoc on our planet.

Here are some of the students’ responses:

My favourite characters were Skye and Ruby because they both used their talents and hobbies to convince the owners of the companies to help save the environment. To stop feeding Groth we could work together to clean up the beaches and pick up plastic when we see it.- Jessica 5D

My favourite character was Joaquin who was pretty smart. I’m going to stop buying items with lots of plastic on them. Bradley- 5D

My favourite character is CC. I like her because she is one of the youngest members and yet she still has a very good and  has a mature mindset. I’m going to tame Groth by picking up rubbish when I go to the beach. -Cleo J 5D

My favourite character is Joaquin because he was funny and could speak two languages. I’m going to stop Groth by not littering. -Albert 5D

My favourite character is Joseph because he helps kids to go to school and makes things from plastic rubbish. I am going to stop Groth by choosing to do more ethical things and use reuseable stuff. -Nicholas 5D.

My favourite character from the movie was Skye, because when they were in a meeting with the CEO from a big company, she stepped up and was very brave in doing that. One way to stop Groth is to reduce the plastic waste in my house and to not buy things I don’t need. -Matilda 5D

My favourite character was Carla, because she was really kind and down to earth and she was interested in stopping fast fashion, which I think is really important. To stop Groth I could stop buying stuff I don’t need. -Penny 5D

Year 5 Darebin Parkland excursion

Last Friday the Grade 5’s started tuning in to their new Unit of Inquiry, ‘Living things change and adapt to their environment to support their survival’, by enjoying an excursion to Darebin Parklands.

The students experienced four activities: Water testing, A tree and bird audit, Orienteering and Art of Nature. We were very lucky that the weather let us enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the Parklands. Our water testing and tree and bird audit data will support our learning for statistics in Mathematics.

Many thanks to our fabulous parent helpers, Ben Crisfield, Jo Colinet, Carly Edwards, Theresa Cooke and Carli Traill for their help during the day.

Students recording data for the tree and bird species audit