Year 5/6 News 

 ENGLISH

Reading:

In Term 1, our grade 5/6 students will begin the year by learning about our agreed expectations when reading. They will learn how to use their reading journal, choose just-right books, understand how to take notes to sort key information in reading lessons, establish a neat and orderly classroom library and use a book borrowing system, among other things. After the ‘First 20 Days of Reading’ concludes, students will dedicate time to learning a range of comprehension strategies to support them in their reading. At the Grade 5/6 level, the focus is on building their understanding of various comprehension strategies and understanding Tier 2 vocabulary when extracting meaning from complex novels. The comprehension strategies that students will learn include the following: making connections, inferring, determining importance, understanding text structure and features and visualising. Our students will learn to apply these strategies to a range of texts, including our class novel.

Writing:

In Writing, aligned with the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards, students will establish their Writer’s Notebook and explore the writer's process, incorporating generating ideas, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students will complete a variety of tasks that will foster personal choice writing and writing stamina. The major text-type for Term 1 will be on persuasive writing, where students will learn to construct arguments with supporting evidence and build on persuasive techniques. Students will utilise language features such as rhetorical questions and emotive language as they plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish their own persuasive texts.            

MATHEMATICS

This term, our Year 5/6 students will kick off the year by exploring the essential skills and expectations of being successful mathematicians. They will engage in activities designed to develop their problem-solving strategies and foster a collaborative learning environment.

After the first 20 days, the spotlight will be on Place Value. Students will deepen their understanding of reading and working with numbers, including those with decimal places. They will also practice mental strategies to solve equations involving decimals, enhancing their confidence and speed in calculations.

As the term progresses, the focus will shift to Length and Measurement. Students will learn to convert units such as millimetres to centimetres and apply their knowledge to real-world measurement scenarios. This hands-on approach will help them see the relevance of mathematics in everyday life.

We’re looking forward to a term of curiosity, growth, and mathematical discovery!

INQUIRY

This term the grade 5/6 students will be participating in our Learning to Learn program. Throughout the term we will be focusing on how students can strengthen and support their ability to learn, form positive relationships by developing a growth mindset, recognise and nurture their character strengths and understand how they can best develop their bodies and minds. Together we will look 

at the routines and processes that students will work together to follow both inside and outside the classroom. The students will reflect on regulation strategies and discuss the tools and spaces they have available in their classroom to support them with this. After setting up our classroom routines and procedures the students will then have a focus on developing a healthy body and a healthy mind. This unit will begin to explore the body’s needs and how students improve the choices they make for their bodies.

SCIENCE

Grade 5/6 students have an exciting start to the year in 2025 with Term 1 focusing on Biological Science. Term 1’s unit is called Environment.

Students will learn that living things have structural features and adaptations that help them to survive in their environment. They will be involved in learning tasks based upon: list multiple adaptations that assist an animal or plant to survive its environment; identifying the environment, structure and function of animal adaptations; conducting experiments which explore the links between adaptations and certain environments; exploring multiple adaptations that Australian animals possess that help it survive in its environment; and research an Australian animal or plant and the adaptations it possesses.

LOTE - AUSLAN

Welcome to Auslan, Term 1, 2025! During Term 1 Grade 5 and 6 students will learn about: – Revision Alphabet/Greetings, Food/Breakfast, Transport, Shops, Outside the House, Vegetables, Handshapes #3, Size, Shape and Revision. 

The students will continue learning new signs for the above topics, through the videos, with fun stories, poems and games. We will practice combining signs in ‘phrases’ to build Auslan communication. 

Repetition and practice improve recall and develop Auslan language skills.                               As such, the lessons will frequently include revision of past learning, as we cover the new learning. The students are encouraged to participate in activities, practising lesson content and to share their learning with their peers and the teacher.

Our focus is on both expressive Auslan (signing to others) and receptive Auslan (reading back/understanding others’ signing). These are important skills which coordinate in the learning of the Auslan language.

At this level the students have an understanding that Auslan is a visual language with non-voicing and practicing this as they communicate in Auslan. They are beginning to learn expressive elements of Auslan and Deaf Culture, of which the Auslan language is an important part.

 ART

Welcome back to Art in 2025! In Art this semester, the Year 5/6s are practising various skills and techniques to do with drawing, collage, sculpture and painting. In doing so, we are beginning to explore our big idea for the semester, ‘My artistic inner world’.

Through considering their uniquely personal landscapes of ideas and emotions, the students will broaden their understanding of how they might express themselves and communicate as artists, informed by the diverse ways in which artists create in the wider world. We will record our progress in visual art diaries, developing concept maps, researching artworks and working with a range of interesting art materials and mediums.

The Year 5/6s will examine the art practice of Yayoi Kusama, one of the world’s most celebrated living artists. Yayoi has used art as a form of connection and catharsis throughout her life, and is currently exhibiting a career retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria. Another artist that we will study in our learning is Melbourne- based Reko Rennie, who explores his Aboriginal (Kamilaroi) identity through his use of painting, stencilling, sculpture, installation and film.

Together, the students will collaborate on some exciting installation pieces and begin planning their own individual art projects as well. This term’s Art curriculum is decidedly ambitious and I have complete confidence that the students will soar in their discoveries and creations

P.E.

Welcome back to a new year of Physical Education! This term, interschool sports competitions begin, including cricket, volleyball, and tennis for 5/6 boys and girls, along with the Melton schools swimming carnival. Our focus this term is on football and netball, applying skills in game-based situations while developing fundamental movement skills. A games-based approach will include both small-sided and full-sized games that will give all students a chance to participate in. Grade 5/6 students will work on creative and critical thinking to develop strategies, play fairly, follow rules, and demonstrate ethical behaviour in competitive sports. We’re excited for a fantastic year ahead and look forward to seeing our students achieve great things!

MUSIC

During term 1 in Music, the Grade 5/6 students will have the opportunity to explore the GarageBand app on their iPads to realise their musical creations as they create a hip-hop ‘ostinato rap’ using digitally generated sounds and their own live audio recordings. Students will develop their skills on the ukulele as they begin to alternate between basic chords in preparation for their performances of popular songs, later in the year. Students will continue to learn about music from a range of cultures, times and locations as they explore the more complex aspects of rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture. I am really looking forward to working with the musicians of grade 5/6 and encouraging them to communicate and express themselves through music.