Grade 5 News

Message from the Principal

Dear Pegasus Family,

I want to thank you for your support and messages of thanks in what has been a difficult week for us all. Our staff and students did an amazing job on Wednesday with keeping students safe and then yesterday with supporting them. I want to thank you for your flexibility and calmness in collecting students on Wednesday as we tried to avoid the emergency services that were in Bellfield Drive. At all times our actions were taken to ensure the physical and emotional safety of the community. I recognise that the delay in communication caused anxiety for families, as you can imagine there were many things for us to manage that afternoon with our number 1 priority being to ensure we had supports in place for students and staff.

Once again I thank you for support and best wishes.

Regards,

Adam Wight

Principal

Important Reminders

Homework

The homework week runs from Monday to Monday. During this time, students are required to:

* Read 4 nights and record their reading in their diary.

*Complete activities in Mathletics that equal, at least, 750 points.

Please see your child's teacher if you have any homework questions.

Upcoming Dates

Tuesday August 13th - Science Day Open Afternoon (2.40 - 3.30pm)

Wednesday, August 21st - Book Week Dress Up Day

Thursday, August 22nd - Fathers' Day Stall

Friday, August 23rd - Summer Round Robin Day 1

Thursday, August 29th - History Box Incursion

Friday, September 6th - Summer Round Robin Day 2

Friday, September 13th - School Disco

Monday, September 16th - Inquiry Celebration Open Morning

Friday, September 20th - Last Day of Term (2.30 dismissal)

Learning in Action

Literacy: This fortnight the grade 5 students have continued their learning about poetry and poetic devices. We have looked more into similes and metaphors as well as explored colours and symbols in literature. We learned that colours often represent different emotions or ideas, for example, purple = royalty, green = envy, white = innocence and that different objects can also represent different ideas such as doors = opportunities, fox = sneaky and roses = love.

The students have developed their own poems, working individually and in partners to write both free verse poems and poems that follow the AABB or ABAB rhyming structure. They have also written shape poems for their personal poetry anthologies, publishing in the shape of the poem topic to give extra meaning to the reader.

Preview for Learning:

Over the next fortnight, we will conclude our poetry unit and collate our poems into personal anthologies. These individual collections will contain poems written by the students both individually as a group, as well as poems that they have discussed and analysed. Students will also practise their reading fluency, by rehearsing a poem of their choice to present to the class. Following this, we will begin our learning on informative texts in the format of newspaper articles.

Maths:

This fortnight, the students have been progressing through their fractions goals. We have explored adding and subtracting fractions, learning why the numerator stays the same when performing these operations. The students completed their fortnightly 'prove it' sheets to demonstrate their understanding of their current goal and their readiness to move on to the next skill.

The students have enjoyed creating and sharing maps in our applied unit. They added compass points and a scale to their maps and wrote and followed directions using a combination of coordinates, compass points and scaled distance.

Preview for Learning:

Over the next fortnight, we will be applying our mapping skills and knowledge in a mapping investigation. Following this, we will begin our units on angles and decimals, our topics for the remainder of the term. Students will explore how decimals are just an extension of the base 10 system, with numbers smaller than one.

Inquiry:

We have continued our inquiry into life in Australia in the 1800s, looking at some of our most famous inland explorers, such as Eyre, Bourke, Will, Blaxland, Hovell and Hume. We noted the location and reasons for their explorations, such as opening stock and trade routes between the colonies and discovering more usable farmland. We also looked into the Gold Rush and the impact that the discovery of gold had on the colonies, Indigenous communities and immigration to Australia. We investigated the Eureka Stockade, including the reasons it happened and the impacts it had on society.

Preview for Learning:

Over the next fortnight, we will be investigating Bush Rangers such as the Kelly Gang and the different perspectives historians have on the events that occurred.

Notables of Australia in the 1800s:

From week 6 students will be asked to select a notable person from 1800s Australia to investigate and present for celebration morning in week 10. We ask that students begin to think about which person they may wish to be. A maximum of two students from each grade will be able to select each person, so they need to have a couple of options in mind. Please see the email sent out last week or the grade 5 Google classroom for the slides with the list of notables (if students have an alternative appropriate person, please ask them to discuss it with their classroom teacher).

Other

History Box Incursion

On Thursday, August 29th the Grade 5 students will be participating in an incursion by History Box. This incursion will focus on the Gold Rush and the Eureka Stockade and will provide students with opportunities to dress up and experience life on the gold fields. Please see the compass event for more details. Permission and payment due by Friday August 23rd.

Spamalot Excursion

On Tuesday we walked up to Rowville Secondary College to watch the final dress rehearsal of their school production of 'Spamalot'. The play was very funny and the students enjoyed the experience. We were impressed with their 'theatre etiquette' and the sensible way they walked to and from the venue.

Waterford Valley Lakes Retirement Village

5H have continued their weekly visits to Waterford Lakes Retirement Village, this week braving the drizzle to spend time with the residents making origami masterpieces! 5M will visit in the second half of this term, with 5WH visits taking place early in term 4.