Hello from our students and teachers - Grade 5/6J

Reading

We’ve had an engaging start to Term 3 in literacy. In both reading and writing, our focus has shifted back to narratives and fiction texts. Students have been exploring character traits and developing a deeper understanding of how characters think, feel, and act in different situations.

We’ve also begun reading a new class novel, All the Things That Could Go Wrong by Stewart Foster:

We have explored character traits within the context of the book's main characters, Alex and Dan. The novel has sparked some great discussions and thoughtful reflections in class.

Writing

In writing, students have been working on crafting their own engaging narratives. A key focus has been on developing their “writer’s voice”, which is the feeling and personality that they put into their writing to engage the reader. We’ve practiced writing from the perspective of different characters (including Dan and Alex), thinking carefully about their traits, emotions, and motivations. Students have also been using figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, to make their stories more vivid and engaging for the reader.

Mathematics

So far in Term 3, we’ve had a strong focus on multiplicative thinking in Maths such as exploring factors, multiples, division and divisibility rules. One example we've explored is the divisibility rule for 3: if the sum of a number’s digits is divisible by 3, then the whole number is too. For instance, 372 is divisible by 3 because 3 + 7 + 2 = 12, and 12 is divisible by 3.

We’ve also been building skills in financial mathematics by comparing prices, working out percentages, and deciding what makes the “best deal” when shopping. You can see some examples in our "daily review" slides, which we engage with every day to recall what we have learnt previously in the term/year:

Inquiry

In Inquiry this term, we’re starting to look at the arrival of the First Fleet and the impact it had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Over the term, we’ll build our understanding of why the British came, what life was like for the early settlers, and how these events affected First Nations communities. We’ll also be learning to look at history from different perspectives and think about how it still shapes Australia today.