Year 5/6 News 

 English

Reading

In Term 1 our 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, 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 synthesising various comprehension strategies and understanding Tier 2 vocabulary when extracting meaning from complex novels. The comprehension strategies that students will learn to synthesise include the following: making connections, inferring, determining importance, 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, students will set up their Writer’s Notebook and understand how writers go through a process when creating texts. The major text-type for this term is persuasive writing, during this unit the students will learn to create arguments with supporting facts and build on their understanding of how to use persuasive techniques using a range of language features such as rhetorical questions and emotive language. 

Mathematics

In Term 1, students will begin the year with our maths start-up. We will then move onto our first unit that focuses on measurement (length and perimeter) including the metric system. Students will be able to practise and incorporate their place value skills and knowledge of the base-10 number system throughout this unit of work. Over the weeks following this, students will learn more about decimal numbers and addition and subtraction. Later in the term, students will explore the perimeter of irregular shapes, thus consolidating concepts learnt at the beginning of term.  They will incorporate their problem solving skills into maths tasks each week throughout term 1.

Inquiry

In Term 1, students will be introduced to 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 how we can be Ready to Learn after transition periods, what strategies to use when escalated and how their classroom can use the cool down corner and brain breaks throughout the school day. 

Science

This term in Science students will be focusing on developing an understanding of how the growth and survival of living things (micro-organisms) is affected by the physical conditions of their environment. They will be observing the growth of fungi such as yeast and bread mould in different conditions. During these investigations students will be developing the following science inquiry skills:-- questioning and predicting – with guidance, pose questions to inform scientific investigations, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be- planning and conducting – with guidance, plan appropriate investigation methods to answer questions, deciding which variable should be changed and measured in fair tests- processing and analysing data and information – use a range of methods including tables and graphs to represent data and to identify patterns and trends; compare data with predictions and use as evidence in developing explanations- evaluating – suggest improvements to the methods used to investigate a question or solve a problem- communicating – communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways

LOTE - Chinese

During Term 1 in Chinese, Grade 5/6 will learn about Chinese New Year in first two weeks’ time and then make Chinese lanterns in the classroom. The topic for this term is Chinese Festivals and their food. Students will explored 4 main festivals in China and their related food in English and Chinese. Also they have good knowledge of Chinese zodiac especially 4 animal signs relate to their birth years. 

 Art

Welcome to Term 1, Art, 2023! In Art, the Grade 5 and 6’s will revise routines and follow expectations in our classroom environment, including correct use of tools and materials and being safe and respectful inside the Art room. We have started the year creating an ‘All about me’ collage. The students have used various typed of mediums such as magazines, newspapers, glue and scissors to cut out pictures to create a new art piece that represents their personalities and reflects their individuality.

Term 1 will also be about deepening the students’ understanding of colour theory. The students will experiment with paint in the art room! We will start the term using warm and cool colours. Students will be using leaves to print designs in summer and autumn hues and tones. Warm and cool colours play a vital role when designing, and particularly when painting to create a sense of mood in the artworks. The Grade 5/6 students will be working with monochromatic colours in Term 1 and will look at various artworks by different artists to explore how colours have been used. The students will work with mediums; such as acrylic, watercolours, crayons, pencils, textas, PVA glue and chalk and will learn new techniques this term. 

I look forward to more fun in the art room this Term with the grades 5 and 6 students.

P.E.

Welcome back to a new year of Physical Education! We have another busy year ahead with interschool sport competition starting during this term. The sports on offer are cricket, volleyball, and tennis for our 5/6 boys and girls who wish to represent the school in sporting competition. All the teachers are excited and proud of the opportunities that will be available for our students this term and this year. For this term, the focus is on tennis and baseball (T-ball) and being able to apply knowledge and skills about these sports in game-based situations. We will be continuing the development of the fundamental movement skills and applying them in game situations. These include small-sided games and full-sized games that all students will be given the opportunity to participate in. Our grade 5/6 students are aiming to apply creative and critical thinking when playing sport and using this to form strategies to assist them in successful outcomes. We want to create students who play fair, can follow rules and demonstrate ethical behaviour when it comes to competitive sporting contests. We have such a wonderful year ahead for Physical Education and sport for the 5/6 students. I can not wait for what is ahead and looking forward to seeing our school achieve great things in sport.