YEAR FIVE
Grade Bulletin - Term One, 2023
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School provides a range of holistic learning experiences to enable students to:
- Participate in the life and mission of the school.
- Deepen their knowledge and engagement with the Catholic faith and tradition.
- Build capacity to continuously reason, reflectively, logically and critically.
- Embrace interdependence of human existence as global citizens, who are responsible to and for themselves and others.
- Engage in learning in a multitude of ways, through personalised and self-paced learning.
“Ideas are like small plants sprouting in the compost of experience; it takes time and patience to find out if they turn into trees’. Shaun Tan
Religious Education
Morality & Justice: Social Justice
This term students will explore how social justice calls Christians to respect the dignity of the human person. Students will explore Scripture and Church Tradition to inform our understanding of social justice and the Church’s mission to build a just world. In their exploration, students will study the principles of Catholic Social Teaching and the model of See, Judge, Act, to enable them to review situations of injustice. Students will look at ways the Catholic Church in Australia reaches out to people who struggle to live with injustice.
Prayer, Liturgy and Sacraments - Liturgical Year
The Liturgical Year units enable students to explore the traditions, beliefs, Scripture and events celebrated by the Catholic community throughout the Liturgical Year and especially during the time of Advent to Christmas, Lent to Holy Week and Easter to Pentecost.
This term Year 5 will explore the units of:
- Lent - Lent is a time of spiritual growth and conversion.
- Holy Week - The Church remembers the rejection, suffering and death of Jesus during Holy Week.
English
This term, our focus is to nurture critical and creative thinking. The students will explore the concept of ‘truth’ through the texts ‘Young Dark Emu' by Bruce Pascoe, 'Bindi' by Kirli Saunders and 'Home to Mother' by Doris Pilkington. These texts present different perspectives and points of view relating to the narrative of Australian colonisation.
The students will compose both imaginative and persuasive texts using ‘Seven Steps of Writing’ technique. Students will be taught explicit skills in relation to grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and specific concepts about print. Students will follow the Year 5 Soundwaves spelling program focusing on weekly phonemes and graphemes.
Mathematics
Flexible learning groups will continue to take place this term. Students will engage in activities that are differentiated and the children are grouped in order to cater to their needs and ability. During these groups, the students are explicitly taught concepts from the NSW Mathematics K-10 Syllabus with a focus on problem solving, fluency, communication, reasoning and understanding.
The topics taught in Term 1 are: whole number, chance, addition & subtraction, multiplication & division, length and area.
The students will be engaged in tasks designed with increasing complexity and challenge, open-ended high ceiling, differentiated success criteria and enabling and extending prompts. Consolidation tasks and fluency programs will also be implemented to ensure students have opportunities to grasp key concepts and skills.
Science and Technology
This term, students will engage in STEM critical and creative thinking activities. They will experience authentic design challenge tasks incorporating Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Using inquiry principles, based on the Solution Fluency model, the children will take ownership of their learning as they respond to the GRASP task which will focus on the growth and survival of living things and how their adaptations over time suit their environment.
Mandarin
This term Year 5 students will continue the Chinese language program called the Meg Language Program. The Meg Curriculum is written by the co-author of the Australian Curriculum. All students and teachers will participate in the digital learning platform via Zoom weekly sessions.
Geography
Through inquiry based learning students will focus on ‘Factors that Shape Places’. Students will be encouraged to develop their cultural and geographical skills. They will explore how people change the natural environment in Australia and other places around the world. They also investigate how the environment influences the human characteristics of places. This will involve inquiry that examines current local, national and global geographical issues. This unit will also integrate a historical investigation of colonial Australia in the 1800’s.
Amadeus Music Program
This year students from all grades will be involved in the Amadeus Music Education program, introduced by Sydney Catholic Schools providing students with a high quality music education program. The program offers students expert classroom music lessons, ensemble lessons, and for primary students, group tuition.
Students will participate in activities in listening, performing and organising sound (Kindergarten to Year 6), within their regular Classroom Music lessons. Within these lessons, students will:
- Sing in unison and in parts
- Play tuned and untuned percussion instruments
- Play available instruments such as Ukulele, Guitar and Keyboard (Grade appropriate)
For students in Years 3- 6 the program has three essential elements:
- Classroom Music: Whole-class music lessons taught by specialist Music tutors for up to 1 hour per week.
- Small Group Tuition: Students in groups of five to seven, will spend 30 minutes per week learning to play on a string, woodwind or brass instrument.
- Ensemble Rehearsal: Students will play their instrument in a string ensemble, orchestra or concert band (whole of class) for up to 1 hour per week.
Small Group Tuition (Grades 3-6)
Students from Year 3 - Year 6 are required to attend weekly small group tuition lessons with their Instrumental Tutor.
- Small group tuition lessons are 30 minutes in length and occur during the school day.
- Students are required to attend all scheduled lessons.
- Students will be given a music timetable at the start of each term and are responsible for being on-time and prepared.
- Students are responsible for catching up on any work missed in class. They must speak to their teacher to ensure they understand any missed content.
- It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that they:
- Arrive on time for each lesson
- Bring their instrument and required accessories to every lesson
- Bring their Essential Elements* music book
- Bring a lead pencil and eraser
*Each student will be issued an Essential Elements Music Book with their instrument. This contains all of the repertoire and material they need for their ensemble and tutorial lessons.
Creative Arts
This term on a Monday, all Year 5 students will engage in a Physical Education (Miss Reid), Music (Mr Parlato) and an Art lesson (Mrs Brown).
Music
Students will participate in activities in listening, performing, and organising sound, within their regular Classroom Music lessons. Within these lessons, students will:
- Sing in unison and in parts
- Play tuned and untuned percussion instruments
- Play available instruments such as Ukulele, Guitar and Keyboard (Grade appropriate)
Visual Arts
Our Visual Arts program for Term 1 will be integrated with our literature study. Students will be focusing on the elements of design, exploring ideas and practices of Indigenous artists, to represent different views, beliefs and opinions. Visual Arts will be taught by Mrs Brown.
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
The Stage 3 Physical Education program is aimed at providing opportunities for students to develop their skills and build confidence in Athletics activities using Fundamental Movement Skills. This will assist students in preparation for the upcoming Cross Country and Athletics Carnival.
In Stage 3, students should be consolidating and/or proficient in specific athletics Fundamental Movement Skills. Students will apply these skills through activities and team games. Games are encouraged to build teamwork, communication, strategy and game sense and resilience.
A new program titled Open Parachute will be implemented K-6. Open Parachute aims to provide practical support on mental health to students. The program aims to reduce stigma and generate authentic dialogue in classrooms about the real issues students face. The psychological skills-building exercises aim to increase empathy, self-compassion, self-awareness, mental health literacy, and self-efficacy in students.
Homework
In Year 5, students are expected to complete 40 minutes of homework each night. It is expected that your child reads for 20 minutes nightly as part of their 40 minutes of homework and record their reading in their diaries. Your child will need to bring their diary to school every day.
Homework will be sent home Week 2 Thursday. It will be due fortnightly on a Thursday (even weeks- Wk 4, 6, 8 & 10). Please sign and check your child's homework and make sure it has been completed to the best of their ability and presented neatly.
A homework grid will be sent home in their homework book clearly outlining the tasks. Each fortnight there will be spelling, reading, religion/wellbeing and maths tasks to complete. There are also some optional tasks for the term.
As a part of maths homework, a Maths Plus mentals and homework book will be provided to all students. A weekly task will be set and we ask that this be returned Thursday fortnightly (even weeks). Maths Plus follows a graded and spiralling approach, allowing for revision of concepts throughout the year. It will provide students with opportunities to sequentially develop, practise and master their skills and knowledge.
We look forward to continuing to work with you and your child this year. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via a note or by appointment via the office.
Miss Marnie Cleary and Mrs Desiree Djundja (5Blue)
Miss Chloe Tozer (5Gold)
Miss Chonteau Poot (5White)
Important Dates for Year 5
Sport Days:
5B: Monday & Friday
5G: Monday & Friday
5W: Monday & Thursday
Library Days:
5B: Tuesday - even weeks
5G: Monday - even weeks
5W: Tuesday - even weeks
NAPLAN testing will be taking place at school from 15th - 27th March. Further information will be shared with you closer to the date.
School Term - Friday 27th January - Thursday, 6th April 2023