Classroom News 

Grade 5 & 6

Our Learning:

In Reader’s Workshop students have been sorting and expanding their sticky note thinking. Students use sticky notes to be active readers and track thoughts, questions and predictions about the text they are reading.

In Writer’s Workshop, we have focused on the 6+ writing trait of Sentence Fluency. This is not about the grammatical structure of the writing, but rather the rhythm and the way the words and phrases flow through the piece. Students have enjoyed reading examples of effective sentence fluency and experimenting with this in their own writing.

In maths, students have explored length measurement through a variety of hands on activities and challenges. We even saw a metre long chocolate bar!

Our Inquiry unit “Project Firestorm” is coming to an end, and students have been finalising their presentations to share with the class. We were also fortunate to have two guest speakers share their knowledge and experiences with Bushfires. Kirsty (Stella T’s mum) shared her expertise with weather and forecasting fire weather conditions. Mrs Chetcuti shared her experiences when she was caught up in the Black Summer Fires in 2020. A big thank you to both of them for taking time to share their knowledge with our 5/6 students.

Living and Growing

During Term 2, students will be part of the Living and Growing incursions where they will learn about how bodies change, body safety, respect and friendships. We hope many of our parents were able to tune into the Online Parent session that was held on Tuesday the 30th of March. If you have any questions please contact your child’s class teacher.

We hope everyone has a wonderful, restful holiday break and we look forward to seeing you back in Term 2 for another jam packed term of fun!

From the 5/6 team

Newsletter request looking for two parent volunteers

 We are looking for two parent volunteers to support the Grade 5 Dementia Café program throughout Terms 2, 3 and 4.  Beginning on the 1st of June, these two volunteers will share the responsibility of escorting five Grade five students from 9.30 – 12.30 every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month (during the school terms) to attend the Umbrella Dementia Cafes at the One Community Church.  Prior to the excursions, both volunteers will receive full program training in May alongside the Grade 5 teachers.  The volunteers we are looking for understand dementia either professionally or through life experiences.  Volunteers will have a Working With Children’s Check, are open to talking about dementia with young people and comfortable helping students complete surveys at the end of their café experience.   Both volunteers will naturally get to know the people who attend the cafes and are encouraged to have fun enjoying the activities with the students at the café.   To understand more about Umbrella Dementia Cafes, please visit their Facebook page, website and YouTube channel.   

If you are interested in being one of the lucky people to be a part of this program, please email Sue Battista (5BF) for an Expression of Interest.

susan.battista@education.vic.gov.au

Thank you

BPS Umbrella Dementia Café team