Melton West Primary School

Year 5/6 News 

 English

 

Reading

This term in Reading the students will be conducting an author study on Colin Thompson and using the Close Reading process to analyse and critique his books. In order to analyse a text, students will be learning to notice how a text is crafted and appreciate the language choices the author made, as well as the organisation of the text and the structures that the writer has used to convey information. Students will then be learning how to think critically about the texts they read and view, make judgments about a text, reflect on it and evaluate it. 

Colin Thompson has written and illustrated a large number of wonderful books but for this unit we will be focusing on; Barry, Stanley, The Violin Man, Free to a Good Home, Fearless, How to Live Forever and a few select others. Students will be looking at the graphics and colours used in these texts, the figurative language chosen by the author, the theme and mood conveyed as well as the use of symbols and motifs.

 

Writing

This term in Writing the students will be focusing on two main units of study. For the first five weeks of term the students will be immersing themselves in explanation texts. Students will learn the purpose and features of explanation texts, and will reconstruct these texts in order to demonstrate their understanding of the following features; title, definition, description, process and application. As a class we will jointly construct an explanation text on why or how a certain phenomenon occurs; for eg. Why do volcanoes erupt? Students will then be given an opportunity to engage in research on a phenomenon that they have shown interest in, then begin to craft their own explanation text on that phenomenon.

The remainder of this term will be spent looking at the topic of analytical writing. Throughout this unit students will be given the opportunity to consolidate their learning in reading and writing in preparation for when undertaking English classes in Secondary School. Students will be learning about the purpose of analytical writing and looking at the structure of this type of text in detail; such as topic sentences, evidence and explanations and linking sentences. Students will then have an opportunity to deconstruct and reconstruct examples of analytical writing, jointly construct one with the class, then begin work on constructing their own about a text they have been exposed to in class this year.

            

Mathematics

This term the Grade 5/6’s will apply their previous knowledge on two dimensional shapes (e.g. circle, square) when learning about three dimensional shapes (e.g. cube, triangular prism) and the volume and capacity of these three dimensional objects. This will be run over the first three weeks of term before continuing on with our measurement and geometry unit, when the students start to explore the mass of these objects. This will involve students converting metric units (system of measurement) of length, mass and capacity. Later in the term, our learners will progress to learning about time, including 12 and 24 hour time systems and converting between the two, as well as measuring, calculating and comparing elapsed time. To conclude the term, the students will be focusing on reviewing and extending their number knowledge. This term promises to be an exciting one in mathematics!

 

Inquiry

This term in Inquiry the students will be exploring the topic of Mother Earth. We will be framing our learning around the key understanding that a country’s climate and landforms influence where and how people live. Students will explore geographical phenomena such as volcanoes, peninsulas and icebergs and where they are found all over the world. Students will also look at natural disasters like floods and bushfires and the impact they have on the environment and the resulting displacement of people living in these affected areas. Throughout the unit students will work towards answering the key questions; How do people and environments influence one another? and how can the impact of bushfires or floods on people and places be reduced? 

The unit will culminate in an assessment task that asks students to research two cities in two different countries and compare and contrast these cities in terms of their climate and geographical features. Students will then need to consider how people in these cities live and interact with their environment to help them survive and the impact of climate change on the landforms.

 

Science

This term students will be investigating chemical science focusing on three states of matter (solids, liquids and gases). Students will explore how different states of matter behave (example: liquids conform to the shape of the container it is in) and how they are distinguished from each other. Additionally, hands-on experiments will be conducted to look at the properties of the different states of matter (examples: viscosity for liquids and hardness for solids). They will also explore how states of matter can change depending on the temperature and how some substances can exist in multiple states (ice block and water). 

 

LOTE - Chinese

During Term 4 in Chinese, Grade 5/6 is going to finish the movie Rob B Hood from the end of Term3 and do number 1-100 revision at week1. From second week they are going to learn about a famous traditional Chinese story “The Rabbit and The Turtle” in the following 3 weeks’ time and they get chance to review Chinese zodiac afterwards. There are some key characters for students to practise writing and get to recognize and remember. Then they will continue to learn another two stories (Singing bone and Lazy guard) which are from a play called “Stories in the dark.” 

 

 Art

The Grade 5/6 students have been discussing the cross-curricular aspects to symmetry, such as symmetry in mathematics and crossing over to Symmetry in an art sense, to create a drawing with equal sides on a dividing line. Their objective is to achieve a ‘mirrored’ opposite side of a printed image. Symmetrical drawing does lend itself to the students who enjoy a structured mathematical side to art, as opposed to free drawing in art, and challenges those who are free drawers. The students will also celebrate spring creating beautiful Cherry Blossoms now in bloom. They will use the paint blowing method to design the tree with ink and crepe paper to represent the blossoms. The students will then hone into their ‘dark and spooky’’ skills, for Halloween at the end of October. Moving towards the end of the term, the 5/6 students will explore 3D, using a range of materials to create objects. They will also experiment with weaving, using wool and beads. The students will end the term with free time to design cards and decorations for someone special and for Christmas. I look forward to a fun term with a positive end to the year in Art, with the grade 5/6 students.

 

P.E.

This again will be a busy term for the grade 5/6 students with interschool sport continuing for those students in grade 5/6 lucky enough to have the opportunity to play and represent Melton West primary, the sport for term 4 interschool sport is rugby. In addition to this final fantastic interschool opportunity there will be some wonderful learning that will take place for the students in 5/6. During this term students in 5/6 will focus on badminton, hockey, and netball. Students will take a games-based approach for each of these sports and will be able to engage and play in small-sided games to show their skill development and knowledge. Students will try and use strategy in each of these games and will need to work with other students to problem-solve. For these sports there will be continued skill development in fundamental motor skills. These will include throwing, catching, striking, running, jumping, and dodging. This term should be a fun one for the 5/6 students to conclude the year. I am looking forward to working with each student and helping them all learn and develop their skills in physical education.