Classroom News

Grade 5 & 6

What an amazing Term 3 we’ve had! It has been wonderful to see all our 5/6 students take on so many amazing opportunities around BPS. This term we’ve seen students compete in 3-6 House Athletics Day with 85 students across grades 3-6 going on to compete at District Athletics with many going on to compete in Division Athletics in Term 4. Another event saw 20 lucky students across Grades 5 and 6 write successful application letters and attend the Melbourne Writers Festival. Other highlights included Book Fun Day, Maths Fun Day and the Family Maths Challenge.

In Reading and Writing we have had a focus on nonfiction texts linked to our inquiry topic ‘Global Connections’. Students have been working at developing their nonfiction reading and writing skills through exploring different types of nonfiction texts, text features and Tier 3 vocabulary. As part of Book Fun day celebrations and to inspire our students in writing, they were able to attend a presentation from author Claire Saxby, who wrote the winning Children's Book of the Year ‘Iceberg’. Claire’s book was notable for its nonfiction information. The students were able to hear about her writing process, ask her questions and take inspiration from her journey as a writer.

In Mathematics students have explored different strategies in problem solving with a focus on multiplication, division, worded problems and angles. As always they have been engaged in hands-on lessons and a highlight for all students was being able to show their learning to parents and our school community during Maths fun Day.

In our Inquiry unit students have focused on developing their knowledge of Geography, their geographical skills, and their speaking and listening skills. The students explored our global connections with a focus on how Australia is connected to Asia. Students have had to work collaboratively with a partner to develop their knowledge and skills of an Asian country. This included building their mapping skills, and researching and creating Keynote presentations based on a country in Asia. The topics researched and explored were trade, population density, health and life expectancy and climate zones. The students were expected to identify challenges and solutions that faced their selected country which included how aid programs could improve the living conditions for the people of their country. With a focus on persuasive language each student then presented to the UN (other countries) why their country deserves 1 billion dollars in aid support.

We hope that everyone is able to have an amazing, restful break and we look forward to seeing you all for the final term of the year!!

Diary Reminders:

• Wednesday 5th October and Thursday 6th October – Year 5/6 Hands on Science Incursion
• Wednesday 5th October - Grade 6 Graduation Photo
• Wednesday 12th October – Division Athletics
• Monday 31st October – Student Free Day
• Tuesday 1st November – Melbourne Cup Day (Student Free Day)
• Wednesday 2nd November – Grade 5 and 6 Upstander, Bystander Training
• Wednesday 7th December - Grade 6 Graduation evening
• Tuesday 13th of December – Orientation Day Grade 6
• Friday 16th December - Last day of term for students
• Monday 19th December – Student free day
• Tuesday 20th December – Curriculum Day

Happy holidays everyone!

The 5/6 Team