Connect: Year 5

Key dates - Year 5

King's Birthday Public Holiday: Monday, 12th June
Free Dress Day (donations going to Exford PS): Thursday, 15th June
Parent Teacher Interviews (pupil free day): Monday, 19th June
Winter Lightning Prem: Friday, 16th of June
Cyber Safety Incursion: Tuesday, 20th of June
Arts Centre Melbourne: Thursday, 22nd of June
Last day Term 2: Friday, 23rd June

The Next Fortnight of Learning

Literacy

Over the next two weeks students will continue to explore discussion texts as part of our Writing focus. Students will draft and publish their own discussion text on a topic of their own choice. Within the text students will be expected to show both points of view, include an introduction, conclusion, transition words and explain their arguments in detail by providing evidence.

In Reading students will continue to work towards achieving their oral fluency goal by practising reading with a partner on a daily basis. Students have identified an area for improvement in collaboration with their teacher and peers from the following four areas of reading fluency; accuracy, reading rate, punctuation and expression. Our students have been greatly enjoying this ten minute activity which has become a part of our daily literacy learning in recent weeks.

Maths

In the last two weeks of this term students will be revisiting multiplication and division as part of their mathematics learning. Students will be exposed to various written strategies for solving multiplication problems, such as; the area model, arrays, vertical algorithm and the lattice model. We will continue to build connections between division and multiplication so students deepen their understanding of the inverse relationship these concepts share.

Students will also be spending time over the next two weeks investigating area in mathematics. They will use the formula of Length x Width to estimate and calculate the area of rectangles using familiar units of measurement - square centimetres (cm²) and metre squared (m²).

Inquiry

As part of our Inquiry learning students will begin exploring different types of maps in the coming weeks. They will investigate how maps can be used for different purposes, such as maps that show weather elements, water ways, states, coastlines and various natural resources. Following this aspect of our learning students will consider changes that occur to our environment over time. As humans we have the power to adapt our environment, this can be in positive ways to promote sustainable practises or in ways that negatively impact our environment such as mining.

Wellbeing

As part of our Wellbeing learning students will explore character strengths in further detail in the coming weeks. Students will be given a specific character strength and be asked to create a poster advertising that strength. Working with a partner their poster will need to define the character strength and promote how the use of this strength can contribute to a good life.

Reminders

Please return permission and medical forms to your child's classroom teacher for our Sovereign Hill Camp if you haven't done so already.
Please return permission forms for Winter Sports Lightning Prem day and Arts Centre Excursion to your child's classroom teacher.

Celebration of Learning

Building Weather Instruments

Last week our Year 5 students worked in groups to build their very own rain gauge. Students used recycled soft drink bottles or milk cartons to create this weather instrument. They then found a suitable area outside to place their rain gauge to monitor the amount of rain we had over the week. This activity linked closely to our recent inquiry learning about the importance of collecting weather data and how it can be used to predict extreme weather conditions such as floods, bush fires or cyclones.

Location & Position: Maps

This week students continued their focus on the topic of Location and Position by designing and creating maps. Within this task students learnt how to use a grid reference system to create a map and incorporate the elements of BOLTS (border, orientation, legend, title and scale). Students wrote statements to describe locations of landmarks on their maps using directional language. Everyone was very proud of the work they produced and exited to show it off!