Year 5/6

Literacy

Reading

In Term 1, in Reading, our learners have established a classroom library, borrowing system, and reading routines that will keep them in good stead for the rest of the year. 

Students have been working hard on learning the meaning of Tier 2 words encountered in our class novel, including ‘hoarse,’ ‘repulsive,’ ‘conspicuous’ and ‘gully.’ Students have been expanding their receptive vocabulary skills by identifying appropriate definitions, synonyms, and antonyms for these Tier 2 words. Other reading focuses that our learners have immersed themselves in include learning about different text structure and features, question-and-answer (QAR) relationships, and test-wise strategies. Well done on settling into your reading routines, Grade 5/6s!

Writing

Throughout this term students in Grade 5/6 have been learning about persuasive writing. During this unit the students have learnt how to follow the writing process from idea inception, to publishing. Students have also looked closely at how to create paragraphs using the TEEL structure and how to revise and edit their writing using the ARMS and COPS strategy. Students have also been learning how to create arguments with supporting facts that are backed up by research, and building on their capacity to use persuasive techniques such as ‘Calls to Action’ to convince their audience of their point of view. Some wonderfully crafted persuasive texts have begun to emerge, hoping to convince their audience of the necessity of homework, the pointlessness of school uniforms and why Tom Holland is the best Spiderman to date! 

Numeracy

Throughout this term students in grade 5-6 have been learning about the connection between measurement and the base-10 number system we use every day. They have explored this by using metres, centimetres and millimetres to measure the size of various objects and also convert between these units (e.g. 10cm = 100mm). 

Measuring length was then tied into calculating the perimeter of common objects within the classroom. Grade 5-6 students have also been working on their counting community goals each day during numeracy sessions. 

More recently, students have been learning about powers of ten and how this is tied into our base-10 number system. They have started a focus on decimals and decimal fractions, further depending their understanding of the ‘ten of these is one of these’ concept (e.g. 10 hundredths is 1 tenth). Students have also been reinforcing their knowledge of addition and subtraction strategies through problem solving tasks linked to measurement.

Inquiry

The 5/6 students have had a wonderful start to the year!

We began the year with ‘Learning to Learn’, unpacking the overarching question ‘What makes a learner’.

Students used two key thinking strategies ‘Think, Pair, Share’ and ‘See, Think, Wonder’ to unpack the idea of a learner before distinguishing between Growth and Fixed Mindset, through games such as ‘CPD Conscience Alley’. Students explored the positive and negative impact of making mistakes and stepping outside their comfort zone.

After ‘Learning to Learn,’ students began our inquiry “Play it Safe” where they started looking at online safety. Students learnt about the positive and negative uses of social media and online gaming, they distinguished the difference between personal and private information, talked about strategies to stay safe online. 

They also assessed the impact of online friendships on personal health and wellbeing, as well as, investigating resources and strategies for seeking help if dealing with an uncomfortable or unsafe situation while online.

The second half of this inquiry unit is focused on community, school and home safety. 

Students learnt about the ‘Keeping Kids Safe’ program run by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, learning how to ‘Recognise’ unsafe situations using body cues, how to ‘React’ appropriately in these situations and how to ‘Respond’ and report the occurrence.

Students also reflected on their personal circumstances, voicing their worries about navigating within the community, school and home, through a paired mind map. 

Using these listed worries students worked in small groups to rank them based on likelihood and severity using a matrix to help reflect on which topic could be inquired for this part of the inquiry.

Students will investigate these topic, by researching and sorting information, each class choosing different focuses.

Science

We have had a fun start to the year, examining plant and animal adaptions and how this helps them to survive in their environment. 

Students have been taken on a journey through the Australian desert with Burke and Wills, studying the wonderous plants and animals and completing experiments related to the loss of water in desert plants (desiccation). 

As term 1 draws to a close, enjoy the holiday break and I look forward to seeing everyone in Term 2.   

Art

The 5/6 students have had a fun time decorating their art folios. They have been free to design an interest-based topic that best reflects themselves and have been drawing on previously learned techniques to create their design. 

The students have also been working with collage; an art technique that uses torn pieces of paper and photographs to create a design. This “All about me” project has been created from words, images and photos to make a design that best describes each student. 

Moving into the term, the students have revisited colour theory and have created Monochromatic designs; monochrome meaning one colour, and for the 5-6 grades this meant using greylead only on white paper. I am very proud of the grade 5/6 cohort and their resilience with this task, it was not easy and we had some technical issues along the way with masking tape, so well done to everyone who persevered!! Moving towards the end of the term the students will have fun with an easier art task using clay. 

All students have had the opportunity to use a range of materials including; Posca paint pens, sharpies, coloured pencils and crayon to create their art pieces this Term. I have had a great term working with the grade 5 and 6 students and we are finally back in the art room

PE

During term 1 the grade 5/6 classes focused on tennis and understanding the rules and game play for hotshots’ tennis which is the interschool sports version of the game. 

Students were asked to showcase their prior skills and show a forehand strike, a backhand strike, and a serve action and apply them in a tennis rally of at least 10 shots. In addition to this, students were asked to follow the rules of hotshots’ tennis and be able to complete rotations when changing serve as displayed in a real competition game. 

The grade 5/6 cohort did a fantastic job showing their skills and knowledge about tennis, the game play shown was done at a great standard. I am looking forward to working with the grade 5/6 in a games-based approach to their PE learning and look at many different sports throughout the year, building on their fundamental motor skills and development across multiple sports.

LOTE (Chinese)

During Term 1 in Chinese, Grade 5/6 learned about Chinese New Year and they got a chance to make Chinese lanterns in the classroom. Those lanterns were made with colour papers and red packages. 

The topic for this term was Chinese Festivals and their food. Students have explored 4 main festivals in China and their related food in English and Chinese. They also have good knowledge of the Chinese zodiac, especially 4 animal signs related to their birth years.

Then Grade 5/6 learned about several big cities in China and a PinYin song video. They know the importance of learning a foreign language.

Students will continue to learn Chinese vocabulary for common food and drinks, such as rice, noodles, hamburger and sandwich. Grade 5/6 were also exposed to a Chinese primary school and its characteristics so that they can build up basic knowledge and multicultural understanding. 

Well done on a great start to the year in Term 1 Grade 5/6s!