Melton West Primary School

Year 5/6 News 

 English

 

Reading

During reading this term the grade 5/6 students will be working with a range of quality fiction and non-fiction texts. Throughout the term, the students will be analysing and explaining how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events. The students will unpack some of the words used by authors and show their understanding of these words by identifying the definition, synonym and antonym. They will then use their prior knowledge and textual information to make inferences by inferring the main message and a character’s thoughts, feelings and motivations. The students will also work on summarising the important parts of texts by finding the main ideas and details.

 

Writing

To begin Term 2, students in grade 5-6 will be focusing on narrative texts in writing, leading up to NAPLAN testing. They will be covering key areas such as paragraphing, punctuation, cohesive ties and the general structural features of narrative texts. Students will also work on generating ideas for writing, using their Writer’s Notebooks and immersing themselves in quality narrative mentor texts. After this, grade 5-6 students will move onto learning how to write information reports. They will focus on the language features and structure of information reports. Students will learn to use precise technical and subject specific vocabulary in their information reports, which will be created around a central topic or subject of their choosing.

            

Mathematics

In Mathematics, our learners will investigate different topics across the three strands: Number & Algebra, Measurement & Geometry and Statistics & Probability. Our learners begin the term by learning how to measure right, acute and obtuse angles using informal and formal measuring tools. They also dedicate time to learning how to transform shapes, focusing on rotations, reflections, and enlargements, plus identifying line and rotational symmetry. Our primary focus in Number & Algebra will comprise multiplication and division. Our learners will investigate mental and written strategies to solve multi-digit multiplication and division problems in a problem-solving context. Our learners will conclude the term by conducting categorical and numerical data investigations to answer questions they are interested in exploring.

 

Science

Grade 5/6 Earth and Space & Design 2022 Term 2 Newsletter BlurbsIt is great to see all the Grade 5/6 students back for an exciting term 2 in STEM. This term, students will be investigating Earth and Space. Students will investigate the movement of the planets in our solar system and create an orrery (a 3D model with moving parts) to show how the Sun, Earth and moon all move in relation to each other. Additionally, students will be exploring the engineering design process by planning, designing, and building a product. These hands-on type activities help to develop critical thinking and analytical skills in a fun and engaging way.

 

LOTE - Chinese

I would like to welcome back the Grade 5 and 6 students to Chinese. In term 2, students will start with the revision of what we have learnt in term 1. Meanwhile, students will learn a couple of inspiring stories based on animals and practise them through the whole term. There is one major topic e covered in this term for Grade 5 and 6 students and that is a focus on animals!  Students will learn how to pronounce and recognize some popular animals and how to write some of the key characters, including: dog, cat, dragon, ox etc. Students will also learn some basic sentence structures to retell a story in Chinese. 

 

 Art

Term 2 will be about colour theory and the students will experiment with paint in the art room! We have started the term using warm and cool colours, and students will be using leaves to print designs in autumn hues and tones. Warm and cool colours play a vital role when designing, and particularly when painting to create a sense of mood in the artworks.

 

The Grade 5/6 students will be working with monochromatic colours in Term 1, and they will now apply this knowledge when replicating Vincent Van Goghs “Starry Night” using blue and yellow tones and hues. This knowledge is important to consolidate at a grade 5/6 level, to understand how colours work together and the mood they create. 

 

The students will also be painting graffiti backdrops in paint, inspired by Keith Haring’s ‘Subway art ‘and local street artists in It will be fun to start working with paint this term and to replicate some of the great artists work, such as Vincent Van Gogh and his sunflowers and Keith Haring’s ‘Subway art’. The students will work with mediums; such as acrylic, watercolours, glue and chalk and will learn new techniques. The students will work with mediums; such as acrylic paint, watercolours, crayons, pencils, textas, PVA glue and chalk, and will learn new techniques this term. 

 

I look forward to more fun in the art room this Term with the grades 5 and 6 students.

 

P.E.

This will be a busy term for the grade 5/6 students with interschool returning for those students in grade 5/6 lucky enough to have the opportunity to play and represent Melton West Primary School. The sports for term 2 interschool sport are netball and tee-ball with a cross country event also happening that will take place early in term 2. In addition to these fantastic interschool opportunities there will be lots of learning taking place for the students in 5/6. Firstly students will begin the term with basketball, students will take a games-based approach for this sport and be able to engage and play in 3 v 3 games and full 5 v 5 competition games. During this unit students will continue to develop their skills for the game of basketball and be able to participate in playing actual games. Students will try and use strategy in the game of basketball and work in teams to solve problems, they will also be able to showcase their skills of throwing, catching, bouncing, and shooting a basketball. Once this unit has been completed students in grade 5/6 will continue to work on the different events that occur in an athletics carnival. These sports include: sprints, long distance running, discus, shot-put, hurdles and relay races. Students will learn correct techniques and be able to apply their skills in simulated competition activities. To finish term 2 students in grade 5/6 will begin their next unit on Australian Rules Football, beginning to develop skills required to play the game and be introduced to kicking, handballing, and marking a football. This term should be a fun one for the 5/6 students and I am looking forward to working with each student and helping them all learn and develop their skills in physical education.