Classroom News
Grade 5 & 6
Term 1, Week 9
Can you believe how fast this term has been? We have managed to squeeze in many learning opportunities and events with still more to come in the final two weeks of this term.
Our Curriculum This Term
Our Reader’s and Writer’s Workshops this term have centred around narrative and persuasive writing pieces with some fabulous mentor texts ‘Fire’, ‘Spark’ and ‘Through the Smoke’ to complement our STEM Project Firestorm unit on Bushfires. We have been working hard to write deep, thoughtful sticky notes and expand these in detail, as well as continue to show our understanding of our iPick books through activities, mini lessons and one on one fortnightly conferences. Although we like to think of our Year 5 and 6 students as ‘big kids’, reading together regularly at home and having discussions about a variety of texts (novels, articles, media etc) is strongly encouraged.
In mathematics, we have been working on our number fact fluency weekly to ensure our knowledge of times tables, decimals and powers of 10 is quick and ready to access in our minds when we need it. We have also had fun measuring liquids in our capacity and volume mini unit, enlarged our footprints by multiples of ten and consolidated our knowledge of whole number and decimal place value.
In our STEM Project Firestorm unit we have researched and discussed ways to prevent, prepare, respond and recover to bushfires and unpacked the root cause of many bushfire related problems. We are now at the final designing and explanation stage where groups of students create a solution to a bushfire related problem and present this in a format of their choice i.e. website mock up, app mock up, prototype, educational pamphlets etc.
What else has been happening?
A big congratulations to our Year 5 students who have made it through NAPLAN this year! They worked hard to feel comfortable and confident with the online format, learn strategies for using their time wisely and unpacked just what those questions really were all about.
Our Year 6 student leaders have been busily presenting at our Friday Assemblies and sharing videos on our school Facebook page. Please follow our BPS Facebook page if you haven’t already!
What we still have to look forward to in the final weeks of this term
In the next two weeks we have Chinese Day, Whole School Cross Country and Year 6 students are off to the GRIP Leadership conference at the Melbourne Convention Centre. Some selected students will also be attending Somers Camp and we wish them lots of fun and adventures.
We will also be hosting an expo afternoon to showcase our Project Firestorm solutions to a bushfire related problem on Wednesday the 5th of April. More information will be emailed to families shortly.
Reminders
All students require an art smock (or old shirt) for our weekly Art specialist lessons, as well as a library bag to borrow books each week from our fabulous school library. Please also ensure that all uniform items (including hats), lunchboxes and drink bottles are clearly labelled so they can be returned if misplaced.
Important Dates
Friday 24th March Chinese Day
Tuesday 28th March GRIP Leadership Conference - Year 6 students only
Wednesday 29th March Whole School Cross Country
Thursday 5th April Last Day of Term 1
Monday 24th April Student Free Day
Tuesday 25th April ANZAC Day
Wednesday 26th April First Day of Term 2
If you have any questions or would like to communicate with your child’s classroom teacher, please reach out via Compass anytime.
We hope that everyone is able to have an amazing, restful break and we look forward to seeing you all for a jam packed Term 2!
Thank you,
5/6 Team 2023