Monarch Community Report
Reading
Once a week students students take part in watching Behind the News (BTN). BTN is an educational news program that unpacks and explains news and current affairs to young people in a dynamic and creative way.
BTN highlights a range of opinions so students are able to gain awareness of differing points of view. This increases their understanding of political, economic, environmental and social issues to name a few.
The BTN weekly episodes are made up from 5 mini stories. Theses weekly sessions allow students to use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts from a variety of sources including media and digital texts.
Writing
Students in the Monarch Community have been learning to write persuasive texts in writing. They have been developing upon their knowledge regarding persuasive features to create their own persuasive texts.
Students planned their persuasive writing pieces using graphic organisers that focused on including an opinion, reason, explanation and restating the opinion in each argument portion of the text. They also attempted to add emotive language, statistics, rhetorical questions and facts into their writing to help persuade the reader to agree with their opinions.
"I really enjoyed persuasive because moreover, I like to use facts in my writing rather than made-up stuff" ~ Angelina
Numeracy
In Numeracy, students have been focusing on building a deeper understanding around using metric units when measuring length. They have looked at measuring, comparing and estimating lengths using formal metric units. Students have also explored using different measurement tools (i.e. tape measures, measuring wheels, rulers) to help determine the most appropriate units when measuring different objects inside and outside of the classroom.
Geography
Monarch students have been learning about factors that shape places and influence interconnections in geography. They have studied the location of major countries around the world in relation to Australia, and have examined differences in demographic, economic, social and cultural characteristics between countries.
Students also learned about the Murray Darling Basin and how it has changed over time. We researched about who depends on the Murray Darling Basin, what the system is used for and what agreements are in place to support the current problems faced by the Basin.
Additionally, students studied the Murray Darling Basin and its recent flooding event to identify the impacts of floods on the environment and communities. After discussing the various ways that communities responded to the flooding in 2022, students thought about ways our local community could prevent and help in a major flood event.
"We learnt about different countries' life expectancy and their locations compared to Australia." ~ Muhsin
Digital Technology
In DigiTech, students have been using Code.Org as an introduction to coding and computer science. They have learned to program using commands like loops and events.
Imagineering
Students have been participating in the Imagineering Plus Program with HWLLEN. The program aims to inspire grade 5 and 6 students to dream big and think about their career pathways and the future of work. It helps to expose students to the future possibilities and pathways they may have never considered and encourages students to stay engaged at school.
"We played a game and told everyone what job to do when we get older. I want to be a soccer player" ~ Bara
"We have been learning about our future jobs and then setting goals for what we want to do." ~ Ali
Friendly Reminders
Please remember:
- Students need to bring and wear a hat to school this term.
- It is important that students bring a water bottle each day and that it is labelled.
- Please ensure that your children are attending school, as 'it is not okay to be away'.
- Students are to record their homework (reading and numeracy) in their school diaries with a signature. This needs to be returned to school each day.
- Brain food is fruit or vegetable snacks that students may eat in class. It is important to include this as an additional snack in their lunch box.