Around the Classrooms

INTEGRATED

This term the year 5/6 students have been learning about inventions. We have learnt about why different things were invented and how these things make the world a better place. After learning about inventions other people have come up with, we got into groups and had to think of our own invention. We had to fill out a sheet on how our invention will work and also had to make a slide presentation and a prototype. As part of this, we needed to research how our invention would work and what it would look like. We also had to go through the design process to make a good invention . We had to complete this before we started . This process was very fun because we got to make our logo and company name. We also had to do a plan/blueprint on a piece of paper which we could turn to for a reference when we needed it. We had to do some research and find facts to use in our presentation and also to use in our prototype. We had to do research in about 7 weeks. We took about 1-2 weeks to build our prototype. Last Wednesday day we got to present our inventions and it was a lot of fun! We didn't get through all the presentations and some groups will share theirs next week.

DEBATING

This term we learnt debating. In debating we research from a topic chosen. There is an Affirmative team and a Negative team. There are three speakers for both teams. We had a first speaker do a definition and for the negative he or she will rebut the first speaker of the Affirmative team and agree with the definition of the topic. 

The second speaker of the affirmative team rebuts the 1st speaker of the negative team and comes up with new arguments. The second speaker of the negative team rebuts the second speaker of the affirmative team. 

Lastly, the third speaker of the affirmative team summarises all the arguments and rebuts the 2nd speaker of the negative team. The third speaker of the negative team does the same thing and rebuts the third speaker of the affirmative team.

We also did an Off the Cuff question where you have basically a few seconds to think about the question and give a speech. We had adjudicators and they say what the speakers did right and wrong and decide the winning team.

There is a card and stopwatch that starts the stopwatch and tells the time by putting flags up. For off the cuff speeches its green at 30 seconds, yellow at 45 seconds and red 60 seconds. For debating speeches it's 2 minutes for green, 2.5 minutes for yellow and 3 minutes for green. 

There is a reporter and recorder who rings the bell at 1 minute off the cuff and 3 minutes for debating, he also does a time report for telling speech times. Lastly there is a debate chairman that introduces the time report, adjudication and the debating speaker.

RELIGION

This term in Religion, the Year 5/6 students have been learning about the Catholic Social Teachings of Solidarity and Dignity of the Human Person.  To show our learning, we each created a prayer presentation to share with the class.  We have been using these for our morning prayer each morning before we start our work for the day. 

We created a few slides including prayers for both solidarity and dignity of the human person, we also added music of videos to watch to make our prayer more meaningful. 

LEADERSHIP SPEECHES

This week has been a very important time for the Year 5’s, as they have had speeches for what leadership role they want to be.

In their speeches they had to say why they would be a good leader, and what leader they would be.  

The types of leaders they could choose from are…

• School captain.    🏫
• Sports captain.    ⚽
• Media leader.     🎤       
• Arts leader.       🎨
• Stem leader.      🤖
• World Justice leader.   🌎   

It has been really amazing how the kids who were only little preps not that long ago who didn’t know what 10-9 is, and now they are almost the  leaders of the school who are choosing what roles they want for 2023. Believe me when we say their speeches were jaw dropping and really made us want to vote for them 10 times! It’s amazing how they came all this way.

ST MARY'S SCHOOL VISIT

Last Thursday, the Year 4 and 5 cohort from St Mary's, East Malvern came and spent time with our Year 5s in a fun interschool activity. 

Firstly, some of our students set up a few PE-style fitness/games rotations that everyone participated in and enjoyed. Then, students then came inside and organised themselves into groups of 4 or 5 with a mix of kids from both schools. Next, they participated in a STEM Challenge. 

Each group was given a tub containing a variety of materials and they were challenged with creating a SLEIGH that could ride down a zipline without dropping the ‘presents’ (bottlecaps) it was holding. The students collaborated well and worked hard designing and building their sleighs. We had a real variety of designs which they put to the test by sending down the zipline set up in the class. They were all very proud of their successes.

All the students then sat on the Green and ate lunch and chatted together. The students’ great big smiles as they waved goodbye to St Mary’s showed how much they had enjoyed their time together.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Next Monday we have our Christmas carols night where all the families come and watch us all sing jolly Christmas carols. 

Here in Year 5/6 we have all been practising very hard to learn all of our actions and lyrics to our amazing carols. We’ve had fun making up actions to the songs and learning to sing them. All of us can’t wait to display our efforts on Monday night. We look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you for reading our newsletter addition,

Year 5/6 MN and Year 5/6 MC