Year 5/6 News 

Welcome

It's full steam ahead now in Year 5/6 with most of the students being quite accomplished online learners. There have been some new practices and routines to get used and the majority of our students have been able to adjust to these very quickly. We thank you for your continued support in ensuring the children are set up and ready to learn each day. 

Your child will have a Reading Group session on the same day every week at 1pm. Please check in with your child and make sure they are aware what day their Reading Group is on. Miss Kelly's group have different arrangements, with those students being aware of what they are. Maths clinics now run at 10am with students nominated to attend each clinic depending on their particular needs.

As teachers we are spending a lot of time responding to the student's work particularly their Writing pieces. The feedback we are offering is very targeted at times, based around individual goal setting. For your child to be able to maximise their learning opportunities in this environment it is extremely important that they are not only reading the feedback, but also adopting the suggestions that are being made. 

We really do appreciate the sacrifices families are making and the challenges being faced in continuing to support the students in their learning and we sincerely thank you. In light of this please don't hesitate to get in contact with us at anytime between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Our details can be found at the bottom of the page.

Statement of Intent

Timetable

Spelling and Writing

During online learning we are presenting our weekly explicit Spelling Lesson via videos that are uploaded to Google Classroom. It is apparent that there are many students who are NOT viewing this video before completing their Weekly Spelling Tasks. The video is the most important part of the lesson. It is not an option whether the students watch it or not. We encourage parents to watch these lessons with their children, so that when they are completing Spelling Tasks (4 Home Tasks and 4 School Tasks per week), you are able to help them, using the same language we do at school. We ask for your support in this area and thank you in advance. 

In Writing, the students are busy completing their biographies about a person of interest to them. The students have chosen to write the biographies of people like: Gladys Berejiklian, Roald Dahl, Michael Jordan, David Attenborough, Reynold Poernomo and even some of their own Grandparents! We look forward to sharing some of the published biographies in the next issue of the newsletter. 

Please ensure that your child is uploading their writing every day, whether they have finished or not. We look at their progress, give feedback and we set personal Writing Goals. We communicate these to the students during the Zoom Meeting on the day when they are a focus child. These are important meetings that the students must attend, unless they are unwell and we have received an email from a parent. Thanks again for your understanding and support.

Reading

During the first weeks of Term 3 the 5/6 students will be focussing on a number of reading skills including summarising, inferring, analysing and making connections. Making connections is a really important comprehension skill as it allows students make meaning and understand a text through their own experiences. There are three different types of connections that we focus on; Text to Self, Text to Text and Text to World. During a recent activity students read a current affairs article about the Qantas 747 being retired from service and then identified the three different connections to the text.

Maths

In weeks 2 & 3, the Year 5/6 students explored time. Students participated in a range of clinics from comparing 12hr- and 24hr- time, interpreting and using

timetables as well as calculating and comparing elapsed time. Some students went beyond the Year 6 curriculum to solve problems within a single time zone and investigate the usefulness of scientific notation in representing very large and very small numbers.

Maths Olympiad

This week, students will participate in the fourth Maths Olympiad contest for the year. Students have explored two new strategies - Eliminate all but one possibility and Solve a simpler related problem to add to their ‘bank’ of problem solving strategies.

Eliminate all but one possibility

Deciding what a quantity is not, can narrow the field to a few possibilities, which can then be tested against the conditions of the original problem.

Solve a simpler related problem

Replacing larger numbers with smaller numbers can introduce patterns that allow insights into how to solve the original problem.

Contact Details

5/6H

Belinda Hirschauer

bhirschauer@srprestonwest.catholic.edu.au

5/6K

Martine Kelly

mkelly@srprestonwest.catholic.edu.au

5/6V

Matthew Vernal

mvernal@srprestonwest.catholic.edu.au