Grade 5/6 Term 1 Overview 2023

In the grade 5/6 learning area, the school year begins with a start-up program that prepares students for their new year level. Students participate in a range of activities that require aspects of leadership, teamwork, and critical thinking. The routines and expectations of the learning area are also established.  

Reading and Viewing

The Reading’ program introduces the students to good reading habits and extends their stamina in reading, while developing their ‘reading is thinking’ skills. This includes making personal connections, forming opinions about a range of texts and developing comprehension strategies when reading fiction and nonfiction texts. 

Students are encouraged to read daily, for pleasure and select books from their book boxes and the school library. 

Speaking and Listening

Students have continuous opportunities to build their confidence in speaking and listening and a regular part of our daily experience is class discussion.  Certain tasks this term have also allowed students to express themselves and actively listen to the perspectives of others.

Writing, Grammar & Spelling

In writing, sentence structure and developing vocabulary are the main priorities for the term, with students aiming to increase the technical aspects of their writing. Students will be writing narrative and persuasive pieces and developing an understanding of the writing process, including planning, drafting, editing and publishing.

Maths

In term one the students will extend their understanding of the number system, working with whole numbers beyond hundreds of thousands as well working with numbers less than one, tenths, hundredths and beyond, decimals. Students will complete activities involving, representing large numbers using MAB, comparing and ordering numbers by plotting them on number-lines and solving worded problems (with whole numbers as well as decimals).

The students will also be drawing and making two and three dimensional shapes using nets and measuring the internal angles of shapes with and without protractors. They will investigate angles by comparing, creating and classifying them and solving problems to find missing angles.

Finally this term the students will Identify and describe properties of prime, composite, square and triangular numbers.

Project Based Learning

This term will see the students exploring the Merri Creek and the importance that it plays in our lives. Throughout this unit, students will consider the overarching question; “How do we use stories to understand the world around us?” During the unit, they will focus on the perspectives of the First Nations peoples that lived along the creek prior to colonisation. They will also consider ways of expressing themselves artistically via a range of different mediums. Finally there will be a scientific aspect where students will explore the micro-world of the creek using microscopes and developing labelled diagrams. 

Throughout all of these activities the students will focus on the 4Cs and on developing their critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication skills. There will also be a focus on completing multiple drafts in order to develop their ideas and achieve the best outcomes possible.

The students will complete a range of items for their personal portfolios, including narratives & poems, artworks and scientific observations. Following this, the students will engage in small group work to create a group product that highlights their creativity and collaboration skills in particular.

Wellbeing:

Students participate in daily mindfulness activities which range from quiet meditation, focusing on their breathing to activities that support students’ understanding of their emotions and ways to be kind to themselves. 

At Home Tasks

READING: 

All students should read at home every day. They will be able to borrow books from our new school library to support this. 

MATHS: 

Students should practise their timetable facts enough to be able to automatically recall all facts from 1×1 to 10×10 when asked and also understand the inverse division fact. For example 6×7=42 therefore 42 ÷ 6 = 7 and 42 ÷ 7 = 6. Students can use online programs or any strategy which they feel comfortable with to help with the learning. 

In class students will be introduced to a variety of  maths games over the term which they can play at home with family members. 

‘My Numeracy’ is a program related to an assessment program used at school which individualises activities for students based on their current level of mathematical knowledge. After each assessment, the program will generate a variety of activities and videos explaining how to complete equations. An excellent program for personalised, independent learning. 

WELLBEING: 

With a focus on student wellbeing, we also encourage you to talk to your child about the strategies they use to support their positive wellbeing. In Google Classroom, there are mindfulness resources that your child can access and practise at home.

For Grade 5 families, NAPLAN will take place in week 8.  Please note that we do not prioritise  NAPLAN as part of your child’s learning. We see it as one of the many ways your child is able to demonstrate their capability and we are able to use this information to support our teaching practice. We ask that you reiterate this to your child to mitigate unnecessary anxiety. 

Thanks, 

Kerry, Sandra, Simon, Tori and Lina.