NAPLAN is done and dusted!

What a week!  Our students are absolute troopers...

The year 5 students did an amazing job completing all four of their NAPLAN tests and this was our first year completing it all online.  No major glitches occurred and the students were focused through all four tests - writing, reading, language conventions and numeracy. Many students took advantage of their headphones and had the questions read to them (where that was an option). The online tests provided a variety of question formats with students not always receiving exactly the same questions. 

Many thanks go to Ms Harding for doing all the behind the scenes work that goes into co-ordinating NAPLAN each year and to Ms Rossiter and Ms Vanderfield for helping me out with the daily supervision of tests.

Champions!

While the 5's were beavering away in the classroom, the year 6's headed outside and learned all about being a good Sports Leader.  They have planned some fun movement activities and games that they will lead the junior school students through later in the year.  Thanks to Mr Nicholls and Ms Hall for all your hard work with the 6's this week.

After smashing our students with NAPLAN, we also squeezed in a few sneaky assessment tasks for spelling and writing, which not only informs our teaching in the coming weeks, but will also assist with reporting back to parents at the end of term.  The teachers are now all busy reading some fantastic fractured fairy tales, such as the one by Jaimee below:

Three little wolves and the big bad piggy

Three baby wolf cubs were finally leaving home.

Jorden was excited to start his own journey, Jerrald was scared of what was to come and Billy didn’t want to leave yet. But mummy wolf and daddy wolf said they had to go because they had reached the age of manhood. So with that as their last words from home, they set off and started their journey.

Meanwhile, in a grotty mud pile, was the big bad piggy and to his great surprise he saw the three wolves he was looking for....

Jorden set off to the caves right away. He leaped and howled all the way there, but… lost behind was Billy. Billy started to cry as he already missed home and wanted to go back. Luckily Jerrald heard his sobs and met him at the pond. Together they built a house out of logs for Billy to live in. They then built a house of stones for Jerrald to live in, and together they went to visit Jordan.

“Where is Jordan,” cried Billy. Then they both sat down to think. Billy got distracted and started thinking of home but Jerrald stayed focused and thought of where Jordan could be. Suddenly, there was a traumatized scream from the pond. Billy looked at Jerrald, Jerrald looked at Billy and then they both ran towards the pond as fast as they could. They found Jordan crying inside Billy’s log house. They asked him what was wrong and Jordan told them to hide in his cave. So together they went to the cave and hid. Inside the cave was a birthday invitation from the small good piggy.  

“Should we go?,” asked Billy. “NO!” replied Jorden and Jerrald. “It's not safe,”  so they all went back to their houses and had a good night's sleep. But what they didn’t know was that the big bad piggy was watching over Billy's log house all night.

The next morning Billy woke up and made some breakfast, when… THUMP THUMP THUMP. Along comes the big bad piggy, who says “Little wolf, little wolf come out of your house.”  “No, not by the fur on my luscious grey coat,” replies Billy. “Then I’ll oink and I’ll snort and I’ll scare you all out,” shouted the big bad piggy. Billy ran out the back into Jerrald’s stone house. THUMP THUMP THUMP, came the big bad piggy. “Little wolf, little wolf come out of your house.”  “No not by the fur on our luscious grey coats,” they replied and before he could say anything back, they were out of the house and with Jordan.

THUMP THUMP THUMP, came the big bad piggy. But when the he tried to threaten them this time, the wolves couldn’t hear him because the cave was sound proof. The big bad piggy got angry and started to climb to the chimney. When he tried to yell down it, he fell in and sure enough there was a fire at the bottom.

To avoid the gross parts of this tale, lets just say bacon and eggs sounds pretty good for breakfast tomorrow, along with some pork tonight!

Posted by Mrs Layton

All Set For Learning In Term 2

The 5/6 teaching team have been busy over the last few weeks planning for our learning this term.  It's going to be another action packed term with Rostrum, NAPLAN (for the year 5's), an excursion to the National Museum of Australia and our cross country carnival - just to name a few highlights!

Reading

Students will use good fit books and ‘show their thinking’, focussing on individual reading goals during Reader’s Workshop. 5/6 will also be reading and responding to the  novel ‘My Story: Plagues and Federation - The Diary of Kitty Barnes’ which links with the HaSS inquiry. The novel will be used to investigate how characters develop throughout the plot.

Writing

The text type focus for term 2 is narrative. This will include the appropriate structure and language features. Students will work on character development, interesting openers and improving vocabulary. They will also follow the writing cycle of planning, drafting,  proofreading, re-crafting and publishing written work.

Maths

Addition and subtraction algorithms
Chance in games
Area of simple and compound shapes
Multiplication and division mental strategies and algorithms

Word Work

Mrs Layton: blending and segmenting consonants, e.g. sc, ld
Miss Hall: revising digraphs, e.g. ch, qu & long vowel sounds, e.g. ai, ay, a_e
Miss Vanderfield: prefixes, suffixes, greek/latin roots, e.g. misspelt
Mr Nicholls & Miss Rossiter: double vowel sounds, e.g. field
Mrs Harding: suffixes that indicate tense, e.g. adding ed, ing

Science

Light: This inquiry provides opportunities for students to explore the properties of light and how it enables us to see. Students’ thinking about light and its role in our lives and our community will be developed using hands-on activities. Through investigations students explain how objects reflect, absorb and refract light.

HaSS

The Federation of Australia: Students will inquire into how Australia became a nation and how it has changed as a society throughout the 20th century. It will focus on significant individuals and their contributions to the development of Australian society.

Health and PE

Social and Emotional Learning: Valuing our strengths and encouraging positive self talk. Fundamental Movement Skills: bouncing, catching, forehand strike and two hand strike

Technologies

Students will learn to problem solve using the visual software, Scratch. They will then plan, create and edit their own digital game using the software.

The Arts

Students will continue to develop their music notation and composition skills through playing ukulele, recorder, Boomwackers and percussion instruments. In drama, students will explore movement to create and sustain belief in character and situation using mime techniques.

Japanese

Students will be studying the physical geography of Japan, learning about the four main islands and some of the major cities and landmarks. They will also be working towards writing and talking about a travel plan using different verbs and tenses. Students will continue to work on hiragana reading and writing skills by achieving hiragana belts.

Important dates

Friday 11 May	Mother’s Day Breakfast
Week 3 (Catch-Ups Week 4)	NAPLAN Year 5
Friday 25 May	Rostrum
Tuesday 22 May	Excursion - National Museum of Australia