Instructions for Access to Your Child's Work Online

To access the Google Classroom or to view your child's work on Google Drive the easiest way is to visit the backpack website here. Or you can log in using Google.

To log in you will need to use your child's student ID number and password. If your child does not know either of these please speak to your child's teacher.

Once you have logged in you will have access to:

• Numeracy, Literacy, Inquiry and Japanese classrooms
• Slide shows that the teachers have prepared with explicit teaching
• Digital Portfolios (coming soon)
• Links to games to practise skills
• Student's current work

Feel free to ask you your child to help you to log in.

Year 6 Buddies

The Year 6 students received their 2019 Buddies hats earlier this week and have been enthusiastically supporting the younger students on the playground. The bright yellow hats are a great visual making our Buddies easy to find.

The help provided by Year 6 Buddies involves:

• being a friendly face for the younger students
• helping to solve minor playground issues
• playing games and running simple activities 
• supporting students to seek teacher help if it is required

This is a great leadership opportunity for our older students and as you can see they are thoroughly enjoying themselves in the process.

Inquiry Learning Update: Life in Sydney Cove

Students have been learning about what life was like for our early settlers. There were many struggles for the colonists including: limited building supplies and shelter, inadequate clothing, limited nutritious food and isolation.

In small groups students created an aspect of the early Sydney colony. They designed and constructed a variety of buildings such as:

• farms
• hospitals
• Government House
• burial ground
• schools
• houses
• goal
• dockyard
• guard house
• gun battery

PE and Team Building

Students in 5/6 have had a lovely time working together in small teams to complete challenges in PE last week with Mrs Harrison.  Engagement was high and much fun was had by all.

Term 1 Outline of Learning in 5/6

Reading

This term in reading we will be looking at summarising different texts. We will also use a range of comprehension strategies to help us read more complex texts. There will be a focus on the vocabulary in our books to help us to increase our own vocabulary which will also assist in our writing.

Writing

Our writing is well underway, beginning with selecting personal writing goals to enhance creative writing, which will continue throughout the year guided by individual conferences. In the first few weeks we will focus on writing conventions, such as sentence structure (simple, compound and complex), editing and improving vocabulary. Our featured text type is narrative and will target the structure and language conventions of narratives.

Spelling

Students will be placed in a number of differentiated groups to focus on spelling patterns directed at their point of need. These will include:

• Vowel Digraphs, e.g. ai, ee, oa
• Adjacent Consonants, e.g. sn, br, gr
• Alternative Spelling Patterns, e.g. long a: ai, ay, a-e
• Syllables and Affixes, e.g. adding -ing to words
• Origins and Meanings of Complex Words, including derivational suffixes, such as -ary (imaginary), -ness (friendliness), -ious (rebellious)

Maths

This term in maths students will be learning about place value, addition and subtraction. Students will further develop their mental strategies by using the jump strategy, partitioning, counting on and back, split strategy and compensation. They will also be completing mini projects in which they can apply their understanding of the topics covered.

History Inquiry

Our Inquiry learning has begun this term with a focus on History, with us exploring the early years of Australian settlement. We will focus on the colonisation of Australia, including important early explorers, the gold rush and the impact that these historical figures and events had on the expansion of Australian settlements in the 1800s.

Health

We will be working with students on the Life Education unit ‘’Relate Respect Connect” with the Healthy Harold Van visiting in week 6. Students will learn the importance of respecting themselves and others, strategies to use ensure they develop positive relationships with family and friends and how to deal with tricky situations. Both online and offline relationships will be discussed throughout the unit.

Inquiry: Colonisation

 

This week we started our new Inquiry topic: Colonisation. To understand what life was like back in these times the students got to experience damper. Traditionally damper was served with honey or cheese.

 

A new taste sensation was discovered by the students with many enjoying cheese and honey together!

Team Building

5/6 were set a task to build the tallest cup tower they could without touching the cups with their hands. Students in groups of 5 were given six cups and six rubber bands.

They all worked well together in teams to create a gadget to move the cups into position. 

Fun Learning in Week 1

Students in Year 5/6 this week have been busy getting to know each other and their new teachers this week. 

We have been completing art activities to display in class. We have also been working on new tote tray labels and name art using warm and cool colours.

Today we played a fun but competitive game of Bellyball. Students displayed excellent team work skills and sportsmanship.

Welcome to 5/6 in 2019

Left to right: Guy Nicholls, Sarah Rossiter, Chelsey Vanderfield, 

Tegan Martin, Nat Harding and Susana Di Donna.

Welcome to all our new and returning senior students and their families. We hope you've had a great break and are refreshed and ready for an action packed Term 1!

The 5/6 teaching team are very excited, as we have been working hard during the break to plan a fun-filled first term. We will share important dates in our Term Overview next week. Our camp will be held this term at Camp Cooba and we will be sending notes home soon.

This year we have five 5/6 classes and six full-time teachers, to ensure that every student gets the support and encouragement they need to succeed.  We will have three classes down the larger end of the unit (Ms Vanderfield, Mrs Di Donna and Mr Nicholls), and two classes up the other end (Ms Martin and Ms Rossiter).  Mrs Harding will continue to use the wet area for small group work.  We will also use a range of spaces throughout the school when we break into smaller groups for Maths lessons and other activities. 

We would like to welcome Mrs Di Donna and Ms Martin (who many of you will know) to the Senior teaching team.  They bring a wealth of teaching experience and some wonderful, fun ideas to our unit.  Please make sure you introduce yourself to them as you visit the unit.

So again, welcome back...we hope you're all ready for a big and exciting year!