Prep | Year 6 News
English
Year 6 have been working hard on our Persuasive Writing. We have been learning about different persuasive devices including emotive language, anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and direct addresses. Some of us have been working on our evaluative writing. To put these skills into practice, we have been writing an evaluative paragraph about Paul Kettings Redfern speech. To write this paragraph we followed a structure that helped us to write a quality paragraph.
Thus, was the structure:
1. Statement of theory
2. Retell
3. Language Features
4. Sample
5. Effect statement
6. Concluding statement
Literacy groups
Last week we kick started our literacy groups. We have been reading a book called ‘Noni and the Book Ban’. The book is about a book that is called Sergeant Rotten Teeth being removed from the school library and then a debate goes on if it should be kept or removed. This has linked in well with our Unit of Inquiry.
We have continued to read our shared reading novel, “The Landry News”. We’ve been focusing in on truth and mercy, and how the two can exist together.
Spelling
We have started working in some spelling groups as we’ve focused in on Latin roots in words, prefixes and suffixes and the patterns and rules related to consonants and vowels within words.
By Danny Matesic, Rory Ashcroft
Mathematics
Over the course of the last few weeks we have been learning different things in Mathematics. We have been learning about whole numbers, positive and negative numbers and how to use them in equations, triangular numbers, square numbers and algorithms in the use of budgeting. Our favourite part of maths was the budgeting challenge when we had to calculate our budget in the ultimate cubby house activity. We were given $25,000 to create our dream house. We had an important learning intention of proving our work and justifying our answers.
We are promoting Learner Agency as boys reflect on their maths workshops. Students rate their confidence level related to the learning intention, and set goals aligned with their next steps in learning. They access this reflection form using a QR code posted on the wall.
By Chris Qiu, Victor Bao
Unit of Inquiry
These last few weeks, Year 6 have been focusing on our new Unit of Inquiry, ‘How We Express Ourselves”. We have mostly focused on learning about media and how it influences our lives. To begin our unit, we had to get an existing useless product and rebrand it as something else to pitch it to our teachers and try and get them to buy it. We became entrepreneurs and it felt like being on the show Shark Tank! I enjoyed being able to design our own product and make it better than it was before and try and get others to buy it. Our next task was to watch two different perspectives of the three little pigs’ story, and debate who was innocent and who was guilty. We even had a small play as if it were a court case. It was tough to decide which truth was ‘the right truth’. It was a fun first few weeks for our new unit of inquiry and I think that this is going to be one of the most enjoyable units of inquiry of this year.
By Lucas Chan, James Elghitany
Lights… Camera… Action!!! In STEAM, Year 6 are linking their class Unit of Inquiry “How We Express Ourselves” by researching what makes an effective advertisement. In this inquiry the boys will become writers, directors and actors to produce their own advertisement. After viewing previously successful ad campaigns the boys have been asked to apply their knowledge in order to sell their own product. Can Year 6 convince you to buy their products?
Coming Up in Year 6
- Unit of Inquiry:
- Freedom of speech (Form)
- Informative and persuasive techniques (Causation)
- Interpreting Bias (Perspective)
- Mathematics:
- Length
- Area
- 2D Space
- Angles
- English:
- Novels in Literacy Groups
- Analysis and construction of persuasive texts
- Public Speaking Competition Finals
Mandarin
We have started the transdisciplinary unit How We Express Ourselves by looking at the Chinese language media in Australia. Boys shared their preferred media types and made a Chinese-English word list based on their preferences. They also worked in pairs/groups to inquire into the need, function and influence of Chinese language media in Australian society. To assist with students’ learning journey, a resource bank was provided including short articles, videos, case studies, questions for thinking and quizzes.
At the same time, boys have been participating in online Chinese learning with Education Perfect. The units for non-heritage learners and heritage learners are “Countries & Nationalities” and “Past holidays” respectively.
Visual Arts
This term in Visual Arts Year 6 have been working on the transdisciplinary unit ‘How We Express Ourselves.’ Our focus is form and the versatility of paper as a medium. The boys have explored the practice of Henri Matisse and his cut-outs as well as a range of contemporary collage art practices. The boys have experimented with paper and various collage techniques in preparation for their own large-scale wall collage. This week the boys began researching and planning for their artwork. We look forward to sharing our process with you over the coming weeks.
If you and your family are interested in learning more about Henri Matisse, there is currently an exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, running until the 13th March. It features a large range of Henri Matisse’s work: Matisse: Life & Spirit, Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Christian Studies
During this term, the boys have been investigating how our perspectives of Jesus are influenced by various forms of Media. These include movies, TV shows and visual representations from Bibles to story books. The boys have explored some of the depictions of Jesus and reflected on the accuracy or perspective adopted by the creators of the roles. As a part of the UOI, the boys watched the movie “Risen” which explores the death and resurrection from the perspective of a Roman soldier. Over the next few weeks, the boys will be inquiring into a variety of characters who portrayed Jesus and reflecting on the impact they have in their own faith. We have also been conducting Chapel outside on the new basketball court where we have begun our journey looking at covenants / agreements between God and us. We will be examining how important it is for us to understand the relationship between covenants and God’s amazing plan of salvation.
