Prep | Year 5 News
Coming up in Year 5
UOI
Week 7- 8 | How the World Works
Mathematics
Week 7 -8 | Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division Problem Solving
Writing
Week 6 – 8 | Visual Literacy
Reading
Week 6 – 8 | Synthesising and Summarising
Unit of Inquiry
We have continued our inquiry into How the World Works through experimentation and design. In groups the boys have been designing and developing insulators using our scientific knowledge. Their designs have been created to solve a scientific problem, keeping a Zooper Dooper ice block frozen. Through careful experimentation and examination of materials and their properties they have selected and used items which are fit for purpose and that they believe will be able to lead them to solving their scientific problem.
As part of our GROWTH programme, we have continued to meet with our PK Buddies and share fun times and play together. It has been so wonderful to be able to bond with our Buddies and build a special relationship that we are excited to continue as we move into Year 6.
English
The boys have been exploring the text ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ and how the author uses elements of visual literacy to tell the story. We have been using elements such as salience, shading, angles, gaze, vectors, colour, body language and framing to understand the message the author is trying to convey to the audience. We have been using the text as an example while we try to create our own text focusing on visual literacy. This has been a challenging experience that has stretched our understanding of what writing is. In the coming weeks, we will further transfer our understanding of visual literacy into different forms of media. We have explored print and writing and will soon explore video! Films like ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse’ are ripe with visual literacy techniques that help the audience develop an understanding of the text. Our boys will transfer their skills from print to video to help them analyse the messages the director is trying to convey to the audience.
Mathematics
Through our exploration of 3D shapes and their properties the boys have been introduced to drawing these shapes with accuracy. We defined prisms and pyramids and are now able to identify these and support our identification with mathematical reasoning and explanation. The boys studied the nets of different shapes and considered how we could use our knowledge of shape and properties to construct shapes. In teams we are creating a Year 5 Christmas Village. In collaboration with this work, we are exploring volume and capacity and applying our previous learning around multiplication and division to find measurement.
Mandarin
There are two main parts in learning this term.
The first part is language learning and development on Education Perfect. Beginning Learners learned about the classroom core words while Heritage Learners learned about both core and extra classroom words. Students practised and consolidated the focused vocabularies in reading, listening, writing and dictation, with the support of the word lists.
The second part is a project related to the UOI “How the World Works”. Students inquired into the clothing of a Chinese ethnic minority group in terms of the materials, colours, patterns and other features, and made the connection to cultural perspectives. Then they designed a piece of cultural clothing based on the collected information and made a caption for their design.
In terms of Approaches to Learning (ATLs), students continued to develop their Communication Skills, Research Skills and Social Skills throughout the term.
STEAM
Continuing with How The World Works the STEAM Lab has been buzzing, literally! This term Year 5 have been inquiring into circuits to produce light and sound. Developing their understanding of conductors and insulators the boys have been using alligator clips, batteries, light bulbs and buzzers to form their own circuits. It has been wonderful to see boys taking action in their learning through this unit with several boys transforming their circuits into toys and models. Our next step is learning how to programme Micro:Bits, developing code to make a LED light strip Function.
Next week in STEAM, boys interested in becoming part of the 2023 RoboCup co-curricular team will complete a series of challenges. There will be 10 places available on the Year 6 2023 RoboCup team. The success criteria for selection will be boys that show principled behaviour at all times, are able to work collaboratively and are willing to learn block based coding.
