Week 8, Term 2

We’ve been reading Fairy Tales this week in preparation for our Big Write. This also led into some exciting STEAM activities as we created our own shadow puppets and acted out our own fairy tales.  We’ve continued to explore sentence structure identifying whole sentences and fragments of sentences.  

We’ve been linking our Maths and Big Question this week with some investigations and data collection about weather. We have been tracking each day’s weather in our own weather journals and created graphs from this. If you wanted to link some experiments in at home, you could pop some bowls of water out when a frost is expected and see if they freeze over! We have also been learning about other big weather events like snowstorms and cyclones. This is in preparation for our next assignment – to become weather reporters!  

For RRRR we have been exploring stress management. It is always powerful when students share their experiences of feeling stressed, what can make them feel this way and their own knowledge around strategies for managing this. We have been sharing strategies around how when the game doesn’t go as planned, leading to stress, what we can do to help everyone in this situation. Next week, we will return to the topic of Emotional Literacy as we explore acts of kindness and empathy.  

Thank you for coming in to our Parent Teacher Interviews last week. It is always valuable taking the time to discuss your children.  

Thanks for reading this week’s update from the Silver Banksia. 

It all started with a bang. A big bang! This was part of the amazing planetarium experience at the Discovery Centre excursion on Monday. Our classes explored the centre’s exhibits, learned about and made electrical circuits, and brave students and teachers had the opportunity to climb the stairs and attempt the vertical slide. 

In Maths, we have continued to learn about data by collecting data using digital technologies, and created graphs and other displays to show how data can be interpreted in different ways. In Literacy, we are now preparing to write persuasive texts about the use of horses during World War I. This has been supported by all the amazing discussions we’ve had about the War Horse class novel this term. We have used role playing to explore and understand power imbalances in RRRR. And in BQT, we have explored how light can be reflected and refracted. 

Next week is a short week, with King’s Birthday on Monday. Our persuasive text planners will be nearing completion, giving students an opportunity to write their persuasive texts. We will learn about angles in Maths and RRRR looks at respect in peer relationships. 

Have an enjoyable weekend everyone. 

All the best from your Grade 5/6 teachers, 

Jay, Mr Higgins, Hannah, Sam K, Liz and Giovanna. 

Prep N

Alfie McGregor – for the brave way you have a go and try your hardest in PMP activities.

Charlie Reece – for working hard at home and school to improve your reading.

Prep E

Matteo Tricarico – for your dedication to practising your reading every day.  Keep it up!

Dallas Eddy – for the way you took your time and added detail to make your map of Buster’s bone.

1/2 S

Zaria Favero-Williamson – for the kindness, confidence and big smile that you bring to our classroom every day.

Robbie Baker – for the focused way you have been listening during instruction time in Spelling.

1/2 SB

Alice Oxner – for the calm and thoughtful way you use your common sense to help our classroom.

Nancy Schlacter – for the way you worked in your group, helping and listening, in our STEAM challenge.

1/2 W

Aysha Millard – for taking the lead in your Maths work and helping others.

Emily Bristow – for your beautiful and creative Big Write.

3/4 PS

Nellie Dunn – for having the courage to utilise feedback to improve your work.

Oscar Tanner – for your outstanding attitude and problem solving during challenging fractions activities.

3/4 CN

Thomas Chaplin – for the enthusiastic way you have been contributing to class discussions.

Quinlyn Nicholson – for the passionate way you have been creating fraction artwork at home.

3/4 H

Keir Edwards - for displaying amazing initiative and leadership qualities everyday!

Saatchi Wiegard - for showing such enthusiasm when doing our parachute experiment!

3/4 L

Samuel Carr - for the way you get to work quickly and quietly.

Ren Duckworth - for the fierce determination you display in ball games!

5/6 HG

Bailey Bright – for the way you confidently demonstrated your understanding of converting between units of measurement.

Kaide Berry – for the way you collaborated so effectively to complete your “Big Day Out” task.

5/6 R

Lucy Harris - for all the ways you help others in the classroom!

Lily Grayson - for jumping back into school work and seeking support after being away!

5/6 J

Jet McGill – for the strength you have shown in class by avoiding distractions and getting on with your learning.

Charlotte Morrison-Blunck – for the effort you have made to connect with friends.

5/6 SL

Ria Blundell – for the thoughtful way you approached making graphs in Maths – with great results!

Indonesian

Nash Eddy – for your enthusiastic participation in our team game and for remembering Indonesian colours!

Performing Arts

George Clark – for the way you focused and contributed musically to the class.  Well done!

5/6J – for the way you worked together and played beautiful music.  Well done!