Footscray City

Primary School

5A and 6A Newsletter
Term 4, 2016

Dear families of 5A and 6A,

We will leap into term 4 this year by asking our students what well-being means to them in their current context. This will
commence our exploration into health and wellbeing. Through research-based tasks and report writing, we will learn about the
social, mental, emotional and physical aspects of this unit. We believe this will assist our students with their transition into year
6 and, excitingly, year 7! Please read our newsletter to familiarise yourself with key dates, as well as to gain further information
about our curriculum this term.
*Sports events and end of year excursions to be determined.
IMPORTANT TERM DATES

Curriculum Day CITW

Week 1
3/10
Mon 3/10

Big Day Out

Week 2
10/10
Sat 15/10

Extra Information (if

applicable)
Students to stay at
home

Cup Day
Report Writing Week

Year 5 Visit to Footscray City

College

Grade 6 Year 7 Transition day

Reports sent home

P-6 Transition Day for 2017

Grade 6 Farewell
Last day 1:30 Dismissal

Week 5
31/10
Tues 1/11
All week (No PLCs)
Week 7
14/11
Thurs 17/11
Week 10
05/12
Tues 6/12
Fri 9/12

Each year level to

perform
Notes to be sent home
prior to event

Buses and costs have

been covered by
Footscray City College

Secondary schools will

host an Orientation Day
for Year 6 students.
Students to organise a
lift to the orientation.

Time to be determined
(a note will be provided
earlier on in the term)

Week 11
12/12
Fri 16/12
Week 12
19/12
Mon 19/12
Tues 20/12

Footscray City

Primary School

SPECIALIST TIMETABLES FOR TERM 3

EVENTS)

(SUBJECT TO CHANGE DUE TO CURRICULUM

5A

MONDAY
Music

TUESDAY
Phys-Ed

WEDNESDAY
N/A

6A

N/A

Phys-Ed

Music

THURSDAY
Art, Drama
Mandarin
Mandarin
Art

FRIDAY
Sport (5/6)
Drama
Sport (5/6)

LITERACY
The Literacy program will cover a range of reading comprehension strategies, writing text types, speaking and listening
skills and spelling, grammar and punctuation investigations. Our sequence of learning includes poetry, memoir and
information reports. Students will;

Reading
Understand that a poem is to be read for its "message"
Understand that messages are "hidden" in poems and
are to be found by treating the words as symbols which
naturally do not mean what they say but stand for
something else
Express changes in ideas or perspectives across the
reading as events unfold or after reading a text
Construct summaries that are concise and reflect the
important and overarching ideas and information in texts
Identify important ideas & information and organise them
in a summary form in order to remember and use them
as background knowledge in reading or for discussion &
writing
Use research skills including identifying research
purpose, locating texts, gathering and organising
information, evaluating its relative value, and the
accuracy and currency of print and digital sources and
summarizing information from several sources
Spelling
Continue to build on personal spelling words
Continue to accumulate wondrous words for writing
Continue to participate in targeted spelling investigations
based on students needs.

Writing
Understand that there are different kinds of poems
Understand that writers can learn to write poems from
studying mentor texts
Understand poetry as a unique way to communicate
about feelings, sensory ideas, images or stories
Understand that poems can take a variety of shapes
Notice the beat or rhythm of a poem and its relation to
line breaks
Understand that poems dont need to have rhyme
Develop chapters for a memory book (year 6)
Plan for an information report, ensuring we have
included the appropriate text features
Experiment with text structures and language features
and their effects in creating information reports
Select and combine software functions as needed to
create information reports
Speaking and Listening
Listen actively to others read or talk about their writing
and give feedback
Identify and use new meanings of words when they are
used as similes and metaphors
Pause effectively to enhance interest and emphasize
points
Read poems with effective use of intonation and word
stress to emphasize important ideas
Present a well-being workshop, using pitch and
expression appropriate to audience.

MATHEMATICS
Our first two weeks of Numeracy will involve revision of Estimation and Rounding. We will also be running our
Scaffolding Numeracy Program weekly, which aims to develop multiplicative reasoning in students, as well as a
broad range of problem solving skills. Students will be assessed on their progress in this program, which will
reflect in their end of year report.
The mathematics program from weeks 3 to 10 will cover a range of topics including;
Number & Algebra

Footscray City

Primary School

Topic/learning outcomes
Number Revision

Number Properties
Patterning
The Four Operations with Number
Problem Solving skill building
Fractions and Decimals
Algebraic Concepts (year 6 focus)

Measurement and Geometry

Topic/learning outcomes
Vocabulary
Location and Transformation (year 5 & 6 focus)
Aerial, above, below, inside, outside, cardinal direction, Cartesian
Year 5
coordinate plane, x axis, y-axis, corresponding, parallel,
perpendicular, congruent, landmark, translation, transformation,
Compare aerial views of Country, desert paintings
rotation, reflection, dilation, scale, symmetry, line of symmetry,
and maps with grid references
vector, initial point, terminal point, quadrant,
Create a grid reference system for the classroom
and using it to locate objects and describe routes
from one object to another
Identify and describe the line and rotational
symmetry of a range of two-dimensional shapes,
by manually cutting, folding and turning shapes
and by using digital technologies
Identify the effects of transformations by manually
flipping, sliding and turning two-dimensional
shapes and by using digital technologies
Year 6
Use digital technologies to enlarge shapes
Understand that translations, rotations and
reflections can change the position and orientation
but not shape or size
Understand that the Cartesian plane provides a
graphical or visual way of describing location
Topic/learning outcomes
Vocabulary
3 Dimensional Shape (year 5 & 6 focus)
Prism, pyramid, attribute, lateral faces, bisection, cuboid, vertex,
Year 5
apex, platonic solids, spatial sense, edge, vertices, face,
congruent, height, width, length, square, triangle, circle, cylinder,
Connect three-dimensional objects with their nets
trapezoid, pentagon, cone, polygon, rhombus, pentagon,
and other two-dimensional representations
hexagon, octagon, rectangular prism, polyhedron, dodecahedron
Identify the shape and relative position of each
face of a solid to determine the net of the solid,
including that of prisms and pyramids
Represent two-dimensional shapes such as
photographs, sketches and images created by
digital technologies
Year 6
Consider the history and significance of pyramids
from a range of cultural perspectives including
those structures found in China, Korea and
Indonesia
Construct prisms and pyramids from nets, and
skeletal models
Topic/learning outcomes

Vocabulary

Footscray City

Tessellations (Year 6 focus)

Understand that a tessellation is a repeated
geometric design that covers a plane without gaps
or overlaps
Understand that a regular tessellation is a highly
symmetric tessellation made up of congruent
regular polygons
Create the only three regular tessellations that
exist
Understand that a semi-regular tessellation uses a
variety of regular polygons
Create the eight semi-regular tessellations that
exist.

Statistics & Probability

Topic/learning outcomes
Data Representations (year 5 & 6 focus)
Year 5
Use and compare data representations for different
data sets to help decision making
Construct dot plots without the use of digital
technologies
Year 6
Compare different student-generated
diagrams, tables and graphs, describing their
similarities and differences and commenting
on the usefulness of each representation for
interpreting the data

Primary School
Polygon, tessellation, plane, polygon, exterior,
interior, plane, regular shape, irregular shape, polygon,
congruent, whole, sum, measure, calculate, degrees, pattern,
repeat, overlap, gap,

Vocabulary
Data, dot plot, representation, variable, symbol, bar graph, circle
graph, pie graph, steam and leag plot, survey, tally, cluster, mean,
median, mode, conditions, impossible, very unlikely, unlikely,
equally likely, likely, very likely, certain, 0 1, correlation,
probability, statistic, chance, representation, occurrence,
likelihood, dependent variable, independent variable, variable,
outcome, ratio, sample,

INTEGRATED CURRICULUM
Integrated Curriculum Units engage students by teaching new concepts and skills, which are transferrable to other areas of the
curriculum. The Integrated Curriculum in term 4 will explore the topic of Health and Well-being.

Integrated Topic: Health and the Human Body

Key Understandings
As we grow and develop, we become conscious and responsible for health choices we make.
As we grow and develop we experience changes that affect us physically and emotionally.
Wellbeing is more than just a healthy body. The state of your mind, your emotional intelligence to cope with your environment,
including the people around you, also affects your overall wellbeing.
Stability / Change How is it changing?
Concepts
Connection How is it connected to other things?
Causation / Cause and Effect Why is it like it is?
Learning Experiences
Throughout the Unit YEAR 5
Students develop an understanding of the right to be safe.
Students consider what it means to be physically, socially and emotionally healthy. They explore their
own and others views about health.
They investigate different food-selection models such as the Healthy Eating Pyramid and the
Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and their characteristics, and reflect on how they can be used to
assist in decisions about food choices.
YEAR 6
Students identify the likely physical, emotional and social changes that occur during puberty.
They describe the physical, social and emotional dimensions of health and establish health goals

Footscray City

Primary School

and plan strategies for improving their personal health.

They analyse and explain physiological, social, cultural and economic reasons for food choices
and analyse and describe food selection models.
Students discuss significant transitions between life stages, particularly the changes associated
with puberty and the changing roles and responsibilities during these stages. They discuss how
their role and responsibilities within the family setting and among friends may change.

BOUNCEBACK
BounceBack assists students to understand and appreciate the school values, as well as to develop management skills and
strategies as they transition to years 6 & 7. We will integrate Bounce Back into our daily classroom practices.
Concepts

Connection
Reflection

Lesson Topics
Growth Mindset
Managing emotional responses

HOMEWORK
Grade 5 and 6 students are expected to complete approximately 20-30 minutes of homework each night. This could consist
of:
Reading Just Right Books, a range of media or responding to reading.
Practising personal spelling words
Accessing differentiated Numeracy tasks assigned on Study Ladder & accessible through class blogs.
o http://misszclassblog.weebly.com
o http://Mrfarrer5.weebly.com
Homework is given to students every Monday and is due the following Monday for review and feedback.
HOMEWORK CLUB
Homework Club is held after school twice a week from 3.30pm. If you would like your child to participate, you can book
through the online booking system. Please contact the office for more information.
LEAVING/ABSENT NOTES
If your child leaves school early you are required to fill out an early dismissal form from the office and give it to your childs
teacher. We understand that children are sometimes absent from school due to illness or other circumstances. If this is the
case, please notify the school by phone or by writing a short note to the classroom teacher.
LATE NOTES
Please ensure your child arrives at school on time (8.55am). If your child is late, he/she is required to report to the office and
will be given a late pass to take to the classroom teacher.
We look forward to working in partnership with you throughout the school year.
Kind Regards,
Viriana Zeneli and Dwight Farrer

zeneli.viriana.v@edumail.vic.gov.au
farrer.dwight.l@edumail.vic.gov.au

Footscray City

Primary School

Specialists Programs for Term Four:

Visual Art with Emily Power-Moore
power.moore.emily.e@edumail.vic.gov.au
The Big Day Out will give us the opportunity to look at display and presentation of our artwork.
To integrate with their health unit students then looked at Munchs expressionist painting The Scream to inspire a personal
piece of artwork with an emphasis on recognising emotion and self-expression.
LOTE Program - Chinese Mandarin with Hannah Gan
gan.suk.han.s@edumail.vic.gov.au
This term, students continue to learn Chinese through AIM method, which includes the use of gestures, rule of Chinese
only in class and a focus of verbs and sentence structures. One of the major assignments is students will create a Chinese
storybook about themselves using computer software. The topics includes simple greeting, telling name, age, nationalities,
family, pets, expressing likes, dislikes and recounting. There will also be a range of songs, raps, dance, music, drama,
stories, games, video clips and handicrafts used to support students learning!
*The Chinese class is looking for parent helpers. Please contact me through my email address or phone number
+61450 511 025 if you are interested! Your kind help is much appreciated!
Music with Alison Handley
handley.alison.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

Our first couple of weeks are going to be very hectic as we prepare for our performances at the Big Day Out
where we will be dancing and playing up a storm as well as showcasing our garage band compositions.
When the dust has settled we will be completing a musical health check making sure that all of our vital
statistics are in order our knowledge of pitch, rhythm, notation, terminology, vocabulary, our ability to improvise
and compose. and our understanding of the emotional impact of music. Supporting the senior integrated topic of
wellbeing, this unit explores the knowledge and skills that make a well-rounded musician as well as how we can
use music as valuable tool and a reliable friend in our lives and will be run in rotations with students able to
design their own individual program order.
In addition, of course, the grade 6s will be learning the famous farewell song and both grades will have ample
opportunities for musical games and activities to support our learning as well as to welcome in the festive season.
Physical Education with Joe Diamond
diamond.joseph.j@edumail.vic.gov.au
Gr.5/6 will be competing in various Interschool carnivals, including Basket-ball and Athletics. The focus will be a
concentrated effort between Team strategies, team management and individual skill development. Combining specific
training ideals, using cross sport skill development, students will be continually challenged both physically and intellectually
in P.E lessons. Students at this Grade level are consistently learning to deal with defeat, the disappointments of non- team
selections and the art of winning graciously-all coming under the bracket of Sportsmanship. Strength building and
aerobic/anaerobic conditioning, are an important factor this semester, achieved through self- discipline, constant training,
real game structuring, including technique/ form, and rules.