One community – Once again

‘We’re back in business’ – Gabe 5/6C

Over the past two weeks the fives and sixes have been eagerly awaiting the return to site full time. The students have re-adjusted to getting up early, leaving their houses, and working in a buzzing classroom with a lot more ease and eagerness than expected. ‘I had to get my mum to wake me up this morning’ (Sylvie 5/6C)

During the mingled last few weeks between onsite and remote, the students have also been working hard; they have produced some phenomenal writing through the exploration of themes and concluded their probability and chance unit and begun an exploration of chemical and physical changes in a science inquiry. After reaching the apply phase of the inquiry cycle, the students in historical growth project groups have been putting the finishing touches on their historical reenactments, and the students in the physical growth inquiry group have been applying their knowledge by conducting virtual teaching classes with other year levels. 

‘I’m really looking forward to collaborating with my peers again.’ – Marta 5/6D

The long awaited return to site

‘It feels much better to be back on site.’ – Audrey 5/6D

‘“I wish I could sleep in but other than that it’s okay” – Saskia 5/6A

The grade fives and sixes have embraced the return to site with eager enthusiasm and a strong sense of community. Bounding through the gates last Friday, there were a lot of smiling faces and a lot of exceptionally tall students. 

‘The masks will take a bit of getting used to.’ – Chris 5/6D

‘I love being able to hand out with my friends again,’ Jayla 5/6C

‘Not seeing friends was hard’ – Tom C 5/6A

Chance and probability board games

‘We’re building on the concept of snakes and ladders and using escalators and elevators. We just need to figure out how to make the board look as we don’t want it to end up messy and confusing.’ Hugo B and Chris 5/6D

The students have concluded their exploration of chance and probability by applying their understanding to creating their own and adapting from existing board and card games. ‘I now know the difference between luck and chance,’ (Tase 5/6C), ‘The more often a number appears, the more likely you are to get it,’ (Matilda 5/6C)

Students spent time analysing the skills and chance involved in games such as snakes and ladders, Pictionary, monopoly and even snap and leveraged these concepts to create their own take on much loved favourites. 

‘I’m making a North Melbourne type Monopoly game, I have to figure out what would be the chance and community chest parts.’ Harry 5/6D

‘Chess is a strategy games, there isn’t any element of luck.’ Peter 5/6C

Science experiments

‘A physical change is reversible and a chemical change is irreversible, like cooking an egg, which is a chemical change and cannot be reversed.’ Miles 5/6B

The 5/6 neighbourhoods have been turned into science labs in recent days as the students explore chemical and physical change. Building on the students’ understanding of explanation reports explored earlier in the semester, the students are beginning to explore writing science reports and conduct simple science experiments. The focus has been chemical and physical changes, ‘such as turning bread to toast’ (Lucy 5/6B), and how different solids, liquids and gases behave in different environments. 

‘When the bi-carb soda mixes with the vinegar it releases a gas which makes it bubble and rise.’

Themed Writing

‘…good and evil roam the streets, will Jack change the way of good and evil?’ – Myki 5/6C

‘I liked using a theme. It’s a great way to start writing a story. It is a way for readers to recognise the meaning for writing and what it’s supposed to be about. For example, love, death, coming of age, and good versus evil are common themes in stories.’ – Paisley 5/6B

‘I think that using the five senses really helps bring the reader into the story.’ – Mila 5/6A

After unpacking the concept of themes in stories whilst in remote learning, ‘I learnt about the difference between genre and theme. A genre is what kind of story it is, and a theme is like what components go into it. For example, good versus evil is a theme, and sci-fi is a genre,’ (Poppy 5/6B) the students have been electing popular themes such as good v. evil, death, sacrifice and love to write a synopsis then use the 6+1 writing traits to plan, draft, revise and publish their own story based around the themes. ‘I’m writing a story about good v. evil as the theme, and the sub-theme is death,’ (Gertie 5/6D). By building on their skills and taking time in targets to explore how to develop descriptive writing by using the 5 senses, the students are currently in the process of producing some phenomenal creative writing stories.

‘I’m really enjoying the writing, especially the senses work as it helps me to make my writing more realistic, even in fantasy scenes.’ Nico 5/6D

‘We are in a room and it’s yellow and brown and white. It has bright lights and also has cardboard in it. We sit on hard steps and there are bags all over the floor. Some people sit in blue plastic chairs.’ Eva 5/6B

Historical and Personal Growth

After months of research and exploration, the students in both Historical and Personal Growth have been applying their knowledge and understanding to their respective projects. 

‘We used the song ‘Heat Waves’ as the basis of our song to tell the story of Bloody Mary the first Queen of England,’ Linus, Harry, Elliot 5/6D, Archie, Gabe and Raf L 5/6C

In the historical growth project group, the students have been putting their final touches to their scripts and are beginning the tasking task of filming and recording their reenactments, songs and parodies based on their understanding of royals and the impact that monarchies have had on history and today’s society. From Bloody Mary to servants in Victorian England, the scope and variety of areas explored showcases the far reaching impact the monarchies have had on modern history.  

‘It was an interesting experience teaching the grade 2s as they were quite quiet, and very engaged, but they surprised with how much they already knew, it was a bit awkward and now I know how the teachers feel’ – Cleo 5/6D and Marni 5/6B

In the personal growth project group students have been imparting their knowledge of emotions and brain development on the students in the younger years. Students have used their initiative to make contact with teachers of different year levels and have used the opportunities presented in remote learning to present their findings in different virtual classrooms. 

‘We have emailed Sia and Sherwin to get permission to teach the grade 4s about the brain and its functions.’ Aliye and Aurelie 5/6D