17 Feb 2017

Yr6 Weekly Update – 02/17/17

Where we are in Place and Time

We have started a new unit this week which falls under the transdisciplinary theme of Where we are in Place and Time.

Our Central Idea is: Conserving heritage enables people to appreciate the past

 

We will be inquiring into

  • Heritage and how it is identified (reflection)
  • Why different aspects of the past have been conserved (perspective)
  • Actions that conserve our heritage (responsibility)

 

We will be looking at the following approaches to learning throughout the next 5 weeks.

 

Thinking Skills:

Evaluation

  • We will be making judgements or decisions based on chosen criteria; standards and conditions.

 

Research:

Formulating Questions

  • We will be identifying something the students want or need to know and asking compelling and relevant questions that can be researched.

 

Students started the week with a Chalk Talk to get them discussing the different skills, concepts and central idea. We also discussed what the word heritage means and will be discussing what heritage means to each student specifically.  Students will be asked to bring in something that represents their heritage and to share their heritage item and the criteria for how it represents their heritage. Other students will have an opportunity to question and debate about which items are or are not heritage.

 

We are inquiring into how to take a good photo. The students spent some time on the roof top garden taking pictures and figuring out how to blur the background, bring closer objects into focus and the rule of thirds. Students really enjoyed being creative with the iPads and trying out the different techniques.

LITERACY

For writing this unit we will be focusing on Historical Narratives, which will include looking at the structure, different ways to start a narrative, how to use dialogue, along with word choice, constructing good sentences, and verb tenses. We will also be looking at recognizing and using figurative language to enhance writing, such as similes, metaphors, idioms, and alliteration. Specifically how we can use different literary devices to create the mood and atmosphere in a text.

For reading this unit, we will continue to focus on comprehension strategies. We will be looking at visualising and inferencing. Students will recognise how characters or people, facts and events are represented and can speculate about the author’s choices.

We will also continue to focus on using the internet responsibly and knowledgeably, appreciating its uses and limitations, particularly around the concept of perspective and primary sources of information.

 

MATHS

We were very lucky to have Peter Sullivan in to teach both the teachers and the students more about Maths. He is currently Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education at Monash University. He has extensive experience in research and teaching in teacher education. The techniques that Peter has found to be particularly useful for teaching have been exercises where students have to make decisions, connect two or three ideas together, use different strategies to find the answer and find several different answers. Teachers will now try to put this into practice in their own classrooms.

 

For maths this unit we will be continuing with some fraction work and moving on to  Shape and Space. Students will identify, describe, classify and visualize properties of circles using mathematical vocabulary. They will visualise, describe, draw and model two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects and vice versa. Students will identify and use scale to reduce and enlarge 2D shapes and transform, reduce and enlarge 3D objects. Students will also describe and model congruency and similarity in 3D objects and locate and record features on a grid using coordinates in all four quadrants.

 

IMPORTANT DATES

21 February: 6T, 6RB & 6W Trip to Kowloon Walled City Park

23 February: 6A & 6M Trip to Kowloon Walled City Park

9 March: Y6 Faust Performance

13 March: Maths Week

17 March: ESF Choral Concert

18 March: School Fair

20 March: Unit 5 – The EXHIBITION begins

23 March: Student Led Conferences 3-6pm

24 March: Classes suspended for Student Led Conferences

27 March: KJS Music Concert

31 March: Last Day of Term – ENDS AT MIDDAY