Hi everyone,
welcome back to Term 2! I can't believe how quickly the year is flying already. I hope you all have a restful holiday and have recovered from Canberra. I'm very excited to hear all the boys stories this morning. Below is some extra information for you regarding this term, I hope you find the information useful.
This term we will be focusing on the following topics in class:
S&E: Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War
SCIENCE: Volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis
WRITING: Speaker's challenge, finishing off expositions from last term, information reports and narratives.
READING: Our class novel "Holes", running records to mark your child's progress from last term in fluency and accuracy, guided reading, STARS units 4-6, one on one reading and common assessment comprehension tasks.
SPELLING: Allocated weekly units, editing activities, grammar links and impromptu lessons.
MATHS: Graphing, perimeter and area, converting units of measurement, fractions and timestables.
AUSSIE OPTIMISM: Modules 5-10
HOMEWORK: Last term students were given slips of paper explaining their homework on it. This will cease now in second term to start preparing the boys to use their diaries more efficiently for High School. Students will be expected to note their homework in their diaries (which will be modelled this morning). They are still expected to write their own diary dates each week if they miss this session in class. Some boys dropped the ball a bit last term so I will be following up more with them this term and I encourage you to prompt them to organise themselves at home using their diary if you aren't already. As usual homework will also be noted on the blog so there is no reason why students can't find out the requirements of the week.
CLASS NOVEL: Once again we will be starting with our class novel at the start of the term. All boys will be given a "Holes" book today. They will be allocated certain chapters to read throughout the week. It is extremely important that boys stay up to date with the chapters this term since we will be completing our report throughout the term, not at the end of the book like we did last term. Boys are required to take care of these books as they are school property and will have to replace them if they are damaged or lost.
ABSENT STUDENTS: Just like last term I would like you to please notify me via email or phone the office if your child is away. A note in the diary explaining the circumstances is also fine the next day, but it is easier for our records if we are notified on the day.
Any absent student will also be expected to catch up on any work they have missed. On occasion it is possible to email this work on the day so the students can catch up at home, other times that is just not possible. The expectation is that the absent students will have a maximum of a week to complete the tasks they have missed as additional homework.
TESTS AND PREPARATION:
Students will be given study sheets and vocabulary lists to learn for S&E as well as Science again this term. Everything on the sheets has been covered in class either via activities, discussions, videos or through special guest speakers. Students are given some time in class to prepare, but more of the revision needs to be done at home. These sheets will be given to students early in the term and then continued to be used throughout the term.
At the end of each term students also participate in a range of other tests. Maths tests will be notified here on the blog and in student diaries so they are able to further prepare. We often break maths tests down into specific topics to make it easier for students and then space them across the term. Other tests (common assessment tasks) won't necessarily be noted for students as there is no preparation required, such as comprehension tasks. These are often to see growth of skill or progression.
SPEAKER'S CHALLENGE:
Students will be given more information about this on Friday, however they should start thinking about a topic they may like to provide a speech on. The topics are open to whatever the student would like to speak about. Last year the speeches that added some humour often did the best. Some topics previously used are the history of the coffee, door knobs, children should be allowed a diet of lollies, the importance of having siblings, the country my family originate from, etc.
During class time all the rules will be explain and planning sheets to assist students will be handed out. They will be given a certain number of periods to start writing their speeches, but the rest of the writing and preparation will be part of their homework. All students from our class will present their speeches in the same week. Based on their scores two to three students will be selected from our class to compete against two to three students from each of the other Year 6 classes. From there the judges will select the final three to represent our school at the end of Term 2 at the official Speaker's Challenge.
This is a great opportunity for all boys to show some creativity and have ownership over their speeches. There will be no I.T allowed for these speeches, such as PowerPoint. Palm cards MUST be used and prepared properly before the day of the speech.
I know that is a lot of information for the start of the term! I hope it gives you all a bit of an insight into how much we will be covering. There will also be the Semester Reports at the end of the term which will the same as what you experienced at the end of last year.
Lee Geelhoed
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