As we move into the tail end of the term students are beginning to finalise their learning in many units of work from a variety of key learning areas. This doesn’t mean we will never look at these topics or concepts again but rather that we will continue to touch on them throughout the year, while making room for new learning. Often the concepts learned during Math and English are stepping stones to the next concept we will cover. 

With that being said, we have been learning about length and perimeter and will now be focusing on area. The students have gained a solid understanding of how to calculate perimeters of a variety of shapes and are able to represent these in a number of ways using measurements of millimetres, centimetres, metres and even kilometres. Our understanding of numbers and the place value system have allowed us to make accurate calculations and show the measurements. 

In our writing lessons, students have been practicing their editing skills, with a focus on punctuation and spelling. We know that when we write well our readers want to continue reading our work. The past week or so has also shown students work with a partner to create a narrative based on a picture stimulus. The partnerships have had to agree on all elements of their narratives. They soon learned that two minds are better than one and used this to their advantage. We have had stories where characters are flying over vast snow covered land, to characters needing to defeat abominable snow men, to even little puppies getting stuck in snow covered holes and needing rescuing. The Year 5 student’s imaginations are creative and this is going to be a great benefit to them when they go into completing a written assessment next week. 

Our Religion lessons have been all about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit as well as Project Compassion. The students have been responding to our Caritas videos each week using an online platform called Jamboard. This allows students to write a response and add it to a class communal noticeboard. Students have acknowledged the needs Caritas have offered to people all over East Asia and Australia and what challenges these people face on a daily basis in their countries. We have tied in our understanding of place from Geography lessons and a locating the mentioned countries on a world map. Each week, the students are getting better at navigating their way around the online platforms and are even at the point where they are helping each other and could teach others within the school. 

On Friday we celebrated Harmony Day and National Day Against Bullying. The students started their day off with a simple prayer and reflection where students were asked to light a candle to remember those who have experienced bullying in the past. We also added anti-bullying messages and displayed these in our room. Linking Random Acts of Kindness and treating others kindly is always a wonderful way to start a day where we celebrated harmony and peace. 

Attendance this past fortnight has dropped a little due to illness. It is nice to see parents and students staying at home to rest when they are unwell. With these uncertain times we are encouraged that if we are sick to stay at home and to continue good hygiene to prevent the spread of germs. Our students are getting better at part taking in good handwashing and even have the singing voices to go along with it. Just ask them about the many songs we have sung these past few days.