Grade 5EM blog

Last but not least!

Welcome to Term 4 – the last but definitely not least term of 2014.

This term 5EM have the (inquiry) topic of discovering “How can we improve safety related to movement?” What does this mean? Well, we began by brainstorming what we think this topic may involve. 5EMers brainstormed individually in their books, then discussed and talking things through as a table. High on the list was road safety-related thoughts, personal safety and being safe while cooking.

We’ve now moved on and explored road safety deeper, for example being crash investigators. We learnt that there are 3 types of factors that play roles in crashes: Human factors (tiredness, speed), Vehicle factors (faulty brakes) and Environment factors (rain, road surface).

We’ve also had 2 incursions. Graffiti taught us about making good choices and how peer pressure can impact not only ours lives, but other people’s too. It was funny, informative and fantastic! MakerMachine was about the design and invention process. We combined the features of a jungle and sea animal, and drew it. We then made the prototype – the 3D version of our drawing – and attached a battery. When two wires touched either side of the battery, it would vibrate, making our creature move! Pretty cool hey? And the MakerMachine guys made a 3D version of my head using an Xbox camera!

Multicultural Day last Thursday showed off our school’s wide cultural diversity. 5EMers got the opportunity to dress up as a culture and do a variety of things from the main cultures at school. Paint a Diwali mobile and use henna from India, eat fried rice and make writing cubes from China, Latin dancing, Aboriginal storytelling, make rice paper rolls from Vietnam, origami from Japan and watch an Italian magic show. It was a day full of learning and super fun! Here is a snippet of what we did.

Miss Madigan 🙂

Got any comments? Let us know!

Letters from the First Fleet

In 5EM, we spent the term discovering Australia’s history. We started with the First Fleet and settlement, then moved to Federation, the Great Depression, Stolen Generation and migration. We touched briefly on World War 1 and 2, but only on Australia’s involvement.

The photos below are old letters written by people on the First Fleet! 5EMers had to take on the persona of someone – convict, captain, family of sailor, etc. – that was on board the First Fleet and create a diary entry. This sort of writing is called historical narrative. This task relied on good research skills and writing from another perspective.

Enjoy!

Miss Madigan

Have any thoughts or comments? Let us know!

Book Club

Every Friday morning the Grade 5 and 6 kids do Book Club (aka Novel Studies). This involves being in a group with a mix of 5’s and 6’s, reading a third of a book each week and coming together to discuss story, ask questions and share activities. This week we had a few outstanding tasks completed in 5EM. The task was to write fortunes (from fortune cookies) for some of the characters in the book. Below are works from Rachael, Audrey, Kate, Yian, Maya, Imogen and Gemma.

Keep up the great work guys!

Miss Madigan

Calling One, Calling All!

Hello! 5EM are currently learning about data – graphing and analysis. We need your help though! Below are the links to each 5EMer’s survey. We ask you to please take the time out of your busy lives to fill in as many as you can, they won’t take longer than a minute! It will give the kids a broader data range for analysis.

Amy –  bit.ly/1qG6QHU

Audrey – bit.ly/Yoj0w5

Alec – bit.ly/1tjbAmK

Bridie – bit.ly/YojhPw

Bailey – bit.ly/1quKbVo

Catia – bit.ly/1rr3Vk5

Charlotte – bit.ly/1rXDXZw

Cooper – bit.ly/1BlvQsS

Gemma – bit.ly/1lLIihL

Gerald – bit.ly/1nELaIY

Hannah – bit.ly/1urxxBR

Hunter – bit.ly/1urxK87

Imogen – bit.ly/1urxC8t

James – bit.ly/1rXEScl

Julia K – bit.ly/ZdWl5H

Julia T – bit.ly/WBZxGB

Kate – http://bit.ly/1qG7EN4

Maya – bit.ly/1qukhMv

Oliver – bit.ly/1urxvda

Rachael – bit.ly/1oVZonX

Sean – bit.ly/1oVZn3p

Tom – bit.ly/1rXFcHT

Yian – bit.ly/1ud1eHt

Thanks in advance 🙂

Miss Madigan and 5EM

Term 3 so far

Well, we have now finished Week 3 of Term 3 and I think it’s time for a quick recap of the term so far.

– First Fleet and convict settlement occurred in Australia in 1788, after the transportation of convicts to America stopped with the War of Independence in 1783.

– Hoop Time is fun for all kids, regardless of ability. The teachers and parents also enjoyed the day coaching and cheering.

– John Burland is great at creating interesting dance moves to go with his variety of engaging and catchy religious songs.

– The Little Mermaid is a better movie than originally thought by most of 5EM (not me, I knew it was awesome). Our concert songs now make more sense. And boy can we dance!

– Our Book Club homework hit a new level with much of 5EM completing tasks to a high standard.

Below is a snippet of photos from Term 3 so far. They show case each of the learning mentioned above except the concert, (as then it wouldn’t be a surprise!) and First Fleet (watch this space!)

Keep up the good work 5EM!

Love Miss Madigan 🙂

Got anything to say about our learning? Let us know!

HELP!

Hi everyone!

This term 5EM are learning about “What makes us Australian?” This is a history unit, focusing on everything from settlement to migration patterns, wars to the Stolen Generation, and Federation to today! But we need your help. Comment below with any important events (and its date) in Australia’s history or anything you think we need to focus our learning on.

Thank you!

Miss Madigan and 5EM 🙂

Fraction Party!

After weeks of learning about fractions, Miss Madigan surprised 5EM by bringing in some lollies to allow them to demonstrate their understanding of fractions. 5EMers each got a chocolate bar, packet of gummy bears, bag of chips and 2 snakes to ‘play’ with. Discussion and fractions thinking was rife, and it was good to see how much 5EM had learnt. After half hour or so of ‘torture’ (seeing lollies but not eating them) finally the food was eaten. Interesting how common fractions are and how easily they come into everyday life!

Had a fraction party? Used fractions as part of your everyday life? Let us know!

Basketball Clinic

On Tuesday June 10 we had a basketball clinic run for us at school by Wazza, a Melbourne United (aka Melbourne Tigers) basketball player. Our clinic was for all Grade 5’s and for 40 mins. He taught us skills, played games and did lots of fun drills. He was really tall and super friendly. Here are some photos of us 5EMers (and 5DD too) enjoying our clinic. Thank Wazza!

5EM 🙂

Scienceworks

On Friday May 16, Grade 5 and 6 went to Scienceworks to check out exhibits related to our inquiry topic of “What happens when nature goes wrong?” The kids were separated into 4 groups per class, each with a teacher or parent, to walk around and check out each exhibit at their own pace. The Grade 5’s were at a different exhibit to the 6’s each time. We visited:

• Think Ahead – futuristic exhibit eg. making your own car, climate change factors, change from old to new
• Math Amazing – making math fun eg. foam shapes that make a cube, untangling hands from rope, building things
• Sportsworks – sport exhibit eg. measuring height, testing running speed, 3D soccer goalie, practice handballing

After these exhibits, the two grade levels came together to enter the Planetarium. A planetarium is a room with a domed (curved inwards) roof and chairs that recline back. You watch the roof as projectors screen the sky and our solar system, moving around to see things up close, making you feel as if you are right there! Our planetarium show was called “Our Living Climate” and taught us about the change in Earth’s climate over its 4.5 billion-year life. We then saw the night sky and were taught about some constellations (star groups). This was judged the best part of our excursion by 5EM. We highly recommend everyone – teachers, children, adults – go and check out the planetarium!

This said, we had an amazing fun-filled day at Scienceworks. More than once it was asked “Do we really have to go home?”

Below is a gallery of photos of 5EM (and maybe some stray 5DD kids) excursion to Scienceworks.

Explored Scienceworks too? Been to a Planetarium? Tell us about it!

5EM 🙂

Whoa, is that a Chromebook?!

Upon our return from our excursion to Scienceworks last Friday (more to come on that later) we returned to the classroom to find things on our desks. They were Chromebooks! Some of us were speechless, some were screaming, some laughed like madmen and others were simply stunned. Just like the Grade 6’s at our school, we now had 1:1 Chromebooks in Grade 5. How lucky are we!

The appeal of these slim, lightweight Samsung devices is not only the portability of them, but they are powered by Google Chrome, the fastest, most powerful and versatile internet browser going around. A Chromebook allows you to almost instantaneously connect to the net after turning it on. Our school – especially our senior school – are avid Google Apps users, so these devices are even more of a gem. They provide easy access to Google Drive and other Google apps that help kids – and teachers – collaborate, learn and explore things together.

Jealous? Have your own Chromebook already? Let us know what you think about it.

5EM and Miss Madigan 🙂