ENGLISH

Overall Aims: The students are beginning to create more complex writing examples in all genres. Students in Year 5 also have an understanding that writing is purpose driven and as a result of this understanding are able to create specific pieces of writing for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Specific Learning Outcomes – the child will;

·            Confidently identify and incorporate different parts of speech.

·            Become confident ‘risk takers’ continually extending their vocabulary and the range of language tools they incorporate into their writing.

·            Become confident readers, presenters and audience members in a variety of formal and semi-formal situations.

·            Show a greater appreciation of poetry and prose including couplets, Haikus, Prose, Limericks, rhyme and rhythm.

·         Readily attempt to spell un-known words with increasing confidence and success.

·         Compose and write more complex stories incorporating a more descriptive language to engage the reader.

·         Strive to create greater meaning and persuasion through the selection of the most appropriate vocabulary and sentence structure.

Typical Activities

·            Weekly listening comprehension activity.

·            Weekly project work.

·            Monthly book reports.

·            Directed Reading / Independent Reading, [DR / IR].

·Structured & unstructured dialogue.

·News telling on a weekly basis.

·Class assemblies.

·Daily Silent Reading, DSR.

Formative assessment: Devising and grading daily homework, regular fluency tests, maintaining anecdotal records that comment on classroom participation and the compilation of regular writing tasks and conversation activities that promote an English Speaking Environment, [ESE].

Summative assessment: Weekly quizzes, mid-term test and an ‘End of Term’ examination.

MATHEMATICS

Overall Aims: The Mathematics curriculum is divided into four major aspects, these are, Numbers, Problem Solving, Organising and Using Data and Shape, Space and Measurement. The intention in Year 5 is to expand upon the basic numeracy skills developed in the preceding four years with special focus on developing an appreciation of mathematics and using mathematic tools to solve real life problems. In these upper primary years, students are also looking at more abstract concepts such as chance and data prediction.

Specific Learning Outcomes – the child will;

·            Show an understanding of the relationship between the four base operations and to be able to justify their selection of most appropriate for any given problem.

·            Be developing their own mental maths strategies and have a bank of known mathematical facts at their disposal.

·            Be developing a repertoire of skills and knowledge facts in order to be able to work mathematically to solve more complex mathematical problems.

·            Be able to record data from an event in a variety of forms including pictorially, symbolically and numerically and apply this to create Chance & Data predictions.

·             Able to deal with standard and non-standard units of measurement in a variety of contexts.

Typical Activities

·            Developing scientific calculator skills.

·            Creating and solving mathematical puzzles.

·            Hands-on activities requiring mathematical intervention.

·            Tackling mathematical stories such as treasure maps with standard and non-standard units of measure.

·            Using math skills to design communities representing roads, building and landforms using standard units of scale. [e.g. 1 cm = 1 m, 1:100 ratio].

·            Problem solving activities requiring multi equation operations using all 4 operations.

Formative assessment: Devising and grading daily homework, regular fluency tests, maintaining anecdotal records that comment on classroom participation and the completion of a mathematics project showing the inter-relationship of mathematical operations.

Summative assessment: Weekly quizzes, mid-term test and an ‘End of Term’ examination.

SCIENCE

Overall Aims: Further consolidation of Scientific Inquiry, Biology, Chemistry and rudimentary Physics. There will be revision of the theories of adaption and theories of evolution resulting in an individual project demonstrating adaption and the design of a ‘super-beast’ that is adaptive for multiple environs. [E.g. Look at the Australian Platypus] and a brief look at works of Charles Darwin.

Specific Learning Outcomes – the child will;

·            Use their understanding of the characteristic and differences between insects, mammals, birds and fish to make projections and predictions.

·            Appreciate the evolution of species and the continual battle for survival.

Typical Activities

·            Experiments.

·            Activity based worksheets.

·            Vocabulary & scientific word building.

·            Identification and classification activities.

·            Completion of a simple scientific project covering the hypothesis, investigation, procedure and result.

Formative assessment: Devising and grading daily homework, maintaining anecdotal records that comment on classroom participation and the completion of a science project examining Evolution, Environment and Survival.

Summative assessment: Weekly quizzes, mid-term test and an ‘End of Term’ examination.

ARTS

Overall Aim: Develop the children’s confidence in art and craft through the creation of a variety of art pieces including drawing, sculpture and modeling and painting. The children will also begin to appreciate the use of recycled and found materials being incorporated into their art works.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Continue to develop their own artistic style and also be able to work collaboratively in groups.

·         Develop more precise fine motor skills and an appreciation of basic safety rules when using different tools in the Art Room.

·         Show an understanding of a variety of techniques such as washes and blending of water colours, dry and wet acquarell in the creation of their pieces of work.

Typical Activities

·         Creating sculptures using found material.

·         Drawing and painting.

·         Creating gifts and cards for family members.

·         Display of completed projects.

·         Working with recycled products.

Formative Assessment: The children’s work is monitored on an ongoing basis with anecdotal records kept that reflect the child’s application, work habits, creativity, interpretation and use of materials.

Summative Assessment: ‘End of Term’ examination

HEALTH & PE

Overall Aim: Children are beginning to understand that within communities there are different groups and functions. Further, children are beginning to understand that they will join different groups and form relationships within these.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Participate in a variety of sporting activities and games.

·         Begin to understand the basic concepts of healthy living such as social and emotional health.

·         Understand the need for and attributes of a healthy diet.

·         Understand various body parts and their functions, such as kidneys, lungs and liver.

·         Gain an appreciation of the risks inherent with substance abuse such as alcohol and smoking.

Typical Activities

·         Playing a variety of games such as soccer, basketball and other games as may be introduced from time to time.

·         Health activities that look at concepts such as the body, my family, diets, friends, communities around the world.

·         Participation in social skills activities.

·         Participation in physical activities.

Formative Assessment: The children’s work is monitored on an ongoing basis with anecdotal records kept that reflect the child’s application, work habits, creativity, interpretation and use of materials.

Summative Assessment: ‘End of Term’ examination

HUMANITIES

Overall Aim: Children are beginning to discuss continents and countries of the world and their main attributes and features including language, flora and fauna, cultural diversity, government and trading partners.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Be able to identify major countries and comment about general features.

·         Understand that different flora and fauna are present in different environments and countries according to needs and climate.

Typical Activities

·         Look at simple maps and learn about key features.

·         Look at differences and similarities between countries and regions such as the Kimberley region of Australia and the Kimberley region in Africa. Both have Boabab trees, diamonds and similar geophysical structures.

·         Map different resource areas of the world.

Formative Assessment: The children’s work is monitored on an ongoing basis with anecdotal records kept that reflect the child’s application, work habits, creativity, interpretation and use of materials.

Summative Assessment: ‘End of Term’ examination

COMPUTER STUDIES

Overall Aim: Apart from greater use of age-appropriate software, the children are beginning to use computers for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Be adept at using the Internet to research ideas and topics.

·         Can proof and edit own work using software applications such as spell check, grammar checking, inserting tables and graphs and decorating their work with things like clip art and photoshop.

·         Begin to use more complex attributes of software packages such as clip art to enhance their written work.

Typical Activities

·         Work in the computer lab creating individual and partner work samples utilizing a variety of simple software applications.