Grade 5/6 Newsletter

What a fantastic day we had at Cross Country! With the sun shining, it was wonderful to see students encouraging one another, demonstrating teamwork, stepping outside their comfort zones and, most importantly having fun! These are the moments that remind us of what makes our Badger Creek community so special.

In Exploring Texts, we have wrapped up our novel study of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. After reading the novel, students watched the film and explored how the story’s important messages about kindness, empathy and acceptance were brought to life on screen. To conclude the unit, students wrote thoughtful letters to Auggie, the main character, reflecting on what they had learnt about kindness throughout the story. Students then put their persuasive writing skills into action, responding to the question, “Why should our Badger Creek Community show kindness?” This encouraged students to reflect on the importance of kindness and the positive impact our words and actions can have on others.

“I found Wonder really interesting and respectful about people who have a disability and how you should treat them kindly” – Dana

“I knew already to include everyone but it kind of strengthened my thoughts of needing to include everyone.” – Reece

In Mathematics, we have begun exploring probability and chance! We have been learning how to represent probabilities as fractions, decimals and percentages, as well as placing them on a probability scale from 0 to 1. Students have also been investigating chance through hands-on experiments involving coloured counters, coin tosses, dice rolls and spinners. Through these activities, students have been making predictions, recording results and comparing theoretical probabilities with experimental outcomes. We have enjoyed exploring how chance works and discovering why our actual results don’t always match what we predict!

In Inquiry, we have continued working on our exciting Shark Tank projects, focusing on enrichment opportunities for the echidnas at Healesville Sanctuary. Students have selected their groups and begun brainstorming creative ideas to support the echidnas’ wellbeing and encourage their natural behaviours. On Thursday, we visited Healesville Sanctuary, where students had the opportunity to ask questions, gather information and further develop their understanding of echidnas to help inspire their projects. We can’t wait to see the wonderful ideas our students come up with!

As we approach the final weeks of the school year, we encourage all students to continue demonstrating our school values of Be Safe, Be Kind and Be a Learner. We have had such a fantastic year together, and we look forward to finishing it on a positive note, showing the same kindness, respect and encouragement that we saw throughout Cross Country!