Adventures with Miss B

Our focus strategy at the moment is learning to form a synthesis. 

Synthesising is one of the hardest comprehension skills because to do it you need to ask

questions, infer, make connections, use your background knowledge and summarise!  

Phew!

Our reading groups tasks this week is to form a synthesis on our much-loved book

“Poppy Comes Home”.

Use the planning page to help you fill out the Story cube at Cube Creator.

This term we have been looking at Information Reports. We have discovered that information reports feature

facts grouped together into categories. 

Information reports feature a lot of technical language. Technical language is words and phrases specific to

the topic that are not used very often in everyday conversation. 

This week in reading groups we will be reading a text at studyladder.com.au called ‘How Do Plants and

Animals Survive in the Desert’. Let’s see if this information report has lots of technical language or just topic

language. 

Click the image below to visit www.studyladder.com.au and click on your set tasks to see this report. 

This term we are working on artworks inspired by the countries of

Asia. Our first artwork was of a koi fish.

The word koi comes from Japanese, simply meaning “carp”. It includes

both the dull grey fish and the brightly coloured varieties.

In Japanese, koi is another word that means “affection” or “love”, so

koi fish are thus symbols of love and friendship in Japan, often

given as gifts or included in artworks and tattoos. 

We got the idea for these artworks from this teacher’s art lessons blog. Thanks! 

This week we are looking at how animals adapt in the desert. We will be doing an experiment and also reading some facts about these desert survivors.  

When we read factual texts our brains are constantly coding what is important, what is interesting and what is not relevant. 

To work out what it is important, or to find the main idea, we have to be looking for the facts and information we think is the most important to tell someone else who has not studied that topic.

If you could tell them ONLY three things about what you have read – what would it be?

Sometimes, the text we read shows us the most important facts by putting them in boxes or by making the font bold, italic or underlined.

This page is a perfect example of that. 

 Other pages might make different words and phrases stand out, but they might no necessarily be the most important fact.

In reading groups this week 5/6J, See if you can sort out what is important and what is interesting on these pages:

Start here and find the three most important facts to record on your T chart, along with 3 things that are just interesting. 

If you have time click here, here and here, recording your 3 important and 3 interesting facts each time. 

This fortnight we are learning to

determine the most important

details and events in the texts that we read. 

DETERMINING IMPORTANCE is also referred to as FINDING THE MAIN IDEA.

Click here to practice this skill! 

Still have time? Here’s something that explains it – especially for Factual Texts.

Thanks Tim and Moby!

You may have time to do the quiz and activities too. 

For our Year 5 friends, NAPLAN is happening next week. For our Year 6 friends, you have one more year before your next test.

One of the tests that is part of NAPLAN is the Language Conventions Text. This covers spelling, grammar and punctuation.

For 5/6J members, your READING GROUP set tasks this week  are to complete some Language Conventions practise questions from the studyladder website.

For home use, you can do more practise at the official NAPLAN website, or the Smeebu site too. 

There are 7 practise tests assigned to you over at the studyladder website.

See Miss B if you have forgotten your username or password.

For our last artwork in Term One, we created these ghost gum artworks using chalk pastels. Miss B (who loves using these for her artworks) showed us the different ways to smudge and blend the chalk pastels.

They look great!

We raised money for Stewart House by wearing mufti and crazy hair and by bringing in a gold coin donation. It was the same day as the Easter Hat Parade for K-2 so there was some crazy, Easter-themed hair!

Last week you wrote a comment arguing about these topics:

Ballet is better than Football

School Canteens Should Be Open After School

Energy Drinks Should Be Banned

This week you are going to BUILD YOUR KEY VOCABULARY on one of those topics.

In your reading journal, write your topic as the heading. Underneath that you are going to have two columns,

Column A: List the key words and phrases that you read today on your topic.

Column B: List any new vocabulary that you learn today and find the meaning in a dictionary

When you click the link you will see there are 3 websites for each topic. Start with one and see how many you get through.

Here’s the link to the links!

Last week we tested a range of solids.

We tested the following properties:

Elasticity: Can the solid be stretched?

Malleability: Can the solid be manipulated into different shapes?

Brittleness: Is the solid hard, but will break or crumble easily?

Hardness: Can you scratch the surface of the solid?

We also tested the strength of the solid.Tensile strength means the

solid can withstand being pulled from end to end and Compressive

strength means the solid can withstand being squashed.

The solids we tested were a bar of soap, steel wool, corn flour, playdough, chalk, elastic bands and marbles.