Year 6 Curriculum Overview
Crestwood Public School Term 1 2021
Overview of Teaching & Learning
Programming is the process of selecting and sequencing learning experiences which enable students to engage with syllabus outcomes and develop subject specific skills and knowledge. The process of programming is typically shared and offers an opportunity for collaboration, professional reflection and evaluation.
Programs:
- reflect the needs, interests and abilities of students
- are based on syllabus outcomes and include a variety of teaching, learning and embedded assessment activities, strategies and resources to address the learning needs of all students
- are flexible and dynamic documents that change in response to student learning needs, school context, teacher evaluation and feedback
English
- Students continue to work on their reading fluency while using the decoding strategies of predicting, monitoring and questioning. They locate information in texts both literally and inferentially. They are able to summarise this information and discern between fact and opinion.
- They revise all grammar knowledge gained K-5 including technical nouns, noun groups, classifying and modal adjectives, complex verbs, verb groups, adverbs, relative pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions.
- Students explore the prefixes co-; con-; com-; ac-; ad-; re-; sub-; under-; and over-
- They participate in the viewing, creating and presentation of TED talks, actively developing criteria for their own spoken texts.
- Students prepare presentations on ethical issues and fables. They also prepare a formal speech on an Asian country focussing on such techniques as engaging content and eye contact.
- They engage regularly with student news service Behind the News (BTN) developing listening, note-taking and summarising skills.
Mathematics
- Students undertake mathematical investigations and select appropriate problem-solving strategies. They use mathematical language and give valid reasons when comparing and selecting from possible solutions, making connections with their existing knowledge and understanding.
- They select and apply appropriate mental, written or calculator strategies for the addition, subtraction and multiplication and check the reasonableness of answers using estimation.
- Students connect fractions, decimals and percentages as different representations of the same value. Students compare, order and perform calculations with simple fractions, decimals and percentages.
Science & Technology
In 2021, each class will rotate through four Science topics, commencing a new one each term. The topics are:
Living World
Students will explore sustainability with a specific focus on food. They will design and construct a mini greenhouse from recycled materials to grow and germinate a vegetable or herb. Students will investigate the concept of sustainable designs, what plants need to grow and photosynthesis.
Digital Technologies
There are many ways in which digital systems interact with each other to transmit data. The students will explore this concept by investigating binary coding and taking part in other computer coding. Using the program, Tinkercad, they will complete a design task that involves critical thinking and problem solving. Students will then have the opportunity to print their design using the 3D printer.
Forces
Students will describe and explore specific forces such as applied force, friction, air resistance and gravity. They will engage in hands on experiences and perform scientific investigations to explore each force. There will be a design and make task on decreasing the strength of air resistance on a falling object.
Electricity
Through investigating a range of everyday products, students will identify and observe examples where light, sound, heat and electrical energy transform from one type of energy to another. Using the Makey Makeys, students will design, test and evaluate a product that involves an energy transformation to meet an identified need.
HSIE (Geography)
- Students will locate and identify Asian countries and regions. They will explore an Indigenous tribe studying its customs, beliefs and culture using TEEL paragraphs to show understanding. In groups, students will investigate a particular country from Asia and create a presentation for their class. Students will compare different Asian countries, reflecting on the similarities and differences.
Creative Arts
- Students will get the opportunity to appreciate and understand the ideas that artists are trying to convey throughout street art. Students will explore freedom of expression vs. crime and punishment. Students will study the street artist 'Banksy' and design their own tags conveying their own meaning.
- In music with Mrs French, students will be revising the School Song and the National Anthem as well as investigating the concepts of rhythm, beat and pitch.
Personal Development, Health, Physical Education
Students will identify how they can be a positive influence and build respectful relationships. Students will explore the influence of people and places on identity and develop skills in establishing and managing relationships. Students will reflect on their own character strengths and what has influenced and shaped their own identity. As part of this unit, students will explore the following Key Inquiry Questions:
How does my uniqueness change over time?
How can I manage transitions and challenges?
How do empathy, inclusion and respect have an impact on myself and others?
Students are expected to participate in 150 minutes of physical activity each week.
(Be Skilled Be Fit) BSBF teaches students for 60 minutes on Tuesdays and classroom teachers include 90 minutes throughout the rest of the week. In Term 1 the focus will be to adapt known skills in a variety of physical activity contexts. Students will also select and use interpersonal skills to interact respectfully with others to promote inclusion and build connections.
Library
This term the library program will firstly focus on establishing routines and reinforcing the skills needed to be an effective library user. Students will explore different genres of reading material through participation in a “Starbooks Café” book tasting session to encourage a culture of reading for pleasure. Good borrowing habits will be established along with the ability to search for and reserve books using Oliver library. They will revisit the Premier’s Reading Challenge website and will be encouraged to complete this in 2021. Students will then be engaging in a unit of work on Biographies. This complements the class writing unit on informative texts and promotes reading and engaging with a series of books.