What’s happening in Year 6

Energy

This term, 6A students have been exploring energy in their Science lessons. Students have learnt that energy is everywhere, different types of energy do different things and energy can be transferred and transformed, from one form to another. The students have been experimenting with the design, testing and evaluating of a product or system that demonstrates energy transformation, further developing an understanding of the interrelationship between force and energy.

This week the girls in 6A focused on energy storage and transformation by conducting a catapult experiment. In small groups, the girls built their own catapult using everyday materials such as chopsticks, paddlepop sticks, plastic straws, a small plastic container, elastic bands and masking tape. The challenge was to then experiment with how to use playdough, play around with the sizes of playdough and how to use their catapult machine to ‘catapult’  their playdough to the furthest distance. It was a lot of fun, as well as being a fantastic opportunity for the girls to be creative, problem solve and explore elastic energy.

Tiffany Anderson
Year 6 teacher

English

This term in English, Year 6 has been focusing on perspective, context, and authorial choices through our text Worse Things. This free verse poetry book by Sally Murphy is about ‘connections, the ways they are made, and what happens when they are lost or elusive.’

In recent weeks, we have been learning how to create a free verse poem, specifically a ‘definition poem,’ a term coined by Sally Murphy herself. As a class, we identified key words and themes explored at different points in the book. Students then had the opportunity to create their own definition poems by looking through dictionaries and thesauruses, exploring definitions, similes, and synonyms related to their chosen theme.

Through their own authorial choices, students played with words and phrases until they had a poem that both defined the word and connected with the text. They added drawings and symbols to enhance the effect on the reader, creating their very own multimodal definition poem!

Sian Tierney
Year 6 Teacher

Class Vegetable Election  

6MD have been inquiring into Australia as a Nation, focusing on Federation and the electoral process of electing representatives to the Federal Parliament.

The class ran an election whereby eight parties were formed, each representing a vegetable. The parties of Capsicum, Carrot, Avocado, Pea, Lettuce, Potato, Cauliflower and Corn prepared and delivered a campaign to the other parties, as well as a Year 5 class.

Officials ran the voting process, using the system of preferential voting. Once the votes were counted, parties eliminated and votes reallocated, the Pea party was declared the winner with a majority 58% of all votes.

Running an actual election provided an insight into the process and the importance of the democratic right of everyone to have a say.

Eamonn Dunphy & Marisa Maks
Year 6 Teachers