After only nine weeks into the year, students in Year 5A have already met several important targets. Taking on The Abyss and the Kraken at Adventure World were daunting challenges – but after facing fear in the face, many Year 5A students walked away feeling like we had just conquered the world!

Also during the Year 5 camp was a trip to SciTech and the planetarium. This tied in perfectly with our unit in Science. During class we had explored a number of important ideas about the earth’s rotation around the earth’s axis, its revolution around the sun and the concept of gravity. Several investigations were completed and models made during this interesting unit of Science.

Accelerated Reader also started off with a bang. In the five weeks since rolling out this reading programme, students in Year 5A have read 149 books – that amounts to a remarkable 2 130 132 words read so far!

Year 5A also won the inaugural Mathletics TOP CLASS competition accumulating a staggering 677650 Mathletics points in the six-week long competition. Along the competition road we struck several significant milestones in Mathletics. In Week 8, Year 5A were ranked the top participating classroom in Australia on two consecutive days and secured #30 on the World Ranking too!

We were also proud to have begun publishing persuasive texts on Classroom Notebook. Each student Notebook account provides an electronic platform which gathers notes, drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries. We hope to share more of our work with Mums and Dads on this online platform in Term 2.

Term 1 has been a wonderful way to start the year, and we are mindful of the many blessings God provides. Many biblical recounts remind us of the amazing God we serve, and although we often forget, or face times of feeling despondent, God cares and He provides. The way God has worked in the lives of these students so far is testimony of this.