grade 1 and 2 november newsletter (1)
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Grade 1 and 2 Newsletter November, 2013
PYP News!
Developing critical thinking skillsLifelong learning has long been a part ofthe IB PYP. As educators we encourageeach of our students to develop criticalthinking skills, and question what theywant to learn, as opposed to what theteacher wants them to learn. Somechildren find thinking critically about theirown learning a challenge, but if at home,and school, we follow some simple stepsto help us assist with developing andrefining these skills, students will be ableto think critically about their own learningand as a result feel more successful intheir own learning.
Stop and ask yourself, what do Ireally think?
Ask someone else for their ideaand listen to it
Understand what it is you needto do
Think again of alternatives, thinkof positives, negatives, feelingsand the bigger picture.
Change your mind Finally, know yourself and be
confident in what you believeIf you would like some literature tosupport this, please do not hesitate to askme.Miss Lisa Hughes Grade 5 teacher andPYP Coordinator
UNIT 2: Who We AreCentral idea: Relationships are enhanced by learning about other people’sperspectives and communicating our own.Lines of inquiry:An inquiry into: Social interactions and relationships How people communicate perspective Actions and interactions that enhance relationshipsSummative Assessment Task: A portfolio of tools and strategies collected bystudents that show how they can interact with others in positive ways.
LANGUAGESWriting: Students will continue to use the writing process to explore narrativewriting as a way of expressing themselves.Reading: Students will continue using reading strategies of chunking, creatingimages, connecting, predicting, skimming, comparing and synthesising tosupport their reading. Students will be guided to focus on making connectionswith book characters as a way to understand relationships and interactions, andas a means of sharing perspective about other’s lives and experiences. ReadingEggs is a great online reading resource for parents to use at home to encourageand support reading in these areas as well.Speaking and listening: This unit of inquiry encourages students to putattributes of the learner profile into practice whilst developing positive forms ofcommunication especially during conflict resolution, communicating ideas forproblem solving and expressing perspectives.
ELS: Using Big Books, group reading, guided reading, oneonone reading, thestudents are exploring the lines of inquiry of their unit. This is an opportunity forthem to practise reading strategies and skills, as well as to write their ownstories. Sue Fleming and Michael Ham
MATHSCentral idea: Numbers can be organised and constructed to represent differentinformation.This inquiry continues on from unit 1 where students show their understanding,knowledge and skills of how pattern, operation and placevalue are connected.This inquiry will include the organisation and construction of number as well aschanges that happen to numbers and their values.The IXL website (www.ixl.com) is a good online resource for parents to supporttheir children at home with these areas of maths.
Unit 2
THE ARTSIn this unit Grade 2 and 1 students willembark on a journey around ourmusical world. They will inquire intohow music is enjoyed by childreneverywhere and discover that musicfrom other countries is similar in manyways to their own music. The studentswill sing songs about friendship; learnto greet in different languages; playinstruments to echo rhythms anddescribe music by moving to it.
PSPEGrade 2 students are looking atinvasion games this quarter. Theywill learn what invasion games areand what you need to be successful.They will learn skills required forfootball, basketball and tag rugbyGrade 1 will learn basic hand/eyeco ordination skills. They will learn tomove with the ball, throw at targets(moving and stationary), receive theball from various heights bothcatching and rolling.
VIETNAMESEStudents learn about vocabulary andactions to keep good relationships(family, friendship etc) in Vietnameselanguage. Students show theirunderstandings by making their ownVietnamese stories.
Key Dates November 15th (Friday): International Day November 18th (Monday): Early Finish, 11.40am, Three Way
Conferences November 25th (Monday): Regular finish, Three Way Conferences Week starting December 9th: Book week Dec 12th (Thursday): Book week assembly, followed by Bookworm book
sale December 13th (Friday): Last day of semester, school finishes at 11am.
Assemblies:Assemblies take place on most Friday mornings at 8am in the auditorium. Youare welcome to any of the assemblies.8th November hosted by Ms Pushpa’s class22nd November hosted by Ms Carla’s class29th November hosted by Ms Georgie’s class
Mr Warren’s comment:We would like to extend a warm welcome to Yun and Thai who have entered Grade1G.As you can see on the Key Dates above, we have Three Way Conferences coming uptowards the end of November. This is an opportunity for you, your child and theteacher to meet together to discuss progress and for you to set goals for your child forthis school year. It is also an opportunity for you to visit the classroom and seeevidence of the learning that is taking place in classes.I would like to congratulate Ms Carla Holmes who recently attended training to be aPYP Workshop Leader. This training took a whole week of intensive learningsituations, and Carla has her first workshop coming up at the end of November.I would like to remind parents that you are welcome to visit the school at any time. Wehave elementary assemblies most Friday mornings at 8am and all parents arewelcome to these.
Student ReflectionsFrom Grade 1: During our previous unit we listened to a story called 'Zoobots' withoutlooking at the pictures in the book. Later we imagined what one of the new charactersfrom the story might look like and tried to invent it. We learned people can expressthemselves in many different ways, and that everyone may have a differentperspective. This unit of inquiry sees an extension of this story as we use it as abasis for creative narrative writing. The Grade 1s said they loved this book becausethe characters were made from junk and they got to bring in their own recycledmaterials to create their own characters.Grade 2 have developed a series of survey questions and have been off interviewingpeople in the school, to gather ideas. Some student questions that Grade 2 havedeveloped and are investigating are:How do we make better relationships?What are other people’s feelings and experiences?How do I share my own feelings and experiences?
Hanoi International School enables all students to realise their full potential in a caring andpositive learning environment. Through our broad and balanced international curriculum, weendeavour to develop responsible, globally conscious citizens. We strive to develop the wholechild as a life long learner with a strong sense of self worth.
Unit 2