11 Mar 2019

Year 2 Update Week 25

Monday 25th – Green Book Week. The children will come to school dressed as a book character on Tuesday 26th March.

Transport trip – 2K – Monday 25th March, 2D- 27th March, 2F – Thursday 28th March. (see e-notice)

Friday 29th March – PTA International Food Fair

Thursday 4th April – ESF Choral Concert

Friday 5th April – Ching Ming Festival.….no school

Wednesday 10th April – Easter Concert

Friday 12 April – Last day of school before Easter holidays, 12 pm finish

Coming soon- BHS GREEN BOOK WEEK!
Starting on the 25th March the children at BHS will be able to share their love of reading and caring for the planet even more during our Green Book Week. Here are some of the ways your child can be involved:
Dress up Day
On Tuesday 26th March the children and staff will dress up as book characters for the day.  There can be a green, environmental link to the costume, it can be made of recycled materials or it can simply be your child’s favourite book character.  Prizes will be given in each class for the most creative costumes.  
Get Caught Reading in Nature Competition
The children can enter this competition by sending a photo of themselves reading in the great outdoors.  There will be prizes for creative and fun ideas.  All entries are to be sent to Ms Jeves at emily.jeves@bhs.edu.hk All entries need to be emailed by 1st April.  Please include the child’s name and class in the email subject header. 
Art competition
Mr Hoskins and the Eco Squad have launched an exciting competition that all children can get involved in to draw or paint native Hong Kong wildlife.  All entries are due in 29th March.  The top two entries will be displayed in the school’s butterfly garden. 
More details about other events are available in this week’s newsletter. 
 

Five ways to Wellbeing Logo Competition

Please see this important message from the Student Council.

This week we have launched our Student Council logo competition for the 5 Ways to Well Being.  You are challenged to design a logo for one of the 5 ways. Click here to see our google slides that have all the information.
Please have all your designs given to Mr. Thompson by Friday 22nd March.
Have fun!
Book Drive

Brody, Ryan and Muchan in Year 6 are organising a Book Drive to help spread our love of reading.  The Sony Corporation will collect books to create mobile libraries in South Africa for schools that do not have enough books for children to read.  If you have books that are:

Please send them to school.  There is a collection box in the school foyer. Any books you can donate will help spread the enjoyment of reading.

Action in the PYP at BHS

It has been great celebrating the talents and achievements of our students through the ’Student Achievement’ section in the newsletter.  We would like to do something similar with Student Action. Action in the PYP is when students are inspired through their learning and their experiences to make a difference to their lives or the community connected to real life issues and opportunities.  We would like to celebrate our students taking action outside of school.

Please could you email examples to kannis.tsui@bhs.edu.hk and they will be shared through our newsletter.  

There are different types of Action.  We would like to start with a focus on Participation.  See below for a definition and examples.

Type of Action Examples
Participation

Being actively involved in their learning and contributing as an individual or a group

Getting involved with community projects

Making appropriate choices and taking responsibility to help people

Taking on different roles e.g. being a leader, completing my chores, working in a group, looking after my pet

Taking part in any decision making process

Joining a new club

School Uniform
Please ensure your child has a hat every day. As with Sports Day, the day can start out cloudy, but then brighten up and the children can get catch the sun easily.
Timetable
PE Kit Library Bags
2D Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday
2F Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Thursday
2K Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Wednesday

Year 5 Big Business Market

The children browsed the big market stalls on Thursday. This gave them a good idea of the cost of items and what was available. Today they thoroughly enjoyed supporting the Year 5 students by buying the products they had worked so hard to plan and make.

Unit of Inquiry

This week the children completed a summative assessment to show their understanding of materials. 2D finished their Art work by creating animal collages using different materials.

Maths

They Year 2 students have related division to sharing into equal groups. They’ve enjoyed using hands-on materials to gain a better understanding of this operation. The children have also independently completed some multiplication and division problems. They had to read through the questions carefully to see which operation to use.

English

The children have been continuing to write and edit their own version of “The Three Little Pigs”. Expect to read about houses built of ice being melted by flame throwers, and other exciting variations!

Fun Friends 

The Year 2 classes are currently completing their FEELINGS sessions. The important messages from these initial sessions are that all feelings are ok and how we feel can influence our behaviour choices. It is also important to practise being brave. 

We are now moving on to “R” for RELAX. Please use the username and password in your child’s Home School Diary to log into the Fun Friends online programme to see how you can support this social emotional learning at home.

Central idea:Communities create systems to meet the needs of people.

Lines of in inquiry:

  • Features of transportation systems (form)
  • How the different part parts of a transportation system work (function)
  • The needs that different transport systems meet (connection)

An eNotice has been sent about two trips the children will go on. We will need lots of parent helpers for the first trip. Please sign up if you can. It will be a fun day out and a good way to help and find out what they children are learning about in this unit of inquiry.

The children will looking into what makes a community. Perhaps you can talk to your child about communities you they are part of (eg. Scouts, church, sports). Please send in a photo if you can.

The children will also look into what a system is, how they work and what happens if a part is missing.

Central Idea: Measurement involves comparing, ordering and sequencing objects and events.

Lines of inquiry:

  • Ways different objects can be measured
  • Different informal measuring tools for comparing
  • Ways different objects can be measured using formal units
  • Choosing the appropriate tool to measure

Over the next three weeks, the children will be inquiring into capacity, mass and length. They will be thinking about non-standard and standard units of measure, estimating and measuring accurately.

All of the Year 2 classes have also spent some time on the Daily 10. This is a useful way to check and support your child’s mental maths skills. Different levels can be set. Please see the link below: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/daily10

Hit the Button is another fun game that practises a range of different mental maths, including multiplication facts. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

Writing focus: Writing to entertain

The children will complete their stories about the Three Little animals and illustrate the stories. 

The children will also be using inference to enhance their understanding when reading.

Well done to:
2K – Brandon Fong

2D – Jacob Fung

2F – Storm Lau & Alvin Lam

Mandarin – Sophie Deng (2K)

 

homelearning
 
Spelling
The children will need to learn the second list of spellings.
In our class handwriting lessons, we have begun to introduce the children to cursive handwriting. Correct letter formation is very important. Please encourage this at home. 
Home Reading
Please read at home with your child each day and sign their Reading Journal. Please encourage your child to write the date and title in their Reading Journal, including for Big Universe.
In Big Universe, select ‘Library’. On the right-hand side you will be able to select the ‘grade’ for your child. The appropriate grade selection is kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade. This covers the age group of our children at BHS.
Mandarin – All children are encouraged to take a reading book home on the days when they have Mandarin lessons.

Games and Activities to Develop Vocabulary

We have noticed that many of our Year 2 children would benefit from developing a broader vocabulary. With this in mind, we would like to recommend some games you can easily play at home, or on the move that will give your child the opportunity to develop their awareness and language skills.

  • I Spy With My Little Eye

Benefits: vocabulary development, phonics and spelling awareness, observation skills and focus

Equipment: None

Number of players: Unlimited

Location: Anywhere!

Say, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with …” Start playing the game using objects in the room you can see. Begin with obvious items and over time move to more discreet objects. You can vary the game by using the initial sounds (phonics), or letters (spelling) or even colours or numbers. You can increase the challenge level by saying, “I spy with my little eye, something that ends in …” 

  • Word Association Game

Benefits: vocabulary development, fluency, memory and recall

Equipment: None

Number of players: Pairs are good, but more players possible if everyone takes turns

Location: Anywhere!

The first player, chosen randomly, says one word out loud. The other player has to quickly say a word that has some connection with the previous word. Players lose if …

  1. They take more than three seconds to make a connection.
  2. They repeat a word that has already been said in this game.
  3. They are challenged and loses the vote.

The last player standing is the winner.

For example, one sequence of words might be:

– Bus

– Stop

– Go

– Green

– Grass

– Garden

– Flower

Other well-known games we would recommend include Pictionary and Charades.