Year 1 Update – Wk 14
Junk modelling in the shared area This week in the shared area we have noticed that many children have been busy making models out of cardboard boxes, bits of fabric, plastic bottles and other collage materials. Children have put thought and effort into their models so if your child brings home a model please ask them to tell you about what they have made and how they made their model.
How the World Works This week Mr Thompson worked with the year one children. He looked at the concept of light to support the children’s understanding of the cycle of day and night. The children performed an experiment looking at which materials let light through. Children learnt about opaque, translucent and transparent.
Reading Assessments continue During our guided reading sessions with the children we have noticed that many of our children have made some progress with their reading. Over the next couple of weeks we hope to assess the children in our classes to determine if they are able to borrow books for home reading from a different colour. Please remember that some children may stay on a level for a few months or more and that the books that go home for home reading are for practising the reading that has been taught in class. Home reading sessions at home should take about 15-20 mins. Your child needs to read to you, retell the story to you and then answer some questions that you have asked them. There are examples of questions in the front of the home reading journal.
Central Idea: Within a community there are different roles and responsibilities
This week the children continued to work on their student led inquiry. They used books, an app and some fact cards to find information about the person in the community that they have chosen. Children also wrote and drew pictures to recount our trip to Peng Chau.
Next week children will make a poster about the person in the community that they chose to find out more about. They will use the information that they have collected over the past two weeks. During our U.O.I rotations children will be given opportunities to act out roles in the community and discuss their responsibilities.
How the World Works (our year long unit of inquiry)
Central Idea: The Earth’s changes affect the activity of living things
Next week for our year long unit, the children will look in detail at the weather chart that we have been making. We will have discussions about what our results mean, how looking at the sky can hep us to predict weather and look at any patterns that we noticed.
In English children continued to work on their non-fiction booklet. Ask your child what they are making their booklet about. We certainly do have some interesting topics!
Next week children will continue to work on their non-fiction booklet. Learning about how to write non-fiction helps children to learn that non-fiction writing is ‘writing to teach’. When children are making pages for their booklet they will be thinking about what they can teach someone. During reading we will be focusing on making connections as we read texts both fiction and non-fiction. Children will be encouraged to make ‘text to self’ connections. We will be modelling and supporting the children to make ‘text to text’ and ‘text to world connections’
Phonics
Next week we will begin our unit three phonemes, these are:
V, W, Y, Z, J, N, K, E
Camera Words: all, is, me, no, they, said
At school, as part of our language rotations all the children read to an adult at least once a week, usually twice.
Golden Book
1F- Viaan Jain
1L- Aidan Kwan
1W- Angus Wu
Congratulations to our Golden Book winners on Monday 22nd November 2016
Letters to Santa This week don’t forget to post a letter to ‘Santa Claus Hong Kong’. He writes back to everyone before Christmas! Letters needs to be sent early to avoid disappointment. This is a very exciting activity for our children to do as it is a real life experience and a chance for children to practise what we have been learning at school. Don’t forget to include your address on the back of the envelope so that Santa can write back!
