Year 5 Newsletter
Term 1 - Friday 08th September 2017
Welcome to the Year 5 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the second edition of the Year 5 newsletter for 2017/18.
Well done to 5K for a fantastic assembly this week! Thank you to the parents for coming to watch and support them.
Thank you to all those who joined us for the 'Meet the Teacher' evening last Thursday. It was great to see so many new faces and we look forward to building strong home-school links with you this year.
For those who could not make it; please find the slide presentation on the Year 5 section of the VLE.
A reminder to check the up-to-date swimming schedule.
Gateway
If you haven't already done so this term, please login to Gateway as soon as possible
and follow the instructions to update and verify your family and child's information.
Please note that this data update / verification step is mandatory. You will not be able to use other Gateway functions - such as activity booking - until it has been completed.
We therefore recommend you complete this process as soon as possible. You can access Gateway at https://ks.tg.esf.edu.hk
If you need any help please contact the school's IT team at itsupport@kennedy.edu.hk
Unit of Inquiry
Our first unit this year is under the theme 'Who We Are'.
Central Idea: Understanding the connection between learning and behaviour enables us to develop a greater sense of well-being.
Lines of Inquiry: An inquiry into...
Function: An understanding of mindset (including behaviours and attitudes) can support the development of a healthy learning environment.
Reflection: Reflecting on ourselves can help develop self-awareness
Responsibility: I have an impact on my learning community.
Over the last few weeks, the students have engaged in some learning activities involving team work challenges in order to identify our character strengths. The students have also developed their skills as 'critical friends' to help each other improve their self-portraits.
5W Waterballoon drop
5W Teamwork challenge
5D Critical friend self-portriats
5D Explanation homework sharing
5K Character strengths game
5S Waterballoon drop
Maths
As this is the start of the year we will be focusing on and revisiting our core number skills, with a specific focus on place value. The learning objectives for this unit are:
- Apply place value to partition and rename numbers to tenths and hundredths.
- Recognise and order numbers to millions or beyond.
- Recognise, model and order decimal fractions to hundredths or beyond.
- Round decimal fractions to the nearest whole number.
Strand
We will also be working through data handling as part of our strand focus in this unit. Data handling is also embedded in our UOI and the children will be learning skills through the following objectives:
- Collect, organise and represent data (including bar, line graphs and pie charts) where one object or symbol can represent many data values.
- Interpret and draw conclusions from data using range, scale and mode on graphs.
Children can also support their learning in the classroom by completing the Mathletics activities online. Well done to all the children who have already collected awards for their participation so far!
5S Critical Friend self-portraits
5I - Teamwork challenge
5I - Critical Friend self-portraits
Year 5 Instrumental Music Lessons
English
This week we have used the explanations that the children brought in for homework to devise our own success criteria for what makes a good piece of explanation writing.
LEAP (Life Education Activity Programme)
Homework
In Year 5 we also have the following weekly expectations:
- Daily reading (20 minutes with a discussion around the text).
- Spelling practice x 3 each week (with 3 buddy tests at school).
- Regular use of Mathletics online programme.
International Day of Peace at Kennedy School - Friday 15th September
The International Day of Peace was established by the United Nations in 1981 and countries all over the world observe this day on September 21st each year. We will be observing our own Kennedy School “International Day of Peace” next Friday, 15th September. The UN theme for this year is “Together for Peace : Respect, Safety and Dignity for All”.
We would like all children to come dressed in clothing that reflects their country of origin, the country they identify with or a favourite country.
With over 40 nationalities represented at Kennedy School this is an opportunity for all of us to celebrate and visually represent the diversity that exists at our school. Encourage your child to dress and represent their chosen country as we recognise the importance of perspective, being open minded and diversity.
We would also like to use this day as an opportunity to raise much needed funds to donate to the Hong Kong Save the children fund to help support the recent flooding crisis in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. There are over 40 million people currently affected including over 1.8 million children unable to go to school and 18,000 schools badly damaged or destroyed.
If your child could bring in a small donation of $5, $10 or $20, this will enable us to have a real purpose and focus for our Kennedy School International Day of Peace.
Important Dates:
- 15th September - International Day of Peace
- 2nd October - 6th October - school closed - HALF TERM HOLIDAY
- 20th October - school closed - CPD Day
- 22nd October - ESF 50th anniversary 10Km
- 28th November - 1st December - Year 5 Camp (Sai Kung)