Yr1 Weekly Update – 04/21/17
People’s choices can help or hurt the Earth.
Unit of Inquiry
This week we have started our new inquiry “Sharing the Planet”. To get the children thinking, we started the week with a provocation in the roof garden. On arriving at the garden, the students were met with a giant pile of rubbish that was all over the floor. They were truly horrified at the mess! We discussed possible reasons for the rubbish and how we could take action to reduce our waste in school. A main focus for this inquiry will be looking at the relationship between cause and effect. We will also be prompting the students to make choices about what resources they use, how they use them and dispose of them afterwards.
They will continue to identify different, common materials in their environment and will be investigating how their use can have both positive and negative impacts on the world around us.
On Saturday 22nd April it is EARTH DAY! The children will be talking about this in class. Talk to them about what small steps they could take at home to help the Earth.
NEXT WEEK: PLASTIC USED CARRIER BAG FOR MONDAY 24TH APRIL
Please provide your child with a USED plastic carrier bag. They must bring this into school on Monday for an activity that we will be carrying out in class. They will use the bag throughout the inquiry for a variety of different purposes.
Suggested activities: Look at how rubbish is disposed of wherever you go to identify ways rubbish is disposed of. Talk about concepts of waste and what is means to waste things, such as food, water, materials. Look at how much waste you make in a day and identify where most of that waste is coming from.
Questions: What is waste? Where does waste come from? What do we do with waste? What goes into the rubbish? Why is it rubbish? How is rubbish disposed of?
Literacy
We continue to explore phonics in class through a variety of games, direct instruction and reading.
The children are reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction books linked to our inquiry. This week we have read a story called “The Wartville Wizard” where a man gets very tired of always cleaning up the local town’s mess. He gains a magic power and uses this to show the town the error of their ways. Ask your child to tell you about the story and what the wizard did…
Maths
We are continuing to explore measurement this week. The children are developing their vocabulary and starting to use the correct terminology to explain what they are doing. We are looking at capacity, length and height, mass and time.
We are using non-standard units (cubes, lollypop sticks, our feet) to measure objects and will be discovering the problems that occur when people do not use a standard unit of measurement.
Suggested activities: Encourage your child to describe everyday objects in a measurement form, such as this feels heavy, this is tall, that is long, this can fit so much. Have your child make comparisons of size with a focus on the correct descriptive vocabulary. Longer/shorter, bigger/smaller, heavier/lighter, taller/shorter, more/less.
Questions: Can you describe the height of the chair? Can you describe the weight of the chair? Can you describe the size of the chair? Which is the longest/shortest? Can you compare the lengths?
Reminders
It has suddenly gotten a lot hotter in Hong Kong. Can you please ensure that your child brings their hat to school EVERY DAY! It is school policy that students wear a hat at both lunch and playtime. There are many children who are not at present bringing them. Hats can be purchased at the PTA office. Please write your child’s name and class on them (they are frequently lost and will be placed in the lost and found area on the ground floor).
It is also a good idea to put sunscreen and bug spray on your child before they come to school. They are not allowed to apply it themselves so should not bring it to school.
