9 Feb 2018

Yr2 Curriculum Update – 09/02/18

Working together to achieve success for every child

 

 

Dear parents,

What an unusual situation we find ourselves in!

Below you will find learning options for your child for the next week. We are aware that there will be a wide range of home situations for our students, some will have access to technology, play equipment, the kitchen and adult help and others will not have this access or support. We are also aware some families have taken advantage of the closure to extend their Chinese New Year holiday. Considering these variables we have created a range of learning experiences your child can choose from which provide opportunity for reading, writing, maths hands on challenges, continuation of units of inquiry together with physical activity. Please support your child to take up the challenges and continue with their learning during this closure.

Please also reassure your child we will be continuing with book week activities (28 Feb and 1 March) and our Chinese New Year celebrations (2 March). As previously advise you can contact  your child’s teacher by email if you have specific questions.

We do hope you and your children stay well and that you can make the most of this break from formal schooling.

In this curriculum update please find some home learning tasks linked to our current unit of inquiry that you may wish to do with your child at home. These tasks are optional and you are not required to formally submit these finished tasks back to school. The tasks planned by Year 2 teachers are practical and hands-on and they should not take more than 10 -15 minutes of your time to complete. Should you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to email the class teacher from 8:00am-4:00pm.

 

Option 1: Online learning- SPLAT Login required

  • Look in the diary to find the username and password for SPLAT.
  • Login to SPLAT page using the password and username using this link https://splat.kjs.edu.hk/course/view.php?id=3
  • Go to the Year 2 Page to use Blendspace or Maths and Literacy Links.
  • Go to Learning Toolbox to access different apps and programs that your child is familiar with, such as Big Universe, Pebble Go etc.

  Music homework – included on Splat page

 

 

 

Option 2: Things you can do at home with your child

  • Measure 3 objects at home e.g., your toys, family members, school bag etc.
  • You can use different tools to measure the objects, such as string, blocks, hands, paper clips etc.
  • Compare the results using the vocabulary associated with measurement.

 

Option 3: Things to do with your child outside    

Wherever you go next week, lookout for forces (pushes and pulls) being used. Please encourage them to use interesting words that describe push and pulls. For example- slide, stretch, bounce etc. Feel free to take photographs or draw pictures of what you discover and bring them back to school to share with the class.

 

Chinese Homework

What are you learning in your Chinese class? Please review your learning 🙂

Do you know the Chinese zodiac story?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrKQmI4vSwA (English)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCYcL_BQn-4 (Pictographic characters)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbL8hSVG_cs (Chinese)

Can you remember the sequence of the animals that came in the race? Which is your favourite animal and why?

Do you remember the Gongxi Gongxi song?  Practice it here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_IS5BycMzE

 

Transdisciplinary Learning – It’s all connected!

Forces affect objects around us.

Unit of Inquiry

Students continued to explore the forces using visible thinking routines. We used think, puzzle and explore routine to reveal students’ current understanding and their questions. This week we read a book called ‘Mad Margaret Experiments With the Scientific Method’ to learn about how scientists study and learn things. Through this book we learned that scientists use the scientific method to help them solve problems and investigate their wonderings in a systematic way. Students have begun to conduct various investigations using this method.

This is how scientists inquire- the first thing they do with the scientific method is to come up with a question. Next scientists observe and gather information in order to come up with a smart guess called a hypothesis. After that they conduct a fair test to see if their guess is right. A key to good experiment is to only change one thing, or variable, at a time. This way scientists can check their results with accuracy.  The last step is to draw conclusions and share the results.

Some classes used ramps and different surfaces to test which surface has more friction than the other. Other classes applied their understanding of motion and inquired into verbs associated with movement.

We have been using the Nelson Program to help us with our handwriting. This week some classes analysed their handwriting and set targets to improve. Other classes worked on understanding how to write an explanation text.

We also continued to secure our understanding of different reading comprehension strategies and worked on developing the necessary metacognitive awareness of how and when to use these strategies during our Guided Reading sessions.

In measurement, children co-constructed the criteria on how to use non-standard units for measuring length. Students applied their new learning whilst conducting the ramp investigations, where they measured the distance travelled by the car. In number maintenance, students continued working on word problems and reflected on different tools and strategies to solve them.

 

 

How you can help at home?

We are working on our unit ‘How The World Works’.

Using the password located in your child’s diary, please encourage your child to go onto the KJS website www.kjs.edu.hk  and browse our Splat page to access Brainpop Jr., Big Universe and Pebblego to learn more about motion, gravity and friction.

 

Show and Tell’

We feel proud when our students take action on their learning. Every day we see a lot of excitement in our classrooms, as children bring artifacts and paraphernalia from home to talk about their understanding of forces and its connection with our day today life. We would like this to continue.

 

Important announcement

Starting after CNY break, Year 2’s will have an additional PE lesson. This lesson is swap over from the extra Music lesson we have had in term one. Please note other PE and Music lessons will not be affected by this change and will remain on the same days as their term one timetable. Letters with more details will be sent out soon.
Key dates for the Diary

Monday 26th February        Teacher Training Day

Tuesday 27th February        Schools starts after CNY break

Friday 2nd March (11:00am)  CNY celebration/ assembly

28th and 1st March    Book week activities Parades

Thursday 1st (World Book day) at the times previously arranged. Details to come for Curriculum Updates.