Grade 5 Newsletter
September 2013
PYP News!
UNIT 1 Who We Are An inquiry into rights and responsibilities and what it means to be human Central Idea Children’s rights and responsibilities are connected to each other and are met in different ways. Lines of Inquiry Children’s rights and responsibilities around the world Connection between rights and responsibilities How children’s rights are met Summative Task:
Welcome to a new school year at HIS. We hope you like the new school logo. Above is the latest PYP model. As you can see the innermost circle brings together the beliefs and values of the programme. The PYP culminates in the Exhibition, where Grade 5 students this year will inquire into How we organise ourselves. Lisa Hughes
THE ARTS In this unit Grade 5 students will embark on a musical journey on which they will discover new musical elements and concepts. Through singing, playing, reading, listening and moving the students will inquire into the music of various cultures, styles and genres and they will acquire skills that will help them understand the language of music and express themselves through it.
Ms Sabina
VIETNAMESE Students learn about children’s rights and responsibilities in Vietnam and compare with those in other countries.
Ms Trang and Ms Lan Anh
Unit 1
Students will work on a photo essay to highlight the most important rights for them and give reasons why, how they are connected to responsibilities and how these rights are met across the world. Students will present their writing orally to the class using visual presentations with examples of case studies from children around the world. Tool: Teacher rubric (Please see unit of inquiry books for the rubric.)
LANGUAGES Students will continue with their weekly reading programme and inquire into the skills and strategies needed for reading and how we become competent, motivated, independent readers. Students will also begin to compare and make connections to novels. Miss Lisa The Writing Process has seven steps prewriting, drafting, editing, peerconference, revising, teacher conference and publishing. This year, students are working towards using this process with increasing independence in order to improve the quality of their writing and increase their understanding of how processes help us organise ourselves. We are also increasing our knowledge of various writing genre. For unit 1 the students will write a persuasive email to a person of their choice. Mr Warren ELS Level 1 students are developing vocabulary used at school, in the classroom and socially in order to ask and answer questions and to develop the skills to write simple sentences. Ms Linda The ELS students will be supported in the inquiry into skills and strategies needed to read for meaning. In writing they will work through the writing process, aiming to become confident writers with the skills and techniques needed to edit their own work. Ms Sue
MATHS For numeracy, students are inquiring into what the for operations are and how they are connected with each other. We will look at solving problems using more than one operation, and using estimation skills to check our work. Mr Warren
PSPE Students are completing swimming and Adventure Challenge Units. In swimming the four major strokes are being developed. In Adventure Challenge team work, leadership and thinking skills are the focus. Students learn to be risk takers and take responsibility in their team. Mr Adam
The four remaining strands of maths will be taught by Miss Lisa; Data, Measurement, Pattern and Shape and Space. For this unit students will link to the unit of inquiry and focus on the function of Data Handling. Students will collect, organize, display and analyse data, developing an understanding of how different graphs highlight different aspects of data more efficiently. They will understand that scale can represent different quantities in graphs and that mode can be used to summarize a set of data.
Key Dates
Writing and performing our PYP rap
Tuesday, 17th September Swimming Gala for Reception, G1 and G2. If it is raining, this will be postponed to Wednesday, 18th September. Tuesday, 24th September Swimming Gala for G3, G4 and G5. If it is raining, this will be postponed to Wednesday, 19th September. Friday, October 4th End of Quarter One October 5th 13th Mid semester break. School is closed Monday and Tuesday, October 14th and 15th No classes for students. Staff professional development. Wednesday 16th October First day of Quarter 2.
Assemblies:
Working out what the learner profile means
Assemblies take place on most Friday mornings at 8am. You are welcome to any of the assemblies. 6th September hosted by Ms Carla’s class 13th September hosted by the Vietnamese department as part of Moon Festival 20th September hosted by Ms Pushpa’s class 27th September no assembly 4th October hosted by Ms Georgie’s class
Mr Warren’s comment: What a great start to the year. Classes are in Hanoi International School enables all students to realise their full potential in a caring and positive learning environment. Through our broad and balanced international curriculum, we endeavour to develop responsible, globally conscious citizens. We strive to develop the whole child as a life long learner with a strong sense of self worth.
fullswing, teachers and students are happy and we are looking forward to another great academic year in the elementary section of HIS. For those of you who do not know, I am one of the VicePrincipals of the school and I am the Head of the elementary school. I also have a small teaching role, and work in the grade five class for the equivalent of one day per week. This gives Lisa Hughes time to carry out her responsibilities as the PYP curriculum coordinator. But my major role is to ensure that the elementary school is a successful, respectful and motivating environment for our students to learn in and for them to reach their full potential.
Student Reflections We are currently learning about children’s rights and responsibilities. Ana’s village is in the Mountains of Guatemala. When she was ten she made a decision to leave home and go look after her cousin’s child, but now she looks after fouryearold twins for another person. They live in a big house and her boss treats her well, letting her share a bedroom with the family. Ana is now 14 and sends half of her money to her mother. She says, “ when the twins get back at noon, I play with them all afternoon I look after them and give everything they ask for. I love taking care of children.” Ana is really excited because she likes to go to special weekend school for girls who have to work during the day. The project is support by Save the Children, helped Ana learn to read and write. She does her homework in the evening when everyone goes to bed. at first Ana’s boss refused to let her go and said that she need to clean the house first. ‘’It’s important for me to learn to read or write because if you can’t read or write, it’s difficult to find a job”. By Hannah and Duc Manh
Unit 1