Reception Newsletter

PYP News!

Dear Parents, We are well over half way through semester one. The time seems to have flown. Grade 3, 4 and 5 are all about to complete their first UOI (Unit of Inquiry). The other grades are working to a modified schedule. Some of our teachers are going to regional PYP targeted training in Phuket, Thailand at the end of term which should have positive effects in term 2. We also have Virginia Rojas coming for 2 days of training, specifically on ESL. We are quite excited. Check her out here http://www.ascd.org/professional­development/oscb/faculty/Rojas­V.aspx As always any questions about PYP or your child in particular come speak to me or email. Neil Johnstone PYP Coordinator njohnstone@hisvietnam.com Neil Johnstone PYP Coordinator

Unit: Friendships enrich our lives and require nurturing in order to develop. In this unit we have been exploring how friends are made and kept, why friends are needed and what the characteristics of a healthy friendship are. It has been a great Unit to start the school year with as we have been getting to know each other and building up our friendships. We have used various books to explore these ideas and the children have worked together to come up with their own set of ‘Friendship Agreements’ based on helping, listening, being kind and caring, sharing and tidying up together. We have also looked at how friendships affect our feelings, for example how we would feel without friends and how we feel with friends, or how we feel when friends say unkind things and what we can say to make someone feel happy again.

LANGUAGES: (including Vietnamese) In Language we have chosen key books to inquire into how friendships work. Many of our phonics, reading, writing and speaking and listening activities have been inspired by these books. Phonics: For some children we are revising letter sounds and for some this may be their first experience. Every activity is differentiated for the needs of each child, whether that be exploring how to form the letters correctly, making collections of words beginning with that letter or beginning to build CVC (consonant­vowel­consonant) words using the vowels learned. Some exciting activities have occurred with each sound including a ‘Tt’ party with Mr. Terry, a puppet show of animals beginning with ‘Pp’ (to a real audience of teachers), a Teddy Bear’s Picnic (exploring how the letter ‘i’ tends to come in the middle of a word) a visit to the school Nurse and cooking leter ‘c’cookies. Reading: We have started building a word garden of simple words we know that we have found in our focus texts. The children are beginning to recognise some words and are learning how to use letter sounds and picture cues to read unfamiliar words. The Rainbow Fish: We learnt that it is important to speak kindly to our friends and to share as this will make us happy as well as them. I’m the Best: We learnt that showing off, thinking that we are better than our friends and saying unkind things can hurt our friends feelings. We made ‘kind hearts’ to show that we think before we speak to our friends. We also talked about what we are good at as we are all different and good at different things. We wrote books about what we can do and then read them to each other. This is the Bear: We explored the relationship of the little boy in this story and his bear. We had our very own ‘Bear Week’ and talked about why our bears were like friends. My Friend Teddy: This story helped us to understand how to make a friend and why friends are so important. We made artwork and wrote about how we feel without friends and how we feel with friends. Elmer: In this story we learnt that it is okay to be different. We all look different

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THE ARTS Music: Reception class has been having a great time getting to know each other this term. Through our singing and movement activities we have been exploring rhythmic patterns in correlation with body movements and worked on strengthening a sense of steady beat through dance and movements. The students are enjoying our song cards, gaining confidence in singing with and without the teacher. Mr. Grant Visual Arts: The children have explored a variety of media and expressed themselves creatively across the curriculum including: painting their own Rainbow fish, painting self­portraits, drawing pictures of their friends, pen and ink drawings of their teddies, used crayons, felt tips and craft objects to design their own ‘Elmer’ elephant, worked collaboratively on life size children for our friendship wall. After looking at an artist called Todd Parr the children created their own happy and sad artwork using really bright colours!

PSPE Reception have been learning to follow instructions in PE and learning to work together and help friends.

In class we have been working on our social skills; how to get along with our friends, how to listen to the teacher and our friends, how to deal with our feelings and becoming more independent.

and that is OK! The children made their own Elmer elephant friends which reflected their different personalities. Vietnamese: Children have been learning how to make friends and about the importance of friendship. We listened to Vietnamese story “Tình bạn” and drew pictures about friendship.

MATHS: Number: We have been practising our counting skills by counting on and back with the number line and the 100 square. We are also using our fingers to count up to 30 which can be tricky but is great practise! The children have all worked on number recognition which has been different for every child. Linked to our phonics we made a beautiful number line called ‘Numbers in Nature’ where the children collected leaves, petals, nuts, twigsa and shells to create the different numbers to 20. They have practised counting, writing and ordering numbers. They have had opportunities to explore different ways of making numbers and are beginning to learn some basic addition facts to 5 and 10. The children love playing with the number fans and are using these to play games such as ‘1 more than’ and ‘1 less than’ or ‘2 and what makes 5?’ Shape: We have looked at basic 2D shapes and have been identifying these in the world around us. The children made shape patterns, pictures using shapes, and beautiful diamond shape kites which they decorated with other 2D shapes and flew with their friends on the field. Measure: The children explored shorter, longer, taller, shorter by comparing their feet and height sizes. They found things shorter and longer than their feet and labelled items taller or shorter than themselves around the school. They explored using different units of measure such as cubes, straws and hands. Data: We looked at how we are the same and different and used this information to create a simple pictorial venn diagram. The children worked with a friend to make these.

Key Dates: Wednesday 24th September: Reception­grade 2 Swimming Gala at Daewoo Friday 3rd October: Autumn Break Monday 12th and 13th October: School closed for staff PD Monday 10th November: Late start, students in school by 10.30 Monday 17th and 24th November: Three Way Conferences Wednesday 19th November: International Day

Miss Lisa’s comment: I would like to take this opportunity to thank parents, students and teachers for making me feel very welcome as Head of Elementary. Each and every one of you have made my transition into this role, very smooth. Here at HIS we value home­ school communication. These newsletters should highlight your child’s learning during the next six weeks, as well as reflecting on what they have learnt.

Grade 5 sharing their learning about the writing process. Grade 1 showing their use of ICT during reading.

Miss Lisa Hughes

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Student Reflections Elena: Friends make you happy because you can do lots of things at their house and play and feel happy. They make you happy when you feel sad. Dana: Friends are for having fun! Aubrey: You can help your friends and it helps them feel better. Yu Na and Genki made friendship necklaces for each other. They made them with their favourite colours.

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 lifelong learner with a strong sense of self worth.

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