Year 2 Update Week 21

Thursday 7th March – World Maths Day…..watch this space to see what excitingactivities we’ll be up to!

Friday 8th March – Student-Led Conferences : these will be held in sessionsthroughout the day and the children will only come to school with you at yourchosen time…..please book your preferred time on the Gateway which will beopen soon. Please refer to the information in this week’s newsletter.

Friday 29th March – PTA International Food Fair

Thursday 4th April – ESF Choral Concert

Friday 5th April – Ching Ming Festival.….no school

Wednesday 10th April – Easter Concert

Friday 12 April – last day of school before Easter holidays, 12 pm finish

Reading AssessmentsWe are currently in the process of completing new reading assessments with thechildren. Each assessment takes some time to complete, thank you for yourunderstanding. Colours of reading books span many levels and so if your child doesnot move to a new colour, this does not indicate a lack of progress.

Book DriveBrody, Ryan and Muchan in Year 6 are organising a Book Drive to help spread ourlove of reading. The Sony Corporation will collect books to create mobile librariesin South Africa for schools that do not have enough books for children to read. Ifyou have books that are:

Please send them to school. There is a collection box in the school foyer. Anybooks you can donate will help spread the enjoyment of reading.

Action in the PYP at BHSIt has been great celebrating the talents and achievements of our students throughthe ’Student Achievement’ section in the newsletter. We would like to dosomething similar with Student Action. Action in the PYP is when students areinspired through their learning and their experiences to make a difference to theirlives or the community connected to real life issues and opportunities. We wouldlike to celebrate our students taking action outside of school.

Please could you email examples to kannis.tsui@bhs.edu.hk and they will beshared through our newsletter.

There are different types of Action. We would like to start with a focus onParticipation. See below for a definition and examples.

Type of Action Examples

ParticipationBeing actively involved in theirlearning and contributing as an

individual or a group

Getting involved with communityprojects

Making appropriate choices and takingresponsibility to help people

Taking on different roles e.g. being aleader, completing my chores, working in

a group, looking after my petTaking part in any decision making

processJoining a new club

School UniformPlease ensure your child has a hat every day. As with Sports Day, the day can startout cloudy, but then brighten up and the children can get catch the sun easily.Timetable

PE Kit Library Bags

2D Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday

2FTuesday, Wednesday,

ThursdayThursday

2K Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Wednesday

Sports Day

The children had a wonderful day on Tuesday at our Year 1 and Year 2 Sports Day.Thank you so much for coming along to support your child.

Unit of Inquiry

This week the children have enjoyed exploring, thinking about and describingdifferent materials.

Maths

In Maths, the children have been making equal sized groups and arrays tounderstand multiplication and division.

English

This week, the children explored how different authors use language to create aneffect. They have been visualising while listening to stories which has helped themunderstand the importance of word choice.

Fun Friends

Passwords are now in the children’s Home School Diaries. Please log on to the Fun

Friends website at home to see how to support them through this programme. Foryour information, we are currently completing the sessions on F for feelings.

Central idea: Scientists explore materials to discover how they can be used.

Lines of inquiry

The properties of materials (form)1.How scientists carry out investigations (function)2.How materials can change (change)3.

The children will become scientists next week! They will use the scientific process(ask, test, hypothesise, observe, record and reflect) to explore the properties ofdifferent materials.

Central Idea:

The operations of multiplication and division are related to eachother and are used to process information to solve problems.

Lines of inquiry:

How we solve problems using multiplication anddivision

Mental and written strategies for multiplication anddivision

The language and symbols of multiplication and division

The children will continue inquiring into multiplication and division by using avariety of manipulative, such as Numicon and Multi-links. They will also solvemultiplication word problems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/maths/telling_the_time/play/popup.shtml

Stop the clock – game for ½ and 1 hour

https://www.mathplayground.com/number_bonds_10.html

https://www.mathplayground.com/number_bonds_20.html

Writing focus: Writing to entertain

The children will continue to think about how authors choose words carefully toappeal to the reader. They will attempt to apply this awareness to their ownnarrative writing.

When reading the children will make connections between the text and theirbackground knowledge. This will discuss how making connections helps usdeepen our understanding of a text.

Well done to:2K – Ashley Chan2D – Joshua Duke

2F – Alvin Lam

Mandarin – Sylas Ng 2K

SpellingNew spellings have be given out. Thank you for continuing to practise writing thewords in sentences. In our class handwriting lessons, we have begun to introducethe children to cursive handwriting. Correct letter formation is very important.Please encourage this at home. Home ReadingPlease read at home with your child each day and sign their Reading Journal.Please encourage your child to write the date and title in their Reading Journal,including for Big Universe.In Big Universe, select ‘Library’. On the right-hand side you will be able to select

the ‘grade’ for your child. The appropriate grade selection is kindergarten, 1stgrade and 2nd grade. This covers the age group of our children at BHS.Mandarin – All children are encouraged to take a reading book home on the days when theyhave Mandarin lessons.

Games and Activities to Develop Vocabulary

We have noticed that many of our Year 2 children would benefit from developing abroader vocabulary. With this in mind, we would like to recommend some gamesyou can easily play at home, or on the move that will give your child theopportunity to develop their awareness and language skills.

I Spy With My Little Eye

Benefits: vocabulary development, phonics and spelling awareness, observationskills and focus

Equipment: None

Number of players: Unlimited

Location: Anywhere!

Say, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with …” Start playing the gameusing objects in the room you can see. Begin with obvious items and over timemove to more discreet objects. You can vary the game by using the initial sounds(phonics), or letters (spelling) or even colours or numbers. You can increase thechallenge level by saying, “I spy with my little eye, something that ends in …”

Word Association Game

Benefits: vocabulary development, fluency, memory and recall

Equipment: None

Number of players: Pairs are good, but more players possible if everyone takesturns

Location: Anywhere!

The first player, chosen randomly, says one word out loud. The other player has to

quickly say a word that has some connection with the previous word. Players lose if…

They take more than three seconds to make a connection.1.They repeat a word that has already been said in this game.2.They are challenged and loses the vote.3.

The last player standing is the winner.

For example, one sequences of words might be:

– Bus

– Stop

– Go

– Green

– Grass

– Garden

– Flower

Other well-known games we would recommendinclude, Pictionary, Charades