A week of planning for camp has gotten our little campers all excited and ready to get on the ferry to Cheung Chau for some adventure, challenge and fun. Please take note of the emergency contact details sent as a private message this afternoon. Please note as well that lunch will be provided on Monday. We’ve had to remind the students once again that no money should be taken on the trip – there will be no opportunities for students to go to a shop/store/7-11 to purchase treats or drinks; in fact, this goes against our camp expectations.
Back to academics, students have been working diligently on building their understandings of number patterns and how they can be represented algebraically. Their attitude has been fantastic and my favorite quote this week has been, “Mr. MacPherson, I was terrified on Monday about starting algebra but now I realize how easy it can be.” Awesome!
Students worked in small groups this week to deconstruct the organizational structures and language features of texts that explain. Most have started their own draft copies to put these new understandings into practice. Some titles to date: How to Find Aliens, How to become a US Navy SEAL, How to put together a good baseball team, How to Interrogate People, How to Kill Zombies, How to Torture Your Teacher. The creative juices have been flowing in 5A this week, to say the least!
Finally, we’ve explored the parts of all the body systems and are now revising this knowledge. When we return from camp, students will explore the different changes that happen to our bodies (i.e. puberty, weight gain from overeating, lung disease from smoking, clogged arteries from too much cholesterol) and conduct their own personal inquiries into a change to demonstrate their understanding of the big ideas in this unit.
Save the Date: June 12 will be the annual Grade 5 Deepwater Bay Beach Extravaganza. More to follow – it’s our end-of -year party and is fun for all.
Festival of the Arts kicked off with an amazing showcase of student talent on Monday evening, which included some of our Grade 5A students in the Choir and Chinese Dance. Students were also involved this week in hip hop dancing, mosaic tiling, visiting the art gallery in the LLAC and creating their own pieces of Wassily Kandinsky-inspired art as part of our geometric investigations.
We’ve begun exploring our new central idea this week, as part of our new unit Who We Are. Students are inquiring into the idea: “Throughout life our bodies go through changes that are caused by many factors.” Our new unit overview can be found below. Also, a letter from the Grade 5 teachers has been sent to your email explaining some of the more sensitive areas of this unit that will be investigated.
Students will begin a mini-unit on patterns and algebra before completing the school year with an investigation into chance and probability.
Our final reading-writing text will be explanations and we’ll begin this next week.
Please remember that all camp permission forms and payment should be submitted by Monday. Also, take note of the packing list and the email sent by me regarding some minor clarifications about that list.
After last night’s parent information session for the Grade 5 camp, it was pointed out that the following were not included in the packing list sent to us by Dragonfly. Please take note of the following.
Students need to bring:
1 white shirt for a tye-dye activity
2 pairs of shoes – one pair for being in the water for raft-making and one pair for dry land activities. No water shoes means no entry into the water. Crocs and flip-flops are not acceptable for either water or dry land activities (flip-flops are OK for the dormitories). Water shoes are acceptable.
Lower School Student Council Elections 2012 for Executive Council positions for 2012-2013
We are looking for Grade 4 and 5 student leaders to join the Lower School Student Council to serve on the Executive Council for the 2012 – 2013 school year. We will hold elections in June 2011 for Lower School students to vote for 10 members. We are seeking student leaders who are:
Visionaries
Risk-takers
Responsible
Strong Communicators
Organized
Hard Working
LSSC Responsibilities:
By joining the LSSC Executive Council, you are asked to:
Be a positive role model for all Lower School students and a school ambassador
Be a voice for all Lower School students
Be a reliable team member – attend a weekly lunch meeting, a weekly after school meeting, and complete all assigned tasks
Be committed to the LSSC, our goals, our vision, and our mission
Process of the LSSC Election
Complete the Application for Candidacy Form.
Attend a meeting on Friday 11 May in main office boardroom, 11:30am – 11:50am (Gr4) and 12pm – 12:30 (Gr3). Please bring the Application for Candidacy Form with you.
Campaign Friday 18 May to Friday 1 June.
Present a 2-minute speech on Election Day, Thursday 29 May in the morning in the LLAC theatre. Interested? Download this: Elections-2013
Although we had only three days this week, it was action packed! In today’s Grade 5 Sports Day assembly many 5A students received some excellent gold, silver and bronze hardware. Students worked hard to complete some public service announcements (PSA) connected to our unit, Sharing the Planet. You can see a playlist of all submitted PSAs below. You can also access each student’s blog to see his/her PSA accompanied by an short explanation. I strongly encourage you to look at your child’s PSA (and others!) and write a comment about what you learned, how you felt, or your impressions about this issue. Trust me, the students love receiving feedback on their blog and their work from outside our class community.
Please note from my previous blog post that there will in a camp information evening on Wednesday, May 9 in the library, from 6:00-7:00.
Please also remember that next week will be the Festival of the Arts. Our students will be involved in different arts-based activities such as hip hop dancing, mosaic tiling, visiting the art gallery in the LLAC and, as part of our geometry wrap-up, creating Wassily Kandinsky-inspired artwork.
Please be advised that our Cheung Chau camp information evening will be on Wednesday, May 9th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the school library. Also, it is essential that you register for the camp online (please refer to an email sent by me last week).
I will be absent on Friday as I will be traveling with 20 Grade 5s to Guizhou Province as part of our service trip in association with the Zigen Fund. Please note that Friday is a DDD and the theme is green, for environmental awareness. Please note as well that if you have not yet [...]
Someone mentioned in today’s Grade 5/6 assembly that there are only 36 school days left (not including weekends and holidays of course). Quite amazing! Equally amazing was the Student Led Learning Reviews. Feedback from parents, students and teachers has been very positive and encouraging. Our Grade 5 students designed their own learning journeys and took [...]
I really enjoyed eavesdropping on so many excellent conversations focused on learning. I invite you all to check out other student blogs to get their own impressions on a wonderful day of SLLRs.
Dear Parents, The PYP Evaluation visit begins on Wednesday 21 March and concludes on Friday 23. During the visit, the evaluation team will complete a number of tasks that include a review of the school self study and meetings with a number of key people including students, teachers, administrators and parents. We would like to invite around […]
For information about the Hong Kong International Young Readers Festival, please use the following click here. http://www.blooming-club.com/templates/default/enews/2012/0305.htm […]
Donald MacPherson