NTSIS PYP Primary Newsletter (9th September– 13th September 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are
Despite being a shorter week, the PYP classrooms continued to be filled with exciting activities and fun learning. The classes launched into their lines of inquiry 2 and also explored the significance of the Mid-autumn festival. Hope everyone had a fantastic reunion during the festival break.
What a busy week…
Grade 1:
Central idea:
Relationships contribute to our well-being and needs to be nurtured
Line of inquiry 1: Relationships in our lives
Line of inquiry 2: Friendship roles and values
We tuned in to our second line of inquiry on friendship roles and values by reading the story of The Rainbow Fish. The students discussed the characters in the book and were able to make connections to our learner profiles or attributes. They also explored the question “What is a friend?” by looking at what a friend LOOKS like, SOUNDS like, and FEELS like. They illustrated their understanding and shared their work in class. We also worked on our rainbow fish craft and made a school of fish poster. In Math, we inquired about addition sentences and addition stories. We created our own addition stories or problems and let our classmates find the answers. For our language inquiry, we continued to strengthen our skills on blending and sounding out the short sound of “a” through decodable texts.
We are going to…
This week, we will start inquiring on our third line of inquiry. We will explore how our thoughts, words, and actions affect our relationships with other people. Furthermore, we will continue learning about addition stories and start exploring the short sound of “e” for our math and language.
What a busy week!
Grade 2:
Central idea:
Culture shapes who we are
Line of inquiry 1: Diversity of cultures around the world
Line of inquiry 2: The ways in which families are connected
We started off this week with Line of Inquiry 2, “the ways in which families are connected.” We looked at celebrations, specifically, “The Mid-Autumn Harvest Festival,” and foods from different cultures. Food brings families together and allows them to share in their traditional foods at certain times of the year as well as just the bonding and social aspect of sharing a meal with family and friends. Thank you to the parents that sent in food related to your specific culture (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) it turned out to be a feast that the children enjoyed, it allowed them to enhance their learning of the Unit. The children also recited their moon and autumn poems, some even being risk-takers and reciting it off by heart. In Math, we started measurement, making full use of the new junior playground and math equipment.
We finished the week of by celebrating Yukino’s birthday and we wished her a very happy birthday and a wonderful year ahead.
We are going to…
This week we will continue to explore the ways that families are connected, to help us better understand cultures locally and globally.
What a busy week!
Grade 3/4:
Central idea:
Thinking and learning can help us develop our potential
Line of inquiry 1: Understanding the brain
Line of inquiry 2: Tools and strategies that can help us learn effectively
We learned about two hemispheres and different lobes of the brain. The students came up with some ideas how to help our brain to relax. They also were engaged in brain exercises and enjoyed them very much. Additionally, we explored the topic of mindfulness and other types of mediation. We discussed the Learner Profile Attributes students reflected on what attributes they demonstrated during the lessons and outside of the classroom. In Math, in groups, we created bar charts and tasks reflecting real problems that had to be solved by other groups members. We finished our week with the human brain trivia questions.
We are going to…
This week, we will be comparing and examining brains of different animals in a science laboratory. We will be also focusing on the line of inquiry 2, discovering tools and strategies that help us learn better. We will identify our own learning styles and reflect on
our own strategies of learning.
What a busy week!
Grade 5/6:
Central idea:
Interactions can lead to and solve conflict.
Line of inquiry 1: Role of communication plays in conflict
Line of inquiry 2: Resolving conflict between team members and through communication
We have acted out some scenarios and role play them to learn ways to resolve conflicts peacefully. We also learned about potential dangers of the internet. We
learned and practised the addition and subtraction of mixed numbers. We have looked at how we can connect the simple and compound sentences by using connectors. We also
looked at the relationships and functions of main and subordinate clauses in a sentence. We studied the interplay between spores and wind in the reproduction of non-flowering
plants. We also looked at how the male and female reproductive systems play an interactive part in fertilization as compared to flowering plants.
We are going to…
We will be learning and planning how to interact and stay safe when using the internet. We will do a review on the addition and subtraction of mixed numbers and learn the
multiplication of whole numbers, fractions and mixed numbers. We will also study about homophones and how various types of plays are acted out to convey ideas and experiences
and introduce the elements of a play script. We will look at another interlinkage on what characteristics can be passed on from parents to their young.
This week, we feature specialist subject: Chinese
Grade 1 Chinese teacher: Ms. Jessica Ji
We had been talking about the relationship among our friends, family. We also read the story <三个和尚>, where everyone shared their opinions on the relationships of these three monks. They worked in groups and tried to retell this Chinese story to others.
Grade 2 Chinese teacher: Ms. Jenny Ma
We have been inquiring into celebration of different cultures, especially in the Chinese culture.
Grade 3/4 Chinese teacher: Ms. Sandy Sha
We inquired into the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn festival. The lessons surrounded around relatives and the composition of family. We even made family trees together.
Grade 5/6 Chinese teacher: Mr. Jason Feng
The past weeks saw a poem about Mid-autumn being translated into a song.
