We are now into the middle of our IPC unit, Active Planet. For our design and technology part of the unit we will be making seismographs to test in the classroom. If you could please send any cereal or shoe boxes that you may have lying around the house. We would like to do this next week, so if you could send them in on Monday or Tuesday that would be helpful.
Thank you for your support
There will be a slight timetable change for Fridays. From tomorrow we will be having art in the morning. The reason for this is so that IPC can be done in one 90 minute session in the afternoon.
This allows for more detailed and hands on activities without it being broken up by lunchtime.
Please remember a lightly coloured or white shirt for tomorrow for the screen printing.
Thanks
READING BOOKS
Reading books have gone out today – thank you for your patience. Students should have a reading book and a yellow book for recording how they read. I have also included a book mark with example questions that you can use after you have finished reading the book. These help with discussion and are useful prompts. When reading it is important to think about decoding (reading the words) and the understanding (what they mean). Both are important.
If the book is too easy or too difficult, then please let me know via the yellow book. A good rule to follow is that if the struggle with more than 5 words on a page, the book is too tricky.
As we have a class trip tomorrow, we will change our books on Monday.
CLASS TRIP
Tomorrow we have our class trip. Please can the students remember the following:
We will leave at 9:10 am and be back by the end of school.
ASSESSMENTS:
Next week we will be completing GL assessments. These are new assessments. As part of the school starting to use these tests we need to perform “benchmark” tests with the students.
The purpose of these benchmark tests is to get a starting level for the students. This information will be then used to further inform the teachers what the students can and cannot do and help us to plan our lessons accordingly. The score from these assessments will also be used as the score against which we measure the students progress at the end of the school year.
Due to the purpose of these tests, i.e. to provide extra information to the teachers about what the students can and cannot do already, the students should not be “cramming” for these tests. However, it is important that the students are in school for the days that they have the tests.
Please find the timetable for these assessments here.
Thank you for your support.
Yesterday and today we completed the Entry Point for our new unit of work, “Active Planet”. We pretended that the river flooded during a typhoon and that we needed to build boats to rescue people. We then tested the boats and how many ‘people’ (cubes) could fit on them before they sank. The winning boat, by Arif, Nikki and Lucas managed to fit on 112 ‘people’.
We will move onto our next part of our topic, the “Knowledge Harvest” later on this week.
Here are some photos of the students and their boats.
Homework has gone out today for Year 3 and 4. Each student should have:
Homework is due next week Thursday, when we will also have our spelling test. Homework is not meant to cause any stress and anxiety at home, if your child is unsure of what to do, they can come and ask me at school and I will help them.
When completing homework, please think about presentation. While it does not need to be perfect, using rulers and sharp pencils does go a long way. When copying the spellings, please take care to copy them correctly.
Please take care not to lose the folders. Despite the cost, there is also the environment to consider. Plastic does not break down and losing folders is damaging to the environment.
The school has recently adopted the Progress Test Series by GL Assessment as the way we measure students progress in the school. It is hoped that the information provided by these assessments will provide a clearer illustration to the parents on how their son/daughter is doing at school. More information about the assessments can be found here.
As part of the school starting to use these tests we need to perform “benchmark” tests with the students. The purpose of these benchmark tests is to get a starting level for the students. This information will be then used to further inform the teachers what the students can and cannot do and help us to plan our lessons accordingly. The score from these assessments will also be used as the score against which we measure the students progress at the end of the school year.
Year 3/4, Year 5/6 and Year 7/8/9 will be taking these tests in Week 5 of this term (25/09/2017 – 29/09/2017). Due to the purpose of these tests, i.e. to provide extra information to the teachers about what the students can and cannot do already, the students should not be “cramming” for these tests. However, it is important that the students are in school for the days that they have the tests. Teachers will be posting onto the class page the exact timetable for these tests closer to the time.
The students have voted to wear the red HFS shirt for their class photo.
Thanks for your support
Students in Year 3-9 have been invited to attend the Ulju Mountain Film Festival to take part in a number of fun activities on Friday 22nd September 2017. Whilst there, the students will get the chance to experience a Tree Climbing ‘Namunori’ Fun Route, walk along the Relaxation Route, enjoy a Yeongnam Alps Virtual Reality Experience and take part in silkscreen printing. Students will need to bring with them a white or lightly coloured plain t-shirt or canvas bag for them to take part in the silkscreen printing activity. We will leave school at 9:10 am and will be back by the end of the school day. We will be travelling to the festival by coach and the students will need to bring a packed lunch with them that does not need to be heated.
Please complete the permission form if you are happy for your son/daughter to take part. Waist measurements are needed for the harnesses which will be used in the tree climbing activity. Blood type has been requested by the festival organisers as a precaution.
