Year 6 Newsletter

Dear Year 6 Parents,

A big welcome back after the half-term break! We hope you all had the opportunity to spend some time connecting with one another and engaging in some fun activities!

Welcome to the fifth edition of the Year 6 newsletter for 2022/23.

Just a reminder that this newsletter will be published every 2 weeks on a Friday and sent through the ESF app and stored under the "News" button for future reference.

Please take some time to share it with your child.

The Year 6 Team

It has been a very busy 2 weeks of learning...

Central Idea: Discoveries evolve when needs and opportunities arise, influencing the future

Lines of Inquiry:

• What are the reasons for scientific discoveries? (Causation)

• How is the discovery explained by scientific principles? (Connection)

• How do/will scientific discoveries continue to influence the future? (Change)

The students are engaging a new unit of inquiry this week. They will investigate and inquire into the world of science around them. Students will build conceptual knowledge and develop practical skills as they research a variety of scientists and designs, then conduct their own experiments! Students will make connections between the theories behind discoveries and inventions and identify how these influence the modern world.

As the students start their new science-based unit of inquiry, we are asking parents who are either working in the science field or who have a background in science if they would like to come into our classrooms and talk about your role or speciality. Please contact your child's classroom teacher for more information or to volunteer.

On Tuesday, November 15th, Year 6 students will be visiting the Hong Kong Science Museum as part of their Unit of Inquiry. The students are very excited about this. Please remember to complete this PERMISSION FORM so your child can attend this, and if you would like to be considered as a parent helper for this excursion please remember to complete the same FORM.

In order to fully prepare students and parents for camp, the Year 6 team will host a webinar on November 8th at 5:00pm. Please see linksbelow. If you have any specific questions that you would like answered please send them to your child's teacher by Monday, November 7th. We look forward to seeing you there!

Topic: Year 6 Camp Outward Bound Webinar

https://kennedy-edu.zoom.us/j/95448950621?pwd=QS92TnA4MG1zaHlEYk11aUR2Z2VtQT09

Passcode: 422405

A reminder that Outward Bound requires all parents to complete an online application form for their child in order to attend the camp. This is a requirement for all attendees. They request that all forms should be completed by 7th November. Please complete the form by clicking the link here.

Number

We continue to focus on our core number skills, with a specific focus on Multiplication and Division, looking through a lens of problem-solving. The learning objectives for this unit are:

• Four Operations: Use efficient mental and written strategies to multiply and divide integers and decimals.

In Language, the children are continuing to read 'The Explorer' by Katherine Rundell and are inquiring into narrative writing. Our budding authors are being exposed to high-level vocabulary and are building up to writing their own stories.

Homework will be set on a Friday each week and is expected to be returned on a Wednesday. The homework is set on Google Classroom. Your child will show you how to access this.

Please discuss the homework tasks with your child and ensure that they fully understand what is expected of them each week. Please support your child with their learning at home as needed and check that the task has been completed suitably for your child's ability.

In Year 6, we have the following weekly expectations (in addition to the homework set):

• Daily reading (20 minutes with a discussion around the text with an adult).

• Spelling practice each week

• Regular use of Mathletics

The Chinese Department shares the learning conducted on a weekly basis. Please click on the link below for this week's learning for Year 6.

Year 6 Chinese Learning

Year 3 to 6 students have one set lunchtime a week when they will be expected to go to HKU. The only exception will be if the children do not meet the vaccine pass requirements of HKU.

At HKU, students can do sports and games or bring games and cards to play, books to read and a towel to sit on if they would like to. This is also a great opportunity for the Year 6 classes to connect with their Year 3 buddies. Please check the schedule below for timings.

Parent volunteers for snack time supervision at Stanley Ho Sports Centre

Children from Year 3 and Year 6 have the opportunity to go across to Stanley Ho Sports Centre during their first snack time from Monday 24 October 2022. This has proved to be hugely popular with the children. To enable us to supervise the children we need some parent volunteers who are willing to come across with us one or more days a week. The time commitment is 10.40 am to 11.20 am each day. If we get 4 or 5 mums/dads who can commit to a day or a few days each week that would be fabulous. For the safety of the children, we will request that parent helpers must be fully vaccinated and complete a Rapid Antigent Test with a negative test result on the morning before coming to school. We request that parent helpers scan their vaccine pass, take their temperature in the office and complete the health declaration form. All parent volunteers would need to complete the Child Protection declaration in the Gateway in advance. Kindly note that parents with an Amber Code in the Leave Home Safe App will not be able to enter the school and volunteer to help till the code switches to Blue.

Please fill in the Google Form here if you are able to help and your help is much appreciated. Thank you!

You will be glad to hear that several sporting tournaments and matches between schools in Hong Kong are finally resuming. After more than three years without school competitions, we are extremely pleased indeed.

In light of this, it is crucial that the PE Department at Kennedy School has a deeper grasp of what our kids are up to in terms of their extracurricular sporting activities. This information is crucial and will allow us to provide our students with opportunities to represent Kennedy School in their preferred/strongest sport.

To assist us in making more informed decisions on the selection of sports teams, especially so early in the school year, we would appreciate it if you could offer a brief description of any current sporting activities your child participates in outside of Kennedy School.

If you have more than one child at Kennedy School please fill in the form separately for each of your children.

Extra Curricular Sports Form

Our Games programme will start this week. Your child should wear PE kit on their PE and Games days unless it is a special school event.

Year 6 Games will take place every Wednesday.

Please refer to The Hong Kong Young Writers Awards website for information about this competition. If your child is interested in entering this competition, please contact Yoon-Ah Lee our PYP Coordinator at ylee@kennedy.edu.hk.

The submission deadline to school for entries is Thursday 15th of December 2022.

• 8 Nov - Year 6 Camp webinar (5 pm)
• 10 Nov- Year 6 dTaP-IPV Immunisation
• 11 Nov - Chinese-a-thon
• 11 Nov - Box of Hope deadline to school
• 15 Nov - Year 6 Science Museum Trip
• 18 Nov - PTA Quiz Night. Register HERE
• 22-25 Nov - Year 6 camp