Y5 Snapshot of Learning #2

Dear Year 5 Parents

Welcome to Term 3 and our latest Unit of Inquiry Snapshot of Learning.

Firstly, thank you once again for helping make the previous units and resulting Market Day a success. The students really enjoyed the process of creating a product and bringing it to Market. The rest of the school also really enjoyed taking part and ‘buying’ the products.

Just a reminder that you can view a short 5 min video of the experience below.

We would also like to welcome back Ms Cat Woodall to Kennedy, who has taken over from Mrs Bright. Ms Woodall already knows the Year 5 children well and has ensured a seamless transition for the children in 5B. Welcome back Ms Woodall!

We are now starting the final, full unit of the year, Where We Are in Place and Time (WWAIPAT), before moving on to the final third of our Who We Are unit in the last few weeks of term. We hope that you find this Snapshot of Learning useful and that it gives you a better idea of what is happening in the classroom. We also hope that it will allow you to better support your child at home.

Central Idea:

Civilisations and societies develop through their interconnectedness.

Lines of Inquiry:

• What are the characteristics of civilisations and societies?

• How do civilisations emerge and develop?

• What connections can be made between the past and the present?

This week, classes have begun the tuning-in process for Where We are in Place and Time. This unit is history-based and delves into how civilisations are formed and what connections can be made to present-day life. We start the unit by inquiring into life before civilisations - the Stone Age - and then use the GRAPES acronym to help classify the main features of a civilisation.

The students will use this acronym to research various ancient civilisations and look at how the past has had an impact on the present. The unit will culminate with the students having the opportunity to create their own ‘civilisation’, based around the book, Weslandia.

We are also planning a trip to the History Museum to help consolidate the children's learning. More details and requests for parent helpers will follow soon when dates are finalised.

Diary entries and Myths & Legends will be our focus for the first part of this term. We will be looking at the structure and language features of diary writing, starting with a ‘Diary of a Stone Age Kid’. This links to our UOI well and will require the students to develop and focus their ideas from a different person’s point of view. We will be analysing myths & legends from different cultures and the children will be writing their own.

We will then move onto writing newspaper reports, looking at specific events related to the time periods the children will be researching.

If you are trying to support at home, it would be useful to share news and newspaper articles with the children and even encourage them to write a diary of their own.

During this unit of inquiry students will be moving onto Measurement - volume, capacity, mass & temperature. We will also be looking at Space in the form of co-ordinates and transformation. Towards the end of the term we will be introducing Pattern & Function, as well as Ratio & Proportion.

Measurement Objectives

- Estimate, compare and measure objects using standard units of measurement: length, perimeter, mass, capacity, area, volume and temperature

- Estimate, compare and measure objects using standard units of measurement: mass, capacity, volume and temperature

Ratio & Proportion Objectives:

- Model and solve simple problems involving ratio and proportion

Space: Co-ordinates & Transformation Objectives:

- Describe direction using the eight compass points

- Locate and record features on a grid using coordinates in two quadrants

- Transform, reduce and enlarge two-dimensional shapes

- Describe and model congruence and similarity in two-dimensional shapes

Swimming will be starting in a few weeks time, after Games finishes. Four classes start the week beginning Tuesday 2nd May after the public holiday, with 5P starting the next week. Swimming days for each class are as follows:

Mondays - 5P

Tuesdays - 5D

Wednesdays - 5B

Fridays - 5T & 5K

Please ensure that you child has the correct swimwear, footwear to get to and from the pool and a rash vest or t-shirt to protect them from the sun to and from the pool.

After school activities have begun, so please inform Steven Chen at bus@kennedy.edu.hk if your child is NOT taking the school bus home. Knowing which children are not taking the bus helps buses to depart on time.

Unlabelled items left on buses

We had a few lunch bags left on buses, some without labels. Please label ALL items your child brings to school, so we can get them back to your child.

Don’t forget to keep checking your child’s work on Seesaw, and also remember that students have access to Mathletics and various other resources that can be found on the school VLE. These are great for consolidating work done in the classroom.

Monday 24th April - final Games session (interhouse mini tournament)

Monday 1st May - Public Holiday

Week beginning Tuesday 2nd May - Swimming starts for 5D, 5B, 5T, 5K

Week beginning Monday 8th May - Swimming starts for 5P

Friday 26th May - Public Holiday