Year 1 Newsletter

Thank you all for your participation in our Pyjama and Bedtime Story Day! We raised $12,400 for in-class enrichment activities.

It was wonderful to meet with so many Year 1 parents this week. Following on from what was discussed, we have added some language and maths tips you may find useful to use at home. If you have not had the chance to look yet, Mathletics and Reading Eggs are great resources. Login details can be found in the front of your child's yellow home learning books.

It has been a busy first half term and we are all so proud of how well the children have settled into school life here at Kennedy. Thank you for your continued support. We hope the children enjoy their well earned rest next week!

Thank you,

The Year 1 team

The children are continuing to discuss building relationships. This week the Year 1s thought about their Safety Networks. Our Safety Networks are made up of five adults we trust. Anytime the children feel unsafe, worried or scared they can tell one of the adults on their Safety Network. We talked about us having different Safety Networks and how it is our choice about who makes us feel safe. We might have only 3 or 4 people however, we try to have a mixture of people on our Safety Networks hands. One person should not be in our family e.g. a teacher, E.A. or coach.

The children are working hard on making their own books. We are continuing to work on different styles of illustrations and text using our 'have a go spelling'. When your child brings one of their books home ask, "would you read it to me?" Phrasing the question gives your child the feeling that you believe they are a reader and they will be able to explain any text that you may not have been sure about with out having to guess.

High frequency words

Please return your child's clear zippy pocket and small yellow home learning book every Friday so that we can check their progress with the word grid sent home and give them the next grid once they are ready.

Fine motor skills

We have been working on strengthening our hands to get ready to write. We use our playdough and pinch, squash and roll the dough to warm up our hands. Here are some other fine motor activity cards you may wish to try.

Handwriting

Please continue to work on letter formation at home. Start with big movements painting with pots of water outside or using your finger in trays of shaving cream/oats before moving onto handwriting tasks. Here are the Read Write Inc. handwriting sheets should you wish to use them at home. Each letter has a rhyme to help form it. e.g. 'd', round his bottom, up his tall neck, down to his feet.

Our next unit of inquiry will be How We Express Ourselves. As part of this unit, we teach shape and pattern. We will be looking for shapes in the world around us to name and describe. E.g. a can of fizzy drink is like a cylinder. It has circles on the top and bottom. Please keep a look out for shapes when you are out with your child and continue counting with the aim of reaching 100 by the end of the year.

Junk modelling

To support our shape inquiries, we will be doing some 3D shape junk modelling. Please send in any clean cardboard boxes and kitchen roll tubes you may have at home. (No plastic please.)

After half term, we will begin our new How We Express Ourselves unit.

Our central idea is:

Imagination inspires people to create and share ideas.

Lines of inquiry:

• Different forms of expression
• How people and experiences inspire us to create
• How expression is a creative process

We will begin by unpacking what the word 'imagination' means and will start exploring the different ways people use their imaginations. Our trip to HK Forest Adventures will be a provocation getting the children to think about the different ways we can use our imaginations and play.

We understand that some people may not have been able to attend last night's trip webinar so please click here to view the recording.

We will be going on the following dates:

• 1MB- Tuesday October 25th

• 1L- Wednesday October 26th

• 1K- Thursday October 27th

• 1F- Friday October 28th

• 1C- Tuesday November 1st

You will receive an invoice notification on the ESF app.

A reminder about what to bring:

Your child will not be wearing their school uniform for this trip. We will be going - rain or shine - so please prepare the following:

1. Please wear light but long-sleeved shirts and trousers to help prevent mosquito bites. (Please no shorts and t-shirts.)

2. ​The weather is really unpredictable. So please bring a raincoat.

3. Pack swimsuits and water shoes. (Children may wear long sleeved sun suits as their top and put leggings on the bottom to come to school if they find this easier.)

4. Wear a hat and sunscreen.

5. Wear mosquito repellent.

6. Pack a towel to dry off, from fun in the rain or the river.

7. Pack an extra set of dry clothes and spare masks.

8. Pack 2 snacks and water as you would for a regular school day: after a lot of play and adventure, little tummies get really hungry.

​All belongings need to be labelled, this includes water bottles, shoes and bags.

All parent volunteers need to fill in the child protection declaration on Gateway asap and take a photograph of your negative RAT to present on the day of the trip. Please meet in your child's classroom at 8.15 am after signing in at reception.

In order for parents to be able to help in school and on trips as volunteers, it is a requirement to

complete the Child Protection declaration on Gateway. Please click here for information on how to submit the Child Protection declaration and we will appreciate parents completing the child protection form by 19 October 2022.

Please click the link to find out more about Chinese learning this week.

As I'm sure you are glad to hear, several sporting tournaments and matches between schools in Hong Kong are finally resuming. After more than three years without school competition, we are extremely pleased to see this.

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

GAMES REMINDER

Our Games programme will begin after the half term holiday starting the week beginning Monday 24th October. Please note your child's games day below and remember that your child should wear PE kit on their PE and Games day unless it is a special school event.

Year 1 - Friday

Year 2 - Friday

Year 3 - Tuesday

Year 4 - Wednesday

Year 5 - Monday

Year 6 - Wednesday

Kind regards

Paul Crompton

Lead PSPE Teacher

The library staff are looking for parent volunteers.

The Kennedy garden team is looking for adult volunteers to do some easy gardening in school with others. No experience required just enthusiasm. We are a social and friendly group . We sometimes run family garden sessions on weekends or in vacation weeks.

If interested please email ttremmel@kennedyt.edu.hk or jleong@kennedy.edu.hk for more details.

Tim Tremmel

As the weather gets cooler, please be reminded that there are additional items e.g. ESF sweaters and jackets that are available for purchase. Leggings are not permitted, but grey or white long socks and tights are allowed underneath the grey skorts on non-PE days.

It would be very much appreciated if you could check your child's uniform and footwear. Trainers are only to be worn on P.E. kit days. Black school shoes are to be worn on all other days.

School Uniform Guidelines

The children are encouraged to put everything they take off into their school bags in their lockers to try to avoid losing them, but please ensure that all belongings are clearly labelled with your child's name and class. Please be mindful of the number of layers your child comes to school in as it is still quite warm in the classrooms and when the sun it out when they are out playing.

School uniform can be ordered online via schooluniform.hk

PYP 101: A PARENT’S GUIDE TO THE IB PRIMARY YEARS PROGRAMME WEBINAR

Wednesday 2nd of November at 6.00pm to 7.00pm

This webinar is designed for parents to find out more about the IB PYP, which is the curriculum framework we use at Kennedy School and across ESF. This webinar will focus on the IB Mission, the Learner Profile, key features of the PYP, and how our curriculum is embedded into the PYP framework through our Programme of Inquiry.

This webinar will be interactive and you will be discussing and working with other parents. It is a great opportunity for us to share, learn and grow together.

Please fill out the survey here and we look forward to seeing you virtually on Wednesday 2nd of November. We will share the link and additional information about the webinar closer to the date.

Click here for further details.

• 17-21 October- ESF Half Term Break
• 25th October- 1MB forest trip
• 26th October- Diwali celebrations, dress in bright clothes day, except for 1L as they are on their forest trip
• 27th October- 1K forest trip. 1F only- Fun-o-ween dress up (as they are on a trip on the 28th)
  
• 28th October- Fun-o-ween dress up day, except for 1F (as they are on their forest trip)
• 31st October-4th November- School photos
  
• 1st November- 1C forest trip
• 2nd November- Introduction to the PYP webinar (6-7 pm)
• 18th November- PTA Quiz Night (7-10 pm. Register here)
• 30th November- Emerging readers and writers workshop webinar (6-7 pm)

The full listing of PTA events is also available at the school website at https://www.kennedy.edu.hk/pta/