PYP 2 Newsletter

Cultural Stories, Unit 1

Introduction
Welcome to the new school year. Ms Courtney, Mr Kingwell, Ms Annette supported by Ms Julie and Mr Daniel will make up the team of PYP 2 and 3 this year. As teachers and assistants we are a collaborative planning team who share the same unit of inquiry cycle. The students are also part of a team. We will go on excursions together, take action together and also have our much loved team time together. Even though we plan together we scaffold our teaching to meet the needs and ages of the children in the class. The year is off to an excellent start. We would like to thank the parents for sending their children into school with healthy snacks for morning tea. Water really is the best drink. Yogurt drinks and other sweet drinks are not needed at school. Please remember to look at your childs diary every night signing the page to show that you have checked it. We will do the same thing in the morning. In this way we can communicate effectively and important information will not be missed. It is sure to get cool soon. Please make sure that your childs red hoody and jacket are clearly named. The names wash out so it might pay to check to see if the name can still be read.

Poor Sleep, Poor Grades

Below is part of an article you might find interesting. The URL is included if you would like to read further. In a series of six recently-published articles, the relationship between childrens performance in school and various health problems was examined. In each of these articles, the authors reviewed numerous published research studies to look for patterns. Of all the health problems investigated, poor sleep was among the most unexpected and definitive causes of poor academic achievement. Most children need at least nine hours of restful sleep each night. However, for many reasons, school-aged children may receive less than the recommended amount. The reasons for this shortfall include the working, eating, and bedtime patterns of students and their families, early school-start times, and childhood sleep disorders.

http://www.tnpc.com/Readers_Corner/Poor%20Sleep,%20Poor%20Grades

Here we are enjoying lunch!

Unit of Inquiry- Cultural Stories

Central Idea: Stories can be used to express cultural ideas, values and beliefs Key Concepts: form, perspective Related Concepts: writing process, culture Lines of Inquiry elements of a story identifying cultural values and beliefs exploring personal culture and beliefs through the narrative process

Our first unit of inquiry for the year is Cultural Stories within the transdisciplinary theme How we express ourselves. This unit provides an excellent opportunity for children to explore their own culture, German culture and other cultures from around the world through stories.

English Language
Parents often ask how they can help their child to do well at school. The best thing you can do is to encourage your child to be an enthusiastic and confident reader by reading to them often and having them read to you. We would like our students to read every night that they possibly can. Last year some students read for over 300 nights in the school year, which is a significant achievement. This helped them to develop not only their ability to read but also their vocabulary, spelling and grammar skills as well as their writing skills. Please send the reading book and reading log back to school each morning so that we can hand out a new book. Your child is also welcome to read from the school library or from home for their home reading. As the unit of inquiry is about cultural stories English will be heavily integrated into the unit of inquiry. We will focus on teaching the children how to effectively use the writing process to tell a story containing all the needed parts. Through the writing process students will learn grammar, punctuation and spelling in a meaningful way. As they make errors an opportunity will arise to teach them the skills they need when they need them.

Home reading and a fun book cover sorting activity.

Maths
In our current unit the students will be exploring number. They will interact with the base ten number system by comparing and ordering numbers up to and including 10,000. We will also explore mental maths strategies related to addition and subtraction. We continue to encourage students to develop automaticity when adding and subtracting numbers within 20 for some and higher for others. In the latter half of our unit, students will investigate principles of probability. Students will determine the likelihood of real world events and make predictions about their occurrence.

Events Parents Share Stories We would like to encourage parents to come in and share stories from their culture with
the class.On this occasion we would like you to read in English. The students will ask you how this story reflects your culture so please come prepared with some ideas. We will be making time for these shared stories from the 2 of September to the 20 of September. If you would like to come in please contact your class teacher to arrange a time.

Morning tea of Cultural Food

On September the 18 we will be holding a special morning tea of foods from other cultures. We would like you too send in a plate of food to share. The food can come from your culture but it does not have to if you want to explore another culture. This is a student-only event.

Publishing Party
On Friday the 27 of September from 11:45 to 12:30 PYP 2 and 3 will be holding a book launch at which the students will present their own books. We invite all parents to please put aside this time to share this special experience of authorship with your child.

Physical Education
with Mr. Q
In our first unit of inquiry, students will explore the power of movement as a mode of storytelling. With music and our personal experiences as inspiration, we will develop individual and group performances. Students will have an opportunity to develop specific dance skills and improve their confidence on the stage. Students will work together to create a dance-story based on a culture they are familiar with or have been learning about in their homeroom lessons.

Music
with Ms Greenberg
In music, the students will be inquiring into song tales, which are songs that tell stories. They will be working together to create their own song tales as a summative assessment. Additionally, they will continue strengthening their sense of rhythm through the use of rhythmic syllables like ta, ti-ti, ta-ah, and ti-ri-ti-ri.

German as a Foreign Language

Beginner PYP 2 with Frau Giesecke
In this unit we will learn about colors, letters, animals and our preferences. We will be able to talk about ourselves and learn how to write and read basic vocabulary related to our unit. We will also be able to ask each other questions about these things. We will read and retell picture stories that are part of our culture.

German as a Foreign Language

Advanced PYP 2 with Frau Schneider
In this unit, students will focus on how to use the verb. They will learn about the conjugation and the different endings of verbs. Verbs are important for writing! We will speak about fairy tales and read some in German. Are there other fairy tales in our own languages? Do we know any German fairy tales? Students will compare the names of fairy tales and learn that Little Red Riding Hood is Rotkppchen.We will have time for our language games on Friday and increase our vocabulary about different themes.

German Mother Tongue

PYP 2 with Frau Abbasi
Im muttersprachlichen Deutschunterricht setzen wir uns mit der Thematik Mrchen auseinander. Wir werden die Mrchen der Brder Grimm lesen und errtern. In einer Mrchen-Werkstatt wird nicht nur das sinnentnehmende Lesen gefrdert, sondern auch das Nacherzhlen gebt. Die Schler bringen Mrchenteile in die richtige Reihenfolge und prfen ihr Verstndnis. Sie lernen Mrchenmerkmale kennen und verfassen anschlieend ihr eigenes Mrchen. Routinen im Schulalltag sind besonders wichtig, daher werden die Schler jeden Montag ihre Montagsgeschichten schreiben und Mittwochs in der Schulbcherei lesen und am Antolin-Leseprogramm arbeiten.