22 Sep 2017

Year 4 Update – Wk 6

Tuesday 26th September – Parent Teacher Consultations

Wednesday 25th September – Deadline for Camp T-shirt design competition (see Home Learning section)

Thursday 28th September – Parent Teacher Consultations

Thursday 28th September – Mid-Autumn Festival Market Day

Friday 29th September – BHS Colours Day (see below)

Friday 29th September – Half Term begins

Monday 9th October – First day back

Tuesday 10th October – Year 4 Camp Information Evening at 6 pm (more details to follow)

Tuesday 26th September and Thursday 28th September – Parent Teacher Consultations

This is a polite reminder to sign up for a Parent Teacher Consultation appointment for the coming Tuesday and Thursday. You can do this via the Gateway.

International School Assessments

International School Assessments (ISAs) will take place next week. Please let your class teacher know if you are going on holiday early or will be away from school at any point next week.

Giving Back to our Community: Colours Day – Friday 29th September

As part of our 50th celebrations we are aiming to give back to our community by holding an Action Day on the 8th December in partnership with Bethune House, Sunshine Action, Sai Kung Stray Dogs and Soap Cycling. On the 8th December each year group will have the opportunity to help make food parcels to help those who are in need in Hong Kong. More details will follow about that day as we get closer to it. We are aiming high and the amount of money we need to raise equates to $250 per child.

To kick-start our fundraising, we are going to have 4 days of lunchtime activities where children can make a minimum donation of HK$20 to join in fun events such as karaoke. This will build up to a very special day on Friday 29th September we are calling ‘Colours Day’ where all children will take part in one of two sponsored events – either a sponsored walk/run or a sponsored readathon depending on their interest. Each year group will have half an hour for the events. Sponsor forms can be downloaded and printed off from today’s Newsletter. We encourage all our students and their families to support this day of action to help in our drive to support those in our community who are in need. And of course, on Friday 29th all students should come dressed in their house colours.

Start of School Arrangements

A kind reminder about the school start time. Also, please make sure your child understands that they need to stay in the playground until the Year 4 sign has been raised. We are reminding them of this too, but would appreciate the extra support! Please note that students should not arrive at school before 8.30am. Teachers are on duty from 8.30am. Any child who arrives early cannot be supervised.

Healthy Living at BHS

We promote healthy living at BHS and therefore children should only bring water to school. Please do not send milk drinks, sugary drinks or any other kind of drink including soy or milk drinks. We have water fountains and taps where students can refill their (BHS) water bottles throughout the day.

School Book Bags

Well done to all those children who are now remembering to bring in their book bags. Please keep it up!

Your child needs a named book bag in school to carry their reading books to and from school, this is for both home readers and library books. This means that the younger children will need to remember their book bag everyday, it should contain their reading book, reading journal and on library days, library books. The reading journal is an important part of the communication between you and your child’s teacher, please remember to add a positive comment when you have read with your child.

Y4 Teacher Contact Information

4F – Mrs Fennelly – charlotte.fennelly@bhs.edu.hk

4L – Miss Fisher – laura.fisher@bhs.edu.hk

4W – Miss Wu – jane.wu@bhs.edu.hk

Year 4 Learning Support Teacher – Ms Mak – haymen.mak@bhs.edu.hk

Vice Principal – Mr Thompson – andy.thompson@bhs.edu.hk

Sharing Day

Didn’t they do well? We are so proud of our students and likewise, we’re sure you’re proud of your children. Most importantly, we hope they are proud of themselves! The children had the opportunity to share dance, drama, music, poetry, audio-visuals and visual art during their morning with you.

For those that couldn’t attend, or for those that want to reminisce, take a look at the photos below. You can also click on this link to view many more. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-9aswVL6ohCb0ZvT2JDYVFmY2s

Maths

We have continued on with our area and perimeter learning, exploring ways the same area can have difference perimeters, and vice versa. Some students have enjoyed this fun interactive tool, which they can continue to play at home if allowed. Click on the link to have a look! http://www.transum.org/Maths/Activity/PhET/Area_Builder.asp

English

This week has been about publishing! The children have worked really hard in order to prepare final drafts of their poems for display and for their anthologies. We hope you enjoyed them.

And of course, how could we forgot the fantastic poetry wall co-created by family members and the children during sharing day.

Next week we will reflect on our Beliefs and Values unit and will begin our new unit of inquiry …

Sharing the Planet: Interdependence of living things can affect their survival.

Lines of Inquiry
An inquiry into:

Different types of livings things (Form)
What living things need to survive (Connection)
Human responsibility to the survival of living things(Responsibility)

We will be thinking about our favourite creatures, compiling some basic facts about them and sharing these with each other in order to identify similarities and differences between them.

Measurement: Area and Perimeter

Central Idea

Events have attributes that can be measured using appropriate tools.

Lines of Inquiry

An inquiry into:

The selection and correct use of standard units

Next week the children will be finishing off their work on area and perimeter and completing two maths assessments as part of the ISAs assessments.

Image result for writers workshop graphic

Next week the children will be introduced to the ESF Writing Competition (A Story in 50 Words) and will also be writing both a fiction and nonfiction text for their International School Assessments (ISAs).

Congratulations to this week’s Golden Book certificate winners!

4F – Glendon Tsui and Bryce Wong

4L – Jayden Tong and Sophie Wong

4W – Vera Kwan

Music – Vera Kwan

Here’s a picture of last week’s Golden Book Certificate winners.

4F – Aidan Chow

4L – Christine Chiu

4W – Avi Lam & Rakin Khan

Mandarin – Isaac Presley

homelearning

Home Learning Tasks – Year 4 Home Learning 22.9.17

The new Home Learning has been explained to the students today and is due on Wednesday 11th of October. An email will be sent home to parents today explaining in more detail and with examples.

We believe Home Learning should be worthwhile and engaging for all students.

Year 3 and 4 are trialling this new approach to Home Learning, which promotes 4 key skills…

Time management
Creativity
Independence
Communication

This Home Learning style is based on a successful project at Bradbury School (2017).

Any questions or feedback please don’t hesitate to contact us (see the contact details above).

Camp T-shirt Design Competition

Please have a go at designing a T-shirt for us all to wear on Year 4 Camp.

It must include the following information…

– Beacon Hill School

– Year 4 Camp 2017

– Cheung Chau

You may use a maximum of 4 colours in your design and then everything should be outlined in black pen. Design should be on A4 white paper.

Winning design will be on everyone’s T-shirt.

Runner up’s design will be on everyone’s Camp booklet.

Deadline: Wednesday 27th September

Spelling

The children have a list of words they need to learn. They should practise these at home in preparation for “buddy spelling tests” (the children testing each other) in class next week.

Reading

The children have been given their Home Reading Journals and are expected to read for 20 minutes per day at their given comprehension age. Children will record the title of their book in their journal. Please discuss your child’s reading and leave a comment in the journal so that they can change their book.
To support their reading development, please make sure of the following:

Home reading should be fun not a chore.
Keep the timing short, find a comfy, quiet space and have a chat about what your child is reading. This really helps to develop their comprehension skills.
There is information about comprehension at the beginning of the journal, which you can use to help guide your discussion with your child. Please also refer to information your class teacher has sent out to you about how to help your child at home.

Mathematics
All children should aim to spend 30 minutes per week completing their assigned Mathletics tasks and/or practising their times tables.

Mandarin (All children are encouraged to take a reading book home on the days when they have Mandarin lessons.)

Ms Lynn (Home learning #3) – Please check your google classroom for details.

Ms Xu – 朗读学过的课文，记得有时间读中文书，写读书报告。