Term 2 Week 2

Central Idea:  Natural materials can undergo changes that may provide challenges and benefits for society and the environment

Science - This unit of inquiry involves the students in thinking and communication skills. As they learn about retrieval and use of natural materials from the earth, they also have to think about how they are going keep organised notes and how to present the information as a book, video or other resource. In this way, the inquiry learning has two purposes. Firstly, the content knowledge has to learned and there needs to be some thought as to how we can make a difference towards protecting our environment from huge companies destroying it with mines. Secondly, the student then has to think about how to share this information so that it has a wide audience. We. discussed several digital solutions to this.

Please discuss how local issues relate to our central idea. Here is an example.

English - the above task is closely interlinked with our English work. This has involved a lot of reading and vocabulary extension. The scientific texts we are reading are challenging. Many of these are also available on Get Epic, and so please ask your child to keep up the reading at home. Keeping organised notes is one of the main English objectives we have been addressing. Students are learning that 'copy & paste' functions on the keyboard are not allowed.

Maths - Miss Charlie has been ill for a couple of days, and so she will update you with information as soon as she recovers. The main point to keep in mind is to revise for the assessment on Jan 22nd.

PSPE This week we talked a lot about teamwork. There are still opportunities for Year to improve in this area. We've learned the word ' empathy' and are thinking about how to show a greater depth of this kind of caring within our classroom.

PYP Exhibition - here is a something we discussed this week. The students agreed that Caine :
1.had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve.
2. Kept going even when he had only one customer
3. exercised his creativity and thinking skills
4. helped the environment by reusing junk.

Please have a talk with your child and help them to keep the focus on the PYP Exhibition process. At the weekends they should be doing something practical towards it. Please ask me if you need more explanation.

Next week-
We will continue working on the Science / English task. The challenge is:
Research  a case of the retrieval of a natural resource and show the impact of retrieval, production and use of the  materials on the environment. 
Here is the link to the document used to assess the work. This work interweaves both English and Science. Please discuss it with your child.