Friday, January 17, 2020

Week 19


Dear Parents and Students,

We have reached our last full week of the first semester! Next week will only be three days long, as next Thursday will be the first day of our Chinese New Year vacation. We will then return on the following Thursday, 30th January, for a very brief two-day week before the second semester officially begins on February 3rd. We finished this week with a very special Lion Dance, performed by Grade 4 students, to celebrate Chinese Week. We also have a number of special activities next week, as outlined at the bottom of this post.

In the Classroom:

Maths
We have almost completed Topic 10, which has shown us how to find equivalent fractions and fractions in simplest forms, and how to convert improper fractions into mixed numbers and back again. We will complete the topic next week, and then we will spend Tuesday's lesson reviewing the topic before the Topic Test on Wednesday.

Literacy Workshop
We have continued with our Reading Circles activities, and some very interesting discussions have taken place about our current story, My Name Is María Isabel. In our grammar lessons, we have continued our study of adjectives. We will continue with adjectives next week, including comparatives and superlatives.


Science
We had a lot of fun on Wednesday and Friday, as we completed our practical assignment involving paper planes, and we will continue our investigations next week. We have also had some insightful discussions about force, friction, mass, and weight, and how they might differ under different conditions, including on the moon!

Social Studies
We have completed our study of the American Northeast, and spent the final few lessons this week reviewing what we have learned before we sat an open-book test on Thursday. Next week, we will shift our attention to the Southeast, and we will compare the two regions, along with similar and contrasting areas around the world.

Other important information
As the seasons are about to turn, the weather has been very changeable, which often makes us more susceptible to contracting illnesses such as the flu outbreak we experienced back in November. Students at HIS are quite diligent when it comes to washing hands and wearing masks when necessary, and this helps to avoid contagious colds and similar ailments. Some illnesses are potentially more serious than others, however, and further precautions should be taken. If your child has a fever, or symptoms such as vomiting or a very sore throat, please keep them at home so that they can get plenty of rest and any necessary treatment. This also helps to prevent passing illness on to others. Taking a day or two off school to fully recover is a far more effective remedy than trying to 'tough it out' and attending class when not completely healthy.

Next week, we will continue our Chinese Week celebrations. On Tuesday, 21st January, the Chinese & ESL class will be together to make dumplings in the class. Students should  bring a bowl and  chopsticks to eat the dumplings in class. On Wednesday, 22nd January, it's our Red Day. Please remember to wear red, as we will be taking a group photo including the entire elementary school. We will also be having dumplings and radish cakes for lunch that day, so bring your chopsticks again!
I hope you all enjoy your weekend, and I will see you all Monday. Please remember to wear red on Wednesday, and bring your chopsticks!

Dates to remember:
Mon – Wed,    Jan 20 – 22      Chinese Week
Tue.                 Jan 21:             Cooking dumplings in Chinese/ESL – bring a bowl and chopsticks
Wed.                Jan 22              Dress in RED, bring chopsticks for lunch
                                                Maths test – Topic 10
Jan 23 – Feb 2                         Chinese New Year Vacation
Fri.                  Feb 14:            Valentines Day
Mon.               Feb 17:            Clubs start
Feb 17 – Feb 21:                     Literacy Week


Students of the Week

Yusei, Xavier, Riko, and Yolanda
Well done, everyone!


(and feel free to add your own!)

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