General Information
Welcome to Year 1 at Discovery College!
Year 1 is the beginning of a long journey for your child. It is the most important year in a small child’s life because it is the start of his/her formal education. We feel privileged to be a part of this process. We know that you are also eager to share in this learning journey with them and we look forward to supporting you to do this. There are many important milestones that lie ahead as the children learn to read and write, grow in their independence and responsibility and develop strong friendships with their peers. An exciting time lies ahead for us all!
The 2009/2010 Year 1 team consists of Mrs Kellie Gallagher (1 KGR), Miss Sarah Bennett (1 SBT) and Mrs Loretta Romano (1LRO). We are well supported in our classroom activities by a wonderful group of Educational Assistants namely Mrs Jo Hine, Mrs Maren Gasser and Mrs Claudia Richardson who work tirelessly to assist with the day-to-day activities in each class. We are also fortunate to have the expertise of Mrs Lizzie Hudson and Mr Jonathan Climas who work regularly in our classrooms as part of the Learning Development team providing ongoing support for the needs of our students.
To contact us please use our email addresses as listed.
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We look forward to a year full of many new experiences, rewarding moments and ongoing achievements.
Warm regards
The Year 1 teachers
1KGR Timetable
| 1LRO Timetable
| 1SBT Timetable
|
Home Learning Blogs
Home Learning Year 1
Inquiry Unit Information
UNIT 1
Transdiscipinary Theme - Who we are
An inquiry into the nature of self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it is to be human.
Central Idea
As I learn about myself, I learn about others
Lines of Inquiry
- Ways in which we are similar and different
- How we learn together and our responsibility
- How our bodies enable us to do things
Teacher Questions
How can we find out more about each other?
How do our bodies work?
What are our responsibilities?
How are we connected to each other?
Concepts
Connection
Responsibility
Learner Profile
Caring
Balanced
Risk takers
UNIT 2
Transdiscipinary Theme – How we organize ourselves
An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organisations; societal decision-making; economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.
Central Idea
In a community people share responsibilities towards a common purpose.
Lines of Inquiry
• Various communities we belong to
• Roles and responsibilities within a community
• Making contributions towards a community
Teacher Questions
How are you part of the community?
What are the different roles within communities?
What is your responsibility as a community member?
Concepts
Function
Responsibility
Learner Profile
Principled
Caring
Communicator
UNIT 3
Transdiscipinary Theme – Where we are in place and time
An inquiry into the orientation of place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
Central Idea
People’s journey’s create change and lead to new possibilities.
Lines of Inquiry
- Our personal history
- Changes people around us have experienced in their lives
- Reasons people undertake journeys
Teacher Questions
How have I changed?
What other changes have taken place in our own and other peoples’ lives?
What influences people to make changes in their lives?
Concepts
Causation
Change
Learner Profile
Inquirers
Open-minded
Reflective
UNIT 3
Transdiscipinary Theme – Where we are in place and time
An inquiry into the orientation of place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
Central Idea
People’s journey’s create change and lead to new possibilities.
Lines of Inquiry
- Our personal history
- Changes people around us have experienced in their lives
- Reasons people undertake journeys
Teacher Questions
How have I changed?
What other changes have taken place in our own and other peoples’ lives?
What influences people to make changes in their lives?
Concepts
Causation
Change
Learner Profile
Inquirers
Open-minded
Reflective
UNIT 4
Transdiscipinary Theme – How we express ourselves
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
Central Idea
Stories inform, provoke and give us pleasure.
Lines of Inquiry
- What a story is
- The messages stories convey
- How stories are shared
Teacher Questions
What is a story?
How stories are shared?
What are the different perspectives in stories?
Concepts
Connection
Perspective
Reflection
Learner Profile
Communicators
Knowledgeable
Reflective
UNIT 5
Transdiscipinary Theme – How the world works
An inquiry into the natural world and it’s laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and the environment.
Central Idea
The environment is affected by climatic conditions that impact on living things.
Lines of Inquiry
- Different climates in our world
- The impact of climatic conditions on the environment
- How people adapt to their environment
Teacher Questions
What are the different environments?
How does the climate affect the ecosystem?
How do people adapt to their environment?
Concepts
Form
Causation
Learner Profile
Inquirers
Thinkers
UNIT 6
Transdiscipinary Theme – Sharing the planet
An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.
Central Idea
Living things have certain requirements that are needed for growth and survival.
Lines of Inquiry
- Characteristics of living things
- The conditions that living things need to survive
- Our responsibility towards living things
Teacher Questions
What are the characteristics of living things? What do living things need to grow and survive?
What is our responsibility in maintaining a healthy environment?
Concepts
Function
Responsibility
Learner Profile
Knowledgeable
Thinker
MATHS LEARNING TARGETS
Throughout our Year 1 Mathematics units, the students are working towards achieving targets that show their understanding of the content and their ability to implement them in various contexts. Student success for each ‘I can’ statement is measured through their formative and summative assessments, a range of ‘hands-on’ classroom activities and observation of the student’s understandings as well as independent working skills.
Ongoing targets
We cover a number of ongoing targets which we focus on throughout the year. They are very important and will be regularly revised in class. We also encourage that the students revise these concepts regularly at home to keep them fresh in their minds.
Unit 1
Numbers to 10, 2D shapes, patterns, data handling and length.
Please refer to the Maths target card below.
Unit 2
Ordinal Numbers, Odd & Even Numbers, Addition & Subtraction, Time – Sequencing
Unit 3
Data Collection, Time - Sequencing - Time - Clocks
Unit 4
Number- Place Value, Addition and Subtraction
Shape and Space- Positional words, Mapping
Parent information booklets
These targets show some of the things your child should be able to do by the end of a particular year level. These expectations are from the English National Curriculum, which is the basis of the ESF Scope and Sequence document, which along with the IB Scope and Sequence informs the curriculum for primary at Discovery College.
Some targets are harder than they seem and not all children will be proficient on all of them by the end of a given year. Therefore classroom programmes are flexible and aim to meet the needs of groups of students working at the different levels of the curriculum.
Pre Year 1
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Math ideas at home
Do-Anytime Math Activities 1
Do-Anytime Math Activities 2
English
Reading
The secret to children’s early reading successes are regular practise and time to discuss the storyline. Just asking a few questions about the story helps children reflect on what has been read. We encourage you to return to the text if they have not quite understood. Comprehension is necessary because decoding words is only one part of reading; it is important that the reader makes meaning from the text.
Don’t forget the value of the pictures. Children love to gain visual clues from the pictures on each page. Use the pictures by asking your child to make predictions of the storyline based on what they can see and then check by reading the text. Much in-depth discussion can occur using this method to complement the reading process.
Encourage your child to re-read a passage or sentence where there has been some difficulty decoding. This is a very good strategy because when children need to decode a word it slows down the fluency and meaning is often lost. Re-reading is a good strategy to adopt.
Here are some other helpful hints:
- Daily home reading is important
- Give ‘wait’ time before telling your child the word
- If he/she needs a prompt use a sound action or clue to promote thinking
- Do not rush through the books – spend time asking questions to check understanding
Sounds Revision
Please make a regular time to go through the letter sounds. A few sounds each day, with the actions, should keep them in the children’s minds. This can occur incidentally, as you read a bedtime story (by looking for the sounds you are focusing on) or even by playing a game of “I Spy” as you travel around Hong Kong. It is easy to incorporate the sounds work into the day; it just takes a bit of thought and sometimes creativity.
A method to help reinforce two-letter sounds (blends) is to find matching rhyming words. Many of these sounds are located in the middle or at the end of words. Writing lists of rhyming words will also assist with handwriting practice and prove useful for revision work at a later date.
Writing
As mentioned it is very important to revisit the sounds as these equip the children with the knowledge they need to begin the writing process and further develop their writing skills. It has been fabulous to see the children really listening for the sounds in each word they write. At first they may hear only one or two of the most obvious sounds. As they continue developing and practising they will be able to identify more sounds in the words they are writing. Please praise all attempts when they are involved in writing tasks at home.
A great way to keep a record of special events or family outings is to use a diary/journal. After discussion and reflection of an event the children can write a sentence about their activities and complete it with an illustration or attach a photograph. It doesn’t have to take much time. A writing book could become a valuable record for the future as well as having the children write for a real purpose. Just imagine how much fun they will have sharing the book with other family members. A very powerful tool for identifying and writing the sounds heard in words. At home, any writing practise is an excellent way to check phonic awareness and enables focus on correct letter formation.
Spelling
It doesn’t take long before the Year 1 children become more adept at identifying words they need to spell/write. Our classroom spelling activities encourage the students to examine words to make them easier to remember. By discussing vowels and how they work with other letters, word shapes, words within words, blends etc. the children gain further insight into how language works. The aim is that they will be able to transfer this understanding and apply it to the spelling of words in their daily writing tasks. Later, the LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK method will be introduced as a way for the children to examine and practise spelling commonly used words.
The joy of learning to read (2009)
Chinese
Dear Year 1 Parents and students,
Welcome to Chinese. We are your Chinese teachers, Susan Peng, Suvy Shu and Debbie Tai. Below is some general information about Chinese class this year. It may help you know how we learn.
Lesson
Each topic/ lesson will contain vocabulary, characters, sentence patterns, and integral applications. We will use several learning materials as our resources. If you have any questions about our lesson plans, pedagogy, or suggestions, please contact us through the student diary or E-mail, which you can find on the school website.
Homework
This year, our homework policy remains the same as last year. We will give out homework on Monday and collect the previous week’s homework at the same time. There will be two folders; one for homework and one for classroom work. The classroom folder will be kept at school and made into a learning portfolio at the end of the year. Year One doesn’t have any writing homework.
Expectation
We expect students to always come to class with stationery, Chinese folders, and prepared minds for learning. Meanwhile, may we ask the parents to kindly make sure students complete their homework and bring them it in on time. When parents and teachers work together, the possibility for successful learning will be maximized! Before and after holidays, there will be a week for preparation and revision so homework might be in an alternative format.
On-line resources
There are some helpful web links for Chinese learning. It can give you a hand when you do homework or learn at home. Find out what they are about!
-Online Dictionary http://us.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
MDBG is a free but very useful online Chinese-English dictionary. This website offers dictionary both in Chinese to English and English to Chinese, flashcards, quizzes, text annotation, Chinese text input and more.
More will be coming…
Textbook
In non-background class, all the lessons are by theme. There is not a sole textbook we use as resource. If any student wants to do some extra learning, support books called “Chinese Made Easy” can be found in PTA shop. They come in textbook and activities books. There are four levels. Parents can help the student to pick the level suits them. (Year Three starts with Book 1) In background glass, teachers are using 小学华文 as textbook. Each selected lesson will be copied and given to students. The publisher of 小学华文is called 人民教育出版社. The distributer can be found in Hong Kong as following information:
SAP Publications (HK) Ltd.
23 Nam Long Shan Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Tel.: (852) 2553 9188 Fax: (852) 2533 0099
You can place an order from the following bookshops:
- T H LEE & Co Ltd (天利行有限公司)
Mongkok Branch - Tel. No.: 2388 1743
Causeway Bay Branch - Tel. No.: 2527 7430 - Commercial Press (商務印書館)
Shatin Branch - 2693 1933
CP Plus, Mei Foo Branch - 2741 1030 - Ling Kee Book Store Ltd (齡記書店有限公司)
Kowloon Branch - 2394 3486
Central Branch - 2545 1540
Other Mandarin Questions
1. How are the students divided into Pathways?
The Mandarin Pathway system is common to all ESF and PIS schools. It has been established to help students learn Mandarin at their level. The range of Mandarin proficiency is very wide, as some students enter the school with no experience of the language while for others it is their mother tongue and they are proficient at speaking and listening when they enter Year One. Each of these groups of students has different needs. At Discovery College we have three Pathways and three teachers. Students are tested either at the beginning of the year or in some cases at the end of the previous year. They are then divided into their groups. Over the year students may move from one group to another if, in the judgment of the teacher, their needs will be best served by doing so.
2. How does the homework system work in Mandarin?
The purpose of Mandarin homework is to give students opportunities to practise skills learnt in class and to share what they are learning with their parents. Homework is given to students on Mondays, they then have a week to complete it and it is returned to the teacher the following Monday. A special folder is used to organize the homework.
3. How proficient in Mandarin can I expect my child to be?
It is important to understand that while Discovery College is committed to providing a comprehensive Mandarin program our language of instruction is English. We do not provide an immersion program in which some subjects are taught in Mandarin, neither are we a bilingual school. With this understood, we aim to provide a program which will allow students to achieve a standard of proficiency over their time at the school commensurate with their ability and commitment. Many parents choose to supplement the school program with after school tutoring in order to give their children the opportunity to achieve a higher level of proficiency than can be achieved by in school classes.
4. How can I contact my child’s teacher?
If you have any other questions about Mandarin please forward them to Debbie Tai at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
and we will endeavour to answer them in future newsletters. If you want to discuss your child’s progress with their Mandarin teacher please email them to make an appointment. Email addresses for all the teachers are on the web site In the mornings they are very busy preparing for the day and cannot give you the time both you and they need to talk about your child’s progress.
Hope the above information can help you and the learning!
| Topic | Language Focus
| Duration |
| Numbers | Vocabulary:
一至十 | 4 weeks
|
| Family | Vocabulary:
爸爸，妈妈，姐姐，哥哥，弟弟，妹妹 | 4 weeks |
Fruits and Colours
| Vocabulary:
水果，苹果，香蕉，西瓜，草莓，橙，菠萝，柠檬，红色，黄色，蓝色，绿色，紫色，橙色
Sentence： ________好吃。__________不好吃。 | 4 weeks |
News
YEAR 1 – FEBRUARY NEWS
What a fantastic first half of term 2! We have been very busy and have enjoyed many learning experiences and fun activities so far.
Perceptual Motor Programme
The children have enjoyed their introduction to the PMP program and are now beginning to get involved in a variety of fun and challenging activities. A big thank you to all our parent volunteers, we couldn’t run this valuable program without you! If you would like to join your child’s class and assist with running a station please contact Lizzie Hudson (
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).
Unit of Inquiry
We have just finished our unit on ‘Journeys’ and the children have done a wonderful job completing a task based on a personal journey that they have taken.
Beginning this week, classes will start our new unit, ‘Stories’, which promises to be enjoyable and engaging for the students. In the week after the Chinese New Year break, we ask if children could bring along an artifact such as a picture, ornament, toy etc that tells a story in order to share with the class. Please ensure that it is named.
Show and Tell will continue in the classes with the students asked to bring along their favourite story to share. Details from your child’s class teacher will be or have been forwarded to you.
Sounds/Phonics Folders
All classes have now completed the phonics program and students are no longer required to bring their folder with them to school. We highly encourage the students to revise their sounds and actions, especially the digraphs/blends which will be of great assistance in their literacy skills. Please ensure that all pages are completed and continue to practise writing letters independently in the empty spaces on the pages, on whiteboards and blackboards or even in sand or steam from the bath or shower.
Homework
After the Chinese New Year break, Year 1 students will begin homework tasks that are completed on a weekly basis. More detail will come closer to the time.
Lost & Found
All lost and found items are currently on display in the main reception of the school. If your child has lost an item, please visit the reception to see if you can retain it. This is also a reminder to ensure that all items brought to school are clearly named so they can be returned to your child promptly.
Reading books and Tubs
Year 1 students will not be bringing home book box books from Wednesday of this week. Please ensure that all books are returned to school, as we will be going through the boxes in order to swap the tubs over. After the holidays, new tubs will be in our shared area, which will mean new lists and a variety of books for the children to read each night.
Chinese New Year dress up day
On Friday (12th February), students are invited to come dressed in traditional Chinese outfits to help celebrate the upcoming New Year. It will be a fantastic day at school and we are all looking forward to the amazing whole school assembly on Friday.
We hope that you all enjoy a safe and happy Chinese New Year with your families!
KUNG HEI FAT CHOI from all of the Year 1 Teachers!
Year 1 News Archive
Unit information
To be updated
PYP 