General Information
Welcome to Year 5 at Discovery College. The Year 5 team consists of Mr. Marshall Hudson (5MHN), Mr. Matthew Gallagher (5MGR), Miss Edeh Nobari (5ENI) and Mrs. Hennie Cadenas (Educational Assistant).
Year 5 - Calendar
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Yearly Overview
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Maths overview
Maths overview (Year 5)
Maths targets
Learning targets (Fraction and Decimals)
Learning targets (2D Shapes & Measurement)
Learning targets (Calculating)
Learning targets (ongoing)
Learning targets- PV Patterns
Learning targets- Time (Part 1)
Learning targets- Time (Part 2)
Math Night
Here is a fun way to engage in mathematics with your child at home. The following website has some fantastic activities and ideas for parents and children to work on together.
http://orion.math.iastate.edu/mathnight/
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
Unit Information
Unit 1
Our first unit this term is about the Power of One. The Central Idea for this Unit of Inquiry is:
Individuals and groups can often be catalysts for big ideas or big impact on society.
During this unit we will inquire into;
- What motivates humans to support others
- Challenges individuals or groups have to overcome in bringing about change
- The effect individuals and groups have had on others
Key Concepts Focus: Connection and Causation
Unit 2
Our second unit this term will be on Communities. Our Central Idea for this unit will be;
All communities around the world need systems and services to meet their needs.
During this unit we will inquire into;
- The basic needs of all communities
- How the needs of communities vary
- What systems and services are required to meet the unique needs of different communities
Key Concepts Focus: Responsibility and Connection
Unit 3
Our third unit for the year is on the world’s natural resources, with a particular focus on ‘water’. Our Central Idea for this unit will be;
People can establish practises in order to sustain the world’s resources.
During this unit we will inquire into;
- The limited nature of the earth’s resources
- Cause and effect of how we use resources
- Personal choices that can help sustain the earth’s resources
Key Concepts Focus: Responsibility, Change and Causation
Unit 4
Our fourth unit will be on Indigenous Peoples. Our Central Idea for this unit will be;
The world’s indigenous peoples have changed over time.
During this unit we will inquire into;
- What it means to be indigenous
- How indigenous communities have changed over time
- What has caused these changes to occur
Key Concepts Focus: Form, Change and Causation
Unit 5
Our fifth unit is on Media. Our Central Idea for this unit will be;
Media influences how we think and the choices we make.
During this unit we will focus on advertising and will inquire into;
- The purpose, types and styles of advertising
- The persuasive techniques used in advertising
- The connection between advertising techniques and target groups.
Key Concepts Focus: Perspective, Function and Reflection
Unit 6
Our final unit this term will be on Space. Our Central Idea for this unit will be;
The Earth’s conditions and position in space make life sustainable.
During this unit we will inquire into;
- The structure and function of the solar system.
- The conditions on Earth that make Earth livable.
- How the position of the Earth in space affects these conditions.
Key Concepts Focus: Function and Causation
Updates
Advertising website
5ENI
Jinx Advertising Inc.
Adverts Sensation
Syndrome Ads
Golden Stars
Advertising Company
W.A.C.
5MHN
WSR2
Mr. Nac
Little Cheetahs
Fireflame
Astromark
Fun. Co.
5MGR
Ads 4 Eva
Adicts
ADex
AskJack
Galaxy
Zialas
Language/Unit of Inquiry
Our focus in language for the next few weeks is on reading, viewing and listening to inquire into our unit on space. Students will be exposed to a range of sources of information as they research topics related to the central idea. In writing, students will analyze various explanations, create success criteria and write their own explanations to show their understanding of the central idea.
Maths/Unit of Inquiry:
We are currently revisiting our shape unit. This time around, we are inquiring into 3D shapes.
Central Idea: Shapes have attributes that enable them to be described, measured, compared and used in real world situations.
An Inquiry Into:
Ways to describe 2D and 3D shapes
Units of measurement
The relationship between units for measuring shape
Multimedia
Term 1 highlight
2009 Year 5 camp highlight
Chinese
Dear Year 5 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 |
Communities
(UOI 7th week)
|
Vocabulary
电影院，商店，学校，医院，超市，车站，便利店，公园，会所，商场，社区， 路，楼，附近
sentence patterns我的社区有＊＊，你家附近有＊＊吗？有／没有
| 4 weeks
|
Clothes and colours
| vocabularies
衣服，蓝色短袖，红色上衣，黑色裤子，白色鞋子，帽子， 穿，戴
sentence patterns
他穿红色短袖，他穿白色鞋子。你喜欢什么颜色？我喜欢黄色。
| 4 weeks
|
Body parts
| Vocabularies
眼睛，鼻子，嘴巴，耳朵，头发，眉毛，手，头，个子，腿，脸，大， 小，长，短，高，矮，圆，方，弯，直。
Sentence patterns
他有大眼睛，他有短头发。他的脸圆圆的，他的眉毛弯弯的。
| 4 weeks
|
