General Information
We would like to welcome you to Year Two at Discovery College. We would like to welcome back all of the students who were in Year One last year, as well as the new students and families who have also joined our Discovery College community.
Our three classes are taught by Mrs Amy Barry (2ABY), Ms Shu-King Pang (2SPG) and Mrs Kristy Baron (2KBN). We are also very lucky to have three Educational Assistants working along side us. Our EA’s are working in our classes full time to assist each of the teachers as well as all of our students. Our Year Two EA’s are Mrs Eleanor Brooks (2ABY), Mrs Nicki McDonald (2SPG) and Ms Abbie Tsang (2KBN).
We also have Year Two parent representatives who will be arranging activities for both Year Two students and their parents throughout the year. They are Julie Mexted, Pam Mueller, Sam Kynaston and Koren Thomas. Please approach any of these people if you have any ideas about activities that you might like to organize for the Year Two students and parents.
These web pages will be updated on a fortnightly basis, so please see our ‘news’ tab and our ‘multimedia’ tabs each fortnight to see an update on what has been happening in our classes.
If you would like to contact any of the teachers you may choose to email us at;
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We are looking forward to having a great year with you and your children.
Regards,
The Year Two Team
2ABY Show&Tell Calendar 09-10:
2KBN Show&Tell Calendar 09-10:
2SPG Show&Tell Calendar 09-10:
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Maths
Maths Calendar:
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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
Chinese
Dear Year 2 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
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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 |
| Colours and Clothes | Vocabulary：
红色，黄色，蓝色，绿色，橙色，紫色，粉红色，白色，黑色
衣服，上衣，裤子，裙子，帽子，鞋子，手套，袜子，短裤，短袖
Sentence Patterns:
我穿________________。 | 4 weeks
|
| Body parts | Vocabulary：
头，手，眼睛，鼻子，嘴巴，耳朵，眉毛, 头发，脸，脚，腿
大，小，长，短，高，不高，
Sentence Patterns：
他有大眼睛。 | 4 weeks |
| Animals | Vocabulary：
狗， 猫， 马，羊， 大象， 老虎， 狮子， 兔子
Sentence Patterns：
我喜欢猫。 | 4 weeks |
Unit Information
Unit 1
Transdisciplinary theme: Who we are
An exploration of the nature of the self; of our beliefs and values; of personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; of our families, friends, communities and cultures; of our rights an responsibilities; of what it means to be human.
Central Idea:
Relationships are enhanced by learning about other people’s perspectives and communicating your own.
An inquiry into:
- Reasons for conflict
- Appreciating others’ perspectives
- How differences can be communicated and resolved
Unit 2
Transdisciplinary theme: How we organize ourselves
An exploration of the nature of the self; of our beliefs and values; of personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; of our families, friends, communities and cultures; of our rights an responsibilities; of what it means to be human.
Central Idea:
An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; societal decision-making; economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.
An inquiry into:
- What is meant by a system.
- Factors that effect the kinds of systems that can be developed.
- Relationships between systems and the community.
- Ways of finding out how a system works.
Unit 3
Transdisciplinary 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:
Celebrations are an opportunity to reflect and appreciate cultures and beliefs.
An inquiry into:
- Types of celebrations and their characteristics.
- Significant times of the year and their relationships to celebrations.
- Similarities and differences across celebrations.
Unit 4
Transdisciplinary theme: How the world works
An inquiry into the natural world and its 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:
Forces impact on movement.
An inquiry into:
- Different forces and their properties.
- The impact of forces on our lives.
- How forces make our lives easier.
Unit 5
Transdisciplinary theme
An exploration of our orientation in place and time; of our personal histories, of history and geography from local and global perspective, of our homes and journeys, of the discoveries, explorations and immigrations of humankind, of the contributions of individuals and civilizations.
Central Idea:
Where I live has a history and special features.
An inquiry into:
- The features of local environment / country.
- The history of our local environment / the country that we live in.
- Comparisons with other regions within our country.
- Ways which we can represent this.
Unit 6
Transdisciplinary theme: Sharing the planet
An exploration of our rights and responsibilities as we strive to share the finite resources with other living things; of the communities and of the relationships within and between them.
Central Idea:
Water is a resources that is connected to all living things.
An inquiry into:
- The needs of living things.
- Where water comes from.
- How humans affect water resources.
News
19th May 2010
Wow! What a busy two weeks!
It was great to see so many excited Year Two students at our sleepover. It was a huge success and we would like to thank all of the children for their enthusiasm and beautiful behavior during this special night. It was a very memorable and exciting experience for everyone! It was lovely to see everyone so involved and we really enjoyed all of our fantastic activities including our night walks, disco, quiet story time and the fantastic food!
Finally, sports day! After a couple of cancellations due to bad weather, sports day has finally arrived and what a great day! We have had a very successful day and everyone was very enthusiastic! We were able to participate in many different activities including hurdle jumping, sprinting, bean-bag throwing, and tug of war. It was a lot of fun competing against and supporting all of our friends and we are very excited to find out who will be the overall winning team! We would like to say a big thank you to all of the parents who came out to watch and support us! We particularly enjoyed seeing all of our Dads beat the teachers in a big tug of war!
We are getting ready to finish off our current unit on Water and have been planning our summative assessments. Throughout this unit we have been using our persuasive skills to inform others what action can be taken to keep our water clean and the responsibility we all must take when caring for our limited water resource. Using ICT skills we have been busy working hard to create a persuasive poster in order to convince others to get involved. The profiles that we have focused on were caring and principled and throughout this unit we have worked hard to do the right thing regarding water and to convince others to do the same as well.
In Language we have continued learning about persuasive writing. We will use our persuasive writing skills during our summative assessment on our Water unit to persuade others to take action in regards to being responsible in regards to our water usage.
In Maths we are continuing our unit on multiplication and repeated addition and will be moving towards fractions and division. We have been busy creating equal groups and applying addition and multiplication sentences to these groupings to represent them. We have enjoyed applying our knowledge to create and solve worded story problems demonstrating our understanding and have enjoyed showing our understanding when playing different Maths games. We will also start looking at capacity and will explore different tools used to measure capacity and the specific units used.
Please enjoy our updated photos of some exciting events in our classes, as well as our Sleepover and Sports Day on the “Multimedia” tab on our Year Two web page.
News archive
PYP 
