Language
Year Two offers a variety of opportunities for students to build upon their Literacy Skills. They write for a variety of purposes and audiences. A range of text types is integrated with the General Studies units of work. The Star of the Week activity allows students to express their feelings and thoughts with confidence, in front of an audience. This activity further develops students’ speaking, listening and writing skills.
A comprehensive approach to reading allows students to develop a love of literature. The reading programme is comprised of guided reading, group reading and individualised reading. This programme provides opportunities to expand vocabulary and knowledge, to improve comprehension, to develop phonemic awareness, to independently choose suitable reading materials and to use reference material. Reading is closely monitored and student progress is assessed regularly.
Students develop independent writing skills through a variety of text types. They write personal and fictional stories, poems, instruction and description. Students learn to come to appreciate writing as a means of personal expression and communication.
Mathematics
The Year Two programme continues to focus on counting and the properties of number using a range of resources. These include the use of manipulatives and ICT programmes such as Mathletics. Students learn to use different strategies in addition, and subtraction to 100 and understand the relationship between the two operations. They also read and write numbers up to 1000, count forwards and backwards in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s. Problem solving tasks and strategies are explored and discussed. Students are exposed to mathematical names for common 2D and 3D shapes and fractions. Measurement and data handling are an integral part of the curriculum. Calendar work and telling time to the hour, quarter hour and half hour using analogue and digital forms are also addressed. Students organise and plot information using bar graphs, tallies and venn diagrams. They use a variety of measuring tools such as rulers, tape measures, clocks, scales and metre sticks to develop their measuring skills.
General Studies
Forces and Movements
This unit introduces the concept of forces to students. They explore moving things and classify forces as either a push or pull. They are able to express actions such as stretching, squeezing, twisting and turning as a push or pull force. Through investigations they explore the force of friction and have the opportunity to plan experiments to clarify their understanding of friction. This is a very practical unit and involves much hands-on experimentation. As part of this unit students have the chance to plan, design and evaluate a moving toy.
Lifestyles Diet
This unit introduces students to the food groups and they have the opportunity to classify food into categories and investigate the properties of the different food groups and the benefits of each. They come to understand that keeping healthy includes eating a variety of foods, exercising regularly, getting adequate sleep and following basic rules of hygiene. Students are introduced to the digestive system. They describe the major structure and function of major organs in the digestive system.
Properties of Liquids and Solids
This unit provides students with the opportunity to experiment with liquids and solids. They make and record their observations and question their findings. Students experiment with heating and cooling of liquids. They are introduced to the Scientific Inquiry Process and are encouraged to question and make predictions. Students discuss their findings and share their conclusions, using appropriate scientific vocabulary.
Life Cycles
During this unit students gain a greater appreciation of nature and at the same time learn about scientific concepts such as metamorphosis. They use a range of media to research a variety of mini beasts. Students observe and compare the physical and behavioural characteristics of a variety of animals, including insects. This unit involves field study and exposure to live specimens.
Culture & Celebrations
This unit provides opportunities for students to explore the customs and traditions associated with different cultures and their celebrations around the world. Students share and explore expressions of culture through customs, celebrations, traditions and language. Community participation is an essential element of this unit.
Families Past
This unit provides an opportunity for students to learn about their family and their personal history. They share their information with their classmates and reflect on the similarities and differences between their own and other families.
Music
The German Swiss International School Hong Kong offers a comprehensive and varied music programme.
Classroom Programme
Every class has two music lessons per week with a specialist music teacher. These lessons are a balance of LISTENING, COMPOSING, PERFORMING (singing, playing and moving) and cover a wide variety of musical styles. The focus is always on the concepts of music.
The programme aims to extend the child’s musical experience, knowledge and understanding of a wide variety of musical styles from all over the world. At the same time opportunity is given for children to draw on their own musical experience and knowledge and use their skills to enhance their learning.
The Year Two Programme
- Focus is on concepts of beat, rhythm and pitch.
- Children use tuned and untuned percussion to consolidate the concepts, create their own music to tell a story and reflect mood, using improvisation and simple notation.
- Introduction to all sections of the orchestra.
- Songs and listening works are chosen to reflect or relate to General Studies topics.
- Recorder lessons commence in the second half of the year.
Library
The Pok Fu Lam Campus library houses a wide range of good quality children’s fiction collection, an extensive reference library and a rich German collection. The Year One classes attend the library on a weekly basis. Students are encouraged to care for and borrow books on a regular basis. The small but exciting library will provide opportunities to enjoy books and inspire the love of reading. Full access to online databases and references is available in the library.
Learning Technology
Learning Technology is a digital tool which supports cognitive development, problem solving and thinking skills; It enables students to construct, represent and remix their own and others knowledge from the vast amounts of information available to them.
Learning Technology is represented by a combination of hardware and software solutions. In the EPD students are exposed to a range of hardware solutions such as laptops, video recorders, data-loggers, sound recorders and GPS. The majority of software solutions used will be Free and Open Source and browser based – examples can be seen in the Learning Technology room on LEO.
The main purpose of Learning Technology is to support learning skills such as enquiry, reflection and communication. It enhances our students’ learning capacity by making them more independent and creative learners. Learning Technology give students more choice and enables them to be more creative about how they represent and express their ideas and understandings. Particular emphasis is placed on developing Information and Digital Literacy skills.
Inquiring with Learning Technology
Students use Learning Technology for inquiry and research. They identify information needs, locate and access information. They organise, use and interpret information to improve their understanding.
Creating with Learning Technology
Students use Learning Technology to be creative in the way they extend and represent their thinking skills. They use Learning Technology to analyse problems and information needs, develop strategies and evaluate solutions. They make decisions about appropriate use of Learning Technology solutions They use Learning Technology to generate ideas and plans and to monitor and reflect on their learning.
Communicating with Learning Technology
Students use Learning Technology to enhance communication. They learn to communicate and apply Learning Technology to present information, engage with diverse audiences and collaborate. They communicate face-to-face and remotely with individuals and networks. Students experience and share alternate views, construct new understanding and develop empathy with others.
Operating Learning Technology
Students gain an understanding of the systems they are operating. Skills in operating one system can be transferred and built upon when operating other systems. They learn to apply Learning Technology standards and conventions. They apply preventative strategies to protect systems and data and solve basic Learning Technology-related problems.
Year Two Programme Outline
In Year Two the children learn how to use a wider variety of word processing features and incorporate these into their writing. The key development is to extend their representation of events and ideas with the addition of images, graphics and sound. They use cameras to take photos and use these to write descriptions of events or activities. Additional features of textease are introduced such as – creating more complex shapes and graphics; simple animations so they can improve the presentation of their work and create more interactive stories. This is also supported by using 2Create-a-Story. Data representation using tally and bar charts is introduced. They also learn how to use Google Earth to locate places of interest and digital sound recorders to record and edit dialogues.
Physical Education
The Year Two Physical Education Programmed focuses on leading a healthy and active lifestyle. Students explore small equipment, basic gymnastics, dance, swimming and running and jumping activities. They have the opportunities to develop teamwork and sport-specific skills through netball, basketball, handball, hockey and volleyball. They have the opportunity to exhibit their athletic skills at Sports Day where they compete in long jump, mini hurdles, high jump, sprint, relay, throwing and jogging.
