K1 Dolphin Class

Hello parents & carers ☺  My name is Brenda, and I'm the PYP curriculum coordinator here at Hillside. Thank you to you all for having been so supportive from the beginning of school transition period, all the way through to half term! A strong partnership between home and school is vital for supporting your child's overall development and learning. Your commitment to checking in with the class blog regularly ensures you are well informed of what, and more importantly, how your child is learning at school. You may already be very familiar with the class blog- Sarah will be posting regularly, while I and our Chinese teacher, Joey Lao Shi will guest post to share other relevant information about the children’s learning. The K1 children well into the year-long unit Who We Are by settling into school routines and exploring different learning materials. Now that they are comfortable and familiar with their own classroom, they're ready to discover new play and learning spac...

A Big New World of Emotions Last week in Dolphin class, we dove into the fascinating world of emotions. We started our journey by sharing different feelings and how they show up in our bodies. We gathered in a circle and talked about times when we felt happy, sad, excited, or even a little scared. To help us understand these feelings better, and recognise emotions in those around us, we dedicated a number of circle times to exploring the subject as a group and naming emotions as a team. Our first game involved listening to clues to come up with the emotion the animals and 'monsters' were feeling. One example was a chicken who was smiling and laughing and feeling a positive emotion. We were able to shout out that the chicken was feeling happy! Another game involved studying photos of children's faces and guessing what they were feeling. Moving on and once we were able to act out a variety of emotions, we tried out an acting game. Volunteers came up to the front of the class ...

Dear Parents and Caregivers, I hope you had a wonderful Mid-Autumn Festival and a relaxing holiday. Over the past two weeks, we have explored traditional activities associated with this special celebration, focusing on customs, lanterns, and songs through the stories "We Had a Good Time" (我们玩得很开心) and "中秋节" (Mid-Autumn Festival). During arrival playtime, the children enjoyed making paper plate moon and lantern crafts, which provided them with valuable practice in fine motor skills. To further enhance their cultural experience, we held a dress-down day last week, where the kids delighted in sharing their lanterns with one another! We are also excited to announce a Chinese Webinar for parents on Friday, 27th September at 1:00 PM . We look forward to seeing you there! Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/5178730989 Thank you for your continued support! Please feel free to contact me at joey.zhao@hillside.edu.hk. Class Blog:  Dolphin Chinese Albums: Dolphin AM         ...

Introducing Our First Unit of Inquiry  After focusing on settling in to the new environment over the first few weeks of school, we decided we were ready to start our first unit of inquiry of the year. Across the next few weeks we will be taking a dip into our year long inquiry,  Who We Are.   For this unit, children will learn about a range of important topics like identity, values, beliefs, physical and mental health, relationships, cultures, communities and families. This topic looks at everything that makes us human, and children will explore who we are and how we interact with each other.  As part of the unit, we are continuing to work on our self-help skills as a part of learning how to care for ourselves. Through these independent tasks we are taking personal responsibility for our own wellbeing alongside learning how to ask for help when we need it. In our Circle Times we continue to discuss our physical health when it comes to drinking water, eating snac...

Dear Parents and Caregivers, I am thrilled to share that the children have settled wonderfully in class! We began our journey by learning how to greet and say goodbye in Mandarin, using the songs 你好歌 (Hello Song) and 再见歌 (Goodbye Song). As part of our Unit of Inquiry "Who We Are" (我们是谁), we explored the theme of going to school through the stories "第一天上学" (The First School Day) and "上学去" (Going to School). The children also enjoyed learning about body parts with the song “ 头肩膀膝和脚 ” (Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes), especially as they confidently sped up their singing. You can find these resources on our learning slide . Looking ahead, we will be celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节). We will discuss the food, decorations, and activities related to this traditional festival. To enhance the festive spirit, we will have a dress-down day on Friday, September 13th. Children are encouraged to bring their lanterns or make one to share. Thank you for your ...