March 2013 Dear Parents, We have started our fifth unit of inquiry, How We Organize Ourselves.

Under this transdisciplinary theme, the students will inquire into systems within their local community and explore the procedures that make the systems work.

Central idea: Communities create systems to meet needs. An inquiry into: systems within a community (family, class, Year 1, NIST) individual responsibilities within a community the importance of shared responsibility Key concepts: Function (roles/purpose/interdependence) Responsibility (initiative, safety, improvement) The children will investigate systems within the school that have been developed for NIST to function effectively. These will include things like: security (guards, gates, id cards, Veracross attendance), fire (drills), canteen organisation, going to the nurse, etc. How you can help at home We would like your help in explaining the ideas and vocabulary listed below to your child in their mother tongue. Identify systems and procedures within your childs home life: bedtime routine, getting ready for school, planning a holiday or party, arrival and departure from school, cooking, etc. Please collect and bring in any clean boxes, plastic containers and cardboard tubes that we could reuse for model making. Discuss systems you find when you are out and about: shopping centres, travelling on public transport (skytrain, taxis, buses), holidays (airport, hotels), eating out. Identify parts of the system and discuss the roles of the different people involved, the purpose of the system and how they help us. These should be systems your child has observed in familiar places. Try to incorporate these vocabulary words into your discussions: .

systems health responsibility

community safety improvement

purpose roles procedure

Integrated Language Arts Unit This unit will provide opportunities for the children to act as inquirers when finding out about systems and procedures in their immediate environment. Fiction and non-fiction books twill be read o help us explore the ideas in the unit, making connections to responsibility and safety. We will be viewing and presenting signs and symbols associated to systems. We will also be exposed to procedural writing and the relationship between procedures and systems. Students will gain some experience in communication through questioning and interviewing, as they research the different systems at NIST. Integrated Mathematics Unit In Mathematics, the children will be exploring Data Handling and Chance as well as furthering knowledge and understanding of Shape and Space including directional language. Form/Function: Data Handling How can data be organised and displayed? Why do people collect data? How can data be used? What is chance? When might you use chance? How is the understanding of chance useful? Shape and Space What are 2D and 3D shapes? What are their features/properties? How can these shapes be \ described? How are these shapes used in the real world? Why do we have words to describe position? How/why do we plot position/direction?

Thank you for your support. Kind regards, The Year 1 team