Welcome to our final Year Six Newsletter for Term Three. As the term draws to a close, we’d like to thank all of our Year Six parents for your support with Mufti Days, Community Service Week, Maths Problems Solving Day, filling in permission forms for excursions, health checks and also organising visa’s and other paperwork for Beijing; the list seems endless. As always, we couldn’t do what we do without your support and it truly takes a whole village to raise a child and build a positive learning community.
Important Dates to remember:
Values Star Assembly: Primary Assembly, Wednesday, 19 September beginning at 8.30am
School Mufti Day: For the Farmers morning tea, Friday 21 September!
Primary Assembly, Friday @ 11am and Classes end at 12pm
School Resumes: Term 4 Classes begin on Tuesday 9 October
Sticks and Stones and Mobile Phones:
The conversation continues!
Talking to your child – openly, and regularly – is the best way to help keep them safe online.
In our last newsletter our feature story covered what’s trending in the world of a “tweenager” and the apps they are using to communicate with each other and connect with the world around them. We would like to continue the conversation and offer a timely reminder of tips for staying safe online as well as information about how we believe students are using social media platforms. We have explored, Snapchat, Kik, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and gave you a few social media terms. This week we will look at a few more apps that we think students might currently be using.
Tumblr
WHAT IS IT?
Tumblr is one of the many social media platforms today’s teens are using because it attracts a young audience, mostly teens that want to stay away from social networking sites that their parents are frequenting. Tumblr is like a blog. With just a few clicks, teens can post photos and text to a website for all the world to see. They can also scroll through another people’s content. One of the reasons why Tumblr has become so popular among teens is that it’s easy to use on smartphones and tablets. This means that many users can post to Tumblr throughout the day.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS PARENTS NEED TO KNOW?
One of the issues parents should be aware of with Tumblr is the lack of privacy. It is difficult to create privacy settings that prevent information from being public. As a result, most posts made created are open to the public. Like other social media sites, Tumblr has had its share of scams and security issues. Probably the most worrying for a parent would be Tumblr has been criticized for the overwhelming amount of inappropriate material on the site. Tumblr allows explicit material to be posted to the site. Video with adult content are not allowed to be posted directly to Tumblr but links to adult websites are allowed. The teen can just stumble across explicit material without looking for it. Finally, another concern is people on Tumblr sometimes glamorize unhealthy behaviour. Some teens and young adults depict self-harm and eating disorders in a positive light.
Live.me
WHAT IS IT?
Live.me is a live streaming video app that allows users to watch or broadcast live-stream videos.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS PARENTS NEED TO KNOW?
The thing about Live.me as that users have been known to do things that may be not age appropriate with this app. As users film themselves, they can also be streamed throughout the world LIVE!
Musical.ly is now TikTok
WHAT IS IT?
TikTok is a global video community. We make it easy for you to watch awesome short videos AND you can also make your own videos by capturing those funny.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS PARENTS NEED TO KNOW?
TikTok is currently considered to be the world’s most popular iPhone app. The Post reported “Hong Kong primary school children were placing themselves at risk by exposing their identities on the app, which has taken the city by storm in the past year.” Its sister app, Musical.ly, has already sparked concern in the United States and Australia over its failure to protect children from harassment. The Post also recently claimed that “The app only allows users two settings when posting: for videos to be completely private – meaning restricted to the creator’s viewing only – or for clips to be entirely open to the public. In the privacy settings offered by Tik Tok, users can only choose if friends, or anyone, can send them private messages, and block specific users. There is no friends-only sharing option. Users are also not able to delete their accounts themselves but must do so by email request.”
Action for Children have released an interesting diagram detailing the age restrictions for Social Media Platforms. The office of E-Safety Commissioner in Australia advises that the age limit for kids on social media is 13 years old. This is due to US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA)
The Australian Government Office of the eSafety Commissioner states also that most social media services and apps require users to be 13 years old to join. App stores, however, set their own age ratings based on the apps content. Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters and Minecraft are directed at 6 -14-year old’s but expect parent supervision. WhatsApp’s age requirement is 16+.
We hope this information has been useful for you to be able to start some conversations at home. Talking to your child – openly, and regularly – is the best way to help keep them safe online.
Our Voice – Term in Review!
Yoga!
How much do we love yoga?
“Om shanti, shanti, shanti”. This simply translates to “On peace, peace, peace. May Peace be within you, may peace be with those around you, and may peace always be with you. Namaste” This is what our Yoga teacher, Mrs. Dudman always reminds us every time we end our sessions.
Every Wednesday morning right after the bell rings, we have the pleasure of having Mrs. Dudman as our Yoga teacher. She teaches us how to relax our body and feel calm. She also challenges us to do different sets of yoga such as sun salutation, which is pretty tricky, especially the Warrior pose! It is actually harder than it looks and it requires strength, courageousness and body awareness.
Yoga relaxes our body and emotions, helping us have good thoughts throughout the entire day. This morning exercise can even help us with our school work. We also build up our self-esteem through learning new moves. No matter what we are doing, Yoga can always help. If you are feeling mad or upset, Yoga can calm your breathing and untense your body to tackle any speedbump that comes your way.
By Angie and Daniel
Maths Problem Solving Day
Last week, the four houses of Eucalypt, Jacaranda, Waratah and Wattle, competed in this year’s Year 6 Maths Problem Solving Day. There were 30 questions (including the 10 extensions) to be answered by each house group. In each house, there were 4-6 groups with maximum of four people and they had to work as team to complete the questions. The equipment we had was a whiteboard with a whiteboard pen and there was paper with a pencil. Each group had/shared an educator. For the answer to be delivered from the groups, there was 1 runner. The runner was the person who had to get the answer from their teammates, who had read over it, then they gave it to their group’s runner who had to deliver the answer/s to their educator.
It was fun and a quite competitive! Once the group from one of the houses finished all the first 20 questions, they would receive a certain amount of house points depending when they finished. If you finished first you’d be awarded with 100 house points, 2nd group finished would get 95 house points and so on.
The first group that finished was Waratah’s group 6, consisting of Chloe Luk, Luca Gleeson and Adam Chan. Since their group were the first group to finish, they were awarded with 100 house points for their house, Waratah. Even though Waratah’s group 6 won the first points, the overall winner was……… JACARANDA!!!! It was a very close competition between the 4 houses. Eucalypt came 4th yet they tried very hard, 3rd place was Wattle and they were fighting to get the top but in the end they got bronze, 2nd place went to Waratah and 1st place was Jacaranda. It was not about who won the competition but about how we could work together to solve different types of problems utilising our individual skills and talents.
All students from each house had lots of fun while participating in this great event that showcases our problem-solving skills. Also, the teachers had lots of fun too and so did the many parents that helped us out on the day, to mark our answers and keep us on the right track. Thanks to everyone who helped on the day!
By Chantal and Zain
Recap on our learning about
Natural Disasters
As you know, we have been learning about natural disasters. Some things that we have learnt about are Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Droughts, Floods, Hurricanes/Cyclones/Typhoons and Volcanoes.
We also continued our learning on this subject through our homework. Every week, we complete different sections of lotus diagram linked to what we had been studying in class. Each box we did the definition and the effect, five facts about it, how it’s measured, worst recorded and global alerts.
During our learning, we have completed several experiments. One of our favourites was the jelly marshmallow earthquake test! During this experiment, we had to design and build a building with mini marshmallows and toothpicks. Once everyone had completed their building we put it to the test, by putting it in a tray of jelly which was shaken about by the teacher to simulate an earthquake. The purpose of this experiment was to create a stable structure able to survive an Earthquake.
We have learnt so much about natural disasters this term. We have built on our prior knowledge and probably the most important things we have learnt are about how to keep safe if you are involved in or near a natural disaster. Learning about how people come together to respond to natural disasters was very inspiring.
By Scarlet and Zoe
Have a great holiday!
The Year 6 Team
Chris Bird christopher_bird@aishk.edu.hk
Cath Devitt cath_devitt@aishk.edu.hk
Lynda Lemmon lynda_lemmon@aishk.edu.hk
Jo Reed joanne_reed@aishk.edu.hk
