Today was a fabulous day in Grade 2 and we even got to celebrate Earth Hour! This morning began with our morning smile - the students made different coin combinations and a word search! They then had drama and dance and played fun games like "the fruit basket"and "moving high and low". The students then had nutrition break and after we had our spelling test and began our bunny basekts in art! The bunny baskets are soooooo cute and I know the students are very excited to be bringing them home next week to show you. We are trying to grow grass to go in the middle and the students may even get a special surprise next week on Bunny Day! The students then had their favourite lunch, pizzzzza! After second nutritoin break we read about Arthur and the April Fool's Joke and a special visit from our principal Mrs. Salmini. The students wrote her letters welcoming her to our school and today she wrote us a letter back and delivered it hersefl! :) We then had a "catch-up" period to put the finishing touches on some work and then we went to computers and explored Book Flix! We celebrated Earth Hour from 1:30-2:30 so we could have our computer time!
The homework for the weekend is for students to do their
"reading like a pro" work and bring in their mapping paper with information about where they have travelled and lived.
Have a great weekend :) and enjoy Earth Hour tonight!
Here is a great video that explains what Earth Hour is and is a perfect tie in to our mapping unit about the world!
Saturday 31 March 2012
Thursday 29 March 2012
Terrific Thursday - March 29
Today was a terrific day in grade 2! We were very busy today and there was a lot happening in our classroom as Ms. Fink and Miss Clarke had a PD session this afternoon at school but they were not in class - the students enjoyed their afternoon with the supply teacher and even started watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
This morning began with our Morning Smile that had a word search that the students really enjoyed! We then began brainstorming ideas for our Flat Stanley letters and wrote our very first paragraph - all about being Flat! After snack the students and I began some problem solving in money and making different coin combinations with restrictions (example, what 8 coins can you use to make 90 cents). The students put on their thinking caps and came up with some amazing ideas!
Miss Clarke and Ms. Fink then attended their PD session and the students spent a period exploring Canada and the map of Canada. The students played a "where's Waldo" with the Map of Canada and explored many different provinces, cities, and water bodies. The students then had gym class and finished the day with the movie!
Just a reminder - the mathtastic duotangs were sent home last night and need to be back when the students have completed their homework. Also, the students are beginning their mapping unit in social studies and a letter was sent home about all the places you and your family have travelled. Please check it out and send back your family's information by MONDAY :)
Looking forward to a fabulous Friday and doing our bunny baskets!
This morning began with our Morning Smile that had a word search that the students really enjoyed! We then began brainstorming ideas for our Flat Stanley letters and wrote our very first paragraph - all about being Flat! After snack the students and I began some problem solving in money and making different coin combinations with restrictions (example, what 8 coins can you use to make 90 cents). The students put on their thinking caps and came up with some amazing ideas!
Miss Clarke and Ms. Fink then attended their PD session and the students spent a period exploring Canada and the map of Canada. The students played a "where's Waldo" with the Map of Canada and explored many different provinces, cities, and water bodies. The students then had gym class and finished the day with the movie!
Just a reminder - the mathtastic duotangs were sent home last night and need to be back when the students have completed their homework. Also, the students are beginning their mapping unit in social studies and a letter was sent home about all the places you and your family have travelled. Please check it out and send back your family's information by MONDAY :)
Looking forward to a fabulous Friday and doing our bunny baskets!
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Wonderful Wednesday!
The Grade 2's were very busy today! We began the morning with our morning smile with our "silly sentences". The students really enjoyed the activity and had a lot of fun making different combinations of sentences. The students then joined me on the carpet for a chapter of Flat Stanley. We then did a mini-lesson on writing answers to inferences and including a connection - the students could connect using their schema (personal experience), research (watching TV or reading a book), or the text. The students then go to be text detectives and explore different situations and infer what was happening. The students really enjoyed being detectives as all of the situations involved students in our class!
After snack we finished our grocery shopping in math! The students continued to look through the flyers and search for items that were 99 cents or less! We "bought" lots of yummy food and had fun doing math!
The students then had their lunch break and then went to gym! For the last period of the day we had reading buddies with our friends in Grade 5. The students love this time as they get to be with older students and engage in their favourite activity, reading some amazing books!
The students "mathtastic" duotangs were sent home tonight with a money page! It is simple word problems that will have students making change - please remind them to double check their work and always have the cents sign in their work :)
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Tribes Tuesday!
Today was Tribes Tuesday as we had a Tribes event during periods 5 and 6 with our school tribe!
We began today with a morning smile that had the students adding up coin values and matching it with the corresponding value. The students and I then played "inferencing bingo"! The children really enjoyed this game and discovering all the different places, people, and things the inference stories were talking about. We then discussed in a large group how to write a proper response to an inference and then the students practiced writing these responses.
After nutrition break the students finished up their responses and got caught up on their other work :). They then were off to music! During period 5 and 6, all the students were sent off to their school tribe groups to participate in activities around the topic of "respect". Everyone had a great time and enjoyed Tribes!
Below is a picture of our classroom Tribes board Miss Clarke made. We made our "footprint" stories last week and that picture will be posted soon!
Monday 26 March 2012
Magnificent Monday!
Monday mornings are always so wonderful as we all go to the library and listen to a fabulous story read by Mr. Cann and then we explore the library looking for new books! The students then had choir during the second period so after recess we began some grocery shopping! The task the students are working on is to find at least 6 items in various grocery flyers, ensure they have the item labelled, write the subtraction story, and then write the change using the "cents' sign. The students loved going "shopping" and finding items that were less than 99cents. We will be finishing up this project tomorrow in class.
We then moved into social studies and began to talk about different kinds of maps. The students and I read a beautiful book all about Ontario and then discussed what parts make up a map. Students were then put into small groups and got to explore different kinds of maps and be "map detectives" in search for different cities and water bodies in Ontario. The students then worked on their "all about me" activity and filled in the "Ontario section" as their province.
After nutrition break, the students and I read another chapter from Flat Stanley! The students then did their "good copies" of their letters to Mrs. Salmini. The students and I talked about editing and what makes a good letter. The students will be presenting their letters to Mrs. Salmini tomorrow - we are very excited to have her come to our classroom!
The students were also sent home with their new spelling words for the week! I'm looking forward to another wonderful day in Grade 2 tomorrow where we will be working on inferencing and grocery shopping and we have an amazing Tribes activity planned tomorrow during Period 5 and 6 with our Tribes in the school! :)
We then moved into social studies and began to talk about different kinds of maps. The students and I read a beautiful book all about Ontario and then discussed what parts make up a map. Students were then put into small groups and got to explore different kinds of maps and be "map detectives" in search for different cities and water bodies in Ontario. The students then worked on their "all about me" activity and filled in the "Ontario section" as their province.
After nutrition break, the students and I read another chapter from Flat Stanley! The students then did their "good copies" of their letters to Mrs. Salmini. The students and I talked about editing and what makes a good letter. The students will be presenting their letters to Mrs. Salmini tomorrow - we are very excited to have her come to our classroom!
The students were also sent home with their new spelling words for the week! I'm looking forward to another wonderful day in Grade 2 tomorrow where we will be working on inferencing and grocery shopping and we have an amazing Tribes activity planned tomorrow during Period 5 and 6 with our Tribes in the school! :)
Friday 23 March 2012
Fantastic Friday!
We had a fantastic end to a fabulous week in Grade 2! The morning began with a morning smile that included some subtraction and a word search - the students worked so well together to find all the words :) We then moved into to writing our letters to Mrs. Salmini (our new principal). The students and I had a wonderful discussion about the different parts of a letter and some ideas to put into our letters. The students got to work and had a very productive letter writing period.
After nutrition break the students and I read a story called "Ish" and discussed what "Ish" artwork means and how we are going to create an "Ish" piece of art. The students were to create a self-portrait inspired by Modigliani (making an elongated face) and then colour it in using the "ish" approach - we used tissue paper and were expressive with it and didn't stay in between the lines. The portraits turned out beautifully and I was so impressed with the students work (check out their work below)!
The students then finished the story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Ms. Fink, did some quiet reading, and then we were off to computers and the students explored my blog and all the fun websites I have added.
Today was a fantastic day and I hope everyone enjoys the weekend! I will see all my amazing students on Monday!
After nutrition break the students and I read a story called "Ish" and discussed what "Ish" artwork means and how we are going to create an "Ish" piece of art. The students were to create a self-portrait inspired by Modigliani (making an elongated face) and then colour it in using the "ish" approach - we used tissue paper and were expressive with it and didn't stay in between the lines. The portraits turned out beautifully and I was so impressed with the students work (check out their work below)!
The students then finished the story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Ms. Fink, did some quiet reading, and then we were off to computers and the students explored my blog and all the fun websites I have added.
Today was a fantastic day and I hope everyone enjoys the weekend! I will see all my amazing students on Monday!
Thursday 22 March 2012
Tremendous Thursday - March 22
Today was all about group work and learning with others :)
This morning began with a super subtraction morning smile! We then moved into Language and read a story about a little boy who wrote his "under the bed monster" letters. We had some great laughs and began to get our brains in motion for lettering writing and the parts of a letter. The students then worked in small groups to discover the parts of the letter and then in a large group we discussed the different parts and even sang a song about the different parts - I'm sure the students would love to sing for you! In the small groups again the students brainstormed ideas about what they would like to write in a letter to our new principal, Mrs. Salmini. The students ideas were fabulous and very welcoming and I am really looking forward to their letters tomorrow when we start to write them!
In math today we did some "finish-up" and got caught up on our work. The students are doing so well with money and I encourage you to help students count change with you or choose the coins when you are buying something as this will help to make real world connections to their learning. They are so good with money and I look forward to do some more money math next week!
Today was also the beginning of our new social studies unit on Mapping and Communities around the World! We began by reading a story about a girl in a hot air balloon and her travels around the world - we have all decided that this would be a fun field trip but not sure who would navigate the balloon! As a group we then brainstormed about what makes up a community and then again in our small groups (from language) the students took a topic and brainstormed ideas about that in relation to Canada (example - transportation in Canada). The ideas the students came up with were amazing! I am really looking forward to doing some really fun things with this unit and integrating our Flat Stanley work with it!
Our Thursday was Tremendous and another amazing day in Grade 2!
This morning began with a super subtraction morning smile! We then moved into Language and read a story about a little boy who wrote his "under the bed monster" letters. We had some great laughs and began to get our brains in motion for lettering writing and the parts of a letter. The students then worked in small groups to discover the parts of the letter and then in a large group we discussed the different parts and even sang a song about the different parts - I'm sure the students would love to sing for you! In the small groups again the students brainstormed ideas about what they would like to write in a letter to our new principal, Mrs. Salmini. The students ideas were fabulous and very welcoming and I am really looking forward to their letters tomorrow when we start to write them!
In math today we did some "finish-up" and got caught up on our work. The students are doing so well with money and I encourage you to help students count change with you or choose the coins when you are buying something as this will help to make real world connections to their learning. They are so good with money and I look forward to do some more money math next week!
Today was also the beginning of our new social studies unit on Mapping and Communities around the World! We began by reading a story about a girl in a hot air balloon and her travels around the world - we have all decided that this would be a fun field trip but not sure who would navigate the balloon! As a group we then brainstormed about what makes up a community and then again in our small groups (from language) the students took a topic and brainstormed ideas about that in relation to Canada (example - transportation in Canada). The ideas the students came up with were amazing! I am really looking forward to doing some really fun things with this unit and integrating our Flat Stanley work with it!
Our Thursday was Tremendous and another amazing day in Grade 2!
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Wacky Wednesday - March 21
Today was a super fun day today at school! We did lots of hands on activities today in math and science! We began the morning with our morning smile in which students had to do a colour by number but the numbers in the pictures were subtraction money questions. The students did a wonderful job and the bowling pictures looked awesome - they went home in the agenda for parents to see :).
We then moved in to language arts where we read another chapter about Flat Stanley and learned about him as a kite. The students and I then developed our success criteria for creating a Flat person. The students were so excited and spent the next period designing themselves as a Flat person and then writing up their character profile.
After nutrition break we had science where we worked on simple machines. Today's focus was on the lever. We read a short story, reviewed the parts of the lever, and I then modelled how to create a lever and the students were given the task of creating two different levers that could move an eraser into a cup. It was an exciting experiment as students solved the problem of where to put the fulcrum in comparison to the load and sometimes our erasers ended up all over the classroom!
We then switched into math and read a story about Alexander who used to be rich last Sunday. The students used coin manipulatives to learn how Alexander lost all his money. The students really enjoyed solving the problem along with the story. The students then got to create their own story about themselves and how they used to be rich last Sunday - they were very cute!
Students were all given some math homework to complete and I am sure they will be so happy to show you how amazing they are with money! Tomorrow we are beginning letter writing and going grocery shopping in math! :)
We then moved in to language arts where we read another chapter about Flat Stanley and learned about him as a kite. The students and I then developed our success criteria for creating a Flat person. The students were so excited and spent the next period designing themselves as a Flat person and then writing up their character profile.
After nutrition break we had science where we worked on simple machines. Today's focus was on the lever. We read a short story, reviewed the parts of the lever, and I then modelled how to create a lever and the students were given the task of creating two different levers that could move an eraser into a cup. It was an exciting experiment as students solved the problem of where to put the fulcrum in comparison to the load and sometimes our erasers ended up all over the classroom!
We then switched into math and read a story about Alexander who used to be rich last Sunday. The students used coin manipulatives to learn how Alexander lost all his money. The students really enjoyed solving the problem along with the story. The students then got to create their own story about themselves and how they used to be rich last Sunday - they were very cute!
Students were all given some math homework to complete and I am sure they will be so happy to show you how amazing they are with money! Tomorrow we are beginning letter writing and going grocery shopping in math! :)
Tuesday 20 March 2012
Terrific Tuesday! March 20
Today was a fabulous day in grade 2! We began making some very silly sentences during our morning smile and I am sure the students will be excited to share them with you tomorrow when they bring them home. We then read an Arthur story and worked on responding to questions without beginning with "because". Students and I practiced using part of the question in our answer because we are amazing grade 2's and can give great answers without beginning with because! I then introduced students to Flat Stanley and we read a few chapters to learn about poor Flat Stanley - we need to be careful around bulletin boards. Tomorrow we will be making our own Flat selves, so be sure to ask your child about how they got themselves to be flat! In math today we worked on a problem solving question that involved eating at the Falcon Feast - yummmmy! The students really enjoyed looking at the menu and coming up with different combinations that added up to 85 cents! We are going to continue working on problems solving with money tomorrow in class when we explore the story about Alexander, who used to be rich last Sunday.
I will also be sending home a math worksheet for homework (Wednesday night) that will have students making different coin combinations (example, 25 cents can be made up by:1) 1 quarter, 2) 25 pennies, 3) two dimes and a nickel, 4) two dimes and 5 pennies...and so much more). The students are amazing at this task and I am sure you will be impressed with their math skills!
I will also be sending home a math worksheet for homework (Wednesday night) that will have students making different coin combinations (example, 25 cents can be made up by:1) 1 quarter, 2) 25 pennies, 3) two dimes and a nickel, 4) two dimes and 5 pennies...and so much more). The students are amazing at this task and I am sure you will be impressed with their math skills!
Monday 19 March 2012
Money Combinations - Monday March 19
Today in math we worked on making different combinations of coins for a given value - for example, how many different ways can you make 15 cents? The students really enjoyed the learning as we explored how different coins can be traded for other coins and that coins can be broken down into smaller coin units! We began the lesson with reading the story "A dollar for penny" and adding up Penny's total - which was a dollar or one hundred cents! We then explored using coin manipulatives and then the students were to tackle three different values - they did an amazing job!
Tomorrow we will have fun exploring more money as we do problem solving at the Falcon Feast :)
Tomorrow we will have fun exploring more money as we do problem solving at the Falcon Feast :)
Sunday 18 March 2012
March Break is almost over, but back to school for some fun learning!
March Break is coming to an end...but I hope all my amazing students enjoyed the week off and are as excited as I am to get back to school! :)
The next few weeks I will be doing more and more teaching! I will be introducing students to the Social Studies unit entitled "Features of Communities Around the World" later this week. We will have lots of fun learning about maps and exploring different communities around the world. We will also get back into our Money Unit and be doing some shopping!
Please check back as often as you can as I will be posting updates of what we are doing in the classroom and the fun adventures we are having in grade 2!
Miss Clarke
The next few weeks I will be doing more and more teaching! I will be introducing students to the Social Studies unit entitled "Features of Communities Around the World" later this week. We will have lots of fun learning about maps and exploring different communities around the world. We will also get back into our Money Unit and be doing some shopping!
Please check back as often as you can as I will be posting updates of what we are doing in the classroom and the fun adventures we are having in grade 2!
Miss Clarke
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