Last Week of School

Welcome to the last week of school! Can you believe it!?

It has been a very busy last week. We have been working hard in Math, completing activities and playing different math games.

We have been writing letters to our next year's teachers.

On Monday, the entire school got to watch some videos the Grade 5/6 classes made. They were really well done and displayed messages about cyber bullying, religious discrimination, animal cruelty, and bullying. The videos offered key advise from community figures (i.e., police officer, humaine society worker, etc. )
Today was dress up like your favorite story book character day. It was cool seeing the variety of costumes.

Mrs. G has been helping us get through some incomplete work as well.

Tomorrow morning we will be having a little bit of fun to celebrate our successful year together.

Reminders:
-Report cards will be going home Friday. If anyone will be away of Friday, you need to bring to school a self addressed pre-paid envelope, if you cannot provide this, it will be sent to you in September
-A few students still have not returned library books, please do so ASAP
-Tomorrow afternoon is the Grade 6 farewell and Friday morning is the school farewell.
-think about bringing a grocery bag or something to help lug some of our things home. A few items will be coming home tomorrow so that it is not too much on Friday.

Happy Father's Day

The class wants to wish all Fathers, Brothers, Uncles, Grandpas, and anyone missed a very happy (early) Father's Day. Mothers, Aunties, Grandmas, we love you too; will you help with what I am bringing home, wrapped in newspaper, please?

Today, in math, we learned about greater than, less than, and equal to. After doing some work altogether, we did our own assignment with the alligator mouths.




Remember those boats we told you about that we made with Teacher's Pet a couple weeks ago?? Well today, we raced them! Take a look at the pictures below.
The final winner was Chloe and Lucas! Yay!

Reminders:
-Return all school work and library books, please and thank you!!

The Calgary Zoo

Today was a busy day as we wrap up some units and start reflecting on our Grade 2 year.

Now that we are done practicing word wall words every week, we have been focusing more on Daily 5. This has been a nice learning change for the last couple weeks of school.

We continue to have Phys Ed outside, so please help me choose appropriate clothing for the weather.

This afternoon we spent our time doing math and ketchups.

As you know, yesterday we went to the zoo! All the Grade 2s were fortunate enough to participate in a program called On Gossamer Wings. Before and after doing this hour long program, we got to just wonder the zoo. Take a look at the pictures below of our day!






Reminders:
-Please check backpacks for a note from Mrs. P from the library for missing books!!
-Music tomorrow, bring recorders

Calgary Zoo Tomorrow!

We have graduated from doing word wall words. So, instead, we did Daily 5 and a journal writing about our weekend.

This afternoon we continued to practice our double digit subtraction skills. We are improving!

One of the City of Calgary Libraries came to visit us today to talk about their summer reading program. It is totally free to get a card and go over the summer. There are also a couple challenges being offered. If we read so much and ask so many questions, we can earn a prize. One prize is being the leader of the library for an entire day!

To end off the day we learned about the history of Father's Day, because as you know, that special day is coming up soon. Here is what we learned:
-a long time ago, a girl thought that dad's should be honored the same way mother's are.
-it is tradition to wear a rose for our fathers on this day; a red rose means that our father is still alive, and a white rose means that our father has passed away.
-we don't just have to celebrate our dad, we can also celebrate grandpas, uncles, step-dads, and brothers

Reminders:
-Tomorrow is zoo day!! If you are a parent volunteer, please be here by 8:45am. If you are a student who has not yet returned the form, please do so or you cannot come!!
-Quite a few library books have been returned, these will be handed in, a new list will be printed out, and notes will be coming home tomorrow. Please continue to check at home just in case.

Important Information!

Tomorrow is Sports Day (in the afternoon after fun lunch). Please dress according to the weather. A letter is going home today about the water stations; if you choose to participate in them please bring a dry set of clothes to change into, and if it rains, the fun day will be moved to Monday, June 13 from 9am-11:30am.

Return Zoo field trip permission forms and risk forms tomorrow!!!

There is a  big list of students who have missing books from the library. Notices will be going home Monday. Take the weekend to look around home for any library books you are hiding, and return them please.


Tomorrow is our final word wall quiz of the year! Will you help study tonight so I can ace it?

Group A: in, is, it, and, big, did, man, cat, had, six
Group B: name, mine, queen, green, running, making, puppy, little, letter, funny
Group C: missed, willing, balloon, pretty, added, different, pattern, middle, zipper, carry


Today was another busy day, but fun! Teacher's Pet came in this afternoon to extend our learning on Boats and Buoyancy.

What is Teacher's Pet?
      -it is a company that develops engaging activities, for all grade levels, based around the Alberta Program of Studies.

There were 4 stations set up around the room that we all worked through.
One was exploring sinking and floating objects


Two of the stations explored how to make a boat float or sink based on it's shape, weight, and how objects are dispersed inside of it.


The fourth station was a build station. Check it out, we all built, and tested, our own wooden boats!

Busy Learning Days

These past couple days have been packed with fun, learning activities.

Yesterday we continued our journey through an Acadian unit. We learned all about jobs in Meteghan, the main industry there being fishing! Lobster is one of their favorite things to eat, so we made lobster traps. Take a look!




Today, we learned all about lighthouses! Why are they so important?
-they guide boats to safe spots
-they warn boats of dangerous that are near by
-help boats navigate
For a different activity today, we did water color lighthouse art, take a look!
First, we drew our picture with pencil


Then, we traced over our pencil marks with a black. grey, or dark blue marker


Finally, we used water color paint to paint in the lines


This afternoon, we started a new science unit on Boats and Buoyancy! What we have learned so far:
-boats are used for work or travel
-boats float in water
-some boats carry people from place to place, while other boats carry cargo around the world
-different kinds of boats include: sailboat, yacht, raft, kayak, etc.
-buoyancy is when an abject is able to float in water - this is dependent on materials used to make the object, how heavy it is, and how the weight is distributed among the object.
Tomorrow, we will be taking turns through an experiment on objects that sink or float. In the afternoon, Teacher's Pet comes to extend our learning in this topic!

Reminders:
-all library/classroom books are to be returned to school tomorrow!!
-Teacher's Pet tomorrow afternoon
-Zoo field trip forms need to come back by Friday please! Today, the acknowledgement of Risk form came home, this NEEDS to be filled out completed and returned to be able to go to the zoo next week. Also, still looking for volunteers to come to the zoo, please let me know if you are available/interested.
-Friday afternoon is fun lunch and Sports Day

Hot and Sunny Monday

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and got a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather. As we see the weather getting a lot warmer, it may not be a bad idea to have a water bottle at school. This will help prevent getting dehydrated and ill.

Only 10 words this week. Next week will be our last week for word wall words.

Group A: in, is, it, and, big, did, man, cat, had, sat
Group B: name, mine, queen, green, running, making, puppy, little, letter, funny
Group C: missed, willing, balloon, pretty, added, different, pattern, middle, zipper, carry

We learned more about the Acadian unit today. First, we reviewed that they are on the East coast of Canada (and some of us have been out that way) and that they hold many traditions like lobster fest, watermelon eating contests, and wood chopping contests. We learned that one of their biggest traditions is telling folktales. A folktake is a story that has been passed down to children, grandchildren, and so on. To end the day, we started writing our very own folktales!
**Can you tell me a story or two of something that has happened either before I was born or when I was little?

In math, we started double digit subtraction. It can be very difficult to remember subtraction, not addition, and there aren't as many strategies to help answer the questions quickly and easily, but we did come up with about 8 altogether.

This Week At School:
-ELA: writing juicy sentences, word wall words
-Math: double digit subtraction
-Health: pillars of care, understanding feelings and emtions
-Social Studies: An Acadian Community
-Science: Boats and Buoyancy

Reminders:
-All library books need to be returned to school this week! No more books will be going home
-All home reading books need to be returned to school this week.
-Teacher's Pet field trip on Thursday 12:30-2:30pm - I am still looking for volunteers, if you are available, please let me know!
 -Zoo field trip form coming home today. Please sign and return by Friday. Also looking for volunteers to come with us then. It is next Tuesday 9:00am-2:30pm
-Sports Day Friday afternoon. Please wear appropriate clothing and shoes to be outside and a water bottle. If you choose to wear sunscreen, please apply at home in the morning, before coming to school. Some of the station will include water, student can choose whether or not they want to participate in those stations. You may want to bring a dry set of clothing to change into afterwards or expect students to come home a little wet. We ask that everyone wear Sporty Spunky Socks on Friday too.

The Little Mermaid

Today was a fun day! Following studying our word wall words, having a quick snack, and spending some time in Phys. Ed., we walked to the community centre to the the production on The Little Mermaid. It was so good! Take a look at the pictures below of us enjoying the show.



When we got back to school we ate lunch, finished our art project for tomorrow's volunteer tea, and had an evacuation practice to St. Bedes School. We all did a fantastic job walking to and from the school and listening to all instructions.

Reminders:
-Book orders are due tomorrow!
-We have an in-school field trip on Thursday, June 8 in the afternoon from 12:30-2:30pm. Teacher's Pet is coming in to help us explore Boats and Bouyancy. I am looking for 3-4 volunteers, please let me know if this is something you are interested in or can help out with

Monday

We have 50 words this week to study! If we study about 15 a night, that would get us through all of them by the quiz on Friday. Will you help me study throughout the week at home?

Group A: all, wall, call, will, tell, well, small, fall, smell, fell, cow, now, row, low, mow, day, clay, stay, car, far, jar, star, start, farm, harm, arm, alarm, are, book, good, look, wood, took, stood, shook, saw, paw, law, lake, shake, rake, five, time, nine, name, hide, shade, fine

Group B: why, try, trying, eat, mean, read, sunny, fly, treat, each, trip, tree, back, zoo, root, quick, look, looked, pack, cook, put, push, pull, could, would, found, round, brown, around, something, they, their, many, any, anything, than, because, know, water, very, which, where, there, before, after, over, under, again, outside, inside

Group C: said, ask, catch, eight, prey, they, great, than, afraid, away, please, believe, between, leave, easy, sea, been, seen, very, next, pitch, while, light, buy, which, drink, life, eye, swim, why, rocket, pocket, often, throne, so, sew, almost, both, coach, open, under, young, touch, human, music, much, such, few, new, fuel

After recess, Mrs. G read more of Silverwing. Poor Shade got swept out over the ocean in a big storm as they were making their way south for the winter. Ask me what happened!

This afternoon we started our final Social Studies unit; it is going to be all about an Acadian community. Ask me what we learned so far!
After looking through a few photos, our task was to draw a picture of what we would see out our bedroom window if we lived in Meteghan.

Reminders:
-Story Book Theatre field trip on Thursday!! Please return forms if you have not done so yet
-Library tomorrow - return books!
-June book orders due Friday, no later please

Rainy Thursday

What a funny couple of days we have had. Luckily tomorrow will return to normal.

Thank you to everyone who came to the concert last night, to perform and watch. The growth over the year among the entire school truly showed and it was wonderful. Thank you again. All of the kids hard work sure is paying off.

Tomorrow we have our word wall quiz. The words are below, will you please help me study tonight?
Group A: lake, shake, rake, five, time, nine, name, hide, shade, fine
Group B: which, where, there, before, after, over, again, inside, outside, under
Group C: under, young, touch, human, music, much, such, few, new, fuel

Yesterday and today we watched The Little Mermaid. We are going to see it at the Story Book Theatre next week. It was good to see and understand the story before we go. Then, when we come back from the theatre, we will be making comparisons between the movie and the play version.

Today we also leaned about the life cycle of bees. We learned that they have 4 stages:
1.Egg - stay here for 3 days
2.Larva - start to really grow and get fed 1300 times a day for 6 days
3.Pupa - after 6 days a cacoon is spun and a bee is starting to form inside
4.Adult - bees emerge after about 10 days, a future queen bee emerges after 6 days

Reminders:
-Fun lunch form due back Wednesday
-Field trip to Story Book Theatre are due TOMORROW!!

Beesy Tuesday

Welcome back, hope everyone had a good long weekend despite the weather. It seemed like it today based on all the chatting in the classroom!

Another short week for word wall words, next week will be 50 word review. Group A is focusing on words with a bossy, karate chopping e that make the vowels say their name. Group B's word focus on letter blends and compound words and Group C is focusing on red words.

Group A: lake, shake, rake, five, time, nine, name, hide, shade, fine
Group B: which, where, there, before, after, over, again, inside, outside, under
Group C: under, young, touch, human, music, much, such, fuel, new, few

After Phys. Ed. Ms. Cokar was with us and we started writing about our long weekend.

This afternoon we had music. We are down to the wire for practices as our performance is tomorrow evening! Mr. Rattan has asked that we all leave out recorders at school tonight so that we ensure they are here for tomorrow.

Following music, we continued our double digit addition strategies. Hopefully this week, we will share and learn double digit subtraction strategies.

To end the day we started learning about bees! First we discussed what we already know about bees, and those ideas are:
-they sting people
-fly
-attack when in danger
-important to most things that grow
-make honey
A few others things we learned are:
-hymenoptera - meaning they are a bug of summer
-they have 4 wings that are transparent
-have a narrow waist to allow them to move their back end more easily
Finally, we got to label and color a bee. Lets take a look!

Reminders:
-Field Trip form coming home today - please fill out and return ASAP
-Spring concert tomorrow - doors open at 6, concert starts at 6:30 - please meet teacher in your regular classroom
-Return fun lunch form due June 1

Wacky Wednesday

Tomorrow is our word wall quiz!

Group A: book, good, look, wood, took, stood, shook, saw, paw, law

Group B: they, their, many, any, anything, than, because, know, water, very

Group C: rocket, pocket, often, throne, so, sew, almost, both, coach, open

We are still working through double digit addition. Next week, we will be introduced to double digit subtraction. Will you please help me practice at home too??

This afternoon, we finished up our worm unit, by learning about their life. We learned that worms:

-help break up the soil 

-can eat up to 10 tens of food a year!

-help to make the soil more healthy for plants to grow and survive

Next week, we learn about bees!

Reminders:

-fun lunch forms due June 1

-half day tomorrow!

-no school Friday or Monday!!

Squirmy Tuesday

We had Phys. Ed outside again today. It sure is nice to have that extra time out there to enjoy the weather and play with our friends.

In science, this afternoon after music, we did a couple experiments with the worms, to determine the ideal living conditions for them.
First we learned:
-worms create home by burrowing by digging, pushing, and eating the soil
-they live where there are many plants and leaves

Our experiments were called Wet or Dry? and Here Comes the Sun! The objective of the experiments was to determine whether or not worms like a wet or dry environment and a dark or bright environment.
Ask me how we completed these experiments and what our conclusions came to!

Wet or Dry?


Here Comes the Sun!


We also learned:
-sometimes the soil can get too wet for worms, like after a big rainfall, and when this happen, the worms come up to the surface for air
-it the ground becomes too frozen, worms will rest in a chamber until it thaws out


Reminders:
-Fun lunch forms coming home today, they are due June 1st
-I am still looking for a couple more volunteers for our story book theatre trip on June 2nd and zoo trip on June 14. Please let me know if you are available and willing to join us!
-Spring concert next Wednesday the 25th. Please be here at 6pm, meet in the classroom.

Wiggly, Squiggly Monday

We have our words written down to bring home. Those word wall words are starting to get more challenging as we move closer to Grade 3! 

Group A: book, good, look, wood, took, stood, shook, saw, paw, law

Group B: they, their, many, any, anything, than, because, know, water, very

Group C: rocket, pocket, often, throne, so, sew, almost, both, coach, open

HOMEWORK! Some of us who did not finish our newspaper article on bats are bringing it home tonight to finish. It NEEDS to be back by THURSDAY! Please check with me on whether or not I have this homework.

We started learning about wiggly, squiggly worms this morning! Did you know:

-worms are omnivores, that means they only eat organic material

-they have one long body that runs along their body and a bunch of round muscle too... ask me what these different muscle do!!

-and they do not have ears or eyes so the sense everything through their skin

This afternoon we started double digit addition. Ms. Binks came in and showed us a few new strategies. We are not yet regrouping but I would love to show you some strategies from today. 

If you formulate 2 or 3 questions for me, I will show you what I know!

To ed off the day we went back to worms. This time we got to look and touch them! We wrote down our observations on how they move, what they look like, how they feel, and anything else we noticed. 

Take a look at the pictures below!

This week at school:

ELA - word wall words, writing full setnences

Math - double digit addition

Science - Worms!

Health - pillars of care

Reminders:

-music tomorrow, bring recorders

-home reading, complete and return tomorrow

-library tomorrow, return those books!

-Thursday is early dismissal at 11

-no school Friday or Monday

Rainy Thursday

Please continue to wear appropriate clothing both in and out of the school. Two pairs of shoes is mandatory, an indoor and separate outdoor pair.

Tomorrow is our word wall quiz. Our words are below, will you help me practice them tonight?

Group A: car, far, jar, star, start, farm, harm, arm, alarm, are
Group B: put, push, pull, could, would, found, round, around, brown, something
Group C: pitch, while, light, buy, which, drink, life, eye, swim, why

Today we focused on compound words. Together we can up with a list, for example; somewhere, skateboard, watermelon, however, everything, basketball, etc. Then we chose two of the words and drew a picture of them.

We are continuing to read the novel Silverwing. Shade, the main character who is a bat in the story, has gotten himself into some trouble by trying to stay up to see the sun. He is also starting to learn from one of the elders in the colony.
We will continue to read the novel even though we are wrapping up the bat unit tomorrow.

This afternoon we continued working on our web planners of bat information, then some of us started the final project. Ask me how we are organizing and presenting our learning on bats!

Reminders:
-music tomorrow, bring recorders
-home reading, complete and return tomorrow for the weekend

Terrific Tuesday

Today was a good, hard working day.

We starting working on blends this week with our word wall words and boy did we make some good lists. We got through sh, ll, and sh blends, tomorrow we will finish with ch, and wh blends. Would you help me brainstorm some words for these two letter lends?? Take a look at the lists below to see some of what we came up with today.
st words - star, start, strike, stop, just, master, step, paste, trust, strength, sister
ll words - still, stall, all, spelling, I'll, ball, will pill, yell, Willow, Billy, drill, pillow, dill
sh words - share, lush, crush, shush, shovel, finish, shivering, shape, shock, shout, dish, plush

This afternoon we read to ourselves. In class we are still trying to earn hockey cards. Help me at home too, to earn as many as I can before the year is over.

In math, we are working on our subtraction strategies. Will you help me practice at home too? Give me 3 subtraction questions with numbers from 0-20 and I will show you 2 ways to solve the equations! Lets do this for addition too!

To end the day we learned about the habitat of bats!
-the place they live is called a roost
-they hang upside down
-they are nocturnal animals which means the sleep during the day and hunt at night
-ask me 2 more facts about bats!

Reminders:
-Music tomorrow, bring recorders
-Home reading tonight, complete and return tomorrow
-May 19 is teachers vs students hockey game
-no school May 20 and 23

Monday Chills

Please continue to keep an eye on the weather and dress appropriately. Having a separate pair of indoor shoes from outdoor shoes is very important, please ensure this expectation is being met. Thanks! :)

Our word wall words for this week are as follows:

Group A: car, far, jar, star, start, farm, harm, arm, alarm, are
Group B: put, push, pull, could, would, found, round, around, brown, something
Group C: pitch, while, light, buy, which, drink, life, eye, swim, why

This week we will be focusing on letter blends; st, ch, wh and compound words; something.

After recess we read more of Silverwing. Shade was being pretty rebellious by trying to stay up to see the sun. Luckily his mom found him and helped guide him to safety before the owl could get them.
This afternoon we learned a little bit more about bats. We know that:
-they can live in many places like forests, trees, barns, etc.
-they mostly like to eat the nectar from fruit
We finished off with labeling the part of a bat in our books and searching for 5 general facts about bats.
Tomorrow we will be learning more about the habitats of bats.

Subtraction is a little more difficult then addition. Today, Mrs. G read us a book called Subtraction Action. The book demonstrated strategies that we can use when working at school or when we need to use subtraction in our everyday lives. Let me show you what I know!

This week at school:
-ELA: word wall words, reading, writing sentences with 8 or more words.
-Math: single digit addition and subtraction
-Science: life of bats!
-Health: pillars of care

Reminders:
-Library tomorrow, return books!
-Home reading tonight, complete and return tomorrow
-Message from CBE: The Calgary Board of Education is committed to providing students and staff with a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment that respects diversity and fosters a sense of belonging. With this in mind, the CBE is creating a system-wide Student Code of Conduct (Administrative Regulation 6005) with input from students, parents and CBE employees. This new code of conduct will apply to all CBE schools, and beginning in the 2016/17 school year, individual schools will no longer have their own codes of conduct. All CBE students are expected to abide by the new system regulation, which will be posted to our Administrative Regulation page http://www.cbe.ab.ca/about-us/policies-and-regulations/Pages/Administrative-Regulations.aspx.

Hats on for Mental Health

Nice hats everyone! We all have our moments of struggle and many moments of successes. Thank you for supporting mental health awareness.

Today was a good, hard working day. We need lots of these from here on out because there are less then 40 days of school left!

Mrs. G is really starting to notice an improvement in our math skills and writing skills. Practicing our word wall words every day helps to remember the spelling rules when writing creative sentences or stories.

As long as the weather is nice Phys Ed will be outside. Please wear the appropriate clothing, this includes proper footwear. Flip-flops, sandals, etc. are not good options as they can cause more risk to our safety.

We spent some time today ketching up on work. Now that everyone is caught up we can wrap up our Nunavut unit this week and start new units next week. We still have so much to accomplish, it is important to work hard and work together to do our best and be most successful.

This afternoon we all earned a Calgary Flames Hockey card! As a class we reached 100 minutes of reading. We will continue this at school to earn cards. Please help me at home too, to earn then even quicker.

After working through math centers and having a body break, we ended the day by finishing the Magic School Bus novel about Arctic animals. There is so much information we have learned throughout this unit!
Tomorrow we will be starting a cool art activity for Arctic animals.


Reminders:
-Book orders coming home today, they are due back Friday
-Home reading tonight, complete and return tomorrow
-Music tomorrow, bring recorders
-Spring Concert is Wednesday May 25th. Please meet your teacher in your classroom between 6:00 and 6:15pm. First come, first serve seating
-I am looking for parent volunteers for Thursday June 2 for our trip to Storybook Theatre and Wednesday June 14 for out day trip to the zoo. Please let me know if you are willing to or able to volunteer for one or both of those trips.

April Showers bring May Flowers

Welcome to a beautiful start to May. Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Our word wall words this week have lots of family words and words that have the same sounds but different spellings. Check it out

Group A: cow, now, row, low, mow, day, may, play, clay, stay
Group B: trip, tree, back, zoo, root, quick, look, looked, pack, cook
Group C: please, believe, between, leave, easy, sea, been, seen, very, next

All this week, Phys. Ed will be outside! It is always nice to get that extra fresh air. It is also important to dress appropriately, including a hat and sunscreen. Bringing a water bottle to school isn't such a bad idea as well.

Mrs. Frizzle and her class taught us a little more about baby polar bears and arctic fox today!
-new born polar bears are less then 2lbs
-new born polar bears are blind, deaf, and helpless
-female polar bears can weigh between 330 and 660lbs and male polar bears can weigh up to 1600lbs!
-arctic fox shed their fur twice a year, in the winter the have a thick, white coat of hair and in the summer they have a thin, brownish grey coat of fur

This afternoon we continued working on our addition strategies for numbers 0-9. In a couple days we will move to double digit numbers and learn some new strategies.
We also are working through daily centers to promote further growth in specific areas - increasing patterns, sorting objects, graphing, and skip counting. Maybe you can help me practice at home too!

To finish off the day we had a discussion about bats. We drew a picture of a bat in our visual journal and then wrote every thing we already know about bats around it. Why are we doing this? Because we are starting a new novel study, Silverwing. As we work through this novel we will be tying it to our next science unit on Small, Flying, and Crawling animals. Our field trip to the zoo in June will also relate.


This week at school:
-Language Arts - word wall words, sentences - periods and capitols, novel study - Silverwing
-Math - addition strategies, single and double digit
-Science - small, flying, crawling animals
-Social Studies - wrap up Nunavut unit, arctic animals


Reminders:
-music tomorrow, bring recorders
-library tomorrow, bring back books
-Hats on for Mental Health on Wednesday - wear your favorite, silliest, coolest hat to support mental health awareness


P.S. take a look at how our Inuit etchings turned out!

After drawing our symbols on the front, we colored the inside, the same side as the drawn symbols.


Then, back to front page, we traced over the pencil markings with a pen. It was important that we pressed hard, not too hard that the paper ripped though.


When that was complete, open the paper and the symbols appear on the opposite side of where we colored. How cool!

Fun Lunch Thursday

The pizza today was good! Thank you to the Parent council for setting these fun lunches up for us each month.

Tomorrow is our word wall quiz.
Group A: all, wall, call, will, tell, well, small, smell, fall, fell
Group B: why, try, trying, eat, mean, read, sunny, fly, treat, each
Group C: said, ask, catch, eight, prey, they, great, than, afraid, away

As we read through the magic school bus today, Ms. Frizzle and her class taught us that:
-polar bears eat seals
-baby caribou can stand at just 1 hour old
-seals live on their own
-male caribou loose their antlers once a year but they grow back

Mrs. Nelson gave us homework tonight! Is it to not use any electronics for 30 minutes! No ipad, cell phone, tv, video games, nothing! Instead, play outside, read, draw, make a craft, help you cook or clean, etc. Can you help me accomplish this challenge?

This afternoon we started working on addition strategies. Mrs. G and Ms. Binks gave us a few different problems to solve on our own, any way we like. We came together to share our strategies. Strategies we use are:
-drawing pictures
-using objects
-using tally marks
-counting on
-using our fingers
Then we practiced trying different strategies that would work for us. It looked something like this..


We will continue this work with higher numbers until the end of the school year. Soon we will also start subtraction.

To end off the day we learned about Inuit arts and crafts. We know that, traditionally, they did stencil work, sewing, etching or engraving, and prink making. Then we started our own etching!
First we looked at pictures of traditional symbols they used to etch/engrave into objects..

We picked as many symbols as we wanted and started drawing them on the front of a folded piece of paper.


Stay tuned for tomorrow to see what we do next!


Reminders:
-Music tomorrow, bring recorders
-Hats on for Mental health Wednesday
-Continue reading give it a shot to earn hockey cards
-The school community is still looking for book donations. Don't forget to participate in the "need a book, take a book, have a book, leave a book" 

Wiggly Wednesday

Friday is creeping up, will you help me at home practice my word wall words so I can ace the quiz on Friday?

Today we talked about what keeps animals warm in the arctic. Before completing an experiment, we shared our predictions and wrote them in our Lets Visit Nunavut booklets. Some ideas we shared are:
-with their fur
-their skin
-the sun reflecting through the water
-fat under their skin called blubber

Ms. Frizzle and her class joined us today to share some of what they know. We compared points from the book to our predictions. What we have learned from the book so far is:
-animals have adapted to living in the Arctic
-some animals live underground
-musk oxen has 2 layers of thick fur
-seals have blubber
-polar bears have a layer of blubber and a layer of thick fur
-a fun fact is: polar bear got its name because it lives near the North Pole

After recess we completed a science experiment on how the blubber keeps the animals warm. There was a ice cold bowl of water, warm bowl of water, and a boiling water  in a bowl. We predicted before hand if we would be able to feel the temperature of the water through the blubber.
To represent blubber and skin we had vegetable shortening between two ziploc bags. We stuck our hand inside each bowl of water and made note of our final observations. Ask me what I noticed!


Ice Cold Water

 
Warm Water


Boiling Hot Water

This afternoon we worked through new math centers, had music, and finished the day with some ketchup work.

Reminders:
-Tomorrow is jersey day! Wear your favorite jersey of hockey, baseball, soccer, etc. your own jersey
-Tomorrow is also fun lunch! Don't forget to bring a snack.
-Home reading - complete tonight and return to school tomorrow

Chilly Tuesday

Welcome back! Hope everyone enjoyed their long, rainy weekend.

Today was a busy but good day.

Our new word wall words for this week are:
Group A: all, wall, call, will, tell, well, small, smell, fall, fell
Group B: why, try, trying, eat, mean, read, sunny, fly, treat, each
Group C: said, ask, catch, eight, prey, they, great, than, afraid, away

While working on our sentences or stories, we really focused on putting spaces between all of our words.

This afternoon Mrs. G explained 4 new math centers to us and the self assessment piece that will go along with it.

Following a quick body break we ended the day with social studies. We started to learn about arctic animals and how important they are to the Inuit and their way of life.
Our task today was to use books to research what the official bird of Nunavut is.




It is the Rock Ptarmigan. Ask me how to pronounce it!


This week at school:
-ELA: writing good sentences; using spaces, printing neatly, using capitols and periods
-Math: addition skills - sharing and trying different strategies, centers
-Social Studies: Lets Visit Nunavut - animals of the arctic, Inuit etching
-Science: Hot and Cold experiment

Reminders:
-Music tomorrow, bring recorders!
-Home reading: complete tonight and return tomorrow
-Reading: Give it a Shot! - keep reading at home to earn Flames cards, we are keeping track of minutes at school too
-Fun lunch Thursday
-Jersey Day Thursday - wear your favorite teams jersey!

Wednesday

This morning Ms. Cokar was with us and we did acrostic poems about Spring. To help us come up with ideas we talked about what Spring tastes like, smells like, looks like, feels like, and sounds like.
Ask me what I wrote about Spring in my poem!

We continued our conversation on everything we know about addition. Tomorrow we will share some addition strategies we know!

This afternoon we finished our novel study of Polar Bears Past Bedtime. There are so many cool facts we learned about the Arctic from Jack and Annie that we have not already learned.

Following them in their journey was fun! Next week we are going to start a new book journey with Ms Frizzle called Polar Bear Patrol.

Reminders:
-half day tomorrow, we are done at 11:00am
-Math Showcase tomorrow evening from 6-8pm. Everyone is welcome!
-No School Friday or Monday

Missed Monday, Thank Goodness for Tuesday!

What an eventful couple of days we have had.

Yesterday we got through our 50 word quiz. For the rest of the week we are going to focus on our writing skills and developing good, full sentences.

We got together with the other Grade 2s yesterday and learned all about igloos! They are homes that Inuit people used to live and some still use today while hunting or camping. Igloos are in the shape of a dome because that is the strongest shape that can stand up to strong winter winds.
Then, we got a chance to build our own igloos. Take a look below.




Today we talked about how the process went as it was a little frustrating. We discovered that the glue actually dissolved the sugar cubes a little as we were building. This posed a challenge because then the cubes would fall over when least expected. It was a fun attempt though!

This afternoon we started to talk about addition in math; what is addition, why do we use it, and where do we use it?
-there is a plus sign + and an equal sign =
-a number + a number = what those 2 number make together
-it is asking questions
- 2+2, 32+55, and so on
-have 2 groups and combine them together to get a total
-can have more then 2 groups
-addition helps you count money and measure
-help you with cooking and driving (looking at your gas for example)
-we use it during calendar every morning

Our homework tonight is to continue this conversation with you! we are to bring our ideas to class tomorrow.

To end the day today, we did some social/science ketchups. It will be beneficial to have everyone caught up by the end of the week so we can continue into something new next week.


Reminders:
-music tomorrow, bring your recorders
-half day Thursday
-Math Showcase Thursday night from 6-8pm
-No School Friday or Monday
-if you do not have 2 pairs of shoes for at school, an indoor pair and a separate outdoor pair, please bring what you need as we are going outside for Phys Ed now

Fun Friday!

Due to lots of people missing and Mrs. G having Kindergarten music today, our 50 word quiz will be on Monday. Lucky us, two more days to study!

We did some journal writing today about our week at school. Here is a quick recap of our week for you:
-played roll to 100 and developed a self assessment that we used today
-colored pictures on Inuit people
-wrote ideas of how to make a room hotter or colder
-played What Time is it Mr Fox in Phys Ed

This afternoon was dedicated to math and social.
In math we played Roll to 100.  We worked with a partner for about 5 minutes, then did a midway self-assessment. This gave us a moment to reflect on how we were doing and what we could continue to work on. Then we played for another 5 minutes or so before cleaning up and completing the final self-assessment. We know it is always good to be honest because it helps us see where we still have room to grow and where we are doing well in our learning.

For social, we had time to color our Inuit pictures, some of us even completed them. Then we learned about the Inuit language.
-it is call Inuktitut
-it used to only be oral language
-in the 1800s a man developed a written form
Take a look at the pictures below of us learning to write our names and other words using the Inuktitut alphabet!