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!

Weekend is almost here!

Tomorrow is our big word wall quiz! We have been practicing hard at school this week, will you help me practice one last time tonight??

Group A: go, so, no, do, you, fast, last, ant, find, went, sent, bend, find, mind, kind, want, day, may, lake, bake, five, time, nine, late, gave, cone, line, home, note, robe, snake, jeep, feet, stay, play, clay, we, me, he, be, see

Group B: you, your, yes, yell, drop, line, side, dress, draw, saw, more, store, stand, star, blew, flew, new, stone, sting, ring, good, book, school, took, out, shout, about, our, house, new, girl, turn, hurt, first, were, card, part, start, are, fast, last, nest, must, step, stamp, still, west

Group C: boy, toy, oil, soil, other, mother, sister, boil, brother, father, have, give, love, from, live, friend, much, such, old, told, new, girl, turn, hurt, first, were, card, part, start, are, more, store, stand, star, blew, flew, new, stone, sting, ring, this, then, thing, thank, bank, with, wish, think, sign, there

The Grade 1s joined us for calendar and reading buddies.




After recess we continued working on our Roll to 100 with Place Value game. Together we developed a self assessment to go with this game. Ideas of what we can assess while playing this game are:
-am I using base ten blocks?
-am I working well with my partner and playing fair?
-am I using addition skills?
-am I filling in the worksheet properly?
-am I following the instructions?
-did I work the whole time?

This Afternoon was spent doing science and social. We brought our ideas together for how to cool down a room if it is too hot and warm up a room if it is too cold.

Then we learned about the people of Nunavut. Here are a few points:
-people who live in Nunavut are known as Inuit
-Inuit people have much pride and love for their land
-Inuit live in small communities where everyone is considered a relative
-Inuit believe in co-operation, mildness, generosity, and gentleness
-Inuit children learned through the adults
-some traditional clothing the Inuit used the wear are parkas, trousers, boots, mittens, caribou or rabbit socks
-most clothing was made from seal or caribou skin and fur

To end the day we got to choose a coloring page of a traditional Inuit outfit. Tomorrow we will finish coloring it, Mrs. G will take a picture of our face, then we will replace the face in the picture with our face. That way it will look like we are wearing the outfit!

Reminders:
-Home Reading: complete and return tomorrow
-return fun lunch forms due TOMORROW
-reading give it a shot - continue, some are starting to earn hockey trading cards

Wonderful Wednesday

A sickness is spreading around. For all that are home trying to get better, each day, we wish you well and hope you come back soon!

Keep Practicing those 50 words for the big quiz on Friday! Today we were sorting them. A few ideas of rules we came up with are:
-words that start with s
-words with st in them
-words with long vowel sound
-words with only 4 letters

We are nearly halfway through our short novel about the Arctic. Annie and Jack are teaching us soo much about the animals and people of the Arctic. A few things we have learned so far are:
-igloo means house and they are build out of blocks of snow, and the snow walls help keep the interior warm
-the people of the arctic have special ceremonies to honor the animals
-polar bears have taught people how to live in the snow and hunt for food
-the sun shines 24 hours a day in the summer
-the people use dog sleds as vehicles, the dogs that pull the sled are Siberian Huskies
Tomorrow we are going to learn more about the people of Nunavut.

This afternoon was spent completing social and science. All of us are now caught up in our Lets Visit Nunavut booklets as we were given plenty of time to finish the pages we have done so far.
To end the day we had a small discussion about igloos and how the snow walls keep the inside warm. Then we talked about a few ways we can heat up our house and classroom as well as cool them down.
Our task for at home tonight is to come up with a few ways that we cool down and heat up our house or a room in our house, will you please help me with this task? We are going to bring these ideas to class tomorrow.

Reminders:
-Home reading coming home today. Complete and return tomorrow
-Reading: Give It A Shot! fill out logs to earn hockey trading cards
-Return fun lunch forms
-School community book bin is still looking for books, if you would like to donate

We have 50 words this week! As practice today, we got to choose what we wanted to do. The remainder of the week we will be focusing on writing with our words.

Group A: go, so, no, do, you, fast, last, ant, find, went, sent, bend, find, mind, kind, want, day, may, lake, bake, five, time, nine, late, gave, cone, line, home, note, robe, snake. jeep, feet, stay, play, clay, we, me, he, be, see

Group B: you, your, yes, yell, drop, line, side, dress, draw, saw, more, store, stand, star, blew, flew, new, stone, sting, ring, good, book, school, took, out, shout, about, our, house, hew, girl, turn, hurt, first, were, card, part, start, are, fast, last, nest, must, step, stamp, still, west

Group C: boy, toy, oil, soil, other, mother, sister, boil, brother, father, have, give, love, from, live, friend, much, such, old, told, hew, girl, turn, hurt, first, were, card, part, start, are, more, store, stand, star, blew, flew, new, stone, sting, ring, this, then, thing, thank, bank, with, wish, think, sing, these

After recess, we taught Mrs G the math game Ms. Binks taught us a couple weeks ago; Roll to 100 with place value.
Here we are playing the game with a partner.





Following lunch we had music. Tomorrow will also be a music day, please help me to remember to bring my recorder. 

For the remainder of the day we did some ketchup in our science/social unit. After a quick review of what is hotter and colder then Nunavut, we discussed thermometers. Everything we know about thermometers:
-show what the temperature is
-tell you how hot or cold something it
-minus means cold ( symbol is -)
-plus means warm/hot (no symbol)
-we can measure the temperature of: the desert, Arctic, water, your body, fridge/freezer, oven, fish tank, your room, food
Tomorrow we will be completing the activities we started today and Mrs. G hopes to do an experiment as well!

This week is DEAR week, celebrating Beverly Cleary's birthday/Reading Give it a Shot starts this week. This is how it works:
-Tomorrow a reading log with a Calgary Flames logo on it will be coming home - this is how we will differentiate between home reading and give it a shot reading programs.
-Mrs. G has Calgary Flame trading cards.
-for every 100 minutes read, 1 trading card will be awarded

-there are also tickets at school. Once a certain amount of minutes have been read (Warning: it is a pretty high number!) students enter their name into a draw of a big prize. More details on that are to come. 

This week at school:
-Language Arts: word wall words (50 words), writing skills, DEAR
-Math - addition with place value, prep for Math Showcase (self-assessment focus)
-Science - Hot and Cold experiments
-Social Studies - Lets Visit Nunavut: weather, how humans and animals survive
-Health - Pillars of Care, healthy snacks, drinking lots of water

Reminders:
-the school is still looking for books for our community library. Any books that you are no longer reading at home, you can donate. These books can be children's books and books meant for an older audience.
-return fun lunch forms
-Reading: Give it a Shot
-Music tomorrow - bring recorders
-Library tomorrow - return all books

Tomorrow is our word wall quiz. Next week we will have 50 words to study!
As practice today we did task cards.
-choochoo write - write the words in a row with no spaces
-rainbow write - each letter of the word is a different color
-silly story - using all ten of our words to create a silly story
-abc order
-words within words - finding words within each word wall word. For example thing has in, tin, thin, nit, night

We continued stations in Phys Ed. Tomorrow we will be starting to go outside. Please help me to make sure I have the appropriate gear to participate in Phys Ed outside.

We had music this afternoon, and we'll have it again on Monday, so will you also help me to remember my recorder? I can even bring it to school tomorrow just in case.

For the remainder of the afternoon, we focused on science. We joined the other Grade 2s and watched a video about how animals keep cool in the desert. This is the opposite of what we have already learned, how animals keep warm in the arctic.
A few things we learned from the video are:
-jack rabbits keep cool through their ears, similar to how vehicle engines keep the water cool
-once the sun goes down the air cools off
-very rarely does it rain in a desert but when it does, a lot of rain comes, and new plants bloom and more animals come out
-animals eat plants
-cactuses have prickles that are leaves which store water
-animals have home that are underground to shade/protect from the sun during the day and cool air at night

Tomorrow we will review the thermometer we starting learning about on Tuesday.

We made a t-chart about what is Hotter then Nunavut and Colder then Nunavut.
Hotter then Nunavut:
-Texas
-the sun
-human body
-fire
-Mexico
Colder then Nunavut:
-ice
-mountain tops
-snow
-Neptune
-North/South Pole


Reminders:
-Book orders are due tomorrow!
-Home reading - complete tonight and return tomorrow.

Monday

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I am happy to be back!

We started off our day with our regular morning meeting and having a talking circle with each other to check in on our feelings, or to just talk about how the last couple weeks were.

Our word wall words for this week are:

Group A: day, may, stay, play, clay, we, me, he, be, see
Group B: fast, last, nest, must, most, step, stamp, still, west, went
Group C: this, then, thing, thank, bank, with, wish, think, sing, these

A few things we noticed in our words are:
-ay family words - day, may, stay, play, clay, ray, say,
-long e words - we, me, he, be, see, these
-ast family words - fast, last, cast, vast, blast
-st words - nest, must, most, step, stamp, still, west
-th words - this, then, thing, thank, with, think, these
-ing family words - thing, sing, ring, bling, fling, ping, ding, wing, king

We wrote them down to bring home to practice this week at home too.

After recess we had time to work on our word wall words. Mrs. G also read us a story called Pout Pout Fish Goes to School 

Following lunch we joined the other Grade 2s for some science. Since we are connecting the hot and cold unit to our Nunavut unit, we created a t-chart list with places and things we know are colder than Nunavut and hotter then Nunavut.
Colder then Nunavut:
-Anarctica
-Hail
-The Moon (at night can get to -175 degrees C)
Hotter then Nunavut:
-Lava
-Africa
-The Moon (during the day can get to over 100 degrees C)

After this discuss, Mr. Fisher introduced to us the thermometer. He had a few different card with statements on it them such as; "an extremely cold day", "a fever", "temperature of boiling water", "average room temperature", "temperature that water freezes", etc. Together, we had to decide were we thought each card belonged on the thermometer.
There were some great discussions around our thoughts and ideas.

Reminders:
-return library books for library tomorrow
-home reading - complete tonight, return tomorrow!
-book orders coming home today, due back on Friday