Week 26

 

I hope everyone has found some joy over the last week and has had a chance to get some rest over spring break!  Our last week of school before the break was very busy - here's a look at some of the things we did:

Science:  We were hands on exploring the different properties of liquids and getting our hands wet experimenting with pouring into different containers and mixing different liquids together.

We also took advantage of our extra energy and spent some time working on different building challenges using a variety of materials.

Art: We had a chance to use paint and small object to create a mixed media artwork on a canvass.  Everyone really did a great job exploring their creative side!

Buddies: We had a chance to meet with our grade 5 / 6 buddies and have them read stories with us.

Ms. Yasin's Math Group:

This week, Ms. Yasin’s math group continued to review their doubles facts and bonds to 10. Students made a math fortune teller to practice their doubles over spring break! The group also began learning about friendly numbers (multiples of 10 that are easy to add) and practiced creating friendly numbers in equations! Base 10 block manipulatives were very helpful to use to visualize this strategy!

Reminders:

Monday, March 28: 

• First day back after spring break 
• Library book exchange

Wednesday, March 30: 

• Community Walk - please help your child dress for the weather

Week 25

 

I hope everyone had a great long-weekend and were able to get out to enjoy the weather!  I want to thank everyone who attended conferences on Thursday and Friday.  It's always nice to connect with parents to celebrate the growth and learning happening in the classroom!

I Can Compare, Replicate, and Construct 2D Shapes

This past week we have been working as 'geometers' in the classroom and working with 2D shapes.  Our learning has included understanding what a shape is and what are near-shapes (open lines).  We've had extensive discussions around the characteristics of each shape and how we can sort and classify them.

We also had hands on opportunities with drawing them, using pattern blocks, geoboards, and popsicle sticks to experiment with making them and to build composite shapes.

Reminders:

Monday, March 14 - Learning Commons - library book exchange

Thursday, March 17 - St. Patrick's Day - wear green

March 19 to 27 - Spring Break - No school

Week 24

 

Just a reminder for all that have not had a chance to book your conference time for either Thursday evening of Friday morning.  You can book through Power School.

We've been hard at work this week creating some art for the bulletin board outside our classroom.  We listened to the story of Turtle Island as told by Robin Wall Kimmerer in the book, "Braiding Sweet Grass".   We learned about the gift and sacrifices that were given by the animals and how Turtle Island was formed from "the alchemy of all the animals' gifts coupled with her deep gratitude."

I Can Appreciate How Stories of Communities Contribute to Their Sense of Identity and Belonging / I Can Create Artistic Emphasis Based on Personal Choice

Afterwards we looked at some of the art created by Norval Morrisseau.  He is often considered a grandfather of Indigenous art in Canada and was a member of the Indigenous Group of Seven.

We loved the bright, bold colors and his use of organic shapes.  We were inspired by his style to create our own representations of Turtle Island as a way of remembering the gifts from the land.

Literacy:

This week in literacy most students worked on the phonics patterns 'sl' and 'br' and a few worked on 'oo' (moon) and 'ch'.

We also spent sometime building our oral language and reading comprehension skills by summarizing the book, "Grumpy Bird" by Jeremy Tankard.  Students were asked to think about the important elements of the story using, "Somebody, wanted, but, so, then".   There was a strong emphasis put on using character's name throughout the retelling and to ensure that only the most important information was retold.

A few tips for helping your child with reading at home:

1. Have them focus on the words and not the pictures.  Relying on pictures sets them up to develop a habit that will be very hard to unlearn and will also cause them to have issues when they transition to reading short novels with little to no pictures.
2. Have them use their fingers to track both words and letters from left to right.
3. Look through the whole word and identify the sounds represented by the letters.  This strategy asks kids to rely on what they know rather than guessing based on context clues such as pictures and what would make sense within the story.  No Guessing!
4. Split longer words into syllables that will be easier to sound out.
5. Help them when they don't know.  It's better that you supply them with a word rather than have them practice something wrong.

Ms. Yasin's Math Group

This week in Ms. Yasin’s math group, students continued to practice adding and subtracting multiples of 10 from any number less than 100. Students practiced this strategy with and without a hundreds chart. The group had fun putting together a puzzle using the skill of subtracting 10! 

Reminders:

Monday, March 7 - Learning Commons / Book Exchange Day

Thursday, March 10 - Student Learning Conferences in the evening

Friday, March 11 - Student Learning Conferences during the day - No School for Students

Week 23

 

What a busy week at school!  This week we recognized Twosday (2/22/22), Pink Shirt Day, and our 100th Day of school!

A big thank you to the grade 2/3 classes who hosted our school's Pink Shirt Day!  It was great learning about being an upstander and how we can work to reduce bullying.

I Can Recite and Represent the Number Sequence Up to 100 in a Variety of Ways

Students in both grades have been working towards being fluent in numbers up to 100.  Some of the things we have been working on are counting from 0 to 100 by 2s, 5s, and 10s.  This is an important skill to master and be fluent in as preparation for older grades and multiplication.

Literacy:

This past week we worked on the phonics patterns gl and pl.  We took a break from our red words to spend a little more time making sure we are quickly recognizing the ones we've already done.

We've also been working on building our summarizing skills using "Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then" after reading stories.  Being able to identify main characters, problems, and important details helps us to develop our oral language and reading comprehension skills.

Ms. Yasin's Math Group

This week in Ms. Yasin's math group, students practiced adding and subtracting multiples of 10 without using their fingers or a number line. Student learned the trick of just subtracting the tens place value and leaving the ones place value the same (when subtracting multiples of 10). For example, with 56 - 20 we can think of it as 5 tens - 2 tens, and then put the 6 ones back for the answer. Their goal is to be able to do this without looking at a 100's chart! Students had fun creating questions for each other to solve. 

Reminders

Monday, February 28 - Book Exchange

March 8 - 9 - Rocks and Rings

March 10 - 11 - Parent Teacher Conferences

March 11 - No School

Week 22

 

Even though this was a short week we managed to get a lot done.  Everyone really enjoyed handing out Valentines to classmates and we even enjoyed a virtual bullying awareness magic show!

I Can Communicate Learning in New Ways

We have been hard at work writing and illustrating pages for a book we are writing to share with other classes in the school.  This process has meant that students have had to look outside themselves to think about what would make interesting writing for other people.  During the process we talked about adding detail to our writing and using lots of bright colours in our quality 4-star illustrations.  Here's a sneak peak of work so far . . .

Literacy:

This week most of the class worked on 'fl' and 'gl' in our phonics study.

Ms. Yasin's Math Group:

This week in math with Ms. Yasin, students practiced the mental math strategy of adding 10! Students used a 100's chart to find the speedy quick trick for adding a 10 to ANY number: just jump down! Then they were able to add 10 to numbers without needing to use their fingers. Some students were excited to try the challenge of adding multiples of 10 as well! 

Reminders:

Twosday, February 22 - Twosday

Wednesday, February 23 - Pink Shirt Day

Week 21

 

This week we took advantage of a sunny day to go out and visit our Tamarack friends on the hill.  This is the first time we've really stopped to look closely at them since the season has turned to winter.  All of the needles are gone but we did see the trees are getting ready for spring and have some buds starting to form.

Literacy:

You may have noticed that your child has been bringing some work home.  This is work that they undertake independently during our literacy centre time.  During literacy centres students choose and complete activities at their own pace while I work (and Ms. Serra) with small groups on intensive, targeted reading instruction.  

Two of the centres, writing and listening/story map, have small checklists that students can work through to ensure they are doing their best work.  Once they have completed their work and identified it as 'complete' they self-assess their work with the checklist and hand in.  I then also go through the checklist and hand back to students to share with those at home.  You should be seeing at least on of these checklists per cycle of literacy centres (typically a week - the next cycle will be Feb. 14 to Feb. 25).  Looking through this work together will give your child to further develop their feelings pride and help to develop their motivation to do their best work on school assignments.

Ms. Yasin's Math Group:

In math with Ms. Yasin this week students worked on refining their doubles facts using doubles games. Students then continued to work with the doubles plus one strategy for mental math. Ten frames and dominos were very helpful in visualizing this strategy. The math group ended the week by learning how we can expand our doubles knowledge to doubles minus 1 and doubles plus two! Everyone worked so hard this week!

Reminders:

Monday, February 14 - Valentine's Day / Library Book Exchange

Tuesday, February 15 - Anti-Bullying Magic Show

Thursday, February 17 - Teacher's Convention - no school

Friday, February 18 - Teacher's Convention - no school

Monday, February 21 - Family Day - no school

Wednesday, February 23 - Pink Shirt Day

Week 20

 

Wow!  Last week flew by so fast!  

I Can Appreciate How Language, Traditions, Celebrations, and Stories of Families, Groups, and Communities Contribute to Their Sense of Identity and Belonging. 

We started off the week with reading a non-fiction book about the Lunar New Year.  We also had a chance to read a story that explained the Chinese Zodiac.  This week in art we also took the opportunity to draw and paint some tigers.

Literacy:

This week's red words were: many, here, once, buy

One of the ways we practice these words is by playing games with them during literacy centres.  This week many students chose to play "Go Fish" with the red words.  Our practice words were written onto card stock in pairs and then we followed traditional "Go Fish" rules.  This game can easily be replicated at home.  All of the red word lists can be found in our Google Classroom.

We also returned to our study of phoneme/grapheme relationships (phonics).  This week the majority of the class looked at the 'bl' blend and a few students worked on the long vowel pattern 'ie'.

Ms. Yasin's Math Group:

This week in math groups with Ms. Yasin, students reviewed the mental math strategy of using doubles to solve problems. Hit The Button was their favorite game! Students extended their learning by exploring "doubles plus one" as a math strategy. Dominos helped visualize what doubles plus one looks like. Students used this knowledge to sort dominos based on if they could see doubles, doubles plus one, a number bond to 10, or none of those on the domino. 

Reminders:

Monday, February 7 - Learning Commons / Book Exchange Day

Tuesday, February 8 - Carnaval - please help students to dress warmly for the weather