Happy December!

As the snow falls, the excitement is on the rise in our classroom! Count down to Christmas vacation is on! As much as we are eager for the break, students have been working hard. In math, we are finishing off our unit in patterning. We have even managed to throw in some STEM challenges during our math sessions. The following are photos from our lego challenge: Make the largest structure you can using only 50 lego pieces. The students were so creative!

In Language, students have been working very hard on their "Peace is" journey. We are now at the stage of bumping up our rough draft based on peer and teacher feedback. Here are some photos of our descriptive writing journey.

In Science, we students have been having a great time working on their parks as part of our summative task. I look forward to seeing the final products presented today. I am so impressed at how much students were able to apply what they learnt about simple machines and use this information in their park creations. Prior to starting this task, I challenged students to create the six simple machines using only pasta and glue.

Looking ahead, we have our St.Anne Christmas concert on Friday December 23rd in the morning. We are busy practicing our performance for the concert. Should you not be able to attend the concert, I will be sure to post a recorded copy of our performance. We are asking students to wear Christmas colours.

Remembrance Day

Over the past two weeks, students have been hard at work exploring the concept of Peace and creating beautiful artwork. I am incredibly impressed at how reflective and focused students have been exploring such a deep topic. We started by reading the book "What does peace feel like" by Valdimir Radunsky. Students developed questions they were wondering about Peace and used their senses to reflect on how we identify peace in our day-to-day lives. With a partner, students are trying to answer some of the questions that their fellow classmates came up with. Stay tuned to see our whole Peace journey. Below is the completed artwork that students created.

Last week, we also participated in Scientists in Schools. An afternoon like this could not have been possible without our volunteers. Thank you for all of your support! Students learnt a lot that afternoon and we continue to develop our understanding of simple machines.

We have some local celebrities in our class! On Sunday, Global National featured our Grade 5 class's war museum that they created in their classroom. A handful of our grade 2's were selected to visit the museum during taping. Here is the link.....http://globalnews.ca/video/3064823/canadian-war-museum-teaching-the-past-to-the-future

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe time trick-o-treating tonight! This week is also spirit week at St.Anne.... Monday - Orange and Black Day Tuesday - PJ Day Wednesday - Crazy hair and hat Day Thursday - Storybook or Character Day Friday - Sports Day Students are encouraged to bring in a one time donation for their participation in this weeks events (all money raised going towards the United Way). Thursday our class will be participating in Scientists in Science. Our focus will be on Simple Machines. If you are able to volunteer, please consider doing so as we cannot make these days work without our amazing volunteers.

Weekly update

This week we began our new units in both Math and Language. In math, students began exploring 2D shapes. We discussed all the different ways we can describe shapes and began exploring how to sort shapes based upon sorting rules. Students got into quiet a debate over the semi-circle. We cannot decide whether a semi-circle has one side and whether or not it has two corners. I wonder if students found any information to help us settle our debate! In language, students began their new unit on descriptive writing. We discussed the importance of rich descriptive words and how they help a reader visualize a text. We are working on a descriptive writing piece about our homes. If there are any pictures of their homes (inside/outside) that are easily available for student's to bring to school, they would be very helpful. Housekeeping: A message from Kingdom club - The Kingdom Club will be having its annual food drive for the Kanata Food Cupboard from October 24-28. We encourage you to bring in canned foods and non perishable food items [things that don't need to be refrigerated]. Other non-perishable items such as diapers, wipes and toiletries are also much appreciated! Our goal this year is 1,500 items, which is about 3 items per person in our school. This Halloween, help us to scare hunger!

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend surround by your loved ones. The students were all eager to share their Thanksgiving day adventures with the class. I look forward to reading all about their weekends in their final task for our recount unit. Next week, we will be starting our new unit on descriptive writing. Students have also be enjoying participating in the Global Read Aloud project. Last week, students explored the book 'Nana in the city.' Check out our hard work: photopeach.com/album/14i5640 In math, we will be wrapping up our unit on representing, comparing and ordering whole numbers this week. Students will be completing two assessment tasks to show their understanding of this unit. I am impressed at how well students have been using our anchor charts to ensure answers are complete. At home, students are encouraged to keep practicing how to write numbers up to twenty. Housekeeping item: School photos will take place October 20. Please remember NOT to wear green!

This past Thursday, our class was responsible for leading our grade 2 liturgy.  Our class did a wonderful job modelling respective behaviour and the liturgy ran smoothly.  Thank you to my student readers who did a wonderful job!

Our Thanksgiving Mass will be celebrated in the gym this Thursday at 1:15pm.

In math, our focus has extended beyond representing and comparing numbers to ordering numbers.  We have been exploring how to use base ten blocks and hundreds charts to help us order numbers from greatest to least and least to greatest.

In language, students are working on their media poster to help demonstrate what they learned through our digital citizenship lessons.  Ask your child what they learned about their digital footprint.  Our focus this week will be finishing our recount unit and launching our participating in the Global Read Aloud project.  It is an exciting project that will extend for six weeks and involves us reading a particular read aloud each week while over 800,000 other students do so around the world at the same time and complete a variety of tasks surrounding this read aloud.  Stay tuned to see what exciting connections and experiences we have participating in this project.

A few household matters:
1.  I sent home the homework calendar for October on Friday.  As the letter states, this calendar is a suggested home learning option.  It is not obligatory and does not need to be returned to school each month. 
2.  Friday is a PD day.  Hoping students and their families have a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend.  School will resume on Tuesday.
3.  Laces!  Some students are having significant difficulty tying their shoes and as a result are becoming a safety concern especially when in the gym.  If your child has lace up running shoes for school, please encourage them to practice tying them.  Thank you for your patience and attention to this matter. 

This past Thursday, students participated in our first Grade 2 liturgy.  Each week, a different class will be responsible to lead the liturgy, in the learning commons.  Our class is responsible for this week's liturgy.  Below are photos taken during our first liturgy.

In math, we continue to explore ways to represent, compare and order numbers.  Students are using various tools to represent numbers including base ten blocks, ten frames and number lines. 

In language, we are working on how to recount a realistic or fictional story.  We created an anchor chart to highlight important features to include in a recount.  I look forward to reading their weekend recounts that they are working on.  

I enjoyed the students simple machines presentations.  Students did a wonderful job highlighting the item that they brought it.  We will be continuing to explore simple machines and learn all about how they make doing jobs easier. 

It was wonderful meeting many of you at the Welcome Back BBQ on Thursday.  The students had a wonderful time showing off the classroom to everyone!

This week, we continued to learn about each other and how to best work in groups.  Students understand how each person in a group is valuable and brings their own fresh perspective to a task.

In Math, we started exploring how to represent numbers.  Students decided that using tally marks, ten frames, place value mats and pictures were the best ways to show what they knew about a number.

In Language, we are reviewing strategies we can use when we come across a word that we do not know.    Using books that are at our level, students were able to practice these skills when they met with their Grade 4 reading buddies.  Ask your child about their buddy. A reminder that our library day is Monday.  Students will need to have their books at school tomorrow (1 French, 1 English). 

In Science, I look forward to seeing what students came up with for their simple machines task.  Students will be presenting what they brought in this week.  These presentations are due in tomorrow.

This week we also had our first fire drill practice.  We needed some reminders and additional practice to walk outside as quickly and quietly as possible.  I am sure we will do a much better job on the next practice.

 Housekeeping...
1.  Please return your student verification form if you have not already done so.
2.  Please return your technology consent form if you have not already done so.

Have a wonderful Sunday!!!

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a good weekend recovering from our first week back at school!  As a class, we continue to work on establishing expectations for various aspects of our time at school.  We wrote about our Hopes for this school year and discussed how we are each unique and bring special talents to our classroom.  We completed our first Makerspace challenge.  After reading Rosie Revere, Engineer, students were given the challenge to create their own dream space for the classroom using a container with random materials inside.  Students had a great time coming up with ideas and seeing them through to completion.  While working on this task, students practiced important collaborative skills.

Thank you to everyone who donated materials to our classroom.  Similarly, thank you to everyone who returned the variety of forms that went home last week.  If you have not had a chance to return the consent for use of technology form, please do so at your earliest convience.

Today students brought home the school council's fundraiser for this year.  It is an entertainment booklet.  All information concerning this fundraiser is in the bag that went home.  Please note that should you not be participating in this fundraiser you are asked to return the booklet to school.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the Welcome Back BBQ this thursdays from 5:00-7:00pm!!!

First Day!!!

It was great to meet many of you this morning on the yard! 

Our day was jam packed!!! The students and I had a great time getting to know each other and learning about some of the expectations of grade 2. We discussed entry routines and general classroom expectations.  We read the book Iggy Peck, Architect and talked about how we all have our own unique and valued ways of approaching tasks.  We exercised our creative side and made a creation using playdough and took our "First day of Grade 2" photos.  We even had gym time with Mrs. Latour's class and played a game of "BOAT."  I am sure many students would say that the highlight of their day was that it was grade 2 day on the play structure! 

Each student has brought home their mail bag which includes their agenda, my welcome letter, a parent information form (your homework!), school calendar, consent for the use of student information form, school newsletter, as well as a lunch lady order form.  Please take some time to review these items and return the two information forms at your earliest convience.

Thank you to everyone who sent in classroom materials.  We are set when it comes to ziploc bags, kleenex and dry erase markers!!!  Many of the students were eager to keep their pencil crayons/markers so I have decided to allow students to keep these materials.  Please help your child to arrange the following items together in either a pencil case or large ziploc bag (labelled with their name).... pencils, erasers, scissors, glue stick, pencil crayons/markers.    Similarly, please note these are not mandatory items as I have all these items for student use, in the classroom. 

If you have any questions/concerns, please do not hesitate to either write a note in the agenda or give the school a call.  Here's to a wonderful year!!!

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