End of (school) Days

Wow! What an amazing learning journey. It has been my pleasure to teach each and everyone of the students in this grade 2 class. I have enjoyed it so much. Thank you for all of your help and support this year. It has also been pretty cool to enter into our deep learning journey with the other grade 2 classes. Here is a short video of our last field trip at the Summer Solstice Festival during National Aboriginal Day.

Today students will be bringing home some artwork. They will also be bringing home 2 different sets of pictures. One is a picture that was taken on the first day of grade 2 way back in September. The other is a set of pictures on a 12x12 piece of cardstock that shows what our students look like now. They have come a long way in their transformation from students who have just finished grade 1 to capable and confident youngsters who are ready for grade 3. It has been an awesome metamorphosis. I feel sad to see them go but am happy that they have completed this amazing transformation.

Multiplying our Knowledge

The past 2 weeks we have been learning the basics of multiplication and division. We learned how multiplication is making a number of equal groups. We explored different ways to make those equal groups through various centers and worksheets. We learned that division is breaking up a number into equal groups. We explored division through centers as well.

We are busy this week finishing up our animal reports for Science and our Narrative folktale for Language. We are also completing our Fully Alive Family Life unit which concludes with a simple explanation of how a baby is born.

Next Tuesday is our last field trip of the year to Major's Hill Park to take part in the Aboriginal Summer solstice festival. This will also wrap up our Deep Learning adventure where we explored and connected with an Inuit community and collaborated on projects such as the photo book. At the festival we will explore arts and crafts activities as well as dances and singing. We will also get to see First Nations people in their regalia as the perform different ceremonies. It will be an excellent culmination. Thank you as well to all of the parent volunteers who have signed up so far to help supervise.

We have also been observing the life cycle of a butterfly in action. we received them as caterpillars, watched as they turned into chrysalides and the observed in amazement as they became butterflies.


Forming a Chrysalid


How's it hanging


Multiply beside a butterfly


Snowman Multiplication and Division


Multiplication Array

Animal adaptations

This week we concluded our exploration of fractions. We covered up shapes by trying to use the smallest number of pieces possible. We explored fraction relationships using fraction blocks and discovered different ways to make a pattern block hexagon.

In language we used the 5 finger method for summarizing a folktale. (Somebody...wanted...but...so...then). We also learned what  a folktale is and how it often tries to teach a lesson about the natural world. We practised our summarizing with the First Nation story from Canada's West Coast "How the Raven Stole the Sun." We also looked at how to illustrate a book using that story. 

In Science we learned more about animal adaptations and characteristics.  We made animals out of available materials and described their adaptations. We also learned about classification of animals into the major animal groups mammal, reptile, fish, insect, amphibian, and bird. We took an in depth look at mammals and will be exploring more of the animals next week. Below are some videos of students describing their animal's adaptations. 

I'm actually pretty good at fractions.

This week we began our work on fractions. We have been exploring what a fraction is through various activities. Today, we were discovering what "halfness" is. We look at different ways to make a half out of something.

What is half of his height?

We used spinners to see what half of the carpet is

We filled half of the water bottle

I found the halfway point of this book

What is half of nineteen hands?

In Language we continued to work on our narrative stories using the prompt "There's a creature in my House." We have been using a graphic organizer to put our story together and the writing our rough drafts based on our outline form the organizer. Most of us will finish before the May Long weekend begins.

We are also learning about Animals and their adaptations in science with a focus on animals from the Arctic

Donations

Please consider donating what you can. The crate will be shipped within the next few weeks. You can also continue to purchase picture books. Supplies will be purchased from the money raised from sales of the picture book. Thank you for continuing to help students in this learning journey.

Education Week

Next week is education week which is a showcase for our school and school board. We have been hard at work getting ready for this week and for the open house. The Grade 2's have been especially busy as we have chosen this week to sell our My Community picture book which includes pictures taken by our grade 2's as well as grade 5 students from St. Luke in Barrhaven and Grade 5 students at Alookie school in Pangnirtung, Nunavut. We have been preparing ads to play over the school announcements. Here's what we have so far.

https://youtu.be/XrW5knRR9ys
https://youtu.be/VI_PwZ85IIE
https://youtu.be/l7PX3Lv9Mgs


Please help support this project.

I would also love to see you at the open house on Tuesday May 2, 2017 from 8:30-9:15 followed by an in class activity until 10:00 which parents are invited to take part in.

Easter

I hope that you have all had a happy and blessed Easter. We celebrate that Jesus is Risen. We also celebrate our earth week at St. Anne's which will culminate in our eco parade on Friday April 21.

We have been working this week on exploring 3D shapes by naming them, and describing them by the number of vertices, edges and faces. We are also discovering how a 3D shape is made up of 2D shapes.

In language we are working on writing to persuade. We worked in groups by discussing and coming up with 3 things that should be packed into the crate that is going to Pangnirtung and finding reasons to include each of those things.  We also read the story I wanna Iguana and had students write a letter persuading their parents to get them a pet. Parents are under no obligation to get their child a pet but please praise their efforts when the letter comes home later next week.

We are also wrapping up our exploration of solids and liquids in science by creating a structure that can float for 2 minutes in water, be moved 1 m by a fan and hold a little lego figure. A student posed the question whether or not cardstock would be a better choice than paper. We decided to do a test by floating a piece of paper and a piece cardstock. in a container for 2 minutes.

The cardstock still kept its shape but the paper quickly absorbed the water. 

Basketball skills in the gym.

Attending the stations of the cross put on by Grade 6 students.

working on the crate top. Oops we spilled some paint.

Our completed crate. We made our oops into a beautiful oops. Way to stay positive Grade 2's.

Tomatosphere. Most seeds germinated. This little guy came up but did not put out any leaves. 

Creating our Easter posters on cardstock.