October 19th

Science

Here are some photos of the Grade 2 students exploring how the screw works in science class this week.

Today in science the students were presented with their design challenges. Time was provided for planing and designing cars, and marble runs. Construction will begin next week! We could still use more cardboard and toilet and paper towel rolls, as well as small empty boxes.




Grade 3 students designing a marble run.




A car design from a Grade 2 student.

Literacy

This was our final week of sharing our connections while reading as a whole class. Next week we will focus on making visualizations while reading, and learn about how this helps us with our comprehension. Students are still encouraged to make connections while reading as is helps readers monitor their comprehension, and think about the text in a deeper way. 

In our Writer's Workshop this week we officially began our first big writing project. We are learning from master writers, like Jane Yolen, and Angela Johnson how to write meaningful stories. We know that writers write about what they know, and all students have special memories close to their heart that will make great personal narratives. The special memories are called "small moments", and for the next few weeks, we will be focusing on how to stretch out these memories, and turn them into stories. 

Here are some examples of memories that students in our class shared today. These are all possible small moments stories!

Math

In the upcoming weeks in math we will be learning about counting, representing numbers, ordering and comparing numbers, and rounding. This week we spent some time counting items in our classroom, or "taking an inventory". We are focusing on how many groups of ten numbers represent. For example the number 43 is 4 groups of ten, and 3 loose ones. We will dig deeper into this concept next week. 

Today we spent some time practising our skip counting. Students in Grade 2 are working towards being able to count by 2s, 5s, and 10s to 200. Students in Grade 3 are working towards being able to count by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s to 1000. 

Skip counting is a skill that is easily practised at home. Students can play simple skip counting games with their families in the car, or waiting in line at the grocery store. First decide if you will skip count by 2s, 5s, 10s, or 25s,. Next choose a number to start at (it's  more challenging if you don't always start at 1). Then take turns skip counting, see how far you can get!

Here is a link to skip counting games for Grade 2 students:

Grade 2 Skip Counting Games

Here is a link to skip counting games for Grade 3 students:

Grade 3 Skip Counting Games

Monday

Don't forget! Monday is a PA Day.