January 28th Update

VORC FORM

Grade 2 students are going to Vivian Outdoor Resource Centre on Feb. 6th. A permission form went home on Friday. Please return it ASAP. Thank you!

Literacy

We have been working on retelling stories. When we retell stories, we focus on only telling the major events only, and not all of the details. Next week, students will be working on a Retell Media Project. They will choose a story that they really like and retell it orally. We will record everyone's retells using an iPad, and then enjoy listening to each one! Today we posted a sign up sheet in our classroom for students to choose the book they will retell. The book should be one that the student really likes, and it shouldn't be too complicated or long. Students are encouraged to make their book selection by next Monday. Students may choose a book from our classroom, school library, or even bring it in from home!

We will spend sometime learning about writing a procedure, which will be connected to our upcoming science experiments. Procedural writing can be supported at home by following recipes (as recipes are procedures!).  After that, we will begin our non-fiction writing projects!

Math

This week in math we are learning about temperature. We are focusing on using a thermometer to measure temperature. Later we will learn about measuring mass and capacity, as well as time, fractions and money. 

Science

Grade 2 Students are learning about liquids and solids. Here are the big ideas that we will be exploring:

Liquids and solids have specific properties.

Liquids and solids interact in different ways.

Some liquids and solids can be harmful to us and the environment

Grade 3 Students are learning about strong and stable structures. Here are the big ideas that we will be exploring:

A structure has both form and function. 

Structures are affected by forces acting on them. 

Structures need to be strong and stable to be useful. 

Spelling Test Thursday

We will have a spelling test this Thursday. This note was stapled into spelling books today:

Spelling Test Coming Up!

We will have a spelling test on Thursday, January 31st. There will be 20 words on the spelling test chosen from the last 4 word lists.

There are no new spelling words this week. Your homework is to review challenging words from the last 4 word lists.

Grade 2 Lessons 17 (wait, rail, beast, throat, etc.), 18 (brave, taste, stand, glass, etc.) 19 ( froze, close, wrote, whose, etc.)  20 ( thumb, glue, knew, etc.)

Grade 3 Lessons: 11( homework, lifeguard, hallway, etc.) 12 ( everything, yourself, someone, everyone, etc.) 13 ( supper, busy, rabbit, diner, etc.)              14 ( funny, winter, bottom, blanket etc.)

Ideas for Practising Difficult Words:

Ø  Write the word 5 times.

Ø  Write the word in a word pyramid

Ø  Sing the letters in the word

Ø  Write the word 3 times in rainbow letters

Ø  Circle the vowel pattern in the word (ar, are, etc.)

Ø  Have practise tests at home

*Please bring your spelling book back to school on Thursday, January 31st.

January 15th Update

Here are the spelling words for this week:

Reading and Writing

In Literacy this week we are focusing on the reading comprehension strategy of retelling. We are working on only retelling the major events of the story, and leaving out the minor details. The minor details are important as they help the reader visualize, and make the story interesting, but when we include them in our retell it becomes too long. So far we have been reading stories together and separating the major events from the minor details. Later students will work to do this in pairs, and then we will work towards retelling stories independently. 

Math

We are learning about subtraction in math. Similarly to when we were learning about adding numbers we are focusing on mental math strategies. In class we read a story about a child named Carlos. In the story Carlos becomes curious about the ages of his family members when he was born. Students spent time using subtraction strategies to investigate the ages of Carlos' family members. Now they are investigating their own families, which is lots of fun! Yesterday we took a break from our investigations to make number lines using beads. The beads are organized into groups of 5. This is helping to support students in taking leaps of ten when adding and subtracting, rather than counting by ones. 

Below are some of the strategies for subtraction that we are learning about. Many students have moved away from counting backwards by ones to taking leaps of ten and using friendlier numbers. We will continue to practise our strategies for addition and subtraction and we will have a small test in the near future. Stay tuned for information about this.

Social Studies

This week students have been working on their inquiry projects. Each student has generated their own questions related to a topic that they were interested in connected to our learning in social studies. Once questions were generated students spent time using research skills to find their answers. Now many students are working on creating a google slide to share their learning with the class. This is the final project in this unit. 

Science

Our next science units will begin later this month. Grade 2 students will be exploring the properties of liquids and solids. The Grade 3 students will be learning all about strong and stable structures. If you have any special insight, or experience with these topics please contact Mrs. Gibbs!

Link to Enclycopedia

Encyclopedia Britannica