October Calendar

The October calendar that was sent home last week is WRONG! Many apologies. A new copy will be sent home with your child. Here is the updated version for now. If you notice any mistakes please let me know!

Week 3 Update

Information:

PA Day
Monday, September 23rd is a PA Day.

Reading Homework
Students should be reading at home each night for at least 15 minutes. To track this progress, and help set new reading goals, students have been instructed to record their reading in the yellow reading log stapled into their agendas. For more information check out the Homework page on this blog.

Family Journals
Students completed their Family Journal this afternoon. The journals should have come home in a green folder. If possible, please take a few minutes to review this at home and help your child remember to bring it back to school on Tuesday. Information about the Family Journals is located in the green folder on the first page.

Meet the Teacher Night
Next Thursday, September 26th is Meet the Teacher Night. We are looking forward to welcoming families into the classroom! If you are unable to attend but would like to visit our classroom another time, please let Mrs. Gibbs know.

Georgina Island Pow Wow

On Saturday, September 28th there will be an opportunity for students and their families to attend the Chippewas of Georgina Island Pow Wow. Any students who want to attend must also have at least one parent or guardian who is travelling with them as staff will not be responsible for supervision. The bus will leave Rick Hansen Public School at 10:00 am and will depart Georgina Island at 4:30pm. ​Please note that there are limited seats available on the bus. You are welcome to bring as many family members as you'd like.  Please register on School Cash Online.  This opportunity will be on a first come first served basis.

The bus will take us to Virginia Beach where we will catch the ferry to the island and then a bus shuttle to the event.  We will use a free ferry shuttle to get to and from the Island. Please see below for the entrance cost per person for the Pow Wow. 

We at Rick Hansen Public School are deeply committed to meeting the Calls To Action as outlined by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We hope that our broader school community will enjoy this opportunity to learn more about our partners in education on Georgina Island. 

Learning Update:

Literacy

We continue to build stamina during read to self time by reading for a minute longer each day. We are now able to read for 15 minutes. This week we learned how to read to someone by either choosing the I Read You Read model, or the Choral Reading model. We discussed the purpose of reading to someone (it's a way to practise reading fluently and with expression). 

This week we also learned about the comprehension strategy of checking for understanding by asking ourselves "who?" and "what?" after reading a page. If we feel confused about the information on the page we back up and reread it! We have also been reviewing different decoding strategies. 

Our "CAFE Menu" with the reading strategies that we have learned about

Mrs. Gibbs continues to work on reading individually with each student. 

In Writer's Workshop this week, we began using our Writer's Notebooks! First we learned how to generate ideas by brainstorming different topics (e.g., special people, special places, likes and dislikes). Then we learned how to take these ideas and turn them into pieces of writing. After writing time, students gathered in a circle to listen to each other share their writing. 

Math

Here are our current learning goals in math:

• I can read and print whole numbers to twenty
• I can count forward by 1s,2s,5s,10s, and 25s, to 200
• I can count backwards by 1s from 50 starting at any number

We spent some time counting objects in the classroom by 2s, 5s, and 10s. 

Many students will benefit from practising skip counting at home by counting objects in the house, or outside in nature by 2s and 5s. 

Next week we will begin learning about place value. Stay tuned for information about this. 

Social Studies

In social students this week, we discussed birthdays. Students shared the different traditions that they do on their birthdays (e.g., having a party, getting presents, eating cake). We discovered that some of our traditions are different! (e.g., signing Happy Birthday in a different language, eating pizza vs. a different type of food, getting homemade gifts, hanging up a special birthday poster). 

Next we will be learning about how traditions might change over time (e.g., how did parents or grandparents celebrate their 6th or 7th birthday? what's the same? what's different?)

If you would like to come into our classroom to share about a special birthday tradition we would LOVE to have you and learn about it! Please let Mrs. Gibbs know. 

Outdoor Learning and Inquiry

This year we will spend lots of time learning outside! We spent some of our art class outside in the community garden finding inspiration for paintings. We have also become very interested in spiders after we saw one on our window! Today we went on a spider hunt and we found many different webs! Inside we discussed the idea of "reading for a purpose" and using non-fiction books to learn more about topics that we find interesting. 

We have dedicated a big table in our classroom as our inquiry table. Right now there are some books about spiders on it, as well as a skull that Mrs. Gibbs found in a forest! Students enjoyed wondering about which animal the skull came from, while building strong oral communication skills at the same time :) 

Spider stuff on the Inquiry Table!

The skull Mrs. Gibbs found....what is it?

Ideas about what the skull could be from

Reading Homework has Officially Begun!

Building a strong reading life is one of the most important and fun parts of Grade 2!

This year, your child will be involved in many whole class, small group, and individual lessons and activities that will help him/her to improve as a reader. It is also crucial that your son or daughter reads at home for at least 15 minutes every night.

Reading Logs

Reading Logs are tools used for readers to track reading progress, look for reading patterns, and feel a sense of accomplishment for hard work and dedication. Every Monday students will have a yellow reading log page stapled into their agendas. After reading on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, students are asked to write down the title of the book and the number of pages that they read. Mrs. Gibbs will check these Reading Logs on Fridays. 

If your son or daughter is unable to complete their reading homework due to illness, event, etc. please write a note in the agenda to let Mrs. Gibbs know. 

**There is a space for a Friday entry on the Reading Log but it is optional as sometimes Friday nights can be busy!

Levelled Readers

To ensure that your child has reading material available at home at his/her level, our class will be visiting the library to exchange our books every Day 3. Students will be taking one or two levelled readers (depending on availability) to practice skills and strategies while at home. The levelled book should be an easy level for your child so that he/she can read it independently while still building his/her vocabulary and fluency.

Additional Reading

To help your child build vocabulary, learn new things, and develop a love for reading, students will also take a picture book, chapter book, non-fiction book, graphic novel, etc. home for the week. These books can be read with family members or read independently.

 

Week 2!

We made it through the first week. It was wonderful for everyone to meet each other and discover our class together. I am so excited for the year ahead!

Thank you so much for returning all of the forms and agenda money.

Two notes were sent home on Friday.

One note is requesting that students bring in a paint shirt to keep here at school for the year. A large, old t-shirt is perfect.

The second note is requesting that students bring in items to decorate their Writer's notebook with. These items can be photos, magazine clippings or words or images important to the student, sketches and other hand drawn pictures, stickers, etc. 

Please let me know if you require a hard-copy of either note again. These items should be at school by Friday this week. Thank you for your support.

Here are some photos that capture some of our community building, and learning from last week and this week so far:

The students collaborated to determine how we can be safe, and respectful during snack, lunch and recess.

One of our first math activities this year was to create this 100 chart together. It was made using small pieces of birch. 

After a few partner tasks in math class we created a set of Math Partner Norms for our classroom. This chart will hang in the classroom all year, and we will make changes as needed. 

We spent time last week deciding how we can create a classroom that is warm and welcoming for all. This picture shows our Classroom Promise. For each promise, a group of students created a pose to show what it looks like. Under the Class Promise you will see Our Appreciations. Throughout the week students are encouraged to look for ways to appreciate their classmates. Our Friday afternoon tradition is to read the appreciations a loud together. 

Our classroom focus for the first few weeks is "Friendship". We have been reading books about friendship, and discussing what it feels like, looks like, and sounds like to be a good friend. On Friday afternoon the Grade Twos shared a "friendship goal" on these speech bubbles. 

The next few pictures are taken from charts that we created together during Literacy. We are working on Reading to Self Behaviors (How to choose a good fit book,  What to do during read to self time, 3 Ways to read a book)

This week our class will visit the library for the first time! Students will choose 2 books to bring home and reading homework will begin next Monday (students will learn what to do at school, and I will update this Blog as well with the simple instructions). Over the next couple of weeks I will be reading with each student. We will determine reading goals, and reading levels. Once students know their current reading level they will bring home a leveled book from the library as well. 

Welcome!

Welcome to Mrs. Gibbs' Class Blog! 

Thank you for taking the time to visit. Here you will find regular updates about the learning that happens in our classroom. 

It is a great idea to subscribe to this Blog. On the right side of this page you will be a subscribe button. Just enter your email and each time I update the blog (usually about once a week) you will receive a notification.

You can also translate this blog into the language that you prefer. On the right side of this page click on the translate button to choose a different language.

Across the top of this page you will see links to other pages on this blog including our schedule, websites to support learning, how to contact Mrs. Gibbs, homework, etc.

Please note that homework will not begin right away. We will work to build our classroom routines at the beginning of the school year. Watch for updates about when homework begins (2nd, or 3rd week of school usually).

Parent Communication is very important to me. Please remember to check you child's agenda nightly to keep track of reminders and homework, and do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions or concerns throughout the year.

Parent Involvement is also very important to me! There will be opportunities throughout the year for family members to help out in the classroom. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering as you will need a Vulnerable Sector Screening and I can explain what to do.

If you notice a particular learning topic that you have special knowledge about, please let me know as I am always happy to receive new ideas and insight!

I am excited  to begin the school year with you! Remember to check our Blog frequently to stay connected!