October 23rd Update

For school-wide information, including special days (e.g., purple shirt day, PA Day, Pride Assembly), and special events (e.g., food drive etc.) please remember to check your weekly E-Blast from RHPS in your email on Fridays.  I will try to keep our class blog specific to learning in our classroom so that information isn't repeated. 

If you are not receiving the weekly E-Blast from the school, please contact the school or Mrs. Gibbs. 

Portfolios

Yesterday students set up their portfolios. These folders will travel between home and school so that families are aware of their child's learning and progress in Grade 2. Portfolios are red folders. When you see the Portfolio in your child's BEE Bag please review it together, sign it, and return it to school. 

Math

Over the next few weeks in math, students will be learning about sorting and patterning. We will begin by learning about sorting using two attributes. 

An attribute is a way of describing, or sorting objects. Here are some attributes that we used to sort objects in our classroom:

Depending on what we are sorting or describing there are many possible attributes! If we are sorting the students in our class we might look at shoe size, birthday month hair colour, etc. If we are sorting food we might look at the colour, size, shape, or even "type" of food (fruit, vegetable) as our attributes. Yesterday we sorted apples, here are some examples of attributes that students used to create their sorting rules:

Students will be determining different attributes used to sort objects in their math homework this week. Homework is due on Friday.

Today students were introduced to the concept of sorting objects using two attributes at the same time. We can organize our sort using a Venn Diagram. The most challenging part about learning how to sort by two attributes is....choosing two different attributes! Some students will sort objects by "small and big" but here we are only looking at one attribute (size). Instead we need to sort using two different attributes (e.g., size AND colour....or size AND shape). Below see an example of how we used objects found in nature to sort using two different attributes. We will continue to work on these through a series of activities this week.

Here our attributes were "seed" and "green". Just seeds are on the left, and just green is on the right. In the middle there is a green seed! (well....we think it's a seed anyway!)

Here the attributes are "soft" and "small". They are different because one attribute is about the texture, and the other is about the size. There are feathers in the middle because feathers are soft and small!

Reading

Students now have a "reading goal" that they are working on. Some of the reading goals are:

Checking for Understanding- asking ourselves who and what after we have read a page, or paragraph, if we don't know we need to back up and re-read

Decoding Strategies- like chunking the letter sounds together, and looking for blends.

Cross-Checking- asking ourselves if a word looks right, sounds right, and makes sense

As a class we have been learning about how visualizing while reading (making a picture in our heads) helps us to understand the text deeper. We have been learning how authors help readers visualize by including many details and "painting a picture" for the reader. These descriptive words used are called adjectives.

Looking at words that have blends

Our poem of the week was fun to visualize

Making a list of adjectives

Writing

Writing Project:

We continue to work on our Small Moment Personal Narratives. This week we will be learning about how we can bring our stories to life by making our characters move, think, and speak.

Family Journals:

Many students enjoy writing their Family Journal on Fridays. Thank you for making time to read these at home. Last week students received some written feedback in their journals. The feedback identified a goal that they are working on in their journal writing. 

Work on Writing:

During literacy centres students have time to "work on writing" independently each week. This type of writing is different than our writing project. In work on writing time students write in their Writer's Notebooks. They can use their brainstorm or heart map, do free writing, or use a prompt to help generate ideas. After their work on writing time, students have the opportunity to share their writing with the class and receive feedback.  Feedback is provided in the form of a star and a wish. Mrs. Gibbs records feedback given to the students into their writing folder so that they can use this feedback the next time they work on writing. 

Social Studies

Today we finished our Family Heart Map presentations and they were wonderful! It was great to learn about our families and celebrate our similarities and differences. We had many interesting conversations about the family heart maps. Next up in social studies, students are working to share about the traditions for a celebration that they know about. Later, students will learn to gather information about a celebration that they would like to learn more about. 

We are excited that a number of families have offered to come in a speak to our class! Mrs. Gibbs will be working on a schedule soon. If you would like to share about your family celebrations or traditions with our class we would love to have you, please let Mrs. Gibbs know! 

social studies- family heart maps, next project students sharing the traditions about a celebration they know a lot about

Oct 9th Update

Math homework was sent home today and is due on Friday.

Please remind your child to read every night and complete their Reading Log.

Math Test

We will have a math test next Wednesday, October 16th. A note was sent home today, along with some of the work your child has completed in math this year. Below is a copy of the note that was sent home today. If you have any questions let me know.

Math

This week we have been working on ordering numbers from least to greatest, or greatest to least. We have also been learning about comparing numbers using a symbol. Tomorrow and Friday we will explore rounding numbers to the nearest 10. 

Social Studies

The Family Heart Map is due on Tuesday, October 15th. Here is a copy of the note that was sent home. 

Writing

Today we started an exciting new writing project! We will be writing our own Small Moment stories (personal narratives). Today we learned about what a small moment story is, and spent some time brainstorming. Students may benefit from discussing possible small moment stories at home. 

At the bottom of this chart you will see a watermelon with "Trip to Mexico" inside. We talked about how an entire trip is not a small moment story. You could write a whole chapter book about a trip! Instead a small moment story could be something special that happened during the trip, like trying hot sauce for the first time! Trying hot sauce for the first time is a "tiny seed idea". Our small moment stories come from "seed ideas". 

Oct 4th Update

Please ensure that you are checking the Weekly E-Blast in your email each week for important information. This week there is information about:

-potential CUPE strike
-pizza lunch CANCELLED until further notice
-Art's Package 

If you are not getting the Weekly E-Blast, or have questions please contact Mrs. Gibbs. 

Math

In math we are learning about place value and how to represent (show) numbers to 100 in different ways. Students have been working on representing numbers in words, base ten blocks, and expanded form. 

Social Studies

Heart Map Project
Today students learned about a special homework project. Each student should have brought home a letter and a heart template. All of the instructions for the assignment are on the letter that was sent home. If you have any questions, please let Mrs. Gibbs know. The Heart Map project is due on October 15th. 

Math Homework

In math, we are learning about representing numbers to 100. Pictures that capture our learning will be posted soon. 

Math homework to practise and consolidate our new learning was sent home today. 

Math homework is always due on Friday. 

Students should be able to complete this homework independently. If your child is facing difficulty with this homework please let me know. 

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.