We started our day off with a word scramble during Writer's Workshop! This was the first time grade 1/2 participated in this activity and it was AMAZING! Students were given only a few letters from the alphabet and, with support from their peers, they had to spell as many words as they could think of using only those letters. Grade 1/2 really blew me away with the words they found such as: heart, teacher, research, taser, and window! See some photos below: In math, grade ones continued creating numbers using tens and ones block. In a two digit number, the first digit represents the tens and the second digit represents the ones. Students love practicing creating numbers. Grade twos learned polygon memory after we explored three new polygons: hexagons, heptagons, and octagons! HEX = 6 HEPT = 7 OCT = 8! Here's some review: We also used our knowledge of the basic parts of a vehicle to create our own Cinderella Carriages today! Students are able to label the parts of their carriage and worked really hard to get their carriages moving...it was so much fun!
0 Comments
I always enjoy putting a focus on kindness in the classroom - the students really brighten up the World with their ideas for how to treat people better! After reading "How Full is Your Bucket?" the students create Pink Shirt Day badges as a pledge against bullying. These were taken home today and the students are very proud of them.
Afterwards, we began studying vehicles in science! After reading Disney's Cinderella, students studied the parts of Cinderella's carriage. Together they brainstormed the parts the carriage needed: wheels, somewhere to sit, and something to hold it all together. They learned that axles are what the carriage sits on and what keeps the wheels in place. We are very excited to build our carriages tomorrow! Grade twos continued exploring polygons today. Remember that ANY shape is considered a polygon if it has straight and closed lines. However, polygons are actually broken up into more groups too. These groups are named based on the number of sides and vertices a shape has: Polygons that have 3 sides and 3 vertices are triangles. Polygons that have 4 sides and 4 vertices are quadrilaterals. Polygons that have 5 sides and 5 vertices are pentagons. TRI = 3 QUAD = 4 PENT = 5 Grade ones learned a quicker way to count past ten: using tens and ones blocks! After laying out 14 cubes on a 100s chart, I showed students a tens block. It means 10 and we can use it to count our first row on our 100s chart. Then, I showed students the ones blocks. We need to cover the remaining squares after 10 to get our total number. Students practiced finding out how many blocks a given number requires such as: 12 = ________ tens block and _______ ones blocks ( 1 and 2) 15 = ________ tens block and _______ ones blocks (1 and 5) 17 = ________ tens block and _______ ones blocks (1 and 7) 19 = ________ tens block and _______ ones blocks (1 and 9) Students started noticing a pattern here too! In a two digit number, the first digit represents the tens and the second digit represents that ones! So: 12 = 1 tens block and 2 ones blocks Ask your student to show their work for the above numbers! Families, please remember that tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day! As a symbol against bullying, students wear pink! Today, we read the book "Fill a Bucket" by Carol McCloud and Katherine Martin. We talked about how choosing kindness is an act against bullying. Then, we worked together to build an acrostic poem about kindness. Grade 2s began identifying polygons today. Now that we're super confident identifying the parts of a shape, polygons are coming easy for us! Polygons are any shape that has closed and straight lines! Here are some examples: The below are NOT polygons: Grade 1s practiced their counting strategies and are able to hear and write numerals to 20. Reading the numerals is important, but writing them ourselves is equally important! Students are able to counting how many objects there are and can count objects out of a group, too.
Students are working on a new digraph this week as well! The "ph" digraph is advanced and the sound it makes is similar to the Ff sound. We have brainstormed many words including phone, graph, and alphabet. Students are also able to explain why the Oo in "phone" says it's long name (hint: it's that magic Ee!!). Families, please be reminded that Pink Shirt Day is on Wednesday, February 26th. Students wear pink to take a stand against bullying. Grade 1/2 is exploring the topic of bullying and today we learned things about our classmates. In the process, we identified that many of us are different but that no matter how many differences we have, we can also identifying at least one similarity. We know that everyone is different, that's what makes us great! Grade 2s continue to study geometry and 2D shapes. Today, we reviewed what we know about squares, rectangles, and triangles. Afterwards, we discussed circles. These shapes have to be closed, consistent of 0 vertices, and are perfectly rounded. Comparing ovals and circles can help a student remember the perfectly rounded rule for circles: Grade 1s continued practicing their counting strategies for numbers beyond 10. With the support of a 100s chart, students can identify various numbers. By circling objects and reciting, they can also ensure the have the correct number required! Students can practicing counting the total number of dots below OR a specified number of dots:
Triangles were the next stop in our grade two geometry unit. Students learned that "tri" means 3 and a triangle needs to have: 3 sides and 3 vertices. Triangles are made up of straight, closed lines and the sides can vary in length. The overall size or pattern within a triangle does not change the fact that it is a triangle! You can even practice identifying triangles at home: Grade 2 students know they are successful when they can identify the various parts of a shape and how they differ throughout the various shapes we are studying. Grade 1 students continued exploring counting strategies today so that they can begin to count forwards and backwards. Grade 1s feel successful when they can identify numbers as either more or less than a given number. Today, we practiced counting to 20 with the help of a 100s chart. The hundreds chart aides us in counting objects because we know the last number covered in order is how many we have! Students also continued their "wh" digraph exploration today. This is an advanced sound, because many "wh" words also include blends and long vowel sounds. In the below, every new shape below the letters represents a new sound. The star below the "E" in white and whale tell us that's our magic e, which itself is silent but makes the other vowel say it's long sound (it's name!): We also continued our Red is Best book study. As we prepare to create our own pattern books, students identified their favourite colours and brainstormed additional colours they would like to include in their books. Together we spelled these colour words and students copied the colours of their choice onto their book planners.
Finally, we completed step 1 of our Inuksuk art and will be so excited to share the final products on tomorrow's blog post, stay tuned! Students kicked off their day continuing their exploration of unique letter combinations: digraphs! This letter combos for a new sound when put together. So far, students have worked with "th", "sh", and "ch" digraphs and this week we are working on "wh". Students are beginning to identify words with the "wh" sound, ask them to say some of these words for you! We also began our Red is Best book work. This is a great pattern book to help with creative writing! As we begin to wrap up our exploration of Iqaluit, students focused on the discussion question: How do Inuit people share their culture? We also talked about why sharing culture is so important. Having these discussions continued at home enhances student comprehension of these concepts! Students are able to identify that the Inuit share their culture in a variety of unique ways: through art, music, sport, dance, books, festivals, and story telling. Today, students travelled around Iqaluit with the "iPhones" and took photos of things they believe represent Inuit culture! Some students took photos of the Northern Lights, which represent the spirits of loved ones to the Inuit people: Some students took a photo of the Inuksuk, welcoming all people to the Arctic: There were even photos of the Arctic landscape, including animals. A symbol of the Inuits people unique connection to their land:
We were so excited to come back from Family Day long weekend to our 100th day of school! Students celebrated by participating in 100th Day STEM challenges this morning! STEM stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. This is a problem solving mindset that spans across all subjects. Students begin to use logic to think through issues that arise within their work. STEM is also a great way to explore and create within the classroom. Students were asked to create something using 100 pieces of a specific object. Those objects ranged from dominoes to pipe cleaners to legos! It was a great way to kick off our week and warm up our brains this morning! See our STEM challenge in action below:
Families, please remember that we do not have classes again until Tuesday February 18th!
We hope to see you all at Cultural Night! Families, please be sure to join us at Cultural Night tomorrow February 12th at 6:00 pm - 7: 30 pm. Grade 1 and 2 have worked so hard on their Nunavut research and are looking forward to sharing all of the details with you! We have been exploring Inuit homes of the past and during our Building Things unit in science, we create some pretty great igloos! More information about igloos will be available at Cultural Night. We wrapped up our Love Monster book study today as well! We created our own Monsters in art class and students discussed the true meaning of this amazing book: it's what's on the inside that matters! Students are also able to describe the setting and retell the story from beginning, middle, and end while describing how the Love Monster's emotions change throughout the story. In gym, we've been practicing our Inuit games: The Siturtaq or Dance Contest and the Back Push. The Inuit games were created to develop the necessary skills required to survive in the Arctic environment. Come to Cultural Night to play some of these games with your students!
Families, please watch for you students' weekly reflection journal this weekend. After you read their reflection, please provide your student with WRITTEN feedback directly in their journal. Feedback can be in the format of "Two Stars and a Stair". As in: what are two things your student is doing really well in their writing and what is one thing your student needs to work on for next week. Reflection Journals are a great way for students to asses their own learning and for you to see how their writing is developing. Please ensure journals are returned on Monday.
|
Mrs. BergHi! Welcome to our class blog. Our blog celebrates student success in Room 9 at Rosscarrock School. Archives
March 2020
Categories |