After morning work and music, students worked on math. Grade 1 students started exploring terms at the beginning, in between, and end of patterns. Now that we know how to identify the core of the pattern and now that we know the vocabulary word "term", students are able to extend patterns by determining what comes next. We can also use our knowledge of pattern cores to find out what comes before the first object in our pattern. Have your student create patterns at home and identify the core. Create a pattern for your student and have the identify the terms that come before (at the beginning) and next (at the end). Grade 2s worked on pattern cores today. As we know, the core is the part of a pattern that repeats. Students have practiced identify pattern cores by circling them within the pattern.
Students will be bringing home their letter Tt books today. We need to make sure that students are meeting the /t/ sound very short and quick. The sound is not 'tuh'! Be sure to practice the /t/ sound at home. After brainstorming some Tt words (both with Tt at the beginning, the middle, and end), students practiced writing the letter Tt. Shaping their letters is great practice, so have them practice this skill at home too! In Social Studies, we learned about familiar landmarks and places in our communities. This is so students are able to distinguish their community from other communities. As a group, we started building our community and it so far has turned out great (see photo). Students will be extending this as we discuss how we can be a part of more than one community at a time.
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Students are doing very well practicing their new morning routine. After the bell rang, all students got right to work in the calendar books. They are practicing their days of the week, months of the year, and working with numerals. Afterwards we went to music, where we continued practicing strumming our C chords to the beat of "Row Row Row Your Boat" on the ukulele.
Grade twos began their third unit in math today, so we did math as a whole class. We practiced creating patterns, identifying the core and the individual terms within each pattern. Students were able to make patterns using the smart board. Below is an example of some patterns we made and, for students who want some extra practice, there are some extension questions that use the vocabulary core and term. Students also completed their letter Ss books today. Please watch out for these in their backpacks and practice the letter Ss sound and book further at home. The letter Ss is an unvoiced sound and is the same sound a snake makes. Further practice writing the letter Ss would also be beneficial, this is a hard letter to shape! Student's were introduced to our new after lunch routine today: the Daily 5. Daily 5 is a set of literacy centres that help us with reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary, and reading fluency. Afterwards, we worked on our "eck" family of words. Students know that "ck" makes the /c/ sound, adding the e was simple. Try sounding out words like "deck", "neck", "peck" and a challenge word "check". On our 55th day of school, students were introduced to the ukulele. We practiced holding our instrument properly and strumming our instrument too. Students practiced a C chord while holding and strumming their instrument. Students will continue practicing using this instrument to make music and will learn other basic cords as well!
After our trip to the library, students moved onto math. Grade 1s continued their patterns practice and used terms like "core" and "term" to extend patterns with single or double attributes. Please review these vocabulary words with your student today, there's also additional practice below. Grade 2s worked on their ordinal numbers from 1st to 10th today. We practiced completed ordinals as well as reading ordinal words: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth. Students can use this knowledge to sort objects but also, by doing so, they are expanding on their previous knowledge that numbers have an order or sequence. Please see additional practice options below! In science, we read the book "Penguin and the Cupcake" by Ashley Spires. While the book is fun in nature, it still highlights many facts that Grade 1 and 2s learned about penguins during our trip to the zoo. For example, students were reminded that penguins cannot fly, that they depend on krill, squid, and fish for survival and that humans are having a negative impact on penguin food and habitats. We used our knowledge of the needs of penguins to complete an "Everything I Know About" page that highlights our favourite type of penguin (because there are 17 species of penguins), their habitat, and facts (for truths) we know about penguins. Students carried on with the 12 Days of Fitness challenge in gym, so they will be looking for lots of healthy food and water after school! Room 9 was introduced to their new morning routine today. Every day, students are required to begin morning work when they enter the room. In their calendar books, students are challenged to write out today's date and use their knowledge of number to represent the total days we've been in school so far. Students have to write the number (today was 54), write one number less, and one number more. As an extra challenge, grade twos are asked to write the number word as well. Morning work also includes seasons, weather, and sight word practice and will vary each day.
Afterwards, students moved on to their letter Rr books. Students know that the Rr makes a short sound, and does not say "ruh"! We brainstormed words that begin with Rr, end with Rr, and even have Rr in the middle. Practice your Rr books today as they also include great sight words such as "did", "he" and "like". Your student should have a minimum of 3 signatures on the back of their book already, which would mean they've already read to three people in school. If they do not, be sure they are reading the book more than once at home. In math, grade 1s continued their exploration of patterns. We reviewed the pattern core, which is the part of the pattern that repeats and we learned about pattern terms. Pattern terms are the individual parts of a pattern. So, if a student were to make a pattern of: clap, slap, tap, clap slap, tap, clap, slap, tap....the core is clap, slap, tap and the last term in core is tap. Make some patterns tonight and test your student on their pattern knowledge so far! Grade twos were introduced to ordinal numbers today from 1st to 10th. Grade students now have a solid understanding that numbers have an order or sequence. We can no use ordinals to place objects in order. See some extra practice for grade two students below. We worked further on developing sentences today, too. After we reviewed the parts of a sentence (subject and an action), students were asked to complete the below sentence by filling in a subject (aka noun): My favourite part about the zoo was ____________. Students wrote these in their journals and Grade twos were challenged to writing a second sentence to explain why that was their favourite part: I liked ________ because ________. These responses are being used as an exit slip on our study of sentences so far, they will tell me where students need further support when it comes to writing complete sentences. After I edit them, students will make revisions and compare the differences from their first sentences to their second. Finally, students worked on the digraph "ck". A diagraph is a combination of letters that make just one sound, you cannot hear each individual letter. "Ck" makes the /c/ sound and is used at the end of a short word. We practiced this sound by exploring words that ended in "ack" such as: back, sack, tack, rack, and pack. See below part of the worksheet we completed today which allows students to identify each individual sound in a word (represented by the dots below) in order to sound out the whole word. Rosscarrock students will be participating in “The 12 Days of Fitness” challenge. Every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday students will learn a new skill and participate in a rigorous workout with either Mrs. Rowein or Mrs. Fraser. This will help students learn about ways to keep their bodies fit and healthy. Please have students dress in comfortable clothes and have them bring a water bottle to school.
In music, students listened to music that evoked feelings of happiness. In their visual journals, they drew what represented happiness to them as the songs made them feel this emotion. Some students drew rainbows to represent the colours that make them happy, some students drew their family members or pets, and some students even drew a happy memory! As students are learning that music can represent emotion, we are learning how to recognize and name that emotion so that we are able to respond to music meaningfully. Afterwards, students studied the letter Pp. When we say this letter, we make a small explosion of air. Students held their hands in front of their mouths so that they could feel the sound this letter makes. After practicing writing our letter Pp, we brainstormed words that start with Pp and words that have the Pp sound within them. Again, being able to hear specific letter sounds not only at the beginning, but in the middle of words, helps us tremendously with our reading and writing. Students worked on reading their letter Pp books to classmates and have brought this home with them today. Please be sure to continue practicing your student's letter books at home. In math, grade one students worked on decoding images based on their knowledge of number order. Once finished their workbook, students were challenged with an even harder image that required an understanding of the order of numbers 0-10. A good way to practice to this skill at home is to build physical number lines with your student. Have the numbers from 0-10 (or higher!) written on post it notes or any other paper, mix them up, and then have your child place them in order. Grade twos developed their own mathematical word addition problems. Grade two students focused on using the vocabulary word "altogether" to form the question within their addition problem. For example: There are 5 happy faces and 4 sad faces. How many faces are there altogether? Students are not practicing their addition when using word problems, but their ability to count objects as well. After silent reading time, we moved on to science. Today, students learned about the differences between living and non living things. As a class we discussed what makes something living ( it eats, uses air, can talk/make sound, if it's an animal it will blink, it can move by itself, is born or planted) and non living ( is manufactured, cannot move unless built to do so, does not eat, does not breathe). Students were then tasked to find examples of living and non living things in our school. They were able to determine that the plants in the hallway are living and that the rug on our floor is non living, for example. Ask your student to give you examples of living and non living things! Remember, Parent Teacher Interviews starts tomorrow and there is no school on Friday, November 22! Today was our 51st day of school!
We started our morning with mindfulness to get our brains and bodies ready for a big day of learning. Then, we travelled to the music room to start our music appreciation unit. Students discussed different emotions and then we listened to songs and students were tasked with naming what emotion the song made them feel and, if they could, explain why. After library, students came back and completed their second Oo books. Because Oo is a vowel, it has two sounds. Yesterday, we completed our short sounds book and today, you will find your students long sounds book in their backpack. When a vowel is using its long sound, it says it's name. Families, please be sure to practice reading this book with your student. In math, grade 1s worked on putting their numbers 1 through 10 in order. First, we made a large number line together. Then, each student made their own number flip book by writing out each numeral and putting them in order to form their book. Finally, students were given a secret word they had to solve by connecting the number dots in order, too. Grade 2s used their knowledge of addition to solve word problems. Students were asked to identify the objects being added so that they learned the important words in a word problem. For example, if I have 6 large paperclips and 2 small paperclips, how many paperclips do I have altogether? It does not matter that there are large and small sizes, all that matters is that we are only adding paperclips. In science, we talked about where we can find important information. One of the first sources of information many of us have access to are books. Today, our classroom was filled with books about animals. Students explored in the books in small groups and studied the books to find interesting facts about animals. Many grade 1s used the photos in the books to help them learn. Where an animal was pictured, for example, told them where the animal lived; a polar bear on an ice cap, for example. Grade 2s used words and pictures to learn about new animals, like that fact that polar bears eat other animals to survive! This activity taught us that there are so many animals on this planet and we want to know more about all of them, not just our favourite animals. After our book exploration, students made a list of the top 3 animals they would like to learn more about. We'll be collecting information about these choices for our science unit on the needs of plants and animals. Families, please don't forget to sign up for parent teacher interviews this coming Thursday and Friday. Information is posted in previous blog entries as well as emailed to you! They Families, please remember to sign up for Parent Teacher Interviews either Thursday evening or Friday morning/afternoon! Instructions have been emailed and are also posted in previous blog posts.
We kicked off our week with the study of the letter Oo. Because Oo is a vowel, it has two sounds. Today, we focused on the short sound for Oo. Some examples of words that start with the short Oo sound include: Octopus, Olive, Octagon, and October. We are also able to to hear the short sound Oo within words including: sock, top, pop, rock, and cop. Students are bringing home their Letter Book for short Oo today, please have them read it to you as the sentences include several of our sight words, too! Afterwards, we moved onto math. Grade 1s finished up the section of Unit 2 that focuses on the vocabulary of more, fewer, less, and as many as. Students know more is the bigger number, fewer and less represent smaller numbers, and as many as means the same number. Grade 1 students have almost completed their second unit in Jump Math. Grade two students were given the opportunity to show what they know from their second unit so far. They covered skills such as reading number words to twenty, adding using pictures, and writing number words. After lunch and silent reading, grade 1s and 2s use our knowledge of sentences and prepositions to write the final draft of our classroom zoo book. The students of Room 9 are so excited to share their zoo book with their families at Parent Teacher Interviews. Below is a picture of our first page, the actual book has a contribution from every student in Room 9 and shows the hard work we've been doing to understand how to build sentences. Our vocabulary has grown greatly as we've begun developing an understanding of nouns, verbs, and prepositions! Families, please remember that you can now sign up for Parent Teacher Interviews on Nov 21 and 22. See the button below, Click “CBE Apps” on the navigation bar, then click on “My School Conferences”. Additionally, you can call into the office at 403-777-8390 to schedule an interview time.
Also, if any families are looking for more books for their students, Calgary's Public Library has many online options and, membership is free! the Calgary Public Library gives you access to ebooks through the LIBBY. under the “eReading Room for kids” option. That link below will take you to a list of other interesting resources like National Geographic kids, Science Reference Centre, Bookflix, and others. Just put in your CPL card information, or a student’s, and off you go. Students completed their Giving Tree Art today. Soon, these art pieces will be displayed in the hallway for families to admire the hard work of the students. Ask your student what the Giving Tree represents to the Metis people! Grade 2s were challenged in math today to use their knowledge of number words to solve both addition and subtraction word problems. We first reviewed our number words and then students had to identify the number word, write the number symbol, and then solve the problem independently. Grade 1s practiced many of their math skills today, too. Subitizing, number recognition, pattern duplicating, and counting on were all strategies they had to implement to be successful during math games. Students have been working really hard on their math skills, and practice at home always goes a long way. See some questions below to challenge your student with. Families, please remember tomorrow is a short day and while we do not have a scheduled lunch break, we do have snack. Please ensure your student has a snack packed.
In math today, grade 2 students were introduced to word problems. We can use our knowledge of number words to solve problems involving addition and subtraction by drawing simple models. Students are enhancing the addition skills and their number recognition skills today. Grade 1s practiced the math comparison words fewer and less. Fewer is how we can compare objects. For example: I have 5 apples and 2 bananas. There are fewer bananas than apples. Less, on the other hand, is how we can compare numbers. From the example above, I have fewer bananas than apples because 2 is less than 5. For literacy, we enhanced our first draft of our classroom zoo book. We brainstormed nouns that we saw when we visited the zoo last week. We came up with nouns like: lemur, tiger, bridge, pond, zoo keeper, and elephant. Then, we reviewed our prepositions or connecting words. Students were then asked to pick a preposition and a noun from the list to write a second draft sentence for our book. Students are writing more than one sentence so that every page of our classroom book is different. Finally, students did the second step of their Giving Tree art, adding colour and fine detail. Tomorrow, we will complete the art work and they will be on display by Parent Teacher Interviews. You are now able to sign up for Parent Teacher Interviews, select the button below! Click “CBE Apps” on the navigation bar, then click on “My School Conferences”. Additionally, you can call into the office at 403-777-8390 to schedule an interview time. Today, Grade 1 and 2 learned about the Metis people of Canada through the reading of "The Giving Tree" by Leah Dorian. The giving tree outlines the Metis way to be kind, generous, and helpful to others. It is also beautifully illustrated with Metis art. We have began our own interpretation of this art work and are creating our own Giving Trees. These pieces will be on display once completed! We also worked on the creation of our zoo book! Our book is going to be about a penguin and how they are travelling around the zoo. Today, we each developed our first draft our page where students used connection words (prepositions) and a noun. We came up with so many great sentences. See some examples of our class work below! In math, grade 1s continued exploring the concept of more. When comparing numbers, the number we say later while counting is more! Students can now find out which number is more through one-to-one correspondence as well as counting. Grade 2s practiced writing numbers to twenty. We know "teen" means 1 first, then we can look at the beginning of the word. "Th" has the same beginning as three, so therefore thirteen must = 13. The same trick can be applied to twelve and twenty. As two (2) starts with "tw" we know twelve and twenty must also contain 2 as a digit. Grade 2s have are now being introduced to some of their first word problems in mathematics! |
Mrs. BergHi! Welcome to our class blog. Our blog celebrates student success in Room 9 at Rosscarrock School. Archives
March 2020
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