Friday, Feb. 23

Hello Families!

Important Dates:

March 11th - Mrs. Khan's class to Telus Spark (All day)

March 19th - Mrs. Day's class to Telus Spark (All day)

March 25th - April 1st - Spring Break - No School

Thank you to our parents who have volunteered to help out with our Telus Spark field trip next month.  We are still in search of one more parent for Mrs. Day's and one more parent for Mrs. Khan's class.  Also, Mrs. Day's class will be getting the field trip forms next week. 

Our learning:

Literacy:

• We have been practicing our instructional writing and in the last two weeks we have learned about adding text features to enhance our writing.
• Within our writers' workshop we have planned and written how to get ready for school and how to be a superhero. 
• We have been working in literacy centres that include, reading with the teacher, reading with someone and word work.  Next week we are switching up and introducing some new centres. 
• Ask your child their favourite task is during Daily 6. 

Math:

• In grade 2, we are building our strategies of addition and subtraction using smaller numbers.  We have really focused on the strategies of doubles, doubles +1, doubles - 1 and are now moving on to making 10. 
  
• We have been also strengthening our addition and subtraction skills through daily number talks and math games.
• In grade 1, we learned the strategies of counting on and counting back within addition and subtraction.  
• We have also been learning some really fun games to enhance our skills.  

Inquiry:

• We have learned about some more Arctic animals, Polar Bears and Orcas.  We are becoming quite good at our scientific drawings with labels.  
• We learned the February Cree Moon is the mikisiwipiism (the Eagle Moon).
• After learning about different animals we introduced food chains and what they mean.  We have also been examining the different food chains we have in prairie and arctic communities.  
•  To continue our learning of Earth Systems, we created some seasonal tree art with paint.  

Friday, February 9th

 Hello Families!

Important Dates:

Thursday and Friday, Feb. 15-16 - No School - Teachers' Convention

Monday, Feb. 19 - No School - Family Day

Our learning:

Literacy:

• We have moved into more jobs during our Daily 5 literacy time.  Ask your child the different literacy centres they completed this week.  We have learned the routines this week and are moving towards building our stamina in the coming days. 
• This is the end of our 6 week literacy group cycle where we will look at everyone's skills and begin again in a couple of weeks. 
• In writing we practiced how to writing using the SAD formula to about making a snowman.  Ask your child what this means.  (Hint: sequence, action, detail) 
• We also listened to the story Stuck by Oliver Jeffers and worked on retelling the beginning, middle and end of the story.  Ask your child what the biggest part of a story is. 

Math:

• In grade 2, we are building our knowledge of the meaning of addition and subtraction.  We also reviewed the terms, equal, equation, adding and subtracting.  
• We completed word problems to make them addition or subtraction problems as well as created our own problems and equations based upon a picture prompt.
• We then practiced the counting on and counting back strategies to play addition/subtraction connect four. 
• In grade 1, we continue to build our addition and subtraction strategies.  
• This week we developed our ability to use addition to make 10.

Inquiry:

• This week we read many stories and non-fiction books about the Lunar New Year.  We also sang a song about the Monster Nian.  Which we learned means year - thank you Joecy!
• Ask your child about all the Lunar New Year traditions. 
• Today we excitedly cleaned the classroom top to bottom to get rid of all the bad luck for the new year. 
• In learning about the Arctic, we learned about Igloos and the term insulation.  Mr. Kelly was in our class today and taught us about an Inuksuk and lead us through an art lesson. See below for our beautiful drawings. 
• To continue our learning around Black History Month, we learned about the artist Alma Thomas. She was an artist and a teacher whose painting "Resurrection" was unveiled as part of the White House Collection in 2015 and is the first in this collection by an African-American woman. 
• We were inspired by her art to create our own using paint.  See below for a picture. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Friday, February 1st

Hello Families! Happy Groundhog Day!

Ask your child if Balzac Billy saw his shadow and if we will have an early spring or six more weeks of winter. 

Important Dates:
Thursday and Friday, Feb. 15-16 - No School - Teachers' Convention
Monday, Feb. 19 - No School - Family Day

We had an incredibly busy week with swimming lessons. We were so impressed with everyones swimming ability and willingness to risk take in the pool! They demonstrated such resilience and perseverance during their lessons.  Thank you so much to the parent volunteers, this week would not have been such a success without you. 

*Some swim items may have gone home with the wrong child.  Just keep an eye out for any items that your child has come home with.

Our learning:

Literacy:

• In literacy we continued to build our reading and writing skills through our daily 5 jobs.  We read to self, worked on writing, read with someone and read with the teacher.  
• We are also strengthening our printing skills and working towards transferring our abilities when we are writing independently.
• In writing, we wrote about Groundhog's Day and facts we learned about Groundhogs. 

Math:

• The grade 2s are finishing up our work with geometry which includes 2D and 3D shapes. 
• We learned about the word symmetry and applied our sorting knowledge to sort shapes and objects based on their attributes. 
• We used our knowledge about turning, flipping and sliding shapes to draw objects and create artwork.
• The grades 1s were introduced to the meaning of addition and subtraction. We learned about part-part-whole (combining two parts to make up a whole), and solving addition and subtraction word problems. We also created our own addition word problem.   

Inquiry:

• February is Black History Month and we have begun reading stories celebrating the rich past and present accomplishments of Black people in Canada and will continue discussing their contributions as well as embracing the opportunities for the future. Ask your child about Ruby Bridges. 
• We have also have begun discussing the Lunar New Year, which is on February 10th. We read the story of The Great Race and the Chinese Zodiac.  Ask your child what animal they are based on the year they were born. 
• The learners were also excited to learn about the Nian Monster story within the Chinese Culture.  Ask your child what Nian was afraid of and how it has influenced the traditions of Chinese New Year .
• Today, we used the Indi Robots to complete a challenge.  Ask your child about the challenge and if they were successful.