Whose bucket are you filling?

This week, each student has been given a popsicle stick with a name of a classmate on it. Their challenge is to secretly fill that person's bucket all throughout the week. On Friday, we will reveal whose bucket we were working to fill!

The story "Have you Filled a bucket today" is a beautiful way to teach kindness and empathy. You can watch and listen the story through YouTube:

We are moving into looking at a community in Saskatchewan. We talked about non-fiction books today and read about the weather in Saskatchewan. It is cold there!

We continue to focus on reading and writing in the mornings. Students are doing a fabulous jobs reading to themselves and reading to a partner. Today, we talked about 'chunking' words if we get stuck.  We also got to use our 'best work' printing books today. Ask us about Frog Jump Capitals!

How to become a super reader

Here are some tips for helping us become SUPER READERS!

You should not be playing around or watching t.v. when you are reading. Kaleb

If you don't know a word, your mom or dad can help you. Jordyn

You should sit close together because if you don't, they won't be able to help  you. Skie

Don't bother asking your parents to play with your friends because you have to read before you can play. Adrianna

Don't wave your book around because it might be from school or the library. It might break because the pages might be old. And other people need to use them so they can get better at reading. Mackenzie

You have to read the pictures. Sofia

You have to not get distracted. Aurora

You can't talk to other people and not do your work or you have to do it tomorrow before you go to school. Arthur

If you don't know a word or the title and your mom or dad know how to read, then you can ask them for tips. Justin

Your mom or your dad, before you go to bed, can read you a bedtime story or you can read before you go to bed. Sage

If you don't know any words and your mom or dad don't know it too, come back to school and say it is not a good fit book. Erdas

The main thing - try your best! Ms. Ketcheson

Home Reading Program

Home Reading Program

Our grade 2 class will be starting our home reading program this week. Your student will be receiving a bag every Monday. This needs to be returned on Friday.  In the bag, you will find:

     A poem that we will be reading in class

     A fiction book

     A non-fiction book

Books are chosen for your student based on their reading level. As we ease into the school year, you may find the books to be similar to ones read prior to grade 2. This is done to help students adjust and build confidence for the grade 2 year.

In order to build fluency, it is important for your child to read and REREAD the same books multiple times. This will increase your child's sight vocabulary and become familiar with the text and the story. Often the first time a child reads an unfamiliar text he or she is simply sounding out the words (decoding). The next time the text is read your child will feel more comfortable with the sounds and begin looking for the meaning of the story. You may want to follow up your child's reading by asking questions about the story. If your child is unsure about something in the story, you may want to encourage him or her to go back and reread the story.  

Please also take note of the tracking sheet sent home with your student. Every night, please record what book(s) you read. Students will also be tracking this information at school. On Fridays, students will be asked to read their home reading books in class. 

If you have any questions about home reading, please feel free to write a note in the agenda or to contact me directly.

Thank you for helping our class become super-readers!

Ms. Ketcheson 

Things in a Community

In a community, you would need:

Pets and people and houses. Elysse

We need a veternarian to fix broken legs and help animals if they are sick. Shauntae

You need Safeway. You need food. Sofia

You need trees. Lots of trees and roads. Arthur

We need police because if there is a robber on the loose and there was no police, no one would try and stop them. Kaleb

You need schools to learn. Cadence

You need a hospital because if you didn't have a hospital, if someone got hurt or sick, then there wouldn't be any casts. Daryan

Technology - if you are invited to a birthday and you don't know where it is, you can't look it up without technology. And you need to call people and say that you can't come if you can't. Skie

We need toys. Aurora

You need a teacher! Because if you don't have a teacher, you cannot learn. Abdullah

You have to have food because you'll die if you don't have any. You can live without food for 3 days. Mackenzie

You need nature because it helps stuff grow. Adrianna

You need cars to get to places. You need roads too and stores. Christopher

We need trees for air. If you didn't have trees you couldn't breathe. Hope

Our Community

Students have been spending time talking about how they get to school. Today, we brainstormed about what things we see in our community - hosptials, Walmart, schools, grocery stores, construction sites were some examples.

They were then given a community challenge: with a partner, draw a map of thier own community, making sure to include things that people would need.

In math, we continue to move through our tub activities. Skip counting every day by 2's, 5's and 10's is an easy way to let the students practice this skill.

The best part about today

I like school. I liked recess. Declan

What I liked about today was I liked lunch. Daryan

Today I liked to read. Kaleb

I liked writing in my journal. It was fun! Mackenzie

What I liked about today was math and recess lunch. Christopher

It was fun at lunch. Brandi

Reading with a friend

The best part about today was the journals and doing our maps. Cadence

I liked everything today! Hope

What does fall look like? Smell like? Sound like? Taste Like?  Feel like?

I liked when we worked on our maps to school. Adrianna

My favorite part of the day was gym. Skie

I liked the world maps. Abdullah

It was fun in music! Sage

Writing about fall in our writing binders

Today I liked gym! Erdas

The best about the school year is gym. Justin

Looking at our community

What a busy day in room 6!

We are looking at maps and communities right now in Social Studies. Today, students spent some time looking at Google earth and we talked about what things they might find in their community. We had a great time 'flying' to different places in Calgary.

'Zooming' in to where we live on the Smartboard

How do you get to school?

Students were then asked to think about and draw how they get to school. They started drawing a 'bird's eye' view map of their route to school.

We also started new math centres today, focusing on numbers and counting to 100, went outside for gym, practiced reading with someone (making sure we sat elbow to elbow, knee to knee) AND we read for 12 minutes on our own! Phew - what a great way to start our week together!