Wrapping Paper and Math games

Students started the day by joining in Christmas Carol singing with the school. This will continue over the next three days. It was a great way to start the day!

We worked on a great writing project: The night Santa got stuck in the chimney. In math, students practiced their addition by completing a math christmas tree and then having a choice of math games to play.

This afternoon we brought out the paint and made some beautiful wrapping paper!

What we did today at math

We played a game and me and Chris were playing. First I won then when it was almost time to go we had a tie so it was kind of fair. Cadence

We had fun at math today! I worked with Adrianna and we both had the same amount.  Elysse

At math, me and Sofia tied and then we played again and we got the same numbers. Shauntae

Me and Shauntae were playing and we got the same numbers from the dominoes. Sofia

Me and Erdas, when we were playing the domino game I would keep on winning! Kaleb

We had lots of fun doing math! Declan

We were practicing how to play a new game. Erdas

We had lots of fun today and its almost home time so is the end? Daryan

The game was called 'End to End'. Brandi

In math, me and Daryan were missing one tile so we looked everywhere and then we couldn't find it so we just put the tiles away. Hope

Crossing the River

The students did an amazing job yesterday at the Christmas Concert! Thank you to all the family members that came out to support the Grade 2 'Frosty's' ! 

Today, we played a fun math game. Students had 12 tiles to place on numbers 1 - 12. They then rolled two dice. The numbers were then added together - if the sum matched one of the numbers with a tile on it, student's could move that tile 'across the river'. As a group, we solved a math problem using the addition strategy "2 more". 

We also received a very special mail package from the North Pole! 

Winter Painting

Today, students worked on a beautiful painting project. They used the paint colours white, black, red and blue to mix different shades of blues and purples to create a winter night sky. Tomorrow, we will add a silhoutted Christmas tree - you can see the artwork at the Christmas concert on Wednesday!

We also enjoyed our pita lunch, practiced subitizing and solving word problems and fixed up some mixed up sentences. 

For the Christmas concert, I am asking that students wear a white shirt and dark pants. The rest of the costume has been made in class.

Writing Letters to Santa

Today, we mailed our letters to Santa. The grade 2's had worked on thinking about questions to ask Santa, sharing some personal information about themselves and making sure to politely ask him for a present. We also practiced a step-by-step drawing of him as well!

Thank you to all the parents who have come to Parent-Teacher conferences so far. It is very much appreciated! Parents are the first and best teacher for our students.

What's new in Grade 2!

We made these cool hats. The field trip was really good. Kaleb

We went on a field trip on Monday. Mackenzie

We made Frosty the Snowman hats and we're going to play an act. Arthur

At the Lougheed House, we saw animal heads that were real! And we also made hats for the play. Hope

We went to the Louheed house and we saw eleven Christmas trees! Daryan

We saw 11 Christmas trees at the Lougheed House. Adrianna

We made Frosty the Snowman hats and we got to put sparkles and flowers on them! Josh

Today we made Frosty hats and mine was all blue. Skie

The gingerbread Lougheed House was really cool! Christopher

We made Frosty the Snowman hats and we cut them out and we put some sparkles. Sofia

Field Trip to Lougheed House: A Victorian Christmas

The grade 2's had a busy day visiting Lougheed House. It was a perfect winter day, and the students were excited to go on the trip!

When we arrived at Lougheed House, we were able to enjoy the traditional Christmas decorations and were able to tour the house while learning about the Lougheed family. After a snack break, the groups split up. Ms. Ketcheson's class learned about the types of toys children would have received in the Victorian era while Mrs. Gullett's class made holiday cards with Victorian pictures and decorations. After lunch, the groups switched. We ended the day by having the opportunity to play with a variety of traditional toys and games, along with writing a letter to Santa Claus.

A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who came with us. The trip would not have been possible without their participation!

Winter place value trees

This morning students worked on creating winter trees. Each tree represents a different place value: ones, tens or hundreds. The students looked at pictures of winter trees and then used wax, crayons, chalk and white trees to bring them to life:

Brainstorming about what winter trees look like

Art done with wax, crayons, chalk and white paint

We contiued with our math rotations and spent the afternoon talking about how to make our story beginnings really exciting. Students were given the writing prompt:

You are walking to school and you see a snowman waving at you.

How would you start this story?

Building increasing patterns

Using Read and Write Gold

Students had the opportunity to use the computer program Read and Write Gold today. It is a fantastic program that allows students to select unknown words which are read to them by the computer. This is just one of the many features. In January, students will start using it consistently to research arctic animals (which we started on today!

We also spent time today talking about how to make our story beginnings more exciting for our readers. We talked about three ways to start a story: using a sound effect, describing an action or using dialogue.

Daily 5 and Math rotations

Today, students had thier first opportunity to jump into our daily 5 literacy activities. They have a choice of choosing one of 5 options:

1. Listening
2. Word Work
3. Reading to Self
4. Reading to Someone
5. Work on Writing

Each rotation is approximetley 15-17 minutes. Students have been practicing each skill individually, so it was a treat to see them all in action! As students complete their work, I am able to work with individual students or small groups.

We continued  the rotation theme into math. This week, students are working in groups of 3 to work on patterning skills, number practice, subitizing (recognizing number groupings), working with Ms. Ketcheson and practicing skills on the computer.

Finally, we ended our reading a terrific story: Edmin Speaks Up. Edwin is just a baby who has a lot to say! Students really had to use context to predict what Edwin was trying to tell his mom.

Extending Increasing Patterns

In math, we have been looking at increasing patterns.

Students were asked to figure out the next steps in increasing patterns and then they created their own. Can you figure out what the patterns are?

The busy day

We made fishing rods and we went fishing in this bucket! Jordyn

We made fishing rods with a popsicle stick and a little bit of string and tape and we put a magnet on the bottom and we fished for magnets. Mackenzie

We went to computers. Brandi

We did printing. Elysse

We went to the computers. Daryan

We had Ms. Ketcheson's class blog. Arthur

We did science. Declan

We did something reall fun today and that was fishing rods. Adrianna

We did math. Dorinda

What we did in school today

Today we had a very busy and exciting day!

We went around the class and we got to pick out magnets. We could only pick 3, and one at a time. Cadence

We watched a movie at lunch. It was tumblebooks. Kaleb

This morning, we read to ourselves and we read to a partner. Skie

We did music. We sang ti de o. Sofia

We did recess. Shauntae

We did gym. Brandi

We did math. We had a pattern problem. Elysse

We had attendance. Arthur

We had our blog! Hope

Patterns with 2 Attributes

In math, we talked about about patterns with two attributes. An attribute is what is chagning in the pattern: it can be a colour, a shape, a size, a type of material....

Students were challenged to create a pattern with 2 attributes:

Searching for must-know words

We have been focusing on recognizing and reading sight words in our class. By grade 2, students should be able to identify and read sight words including: about, come, want, take, from, my, by and so on.

To practice this, we went on a sight word search. Reading with a partner, students had to find as many sight words as they could and then count by 5s to figure out the total.

What does peace feel like?

It has been a busy week in Room 6 - more photos from the week will be posted in the next few days! 

Here is an overview about what we have been working on:

1. Peace

We read the story "What does Peace Feel Like". Students have been working on painting pictures about what they think peace smells like, tastes like, looks like and feels like. They are then moving into writing some 'juicy' sentences about those pictures.

2. Reading 

We continue to emphasize reading and different strategies you can use when you hit a word you don't know. These include reading ahead, thinking about what word makes sense (context) and chunking words. Home reading has gone out today - our library is in the middle of reorganziation so thank you for your flexibility concerning books going home. 

3. Math

We are moving into patterning. Please check out the math page for new links for patterning activities. Students should still continue to review skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. 

As always, if you have any further questions please feel free to contact me! 

- Ms. Ketcheson

Monsters

We have been reading and writing about monsters this week.

We read the book "I need my monster" by Amanda Noll. We discussed how using 'juicy' words helps to make the story more interesting to read. Students then were challenged to describe their own monster. We brainstormed lots of questions we could ask:

The next day, we talked about what it would be like if we looked under our bed and saw a monster. Students again used juicy words to describe what they saw. They then worked on colouring their bed with a surprise twist - there is a monster living underneath it!