Reading Buddies

Today was our first day having 'buddies'. Our buddy class is Ms. Zebrun's grade 3 class. Students had a great time shairng their read-to-self books with their new buddies. 

We are spending time during our literacy block figuring out what words we know. By grade 2, students should have a strong understanding and ability to recognize 'sight words' - more commonly used words.
You can help your child with this by pointing out common words in their home reading books (which will start back up on Monday!). 

Check out these websites to help support your student's sight word knowledge:

http://www.ictgames.com/dinosaurwordsrepeat.html

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/sight_word_games.html

http://www.aasd.k12.wi.us/staff/boldtkatherine/ReadingFun_K-2.htm

Exploring liquids with Teacher's Pet

Today, we had our in-school field trip with Teacher's Pet.

Mrs. Puddle Hopper came to visit us and taught our class all about the 3 states of matter (Solids, liquids and gases), how everything is made up of atoms and how water is made from 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen.

Students then participated in 4 experiments:
1. They looked at evaporation by painting a picture with a mixture of salf water.
2. They looked at how ice melts by making a tasty slurpee
3. They learned about the water cycle and how clouds are formed
4. They learned about how different liquids have different densities.

This was a busy morning, with lots of hands-on learning! A big thank-you to the 2 parent volunteers who helped make the morning a success!

A note on home reading: Our library is currently in the process of getting new books for home and guided readings. Thank you for your patience as it gets organized!

All about liquids

We learned about liquids. Kaleb

In Science, we learned about what we see with water, oil and corn syrup and what we smell and what we feel. Skie

We had to smell it, we had to see it and we had to touch it. Aurora

Water

Water looks like:
- clear (Arthur)
- blank (Adrianna)

Water smalls like:
- the air (Kaleb)
- not really like anything (ELysse)

Water feels like:
- liquidy (Daryan)
- wet (Mackenzie)

Vegetable Oil

Oil looks like:
- yellow (Shauntae)
- wet (Dorinda)
- watery (Cadence)

Oil smells like:
- a little gross (Hope)
- bubbly (Erdas)
- nothing (Arthur)

Oil feels like:
- tingly (Brandi)
- weird (Aurora)
- runny (Skie)
Syrup

Syrup looks like:
- honey (Daryan)
- gooey (Adrianna)
- brownish (Kaleb)
- light brown (Mackenzie)

Syrup smells like:
- honey-ish (Hope)
- good (Skie)
- sweet (Brandi)
- yummy to eat (Elysse)
- butter (Cadence)

Syrup feels like:
- gooey (Sofia)
- sticky (Justin)

Diving into Science

Last Thursday and Friday were exciting days for our class!

We have started into our first science unit, Exploring Liquids. Check out the science page for some new links to sites all about liquids.

Students brainstormed about what they knew about liquids and as scientists, we started thinking of as many questions as we could.

Students then went on a hunt for liquids, looking in magazines. We figured out that a liquid is wet, flows and takes the shape of whatever contained it is poured into.

Friday found us engaged in a fabulous art project using watercolours and mixed paper. Students looked at different landscapes from Saskatchewan and painted the farm fields. They then created their own scarecrow, which tied into our poem and writing focus for the week. Check tomorrow for picture of the amazing artwork!

Looking for Clues, Scarecrows and Angry Birds

As usual, we had a busy day in grade 2!

Our mornings are spent working on literacy. Students are doing a fantastic job reading to themselves. This week, we are focusing on chunking out words - looking for small words inside of bigger ones to help us decode. We have also talked about how to be a reading coach to thier friends:

Our poem of the week is all about scarecrows. For writing today, students brainstormed different descriptive words they could use and rewrote the poem. Tomorrow, we will practice typing them up on the computer.

In Social Studies, we are wrapping up our look at the Prairies. Students were given a mystery picture today and asked to look for 'clues'. By studying the picture and looking closely at details, students develop picture reading skills but also ways to make conclusions about what they are studying.

Finally, a highlight of the day was gym. We are focusing on catching and throwing skills for the next little while. Students have been warming up by 'juggling' with scarves. Today, they had to create targets to knock over by underhand throwing a beanbag. The twist is that inside the target is a hidden pig. Students will be given different manipulatives to use tomorrow.

What are you thankful for?

Today, students worked on a Thanksgiving art project. All week, we have been reading books about Thanksgiving and wrote in our journals about what we are thankful for. Today, we created beautiful fall trees that will remind us of all the things that we are thankful for.

Students used sponge painting to paint clothespins. They then chose words that were meaningful to them to write on the dried pins. Everyone was very proud of their work!

Enjoy the long weekend! 

Colours of the Prairies

This week we have been talking about Saskatchewan and how it is the same/different from Calgary. Today, we checked out the weather in Regina, SK, we read the book "A Prairie Alphabet" and wrote 3 sentences about things we learned from the book and this afternoon, we worked on an art project.

Students were shown pictures of the prairies. We talked about how the prairies are flat, with few trees. Students pointed out how the grasses were different colors and we looked at all the different shades of blue. Students then had to use paint chips to create their own prairie scene. Everyone did a great job!

\Looking at the Prairies. How many colors do you see?

Planning out a landscape

In math, we practiced counting by tens and ones, using math manipulatives to help us build the number. For gym, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went outside.

Please remember to return home reading bags tomorrow!