I hope you're enjoying this special long weekend with your families and loved ones as we celebrate Thanksgiving. There is lots to be thankful for. I would like to thank everyone who brought in food for the food drive that Mr. C is arranging. As of Friday, there were over 500 non perishable food items that had been brought in by all of you. The food drive will continue until next Thursday, so if you have any "leftover" items from this Thanksgiving, please continue to bring them into the school. Many families will be helped with all of your generous donations.
Room 3 was especially thankful for the new whiteboard that we got from Mr. Patsopoulos. We had it mounted on top of our preexisting blackboard. Mr. Patsopoulos made an announcement that the first class to call down to the office would get it for their class. The boys and girls in our class literally begged and jumped up and down for us to get it. I made the call and presto, we were the first ones. It is a fantastic addition to our classroom and it's benefits are endless.
We had another busy and exciting week. Below are some pictures (I still have no idea why they are upside down) to showcase some of our learning activities from this week.
In Language we have been continuing with the 5 parts to a story (characters, setting, problem/solution, beginning, middle, and end) and doing retells from stories that we have read together in class.
Additionally, the boys and girls have been practicing their writing in their journals with our Monday journal writing, writing what they are thankful for, creating sentences with the popcorn words of the week, and writing about what they were looking forward to doing this Thanksgiving weekend.
In Math we have started our Number Sense and Numeration unit. To start this unit, we are looking at "tools" that mathematicians use and we are learning how to use these tools to represent numbers. We did some various hands on activities on the carpet in pairs, groups and individually to show what we know about numbers. You can try some of the different ways to represent numbers with your child at home.
We can represent numbers using pictures, numbers, words, tallies, time, money (coins), fingers, base ten blocks, number lines, 5 and 10 frames, rekenrek, groups, and standard math equations just to name a few.
It is extremely important that children learn how to represent numbers using these different forms, as it helps with mental math and all future math to come. The method of recognizing numbers in groups as opposed to counting one item at a time is called subitizing. We will continue to work with these different "tools" as we move through our unit.
In Science we (Grade 2) students learned all about Reptiles. We are moving on to Amphibians next week. After that, each student will have their own animal project to work on at home. As well, for their in class assignment, the students will be in groups and they will have a different animal to work on.
The outline for the project will be sent home next week and will not be due until a few weeks.
In Art we continued working on our leaf line patterns and paintings. We learned about all the different types of lines that are found in nature and in art, and we learned about warm and cool colours. The result was leaves in the water. Take a look below to see how beautiful these turned out. I cannot express how impressed I was at their artistic ability and how well they worked. Our bulletin board outside has already received a lot of "Ouus and Aaahhhs".
As a culminating activity, Ms. Ritsakis and I decided to join our classes together in order to create Turkey hats that expressed different things that we are thankful for. We first discussed the meaning of Thanksgiving and came up with an anchor chart. Following that we created our super cute turkey hats. When we finished we read a story about Thanksgiving, and instead of classic pumpkin pie, we had peanut free Puffs with whipped cream on top. The kids loved it and we had a blast.
Congratulations to all the cross country runners from this past Thursday....it was a beautiful day and it looked like everyone had a blast.
Once again, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!
Ms. Nikoletopoulos
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| Representing numbers in different ways |
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| Showcasing our task on our "new" whiteboard" with our mini magnetic whiteboards. Great way for kids to visualize and learn from each other. |
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| Using base ten blocks to learn about place value and to represent numbers |
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| Painting our line leaves using warm colours. Tribe "Blackhawks" |
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| Tribe "Funky Five" |
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| Tribe "Haunted Dinosaurs" |
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| Our "upside down" Leaves in the Water bulletin board in the hallway |
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| Creating Turkey Hats |
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| Both classes working away |
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| We are thankful for..... |
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| Our finished result |
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| Time for a treat after all that work - Viva Puffs with Whipped Cream |
