Welcome to the Grade 2 Blog!
Mrs. Campanelli, Ms. Foesier and Ms. Jonasson
June 17-21 weekly update:
Wednesday - June 26
Wednesday - June 26
- Last day of school, June 26th and it is a full day (send extra bags with the kids so they can take home any left over work not yet sent home)
- Grade 6 celebration
- Report cards go home (if your family will be leaving early let the Office know in advance and provide a self-addressed stamped envelope for the report card)
- Wrapped up our measurement units with some recipes for our insects, measurement Olympics, and math games
- Had a visit from the public library about their summer reading program, the kiddos are really excited about it, follow the link for more info
- Worked on our year end memory books
- Continued our end of year countdowns with fun activities each day
- Sports day started with a special assembly with guest speaker Olympic silver medalist Cheryl Bernard
Looking forward to in Grade Two:
- Saying good-bye to grade Two and hello to grade Three
- Last day of school on June 26th
- Summer vacation, finally!!!
This week in Grade Two (June 10 - 14) • We welcomed our Kindergarten friends to our classrooms to show them what to expect next year in Grade One! We explored STEM bins, making patterns and reading a story! It was fun to be big buddies and reflect on how far we have come these past two year! • Worked on brainstorming and starting our "Top Ten Grade Two Memories". We each looked back and reflected on our learning this school year and are documenting our top moments to share and celebrate! • Continued measurement in math - worked with balancing scales, measuring weight, and recognizing how often we use measurement in our daily lives through literacy connections during team stories! • Worked on a secret project for our Dad's (open up and see on Father's Day this Sunday) • Had both a practice lockdown with Constable Tony and a Fire Drill on the same afternoon! • Took home our Insect First Aid Survival Kits and our 7 Day Insect Diaries Journals to share with our families (how awesome are they!) • Reflected in writing new this that we learned during our insect unit • Went on an INCREDIBLE field trip to the Zoo! We wrapped up our insect unit with the "Am I Bugging You" Program and got to explore all the Zoo has to offer on a bright and sunny day! A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who came along as helping supervisors! |
Looking Forward to Next Week
• Can you believe next week is the last FULL week of Grade Two?!
• We will continue our measurement unit and explore capacity and volume
• Data management and graphing
• Continue to reflect and document our top memories this year in writing and in pictures
• Public Library Presentation on their summer programs
• Sports Day on Friday (rain or shine)
• Summer countdown activities
• Can you believe next week is the last FULL week of Grade Two?!
• We will continue our measurement unit and explore capacity and volume
• Data management and graphing
• Continue to reflect and document our top memories this year in writing and in pictures
• Public Library Presentation on their summer programs
• Sports Day on Friday (rain or shine)
• Summer countdown activities
On Friday, June 7, 2019 we released our Adult Painted Lady Butterflies into the Hawkwood Community.... Look for them!
THE GRADE TWO TEAM HEADS TO THE CALGARY ZOO FOR A FIELD TRIP
Thanks to the parent volunteers who have offered to volunteer for the day!
On Thursday, June 13th, the Grade Two Entomologist Team will board the bus and head to the Calgary Zoo for a day full of insect exploration, an insect program led by the Zoo docents, collaborative learning and end of the inquiry project celebration...
Zoo Reminders:
Dress for the weather (YYC layers)
Good walking shoes
Hat, sunglasses, sun-screen
Backpack (no agenda)
Pack a litter-less, healthy lunch and nutritional snack
Extra drink (no pop)
Trip is a go rain or shine...
No money!
Be sure to pack an enthusiastic zoo attitude, an entomologist smile and a respect for the environment! It is going to be a FANTASTIC day!
Thanks to the parent volunteers who have offered to volunteer for the day!
On Thursday, June 13th, the Grade Two Entomologist Team will board the bus and head to the Calgary Zoo for a day full of insect exploration, an insect program led by the Zoo docents, collaborative learning and end of the inquiry project celebration...
Zoo Reminders:
Dress for the weather (YYC layers)
Good walking shoes
Hat, sunglasses, sun-screen
Backpack (no agenda)
Pack a litter-less, healthy lunch and nutritional snack
Extra drink (no pop)
Trip is a go rain or shine...
No money!
Be sure to pack an enthusiastic zoo attitude, an entomologist smile and a respect for the environment! It is going to be a FANTASTIC day!
MEET CHANTEL CHAGNON
Chantel is a talented, Canadian local Indigenous drummer, Singer and Storyteller. She came to work with our Grade 2 Team on Thursday. Students learned Indigenous stories, songs and drumming. Chantel built each of the drums from animal skins native to our area and she designed drumsticks from real wood (sticks). Students were engaged and motivated to interact with the four seasons and the four elements to play and sing along with Chantel. It was an amazing experience for all of us to be a part of.
Chantel is a talented, Canadian local Indigenous drummer, Singer and Storyteller. She came to work with our Grade 2 Team on Thursday. Students learned Indigenous stories, songs and drumming. Chantel built each of the drums from animal skins native to our area and she designed drumsticks from real wood (sticks). Students were engaged and motivated to interact with the four seasons and the four elements to play and sing along with Chantel. It was an amazing experience for all of us to be a part of.
June 7 Weekly Update:
•Measurement in Math (standard and non-standard)
•Grade 2 Memory Booklets
•Butterfly Release Party
•Visual Journal Sketching Pencils of a Symmetrical Butterfly with labels
•Insect Survival Kit, Rubric, Diary of an Insect, Field Guides coming home to celebrate
•James and the Giant Peach Movie Party to celebrate the novel read aloud
•Reading Buddies
•May/June Calendars
•Drumming
•Racquet Sports in Gym
•Laptops: IRIS June update
•ALL Library Books due Friday (Invoices will be sent home for damaged/lost books)
What's Coming Up in Grade Two?
•Zoo Field Trip and post zoo activities
•Kindergarten Team visits for a special Grade One Orientation- Grade Two students are the leaders
•Measurement and Data Management
•Health: Summer Safety
•Special writing activities
•Reading Buddies and outdoor team sports
•Student work will be starting to come home
•Last Home Project
•Fun Lunch
•Sports Day (June 21st)
•Report Cards and last day of school (June 26)
If your family will be leaving early, let the Office know in advance and provide a self-addressed stamped envelope for the report card
•Summer Count-down special activities
•Measurement in Math (standard and non-standard)
•Grade 2 Memory Booklets
•Butterfly Release Party
•Visual Journal Sketching Pencils of a Symmetrical Butterfly with labels
•Insect Survival Kit, Rubric, Diary of an Insect, Field Guides coming home to celebrate
•James and the Giant Peach Movie Party to celebrate the novel read aloud
•Reading Buddies
•May/June Calendars
•Drumming
•Racquet Sports in Gym
•Laptops: IRIS June update
•ALL Library Books due Friday (Invoices will be sent home for damaged/lost books)
What's Coming Up in Grade Two?
•Zoo Field Trip and post zoo activities
•Kindergarten Team visits for a special Grade One Orientation- Grade Two students are the leaders
•Measurement and Data Management
•Health: Summer Safety
•Special writing activities
•Reading Buddies and outdoor team sports
•Student work will be starting to come home
•Last Home Project
•Fun Lunch
•Sports Day (June 21st)
•Report Cards and last day of school (June 26)
If your family will be leaving early, let the Office know in advance and provide a self-addressed stamped envelope for the report card
•Summer Count-down special activities
May 27-31 weekly update:
Wednesday - June 5
*With the weather warming up we need to start thinking about how we dress for school as we will be outside often for learning opportunities and daily physical activity. We will be enjoying the beautiful weather but need to do so in a safe manner.*
Wednesday - June 5
- Booster Juice fun lunch
- Last day for books to be signed out from the library
- Indigenous Story Telling and Drumming in the Music Room
- All student books need to be returned to the library
*With the weather warming up we need to start thinking about how we dress for school as we will be outside often for learning opportunities and daily physical activity. We will be enjoying the beautiful weather but need to do so in a safe manner.*
- Dressing in layers for the cooler morning and then for the hotter afternoons
- Applying sunscreen before leaving home
- Having water bottles especially for when we go outside
- Hats are always a good idea as well
This week in Grade Two:
- We started our final math unit into measurement with some indirect and direct measurement
- Our chrysalis have been getting ready to become our beautiful butterflies for the past week, hopefully only more week till we get to see them (stay tuned for updates)
- We have completed out insect survival kits, they were fun and a lot of work to put together but worth it! The kids throughly enjoyed the process and were extremely engaged
- The talent share in music class was amazing, the kids were absolute superstars
Looking forward to in Grade Two:
- Exploring measurements in more depth
- Wrapping up our James and the Giant Peach novel study with James and the Giant Peach movie on Monday afternoon
- Beginning our final writing project, a memory book that should prove to be quite a special reminiscing journey for all the grade twos
- Wrapping up our science unit on small crawling flying animals ie. our insect unit by seeing how alike humans and insects truly are (think basic needs)
- Indigenous Story Telling and Drumming in Music
Looking forward to next week (final week of May!)....
• Continuing to put together our Insect First Aid Kits • Wrapping up our reading of James and the Giant Peach • Kicking off our measurement unit in math • Observing and documenting our butterflies' life cycle • Talent share in music • Monday - Fun Lunch - Edo |
May 21 - 24This week in Grade Two:
We had a short, but busy learning week! •Author Marty Chan came to speak to us. He shared and illustrated (at the same time) an exciting story from his childhood about the Chinese Calendar! Check out Marty's website below... https://martychan.com • Created a planning page for our Insect's First Aid Kit based on the research information collected in our Field Guides • Began assembling our Insect First Aid Survival kits (focusing on our insect's food and shelter) • Used Miras to create a variety of symmetrical bugs • Continued documenting our Butterfly Life Cycle (we have chrysalises)! • Got to sing our hearts out for our amazing volunteers at the Volunteer Tea on Friday! • Field Trip forms went home this week - please sign and return ASAP A BIG Thank You to all of our amazing volunteers this year!
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Enjoy the long weekend with your family! See you back at school on Tuesday, May 21st!
Our May 13-17 Weekly Update:
•Reading and responding to "James and The Giant Peach" novel study connecting to our insect exploration
•Documenting and recording observations of the Butterfly Life Cycle (next week we should see the Chrysalis Stage)
•Math Connections: Recorded in Tallies and Graphing the number of insects observed during the week
Symmetry in the Insect world- using miras to both identify the line of symmetry and finish drawing an insect
3-D Solids (faces/vertices/edges)
•Insect Research in Field Guides: Investigating First Aid Kits to develop/design and build insect first aid kits (Thank you for the shoeboxes)
•Author's Chair: Diary of an Insect Booklets (7 day dairy entries from the perspective of our insect)
•First Aid Kit Supplies Wanted (see notice in agenda or below)
Grade 2 Building/Designing Insect First Aid Kits
Help! Kit building-supply donations wanted: Bring in by Wednesday, May 22nd
Our Jr. Entomologists have been identifying different ways to protect their insect within its’ environment and are designing Insect Survival First Aid Kits:
•Lego-pieces •small stick bugs •plasticine •pipe-cleaners •corks •loose parts: beads/washers/gems/tree cookies
•small rocks •sand •pinecones •drift-wood •twigs
•string •nature magazines •tissue Paper •cotton Balls •Q-Tips •Toothpicks
•snack- sized zip-loc bags •Styrofoam •skewers •Drink Umbrellas
Note:
Anything else that may be personalized to the students’ First Aid Kit design, those particular items will be set aside for their own kit.
Thanks for your continued support!
•Reading and responding to "James and The Giant Peach" novel study connecting to our insect exploration
•Documenting and recording observations of the Butterfly Life Cycle (next week we should see the Chrysalis Stage)
•Math Connections: Recorded in Tallies and Graphing the number of insects observed during the week
Symmetry in the Insect world- using miras to both identify the line of symmetry and finish drawing an insect
3-D Solids (faces/vertices/edges)
•Insect Research in Field Guides: Investigating First Aid Kits to develop/design and build insect first aid kits (Thank you for the shoeboxes)
•Author's Chair: Diary of an Insect Booklets (7 day dairy entries from the perspective of our insect)
•First Aid Kit Supplies Wanted (see notice in agenda or below)
Grade 2 Building/Designing Insect First Aid Kits
Help! Kit building-supply donations wanted: Bring in by Wednesday, May 22nd
Our Jr. Entomologists have been identifying different ways to protect their insect within its’ environment and are designing Insect Survival First Aid Kits:
•Lego-pieces •small stick bugs •plasticine •pipe-cleaners •corks •loose parts: beads/washers/gems/tree cookies
•small rocks •sand •pinecones •drift-wood •twigs
•string •nature magazines •tissue Paper •cotton Balls •Q-Tips •Toothpicks
•snack- sized zip-loc bags •Styrofoam •skewers •Drink Umbrellas
Note:
Anything else that may be personalized to the students’ First Aid Kit design, those particular items will be set aside for their own kit.
Thanks for your continued support!
What's New in Grade Two? Week of May 21-24th
•Hawkwood School Volunteer Tea- Thank you to all the parent volunteers who have helped us these past two years! We appreciate you....
•Music: Classroom Talent Show Sign Up (Paperwork coming home) and present within Music class
•Build and Design Insect First Aid Kits applying what we researched in our personal Field Guide Booklets
•Butterfly Life Cycle - building our Terrariums- Chrysalis Stage
•Measurement (standard and non-standard units of measure) and Symmetry
•Reading Buddies
•Hand-Eye Racquet Sports in Gym
•Volunteers WANTED: All Day Zoo Field Trip: June 13th-Volunteers required (Classroom Sign-Up Genius)
•Novel Study: Literacy Wrap Up and Connections
•Read to Self and Guided Reading Groups
•Hawkwood School Volunteer Tea- Thank you to all the parent volunteers who have helped us these past two years! We appreciate you....
•Music: Classroom Talent Show Sign Up (Paperwork coming home) and present within Music class
•Build and Design Insect First Aid Kits applying what we researched in our personal Field Guide Booklets
•Butterfly Life Cycle - building our Terrariums- Chrysalis Stage
•Measurement (standard and non-standard units of measure) and Symmetry
•Reading Buddies
•Hand-Eye Racquet Sports in Gym
•Volunteers WANTED: All Day Zoo Field Trip: June 13th-Volunteers required (Classroom Sign-Up Genius)
•Novel Study: Literacy Wrap Up and Connections
•Read to Self and Guided Reading Groups
May 6 -10th weekly update:
- Some exciting news! Our grade 2 team grew by one new tiny member on May 4th. Mrs Walden had her little baby girl, Lucy Maria weighing in at 6lbs 7oz and 19" long
- Fun lunch (Booster juice) will be happening on Wednesday May 15
- No school on Friday May 17 ( PD Day) and no school Monday, May 20th (Victoria Day)
- Please send in one shoebox with your child to school for our insect survival/ first aid kits; feel free to send extra if you have them, thanks in advanced for your continued support
Happy Mother's Day to all our lovely mama's out there. Have a great weekend :)
This week in Grade Two:
- Continued our insect research by learning what is our insects most valuable need and what it is that is harming that valuable need
- We are continuing on our journey through James and the Giant Peach novel
- Continuing to create our very own Insect Diary entires
- In math we have been finishing up our 3-D shapes with some fun riddles and constructing a 3-d net enclosure to house our insects (hypothetically that is)
- Our caterpillar larva is thriving and growing rapidly, the kids are so excited to watch their life cycle in real life
- The first annual math night was a huge success, hope you all enjoyed and found some valuable tools to help develop your Children's math skills
Looking forward to in Grade Two
- Continuing on our journey in the world of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
- Moving forward in math and exploring measurement with estimation and accurate measuerments
- We will still be on the path of developing are very own insect diaries for our insects
- As we are learning just how important and valuable our insects are we will be learning how to provide protection for our insects and their valuable assets in their environments with survival/ first aid kits
This week in Grade Two:
• Researched our insects enemies and how it keeps itself protected in it's environment
• Created a detailed sketch of our insect and labeled it's body parts
• Inspired by the "Diary of a Fly" series - created our own Diary of an Insect and included some of our researched facts in our writing
• Went on a scavenger hunt around our classrooms and the school searching for 3D solids (spheres, cylinders, rectangular prisms, cubes, cones)
• Met some new characters in "James and the Giant Peach"
• Showed off our hiphop skills with our choreographed dances in gym
• Researched our insects enemies and how it keeps itself protected in it's environment
• Created a detailed sketch of our insect and labeled it's body parts
• Inspired by the "Diary of a Fly" series - created our own Diary of an Insect and included some of our researched facts in our writing
• Went on a scavenger hunt around our classrooms and the school searching for 3D solids (spheres, cylinders, rectangular prisms, cubes, cones)
• Met some new characters in "James and the Giant Peach"
• Showed off our hiphop skills with our choreographed dances in gym
Healthy Eating
The Grade Two students have taken on their role as entomologists to learn and discover what their insects eat in their environments. Students compared what insects need to eat to survive and thrive to what they need to eat to survive and thrive based on the new Canadian Food Guide. As a challenge, students were asked if there was any food that both they and their insect would enjoy eating!! Check out the link below that gives more information including; food choices, tips, recipes, eating habits and additional resources! https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/ |
Looking Forward in Grade Two:
• Music Monday "Hymn to Freedom" - click the link to practice and become familiar with the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_RnJFMX2kc
• Family Math Night @ Hawkwood School - 6:30 - 8:00 pm - Come as a family and explore a variety of fun math activites
• Continuing to read James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• Exploring 3D solids and learning about their attributes, where we find them in our world and building our own 3D solids to create an environment for insects
• Continuing to take on the role as entomologist and further researching and learning interesting facts about our insects
• Insect diary entries and taking on the voice and personality of students' insects based on their research
• Music Monday "Hymn to Freedom" - click the link to practice and become familiar with the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_RnJFMX2kc
• Family Math Night @ Hawkwood School - 6:30 - 8:00 pm - Come as a family and explore a variety of fun math activites
• Continuing to read James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• Exploring 3D solids and learning about their attributes, where we find them in our world and building our own 3D solids to create an environment for insects
• Continuing to take on the role as entomologist and further researching and learning interesting facts about our insects
• Insect diary entries and taking on the voice and personality of students' insects based on their research
Meet "Doc" Dr. David Larson- Our online Entomologist Expert at the University of Alberta
(Pssssssttttt....this is Mrs. Campanelli's Dad)
About This Photo:
Costa Rica 2017 Featuring the White Witch Moth (OSA Peninsula)
Middle of the night photo capture of Doc's favourite species of moth
Did you know...Night-time is the only time entomologists can study these moths-attracted to the light source against a white sheet
The White Witch Moth is the largest documented moth- 31 cm wide wing tip to wing tip
April 26th Weekly Update:
A BIG Hawkwood welcome to Ms. Foesier in 2C! Nice to have her join the Grade Two Team while Mrs. Walden is on Maternity Leave.
We will keep you all informed of any new and exciting baby news....
What's NEW in Grade Two?
• Writing to a real Entomologist at the University to ask an expert about our thought-provoking insect questions. GUESS WHAT?! He wrote back!
• Dr. David Larson (Doc) took the time to answer 75 student questions about all species of insects (whew that was a busy Easter weekend)!
• Shape and Space: 2D Shapes (identifying vertices, sides and labelling each one)
• Playing Mathematical Geo-bands it is like Headbands but with shapes (learning how to ask a good numeracy question is the key)
• Reading and responding to our Novel Study "James and Giant Peach" and Eric Carle insect books
• Art: Designing our own Eric Carle inspired insect art within it's environment
• Research in the Learning Commons with Non-fiction text sets to document and record our findings, sketches, labels (like a real entomologist)
• Writing and designing our diary entries from the perspective of an insect
• Read to Self - daily independent sustained reading of self-selected chapter books or Non-Fiction (students are reading for enjoyment 30 minutes)
• Home Project Learning
• Litter-less Lunches- Lunch-Room Supervisors reminds families to continue packing those litter-less lunches - we are making a difference!
• Ask your child about the new bathroom sign reminders in washrooms about caring for that school-wide shared space
• Sending home our Earth Day booklets (how can we be Earth Rangers in 2019)?
• Congratulations to Ms. Foesier's class for winning the "Golden Garbage Award" this past week! Keep it up Grade Two's...
Looking AHEAD in Grade Two...
• Fun Lunch Monday, April 29th
• May 1st - Class Photos and Movie Night on Thursday, May 2nd
• Researching and documenting our insect information like an entomologist in our Field Guide Books
• Writing and Illustrating a 7 day Diary from an insect perspective
• Eric Carle - Author Study
• Journal Writing focusing on developing "voice" when writing for an audience
• Novel Study: Roald Dahl's Read Aloud: "James and Giant Peach" with literature connections/responses
• 3-D Solids and Challenge Word Problems
• Healthy Eating - New Canadian Food Guide comparing it to our insect food guide
• Music Monday preparation-Music
• Hip Hop Dances- Gym
A BIG Hawkwood welcome to Ms. Foesier in 2C! Nice to have her join the Grade Two Team while Mrs. Walden is on Maternity Leave.
We will keep you all informed of any new and exciting baby news....
What's NEW in Grade Two?
• Writing to a real Entomologist at the University to ask an expert about our thought-provoking insect questions. GUESS WHAT?! He wrote back!
• Dr. David Larson (Doc) took the time to answer 75 student questions about all species of insects (whew that was a busy Easter weekend)!
• Shape and Space: 2D Shapes (identifying vertices, sides and labelling each one)
• Playing Mathematical Geo-bands it is like Headbands but with shapes (learning how to ask a good numeracy question is the key)
• Reading and responding to our Novel Study "James and Giant Peach" and Eric Carle insect books
• Art: Designing our own Eric Carle inspired insect art within it's environment
• Research in the Learning Commons with Non-fiction text sets to document and record our findings, sketches, labels (like a real entomologist)
• Writing and designing our diary entries from the perspective of an insect
• Read to Self - daily independent sustained reading of self-selected chapter books or Non-Fiction (students are reading for enjoyment 30 minutes)
• Home Project Learning
• Litter-less Lunches- Lunch-Room Supervisors reminds families to continue packing those litter-less lunches - we are making a difference!
• Ask your child about the new bathroom sign reminders in washrooms about caring for that school-wide shared space
• Sending home our Earth Day booklets (how can we be Earth Rangers in 2019)?
• Congratulations to Ms. Foesier's class for winning the "Golden Garbage Award" this past week! Keep it up Grade Two's...
Looking AHEAD in Grade Two...
• Fun Lunch Monday, April 29th
• May 1st - Class Photos and Movie Night on Thursday, May 2nd
• Researching and documenting our insect information like an entomologist in our Field Guide Books
• Writing and Illustrating a 7 day Diary from an insect perspective
• Eric Carle - Author Study
• Journal Writing focusing on developing "voice" when writing for an audience
• Novel Study: Roald Dahl's Read Aloud: "James and Giant Peach" with literature connections/responses
• 3-D Solids and Challenge Word Problems
• Healthy Eating - New Canadian Food Guide comparing it to our insect food guide
• Music Monday preparation-Music
• Hip Hop Dances- Gym
Go FLAMES Go!
Wishing you and your family a Hoppy Easter Weekend!
Earth Day 2019 - How can YOU Be an Earth Ranger?
April 12, 2019 Weekly Update:
This week in Grade Two: • Kicked off our Hip-Hop unit in gym with Mr. Josh from SoundKreations - visit https://soundkreations.com for more information about their school dance programs • Went outside to explore insects habitats after being inspired by our question - "If you were an insect and could live in any environment, where would you choose to live and why?" • Created bugs from pieces in nature • Learned the body parts of insects • Eric Carle author study - visit his website! www.eric-carle.com/home.html • Started Earth Day books about how we can take care of our planet • Continued exploring shapes using geoboards and pattern blocks • Spent time in the Learning Commons with Mrs. Wadja continuing our inquiry on insects in our Field Guide books Looking Forward • Earth Day - continue our booklets • Bug inquiry - continue visits to the learning commons to work with Ms. Wadja • Shape and space - working with pattern blocks, challenge cards, exploring 2D shapes and 3D solids • 2B SRO visit • Wrapping up SoundKreations dance unit • Insect Team Movie - Thursday April 17th (please bring a snack) • No school on Friday April 19th and Monday April 22nd |
April 5, 2019 Weekly Update: WEAR GREEN on Monday in memory of the Humbolt Tragedy and to honour organ transplants.
Litter-less Lunch Program Launches at Hawkwood School starting April 1st
Litter-less Lunch Program Launches at Hawkwood School starting April 1st
WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL! OUR FINAL TERM IN GRADE TWO!
Thank you to all the families who attended the Student-Led Conferences prior to Spring Break!
What's New in Grade Two?
•Launching our New Unit of Study: Creepy Crawlies And Other Flying Animals. We are working in the Learning Commons along with Mrs. Wajda. Our big question is: What where would "bee" without insects? Our hook to launch our research (through the lens of an Entomologist) was to start with do we already know about insects and ask questions about what we want to know. We were motivated to action even more by watching two videos (see links below)... Now we are reading Fiction and Non-Fiction text-sets to gather data and research what insects need to survive. We are excited as our Zoo Field Trip in June will be our culminating activity to this new unit of study.
•Geo-boards in Math (shape and space)
•Sharing our designed math games with other classes
•Fire Drill
•School-wide Assembly
•Literacy: "If These Books Could Talk" writing project
•Finishing "Bless This House" Novel Study
•Reading Buddies and Home Projects
•SRO Constable Jeff visit (Health connections-Strategies for our ToolBox)- 2A
•Journal writing with the focus of using multi-syllable vocabulary
•Triple Venn Diagram-Final Wrap-Up Project in Social Studies
(Comparing and contrasting the similarities/differences of the Three Canadian Communities (Prairies, Arctic and the Coastal Region)
Looking Ahead...
•As Entomologists, we will continue our inquiry research into what insects need to survive and thrive and how we can take action to protect them.
•Sound Kreations Residency in Gym - Hip Hop Dance Program
•Booster Juice
•Eric Carle Author Study and Art
•Geo-boards in Math (Shape and Space) and Problem-solving Challenges
•SRO Constable Jeff visit (Health connections-Strategies for our ToolBox)- 2B and 2C
•Visual Journals
•Poetry: exploring a variety of poem forms to read, write and publish our own spring, insect-poems
Thank you to all the families who attended the Student-Led Conferences prior to Spring Break!
What's New in Grade Two?
•Launching our New Unit of Study: Creepy Crawlies And Other Flying Animals. We are working in the Learning Commons along with Mrs. Wajda. Our big question is: What where would "bee" without insects? Our hook to launch our research (through the lens of an Entomologist) was to start with do we already know about insects and ask questions about what we want to know. We were motivated to action even more by watching two videos (see links below)... Now we are reading Fiction and Non-Fiction text-sets to gather data and research what insects need to survive. We are excited as our Zoo Field Trip in June will be our culminating activity to this new unit of study.
•Geo-boards in Math (shape and space)
•Sharing our designed math games with other classes
•Fire Drill
•School-wide Assembly
•Literacy: "If These Books Could Talk" writing project
•Finishing "Bless This House" Novel Study
•Reading Buddies and Home Projects
•SRO Constable Jeff visit (Health connections-Strategies for our ToolBox)- 2A
•Journal writing with the focus of using multi-syllable vocabulary
•Triple Venn Diagram-Final Wrap-Up Project in Social Studies
(Comparing and contrasting the similarities/differences of the Three Canadian Communities (Prairies, Arctic and the Coastal Region)
Looking Ahead...
•As Entomologists, we will continue our inquiry research into what insects need to survive and thrive and how we can take action to protect them.
•Sound Kreations Residency in Gym - Hip Hop Dance Program
•Booster Juice
•Eric Carle Author Study and Art
•Geo-boards in Math (Shape and Space) and Problem-solving Challenges
•SRO Constable Jeff visit (Health connections-Strategies for our ToolBox)- 2B and 2C
•Visual Journals
•Poetry: exploring a variety of poem forms to read, write and publish our own spring, insect-poems
SRO Constable Jeff's Class Visit
Strategies to use to fill our "Tool Box" To calm down.... I can take deep breaths I can take a walk I can listen to music I can talk to someone I can run or walk in nature I can cuddle my pet I can lay down and close my eyes I can journal in my diary I can sketch or draw pictures |
Enjoy a fun and relaxing Spring Break and see you back on April 1st! For the Monday back, we encourage all students to bring in a photo or artifact that represents something they did over the break to serve as a writing prompt and kick off the week!
March 22nd Weekly Update
This week in Grade Two:
•We have been continuing our Maritime studies by looking at the physical geography of that region and learning about Maud Lewis, a famous Canadian painter that came from Nova Scotia
•We have been busy creating our own Maud Lewis inspired artwork with a combined media of paint and paper.
•We finished up our math games (a mix of board games and flash cards) to celebrate our addition and subtraction learning and to play with parents during Student Led Conferences
•We have continued our novel study, Bless This House, about a girl named Elizabeth that moves to Nova Scotia from New England during the expulsion of the Acadians in the 1750s
This week in Grade Two:
•We have been continuing our Maritime studies by looking at the physical geography of that region and learning about Maud Lewis, a famous Canadian painter that came from Nova Scotia
•We have been busy creating our own Maud Lewis inspired artwork with a combined media of paint and paper.
•We finished up our math games (a mix of board games and flash cards) to celebrate our addition and subtraction learning and to play with parents during Student Led Conferences
•We have continued our novel study, Bless This House, about a girl named Elizabeth that moves to Nova Scotia from New England during the expulsion of the Acadians in the 1750s
This week in Grade Two:
• Mr. MacDonald's presentation on the Maritimes and Lobster fishing • "Number Talks"- practicing and reviewing mental math strategies • Limericks - reading various Limericks and creating our own Limericks • Beginning to explore the Acadia and its land and water • Maud Lewis - meeting this famous Acadian artist and creating our own art inspired by her • Continuing our own math games and matching games • Math problem solving |
Looking Forward
• Student led conferences - please be sure to register for a time slot • Continuing exploring our Acadian/Maritime community • Reading "Bless this House" by Anne Laurel Carter • Word work - inspired by Peter H. Reynold's "Word Collector" • Mental math and problem solving • Wear green on Monday for St. Patrick's Day |
March 8th Weekly Update:
Welcome to the Maritimes!
We are enjoying learning about the unique aspects of our Acadian Communities and comparing it to what we learned about the Prairies and the Arctic communities in Canada. The Teacher's Pet Field Trip launched our excitement and it continued as we learned about the importance of the lighthouse landmarks out East. We read a brand new book "HELLO LIGHTHOUSE" and wrote a literary response. We wrote "I wonder" questions and one student is curious to learn the square mile radius of the Atlantic Ocean. Anybody up for finding that out?
•Curling in Gym (our Grade 2 team made the Hawkwood School Twitter Page this week featuring our curling skills)
•We began practicing the song for Music Monday in Music class
•Designing personalized Math Games featuring what we know about 2 digit subtraction and addition facts
•Word Collector Inquiry-building our rich, dynamic vocabulary to apply to our daily writing
•Lunchroom Manners- re-focusing on improving our clean up after eating and correct recycling- Look for Litterless Lunch Challenges to come soon...
•Kindly review bathroom etiquette with your child. There have been some serious bathroom issues throughout our school...
What is coming up in Grade Two?
•Mr. MacDonald's Acadian visit to teach us about culture, traditions, climate, lobster trapping and life in the Maritimes
•School Resource Officer (SRO) a visit from Constable Will -Health connections
•Student Led Conferences (sign up in Power School for day and time)
•Add the final touches to our +/- Math Game Designs, test, improve, revise and play!!!
•Problem-solving Challenges and "Number Talks" with our Math Coach Stacey Wu
•PiDay on March 14th
•Spring Book Fair (Learning Commons)- see school blog to volunteer-
•Guided Reading and Reading Buddies
•Writing Limericks for St. Patrick's Day using juicy vocabulary from our Word Collector Booklets
•Literature Connections - Fictional stories from the Maritimes (text to self, text to text and text to the world)
•Read Aloud: "Bless This House" a chapter book about life in the Maritimes
•Maud Lewis inspired artwork - a famous Canadian Artist from Nova Scotia (1903-1970)
Welcome to the Maritimes!
We are enjoying learning about the unique aspects of our Acadian Communities and comparing it to what we learned about the Prairies and the Arctic communities in Canada. The Teacher's Pet Field Trip launched our excitement and it continued as we learned about the importance of the lighthouse landmarks out East. We read a brand new book "HELLO LIGHTHOUSE" and wrote a literary response. We wrote "I wonder" questions and one student is curious to learn the square mile radius of the Atlantic Ocean. Anybody up for finding that out?
•Curling in Gym (our Grade 2 team made the Hawkwood School Twitter Page this week featuring our curling skills)
•We began practicing the song for Music Monday in Music class
•Designing personalized Math Games featuring what we know about 2 digit subtraction and addition facts
•Word Collector Inquiry-building our rich, dynamic vocabulary to apply to our daily writing
•Lunchroom Manners- re-focusing on improving our clean up after eating and correct recycling- Look for Litterless Lunch Challenges to come soon...
•Kindly review bathroom etiquette with your child. There have been some serious bathroom issues throughout our school...
What is coming up in Grade Two?
•Mr. MacDonald's Acadian visit to teach us about culture, traditions, climate, lobster trapping and life in the Maritimes
•School Resource Officer (SRO) a visit from Constable Will -Health connections
•Student Led Conferences (sign up in Power School for day and time)
•Add the final touches to our +/- Math Game Designs, test, improve, revise and play!!!
•Problem-solving Challenges and "Number Talks" with our Math Coach Stacey Wu
•PiDay on March 14th
•Spring Book Fair (Learning Commons)- see school blog to volunteer-
•Guided Reading and Reading Buddies
•Writing Limericks for St. Patrick's Day using juicy vocabulary from our Word Collector Booklets
•Literature Connections - Fictional stories from the Maritimes (text to self, text to text and text to the world)
•Read Aloud: "Bless This House" a chapter book about life in the Maritimes
•Maud Lewis inspired artwork - a famous Canadian Artist from Nova Scotia (1903-1970)
February 28th Weekly Update:
Yesterday was Pink Shirt Day, a day to unite together and stand up against bullying. We rallied together for this cause during our assembly in the gym and talked about anti-bullying and conflict resolution within our own classrooms. Most students were able to wear something pink and it was amazing to see the communal support within the school for this cause. Please see the video below on how Pink Shirt Day started.....
Yesterday was Pink Shirt Day, a day to unite together and stand up against bullying. We rallied together for this cause during our assembly in the gym and talked about anti-bullying and conflict resolution within our own classrooms. Most students were able to wear something pink and it was amazing to see the communal support within the school for this cause. Please see the video below on how Pink Shirt Day started.....
What else happened this week in grade 2:
• wrapped up our Arctic communities study (Ted Harrison inspired art and Enchanted Caribou oral story telling)
• wrapping up addition and subtraction with various problem solving and critical thinking opportunities and designing of math games
• finishing up our novel study of Stone Fox and focusing on comprehension, story elements, making predictions and connections
• Teachers Pet visit on Thursday, February 28th: 2 hours presentation to kick off our Acadian/maritime communities study.
(During this presentation we learned about the regional flag, the language, the chores and games from the past and the significance of the lighthouse. We were able to make our own butter, try out weaving, play with wooden spoons and paint our very own lighthouses in the colours of the Acadian flag!)
What is coming up:
• Welcome MARCH 2019! (Already....)
• L'Acadie and a look into life on the East Coast of Canada!
•Math Game Designs representing what we learned with addition and subtraction
•Student Led Conferences where the students lead you through their learning
•Spring forward time change and Spring Book Fair
• wrapped up our Arctic communities study (Ted Harrison inspired art and Enchanted Caribou oral story telling)
• wrapping up addition and subtraction with various problem solving and critical thinking opportunities and designing of math games
• finishing up our novel study of Stone Fox and focusing on comprehension, story elements, making predictions and connections
• Teachers Pet visit on Thursday, February 28th: 2 hours presentation to kick off our Acadian/maritime communities study.
(During this presentation we learned about the regional flag, the language, the chores and games from the past and the significance of the lighthouse. We were able to make our own butter, try out weaving, play with wooden spoons and paint our very own lighthouses in the colours of the Acadian flag!)
What is coming up:
• Welcome MARCH 2019! (Already....)
• L'Acadie and a look into life on the East Coast of Canada!
•Math Game Designs representing what we learned with addition and subtraction
•Student Led Conferences where the students lead you through their learning
•Spring forward time change and Spring Book Fair
February 22nd Weekly Update:
We are 100 days smarter! We kicked off this short learning week by celebrating the 100th day of Grade Two! Students got to show off their learning, by writing 100 words, representing the number 100 in several ways, solving a special math riddle using the 100s chart and other fun activities!
What else is new in Grade Two?
• Explored and compared grocery stores and their prices in our Prairie community and the Arctic community we have been studying and created our own "classroom shops". Students were given $100 to spend at the store, using North Mart Arctic prices - check out the videos of North Mart!
https://www.northmart.ca/our-stores/video
• Continued reading a class chapter book read aloud Stone Fox
• Examined and researched symbols associated with Iqualuit, Nunavut
• Author's Chair Celebrations -continued the final touches of our Gingerbread stories and began to share and celebrate being an author and illustrator with our buddies and peers
Coming up Next Week:
•Pink Shirt Day and school-wide assembly (wear as much as pink as you choose to) a day to focus on kindness. STOP Bullying~!
•Teacher's Pet Field Trip: In school field trip: Acadian Community of Canada -launch into our inquiry work with Acadia
•Designing our own personal Addition and Subtraction Math Games
•Author's Chair
•Work around empathy and making our school a great place to be
•Friday, March 1st- PD Day (No school)
• Explored and compared grocery stores and their prices in our Prairie community and the Arctic community we have been studying and created our own "classroom shops". Students were given $100 to spend at the store, using North Mart Arctic prices - check out the videos of North Mart!
https://www.northmart.ca/our-stores/video
• Continued reading a class chapter book read aloud Stone Fox
• Examined and researched symbols associated with Iqualuit, Nunavut
• Author's Chair Celebrations -continued the final touches of our Gingerbread stories and began to share and celebrate being an author and illustrator with our buddies and peers
Coming up Next Week:
•Pink Shirt Day and school-wide assembly (wear as much as pink as you choose to) a day to focus on kindness. STOP Bullying~!
•Teacher's Pet Field Trip: In school field trip: Acadian Community of Canada -launch into our inquiry work with Acadia
•Designing our own personal Addition and Subtraction Math Games
•Author's Chair
•Work around empathy and making our school a great place to be
•Friday, March 1st- PD Day (No school)
February 15th Weekly Update:
What's New in Grade Two?
Grade Two Team welcomed Karen Pegler who taught us how to code with Micro:Bits. We were able to code the heartbeat of our monster and make it dance for Valentine's Day. We experimented with other challenges like designing a spinning pinwheel, jumping jacks and rock, paper scissors. Each class was gifted a set of 10 micro:bits for our classroom STEM centres. The students are extremely motivated to code and use mathematical thinking and reasoning to be successful at coding.
Log onto makecode.microbit.org to experiment more at home with coding!
February 8th Weekly Update:
This Week in Grade Two we:
•continued to publish our gingerbread stories (I can create thoughtful, meaningful illustrations to accompany our written ideas, I can use Microsoft word to type up my rough copy)
•continued to practice subtraction with re-grouping (Subtraction poem, manipulative, pencil and paper strategies)
•celebrated math in our lives but brainstorming, bringing in and playing games that require math (ie. counting on, adding, subtracting, sorting, matching, place value etc.)
•looked at the physical geography of the Arctic and practiced reading paragraphs and taking dot jots on the land, bodies or water and climate in the Arctic
•celebrated the significance of the Inukshuk to the Inuit culture by reading stories, watching videos, creating inuksuit with collected rocks and incorporating inuksuit into different types of art
•learned about the Northern lights and why they happen and created northern light art through various mediums (check Youtube link below for great video explaining the phenomenon)
•Began reading Stone Fox as a class read aloud (literacy connections with aspects of Arctic life, dog sledding)
Coming up Next Week:
•short week because of Teachers Convention (Thursday/Friday no school)
•Micro:Bit Workshop for 2DC/2AW on Tuesday, Feb 12 and 2KJ on Wednesday, Feb 13 (Coding for kids, Government sponsored workshop to introduce kids to the basics of coding)
•Valentines Day will be celebrated on Wednesday afternoon. A few things to think about: bring Kleenex boxes on Monday and crafting supplies to decorate them with. Students are encouraged to wear the colors of LOVE
This Week in Grade Two we:
•continued to publish our gingerbread stories (I can create thoughtful, meaningful illustrations to accompany our written ideas, I can use Microsoft word to type up my rough copy)
•continued to practice subtraction with re-grouping (Subtraction poem, manipulative, pencil and paper strategies)
•celebrated math in our lives but brainstorming, bringing in and playing games that require math (ie. counting on, adding, subtracting, sorting, matching, place value etc.)
•looked at the physical geography of the Arctic and practiced reading paragraphs and taking dot jots on the land, bodies or water and climate in the Arctic
•celebrated the significance of the Inukshuk to the Inuit culture by reading stories, watching videos, creating inuksuit with collected rocks and incorporating inuksuit into different types of art
•learned about the Northern lights and why they happen and created northern light art through various mediums (check Youtube link below for great video explaining the phenomenon)
•Began reading Stone Fox as a class read aloud (literacy connections with aspects of Arctic life, dog sledding)
Coming up Next Week:
•short week because of Teachers Convention (Thursday/Friday no school)
•Micro:Bit Workshop for 2DC/2AW on Tuesday, Feb 12 and 2KJ on Wednesday, Feb 13 (Coding for kids, Government sponsored workshop to introduce kids to the basics of coding)
•Valentines Day will be celebrated on Wednesday afternoon. A few things to think about: bring Kleenex boxes on Monday and crafting supplies to decorate them with. Students are encouraged to wear the colors of LOVE
This Week in Grade Two:
We had a short, but busy learning week!
- We have continued our publishing of our Gingerbread stories by adding detailed WOW pictures with our writing. We are taking our time to really honour the hard work we did as authors and now with our illustrations!
- Continue exploring 2 digit subtraction with regrouping using manipulative and starting with pencil to paper
- Becoming "Math Detectives" to solve which suspect kidnapped "Chuck" the Groundhog
- Began exploring our next Canadian community - The Arctic! The students have started to examine how our Prairie Community is different from an Arctic Community
- Starting to wrap up our Gymnastics unit in gym - Gymnastics Assembly is next Friday, February 8th.
We had a short, but busy learning week!
- We have continued our publishing of our Gingerbread stories by adding detailed WOW pictures with our writing. We are taking our time to really honour the hard work we did as authors and now with our illustrations!
- Continue exploring 2 digit subtraction with regrouping using manipulative and starting with pencil to paper
- Becoming "Math Detectives" to solve which suspect kidnapped "Chuck" the Groundhog
- Began exploring our next Canadian community - The Arctic! The students have started to examine how our Prairie Community is different from an Arctic Community
- Starting to wrap up our Gymnastics unit in gym - Gymnastics Assembly is next Friday, February 8th.
Looking Ahead:
Thursday Feb. 7th AM - Math game exploration. Students are welcome to bring in any game that involves math (addition, subtraction, money, patterning, shapes, etc.) to share with their grade two peers to get us inspired to create and design our own math games! Learning more about inukshuks and building our own inukshuks using rocks (bring flat palm sized rocks for Monday Feb. 4) Continuing final publishing steps of our gingerbread stories Explore our Arctic community by learning about landforms, bodies of water, climate and more fun facts about the community! Valentines Celebration will take place during the afternoon on Feb. 13th before the five day family day long weekend! Please send in an empty kleenex box with your child in which they can collect their valentines in. |
January 25th, 2019 Weekly Update: Hawkwood School's Winter Walk Day: Perfect outdoor temperature: -1˚C
Thank you families for all the kind donations of mitts, hats and scarves for the Calgary Drop-In Centre!
Thank you families for all the kind donations of mitts, hats and scarves for the Calgary Drop-In Centre!
What's new in Grade Two?
•Learning what it takes to be an accomplished illustrator of our own published Gingerbread stories. We are proud to be an author and an illustrator!
•Growing our sustained reading stamina by choosing books and genres that help us read for enjoyment... Chapter books and graphic novels are a hit!
•Subtracting 2 digit numerals with regrouping, showing our understanding using base 10 blocks.
•Building Gymnastic routines in Gym (balances that are low/medium/high and a variety of movements rotating through ten different stations)
•Exploring solids, liquids, gasses, temperature and the density, absorption and viscosity of liquids. Ask about our surface tension experiments.
•Representing our understanding of The Water Cycle through diagrams and labelling in our Visual Journals
•Winter Walk
• AMAZING Home Projects! We are so enjoying learning from the students as they share their expertise and passions...
•Most of the Flat Stanley dolls have arrived back to Hawkwood School after visiting friends, families and unique landmarks from all around the world
Where are we going next in Grade Two?
•Authoring Cycle: Continuing the amazing work of illustrating our published Gingerbread stories and creating a 4 "WOW" picture for each book page
•Preparing our published books for Author's Chair by practicing reading our own stories aloud with expression and fluency
•Self evaluating our writing and illustrating process
•Daily 5 Literacy Centres focusing on our independent journal writing, read to self with a dream/vacation book and Inuit word work
•Subtracting 2 digit numerals with regrouping representing our understanding on paper and within math games
•Launching into Social Studies: Learning about Northern Canada (the Arctic Community) and comparing it to the Prairie Community
•Learning how to design an interactive math game
•Learning about the Canadian artist Ted Harrison and exploring his style of artwork
•Exploring and designing inukshuks - why is this an important symbol to the Inuit communities and what is it's history?
Reminders: Friday, February 1st - No School for CBE and Thursday, February 7th - Family Literacy Night
•Learning what it takes to be an accomplished illustrator of our own published Gingerbread stories. We are proud to be an author and an illustrator!
•Growing our sustained reading stamina by choosing books and genres that help us read for enjoyment... Chapter books and graphic novels are a hit!
•Subtracting 2 digit numerals with regrouping, showing our understanding using base 10 blocks.
•Building Gymnastic routines in Gym (balances that are low/medium/high and a variety of movements rotating through ten different stations)
•Exploring solids, liquids, gasses, temperature and the density, absorption and viscosity of liquids. Ask about our surface tension experiments.
•Representing our understanding of The Water Cycle through diagrams and labelling in our Visual Journals
•Winter Walk
• AMAZING Home Projects! We are so enjoying learning from the students as they share their expertise and passions...
•Most of the Flat Stanley dolls have arrived back to Hawkwood School after visiting friends, families and unique landmarks from all around the world
Where are we going next in Grade Two?
•Authoring Cycle: Continuing the amazing work of illustrating our published Gingerbread stories and creating a 4 "WOW" picture for each book page
•Preparing our published books for Author's Chair by practicing reading our own stories aloud with expression and fluency
•Self evaluating our writing and illustrating process
•Daily 5 Literacy Centres focusing on our independent journal writing, read to self with a dream/vacation book and Inuit word work
•Subtracting 2 digit numerals with regrouping representing our understanding on paper and within math games
•Launching into Social Studies: Learning about Northern Canada (the Arctic Community) and comparing it to the Prairie Community
•Learning how to design an interactive math game
•Learning about the Canadian artist Ted Harrison and exploring his style of artwork
•Exploring and designing inukshuks - why is this an important symbol to the Inuit communities and what is it's history?
Reminders: Friday, February 1st - No School for CBE and Thursday, February 7th - Family Literacy Night
The Grade Two New Book Recommend... A New Book Release: Peter H. Reynolds and Susan Verde
Book Rating: 5 stars *****
Illustrations: 5 stars *****
Content and Message: Priceless!!! WE LOVED THIS BOOK AS A TEAM!
Interested? Look for it to order in our Scholastic Book orders!
Book Rating: 5 stars *****
Illustrations: 5 stars *****
Content and Message: Priceless!!! WE LOVED THIS BOOK AS A TEAM!
Interested? Look for it to order in our Scholastic Book orders!
INUKSHUK ROCKS
As part of our work with comparing three Canadian Communities, we are exploring everything about the Arctic and that includes researching and building our own inukshuks. Kindly send in 5-9 appropriate sized, stackable rocks by Monday. February 4th. Feel free to send in earlier as we will building on the 4th. Thank you!
All rocks will be returned in the form of an inukshuk…
As part of our work with comparing three Canadian Communities, we are exploring everything about the Arctic and that includes researching and building our own inukshuks. Kindly send in 5-9 appropriate sized, stackable rocks by Monday. February 4th. Feel free to send in earlier as we will building on the 4th. Thank you!
All rocks will be returned in the form of an inukshuk…
January 18th Weekly Update
We have jumped right back into some exciting learning in 2019! The grade 2s have wrapped up their learning of Hot and Cold and experimented with building an insulated structure to keep an ice cube frozen for as long as possible. Following last weekends homework we reflected on the different ways that our homes stay insulated and warm in the winter and have become 'experts' at reading a thermometer! This week we kicked off our liquids unit by exploring matter and looking at the properties of solids, liquids and gases. The water cycle has also been touched on and will be further looked into next week. In math we have finished up our addition portion of regrouping work and have started into subtraction. We are currently using manipulative to strengthen our understanding of the concept and will move into strategies and practice over the next couple of weeks. We have still been busy with our Gingerbread stories and are in the final stages of completion. Next step? Publishing so we can celebrate all the hard work we have put into it since the beginning of December. What an accomplishment! Just a reminder that next week is our Winter Wishes week and the students and families have been asked (in the agendas) to bring new or used pairs of mitts, toques and scarves to donate to the Calgary Drop-In Centre. We will be going on a grade 2 winter walk on Thursday and will wear a toque throughout the school day to celebrate winter and our charitable cause. |
Happy 2019! Welcome Back!
We hope that everyone had a relaxing winter break with their family and friends! It has been a busy short first learning week of 2019 in Grade Two! To kick off our week, we looked forward to the next part of the school year and brainstormed goals that we have. We asked our class "What's Your Word"? Students all thought what they want to improve on and picked one word for their goal. These "I can" statements help guide our learning. What's Your Word for 2019? I can identify personal behaviours that show a readiness to learn... I can recognize that it takes time and effort to accomplish goals.... The Grade Two students have been working long and hard on planning their gingerbread stories. This week we dove into writing a rough draft of their introductions - students are engaged and coming up with some amazing starts to their stories using "juicy words"! This new year we are starting off with a new unit in science "Hot and Cold Temperatures"! We have been getting hands on thermometers and measuring temperature in degrees Celsius (°C). Please note that gymnastics will be running in the gym for the next month. Please feel free to send your child with and gymnastics outfits/comfortable clothing to wear on days that they will be in the gym. |
Students Back To School on Tuesday, January 8th, 2019
Happy Holidays!
December 14th Weekly Update:
This week we have had a plethora of special guests that have enriched the learning in our classrooms. We have continued our exploration of boats with a special visit from Mr. Lang. Mr. Lang tied in the 2018 Breakerhead Design Challenge to boats and we had to create a hull that fit 4 crew members using only porous cardboard and non-porous masking tape. Our problem took us ahead 1000 years to 3018, where climate change has taken its toll and our worlds' largest cities are sitting underwater. How could we create a boat to get us to and from school safely and dry?
We have continued our Gingerbread story planning and have worked through our characters, setting and problem. We had a special visit from one of our parents, Brian Day, who is an author himself. Brian talked through the planning process and the different parts of the story and connected it to the Gingerbread stories we are currently working on. This week we have had Blackfoot Elder Darcy Turning Robe in our school working with each class on drumming, singing and educating us on the Blackfoot (Siksika) culture.
In math we have continued working on double digit addition with re-grouping. We have been looking at two different ways to solve these problems, vertically and horizontally, and have been thinking about which way works best for our unique learning styles.
Next week we look forward to our boat testing with our Ultimate Boat Challenge as we test our final boat designs to hold weight, move across the pool while floating. The challenge will test our waterproofing of recycled materials, hull design, keel and the ability to hold cargo (gems).
This week we have had a plethora of special guests that have enriched the learning in our classrooms. We have continued our exploration of boats with a special visit from Mr. Lang. Mr. Lang tied in the 2018 Breakerhead Design Challenge to boats and we had to create a hull that fit 4 crew members using only porous cardboard and non-porous masking tape. Our problem took us ahead 1000 years to 3018, where climate change has taken its toll and our worlds' largest cities are sitting underwater. How could we create a boat to get us to and from school safely and dry?
We have continued our Gingerbread story planning and have worked through our characters, setting and problem. We had a special visit from one of our parents, Brian Day, who is an author himself. Brian talked through the planning process and the different parts of the story and connected it to the Gingerbread stories we are currently working on. This week we have had Blackfoot Elder Darcy Turning Robe in our school working with each class on drumming, singing and educating us on the Blackfoot (Siksika) culture.
In math we have continued working on double digit addition with re-grouping. We have been looking at two different ways to solve these problems, vertically and horizontally, and have been thinking about which way works best for our unique learning styles.
Next week we look forward to our boat testing with our Ultimate Boat Challenge as we test our final boat designs to hold weight, move across the pool while floating. The challenge will test our waterproofing of recycled materials, hull design, keel and the ability to hold cargo (gems).
Indigo Fundraiser:
The Friends of Hawkwood Society Indigo/Chapters Fundraiser is still on. Shop online today using a special URL for our school. Indigo gives back 3% for online product purchases and 15% when you purchase an eGift card. Tip: you can send eGift cards directly to a recipient, or you can purchase an eGift card for yourself and then use it to buy your gifts online from Indigo/Chapters and have your goods delivered to your door! Click here to shop: Indigo FUNdraiser. |
December 7th Weekly Update:
'Tis the Season! We got to kick off our short learning week with Deck the Halls in the gym with the rest of the school. We continued the festivities with our buddy classes to Deck our Hawkwood Halls for the holiday season. We focused our attention recognizing celebrations around the world this time of year and reflecting on our traditions and cultures. We continued on our exploration of boats this week and discussed what makes a successful (materials, design of the hull, shapes). As a Grade Two team we celebrated our learning of boats by watching a team movie "Nim's Island" that was chocked full of what we have been learning during our science unit. We saw a variety of types of boats, designs of boats, items that can float, items that sink and how to design a boat. With all this background knowledge and work though out the last couple weeks with designing boats, learning about types of boats and how things float we are moving forward to build our own boats that are able to carry weight and move! Captain Mr. Lang will be joining us to provide some more knowledge and skills to help us build successful boats! We have continued our math exploration of addition of double numbers and began to dive into regrouping! Students have played with manipulatives to have a hands on approach to this new topic and have a conceptual understanding of regrouping. We will be continuing delving into addition with regrouping until the Winter Break by teaching a variety of skills and strategies to students so that we can all be successful with this important topic! The Grade Two students have been so excited to continue reading and comparing Gingerbread stories. They have chosen their own Gingerbread character (please ask your child who their Gingerbread character is) and we are eager to start writing our own Gingerbread stories next week - stay tuned! |
November 23rd Weekly Update:
This week we have been busy getting ready for student led conferences to share our progress and learning. We wrapped up our inquiry of the prairies by creating fun facts and embedding them in a grain elevator poster, finishing up our unique medicine wheels, creating our tipi villages and practicing our special tipi stories. We celebrated our learning of place value by learning some games with Mrs. Harms and are now are ready to move on to 2-digit addition with re-grouping. We will be practicing this very important concept until the end of December so feel free to reinforce at home! We started looking at various versions of The Gingerbread Man this week and have been looking at story elements, making text to text connections and introducing quotation marks. We will continue this learning over the next few weeks which will lead into our own story plans and published gingerbread stories. We also had a very special visit from Earth Rangers this week where we talked about climate change and met a few Earth Ranger ambassadors such as a lizard, a toucan, a porcupine and a hawk.
News From The Lunchroom: Note change of times: starting on Monday, November 26th
Students eating 12:25-12:45 pm and will be outdoors 12:45-1:15 PM.
This week we have been busy getting ready for student led conferences to share our progress and learning. We wrapped up our inquiry of the prairies by creating fun facts and embedding them in a grain elevator poster, finishing up our unique medicine wheels, creating our tipi villages and practicing our special tipi stories. We celebrated our learning of place value by learning some games with Mrs. Harms and are now are ready to move on to 2-digit addition with re-grouping. We will be practicing this very important concept until the end of December so feel free to reinforce at home! We started looking at various versions of The Gingerbread Man this week and have been looking at story elements, making text to text connections and introducing quotation marks. We will continue this learning over the next few weeks which will lead into our own story plans and published gingerbread stories. We also had a very special visit from Earth Rangers this week where we talked about climate change and met a few Earth Ranger ambassadors such as a lizard, a toucan, a porcupine and a hawk.
News From The Lunchroom: Note change of times: starting on Monday, November 26th
Students eating 12:25-12:45 pm and will be outdoors 12:45-1:15 PM.
Reminder!
Student Led Conferences are November 22 PM-November 23rd AM. Please book a time to come in with your child as they will lead you through their work celebrating your child's learning in the classroom, in Gym, and in Music. Students are to attend as this celebration is ALL about them and they have practiced sharing their work with you! Be sure to visit the Book Fair! See our calendar page for our date/times for our Book Fair visit... |
November 16th Weekly Update:
This learning week we have continued honoring our Blackfoot First Nations Community of the Prairies. Student's completed their Tipi for our our Blackfoot Tipi Communities and wrote their tipi story unassisted and independently. There are some beautiful and engaging stories that have been created to demonstrate our learning about our Canadian Prairie Community. Student's also have created their own Medicine Wheel. The medicine wheels demonstrate their understanding of First Nations Prairie Communities, storytelling, personal connections and symbols. Please take a look at the link below to give some more insight into the medicine wheel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c63PVyPB_zw Our classes also took a look back on all of our learning on our Canadian Prairie Community and choose facts that will go into a Grain Elevator image to wrap up our learning inquiry. It has been amazing looking back on what we have learned and have an opportunity to celebrate that learning with an audience. The Grade Twos have continued their place value learning. Students have been playing games, visually demonstrating their learning with base 10 stamps, math art and continuing to use manipulatives to represent their thinking. Moving forward, we will working on 2 digit addition facts that include regrouping. Please help by continuing to practice and master addition and subtraction facts to 20 with your child as we are moving onto facts to 100. |
November 9th Weekly Update:
Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 AM Friday, November 9th. All welcome. Uniforms and cultural clothing encouraged. Every student will be provided a poppy. Thank you for all the poppy money donations this week in support of our invaluable veterans. Ask about the artwork and writing we did around this...
We have been exploring what PEACE means and what that looks like at Hawkwood School in 2018.
Our visit to Fort Calgary was incredibly inspirational as we explored what YYC looked like in 1875 and how the Indigenous Community of the Blackfoot and NorthWest Mounted Police (currently the RCMP) impacted the beginnings of our present day Calgary on the Prairies. Mr. MacDonald visited our Team and explained why we acknowledge the land at assemblies and special school occasions and how the prairie land of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are so impactful to our history. Students have been designing their own tipi incorporating the authentic symbols of the Blackfoot Community and being able to retell the origins orally based on the selected symbols. Ask your child what confluence means. We have been working on meeting our daily writing targets and improving our daily reading stamina by focusing on a variety of different reading strategies.
Despite the rotating postal strike, we are starting to receive Flat Stanley envelopes back at school where we are celebrating different communities, landforms, landmarks and learning about culture, traditions, food, language, mapping and how other communities survive and thrive. It is exciting to receive the envelopes back, celebrate each family and what that particular community is known for...
In our numeracy work, we have been representing 2-3 digit numerals through place value by building the number and representing it through expanded notation and pictures. Did you know... many students use the number line, ten frames, counters and fingers as strategies to help with their addition and subtraction basic facts?
Kindly support your child master the addition and subtraction facts to 20.
Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:45 AM Friday, November 9th. All welcome. Uniforms and cultural clothing encouraged. Every student will be provided a poppy. Thank you for all the poppy money donations this week in support of our invaluable veterans. Ask about the artwork and writing we did around this...
We have been exploring what PEACE means and what that looks like at Hawkwood School in 2018.
Our visit to Fort Calgary was incredibly inspirational as we explored what YYC looked like in 1875 and how the Indigenous Community of the Blackfoot and NorthWest Mounted Police (currently the RCMP) impacted the beginnings of our present day Calgary on the Prairies. Mr. MacDonald visited our Team and explained why we acknowledge the land at assemblies and special school occasions and how the prairie land of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are so impactful to our history. Students have been designing their own tipi incorporating the authentic symbols of the Blackfoot Community and being able to retell the origins orally based on the selected symbols. Ask your child what confluence means. We have been working on meeting our daily writing targets and improving our daily reading stamina by focusing on a variety of different reading strategies.
Despite the rotating postal strike, we are starting to receive Flat Stanley envelopes back at school where we are celebrating different communities, landforms, landmarks and learning about culture, traditions, food, language, mapping and how other communities survive and thrive. It is exciting to receive the envelopes back, celebrate each family and what that particular community is known for...
In our numeracy work, we have been representing 2-3 digit numerals through place value by building the number and representing it through expanded notation and pictures. Did you know... many students use the number line, ten frames, counters and fingers as strategies to help with their addition and subtraction basic facts?
Kindly support your child master the addition and subtraction facts to 20.
November 1st Weekly Update:
This week we continued our research of the prairie product of pumpkins with a Halloween twist! We continued looking at sequence words and instructional writing and wrote instructions on how to carve a jack o lantern. We started place value in math and learned about 1, 2 and 3 digit numbers and how the numerals in the ones, tens and hundreds spot can change the value of a number! We explored representing numbers with base 10 blocks and demonstrated our learning by making spooky halloween spiders. We celebrated Halloween in style with holiday themed literacy, math and buddy activities and enjoyed seeing everyones costumes in a school wide 'costume parade'. We have carried on our prairie focus through the lens of the past and have begun to prepare ourselves for our first field trip to Fort Calgary on Monday and Tuesday. We talked about the origins of the Fort and about how the Mounted Police played a vital role in the settling of the prairies. We will also recognize the First Nations and will begin our exploration of the Blackfoot Community next week with a special visit from Mr. MacDonald to share indigenous legends and tell us about reconciliation of the land.
Looking forward to Fort Calgary where it sits between the Bow River and the Elbow River! It will be an exciting day of exploring our communities origins and understanding our unique prairie past!
This week we continued our research of the prairie product of pumpkins with a Halloween twist! We continued looking at sequence words and instructional writing and wrote instructions on how to carve a jack o lantern. We started place value in math and learned about 1, 2 and 3 digit numbers and how the numerals in the ones, tens and hundreds spot can change the value of a number! We explored representing numbers with base 10 blocks and demonstrated our learning by making spooky halloween spiders. We celebrated Halloween in style with holiday themed literacy, math and buddy activities and enjoyed seeing everyones costumes in a school wide 'costume parade'. We have carried on our prairie focus through the lens of the past and have begun to prepare ourselves for our first field trip to Fort Calgary on Monday and Tuesday. We talked about the origins of the Fort and about how the Mounted Police played a vital role in the settling of the prairies. We will also recognize the First Nations and will begin our exploration of the Blackfoot Community next week with a special visit from Mr. MacDonald to share indigenous legends and tell us about reconciliation of the land.
Looking forward to Fort Calgary where it sits between the Bow River and the Elbow River! It will be an exciting day of exploring our communities origins and understanding our unique prairie past!
October 26th Weekly Update:
What a fun pumpkin learning week we had in Grade Two! There were pumpkins EVERYWHERE! Through the lens of a Prairie Farmer, we explored, sketched and wrote about what our pumpkins look like. Students built on their learning from Grade One plants to learn the lifecycle of a pumpkin as well as the steps taken in a pumpkins life from seed to classroom/home! We met Ms. Walden's friend Farmer Amanda and learned about what a typical day/year looks like for a Prairie Farmer and we are grateful for all our Prairie Farmers do! To continue our pumpkin week, we put on our math hats and measured, sorted and ordered all of our Prairie Pumpkins!
Looking forward to next week, we will be exploring place value in math and meeting our targets in literacy.
What a fun pumpkin learning week we had in Grade Two! There were pumpkins EVERYWHERE! Through the lens of a Prairie Farmer, we explored, sketched and wrote about what our pumpkins look like. Students built on their learning from Grade One plants to learn the lifecycle of a pumpkin as well as the steps taken in a pumpkins life from seed to classroom/home! We met Ms. Walden's friend Farmer Amanda and learned about what a typical day/year looks like for a Prairie Farmer and we are grateful for all our Prairie Farmers do! To continue our pumpkin week, we put on our math hats and measured, sorted and ordered all of our Prairie Pumpkins!
Looking forward to next week, we will be exploring place value in math and meeting our targets in literacy.
October 19th Weekly Update
Our learning week was made even more special as we celebrated literacy at the Crowfoot Public Library! We were introduced to the new books in the library about the Prairies, landmarks, travel, world fun facts and community. We were challenged with a "Flat Stanley" Scavenger Hunt searching throughout the renovated library for nine different Flat Stanley chapter books featuring important library features like the Jr Non-Fiction Area, DVD's and Picture Books. Ask me about meeting "Bigfoot"and watching the fascinating book sort. It was a beautiful, sunny Autumn community walk!
We have been researching more about the Prairies and asking "I wonder" questions about the landforms, farmland, bodies of water, symbols and climate. We read the "Prairie Alphabet" and rewrote our own version of the Prairie Alphabet. Our field trip to Fort Calgary will help answer some of our big Prairie questions. As we revisit Number Sense, we are reviewing our addition and subtraction strategies, ordinal numbers, odd and even numerals and problem-solving strategies. We also enjoy using dice, ten frames, the number line and playing cards to help solidify our sense of number.
Did you know that our fire drill on Thursday went so well that we were all back into the school in under 10 minutes?
Mrs Wajda met with our classes to introduce us to the brand new transitional chapter books that have just arrived in the Learning Commons, they are "just right books" for those interested and ready to journey into reading chapter books. In Gym we have continued our love of running (inspired by the Terry Fox Run) by playing "Indy 500" and trying to beat our own running record each Gym class. We LOVE meeting with our Reading Buddies to read!
Can't wait to see all the spooktacular fun at the Family Halloween Dance Thursday evening! Boo!
A Friendly Reminder:
Friday, October 26th is a PD Day so there will be no school and that means no Home Projects or Home Letter journals coming home next week!
Picture Retake Day is October 30th! Enjoy the warmer weather this weekend as a family!
Our learning week was made even more special as we celebrated literacy at the Crowfoot Public Library! We were introduced to the new books in the library about the Prairies, landmarks, travel, world fun facts and community. We were challenged with a "Flat Stanley" Scavenger Hunt searching throughout the renovated library for nine different Flat Stanley chapter books featuring important library features like the Jr Non-Fiction Area, DVD's and Picture Books. Ask me about meeting "Bigfoot"and watching the fascinating book sort. It was a beautiful, sunny Autumn community walk!
We have been researching more about the Prairies and asking "I wonder" questions about the landforms, farmland, bodies of water, symbols and climate. We read the "Prairie Alphabet" and rewrote our own version of the Prairie Alphabet. Our field trip to Fort Calgary will help answer some of our big Prairie questions. As we revisit Number Sense, we are reviewing our addition and subtraction strategies, ordinal numbers, odd and even numerals and problem-solving strategies. We also enjoy using dice, ten frames, the number line and playing cards to help solidify our sense of number.
Did you know that our fire drill on Thursday went so well that we were all back into the school in under 10 minutes?
Mrs Wajda met with our classes to introduce us to the brand new transitional chapter books that have just arrived in the Learning Commons, they are "just right books" for those interested and ready to journey into reading chapter books. In Gym we have continued our love of running (inspired by the Terry Fox Run) by playing "Indy 500" and trying to beat our own running record each Gym class. We LOVE meeting with our Reading Buddies to read!
Can't wait to see all the spooktacular fun at the Family Halloween Dance Thursday evening! Boo!
A Friendly Reminder:
Friday, October 26th is a PD Day so there will be no school and that means no Home Projects or Home Letter journals coming home next week!
Picture Retake Day is October 30th! Enjoy the warmer weather this weekend as a family!
ALL SIZES OF PUMPKINS WANTED... Monday, October 22nd!
Next week (October 22-25) our Team will be exploring everything about pumpkins...
We will be measuring the different pumpkins using both standard and non-standard units of measure, estimating # of seeds, testing of sinking or floating, sketching, shading, print-making, instructional writing of how to carve a pumpkin and writing a Prairie travel journal log from the perspective of a pumpkin (from Prairie seed to the classroom). Next week is all about Prairie Pumpkins!
Next week (October 22-25) our Team will be exploring everything about pumpkins...
We will be measuring the different pumpkins using both standard and non-standard units of measure, estimating # of seeds, testing of sinking or floating, sketching, shading, print-making, instructional writing of how to carve a pumpkin and writing a Prairie travel journal log from the perspective of a pumpkin (from Prairie seed to the classroom). Next week is all about Prairie Pumpkins!
CONGRATULATIONS HAWKWOOD SCHOOL ON RAISING OVER $4800 DOLLARS FOR THE TERRY FOX FOUNDATION FOR CANCER RESEARCH!
October 12 Weekly Update:
Today we had a special assembly in which we witnessed Mr. Janzic shave his head for reaching our charitable goal for our Terry Fox run! Go Hawkwood! This week we were very busy diving into our prairies community study by talking about the unique characteristics of the land and the significance of the grain elevator as a symbol of the prairies. We wrapped up our work on increasing patterns with some group and individual problem solving and are excited to get back to exploring numbers next week! We continued reading Flat Stanley and created personalized kites as a literacy connection to the story. Ask us what's happened so far! Next Tuesday morning the grade 2 team will be walking to the Crowfoot Public Library to take a tour of the facility and participate in a book genre scavenger hunt. We are excited to be taking field trip forms home for our first field trip of the year to Fort Calgary on November 5th and 6th. We are looking for 5 parent volunteers from each class so please let us know with a quick note in the agenda or an email if you are interested in coming along!
October 5th Weekly Update:
Happy October and Happy Thanksgiving! After reading "The Thankful Book" from one of our favourite authors, Todd Parr, the Grade Twos all took time this week to write about all the things we are thankful for! We were also very excited to take a mini field trip across the street to the post office to mail off our Flat Stanley Dolls. We cannot wait for their return! During numeracy this week, we continued our exploration of patterns by looking at growing/increasing patterns. Our students were also very excited to start our first unit in Social Studies, The Prairies! To top off our busy learning week, we had a Thanksgiving Assembly as a school and our very first Home Projects. Parents, please make sure that you know the date of your child's home project!
Have a safe and warm Thanksgiving with your loved ones!
Happy October and Happy Thanksgiving! After reading "The Thankful Book" from one of our favourite authors, Todd Parr, the Grade Twos all took time this week to write about all the things we are thankful for! We were also very excited to take a mini field trip across the street to the post office to mail off our Flat Stanley Dolls. We cannot wait for their return! During numeracy this week, we continued our exploration of patterns by looking at growing/increasing patterns. Our students were also very excited to start our first unit in Social Studies, The Prairies! To top off our busy learning week, we had a Thanksgiving Assembly as a school and our very first Home Projects. Parents, please make sure that you know the date of your child's home project!
Have a safe and warm Thanksgiving with your loved ones!
September 28 Weekly Update:
The Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Run was one of the many areas of focus of our learning week and ended on Friday with a school-wide assembly and community run. As a school, we are hoping to help Terry's dream by raising money for cancer research.
Fun Facts:
Did you know...Terry ran 26 miles a day for 146 days covering 5 373.6 km (3 339 miles) at the age of 22 before ending his Marathon of Hope in Thunder Bay. Terry's goal was to raise $1.00 per Canadian. That would have raised 24 million dollars at that time.
Thank you Hawkwood families for supporting us and for participating in the annual School Council Muffin Breakfast!
Our Numeracy work involves our students continuing their work with patterning by showing their understanding of growing patterns by "Planting a Pattern" with mixed beans, Students have been using blocks and other loose parts to represent different sorting attributes. Our students amazed us with their Inquiry work with magnetism by designing some pretty creative and unique Magnet Toys/Games! Great innovators! Our Grade 6 Reading Buddies were impressed with our knowledge of magnetism and enjoyed exploring our creations.
We are proud of our reading stamina as we are able to engage with a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. Some of us are already discovering the joy of reading chapter books. Guided Reading groups has begun and we will launch into our Flat Stanley Project this upcoming week. Now that we have wrapped up Exploring Magnetism, our team will launch our Social Studies inquiry about "The Canadian Communities" focusing on The Prairies. We are looking forward to our upcoming field trip to the Crowfoot Calgary Public Library and to the Canada Post Office to mail off our Flat Stanley projects. As we prepare for the Thanksgiving long weekend, our team will be focusing on the many things we are thankful for...
A big thank you to all our families who have already paid their fees and returned their signed/corrected demographic forms!
Enjoy your last September weekend! MONDAY IS ORANGE SHIRT DAY!
The Terry Fox Marathon of Hope Run was one of the many areas of focus of our learning week and ended on Friday with a school-wide assembly and community run. As a school, we are hoping to help Terry's dream by raising money for cancer research.
Fun Facts:
Did you know...Terry ran 26 miles a day for 146 days covering 5 373.6 km (3 339 miles) at the age of 22 before ending his Marathon of Hope in Thunder Bay. Terry's goal was to raise $1.00 per Canadian. That would have raised 24 million dollars at that time.
Thank you Hawkwood families for supporting us and for participating in the annual School Council Muffin Breakfast!
Our Numeracy work involves our students continuing their work with patterning by showing their understanding of growing patterns by "Planting a Pattern" with mixed beans, Students have been using blocks and other loose parts to represent different sorting attributes. Our students amazed us with their Inquiry work with magnetism by designing some pretty creative and unique Magnet Toys/Games! Great innovators! Our Grade 6 Reading Buddies were impressed with our knowledge of magnetism and enjoyed exploring our creations.
We are proud of our reading stamina as we are able to engage with a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. Some of us are already discovering the joy of reading chapter books. Guided Reading groups has begun and we will launch into our Flat Stanley Project this upcoming week. Now that we have wrapped up Exploring Magnetism, our team will launch our Social Studies inquiry about "The Canadian Communities" focusing on The Prairies. We are looking forward to our upcoming field trip to the Crowfoot Calgary Public Library and to the Canada Post Office to mail off our Flat Stanley projects. As we prepare for the Thanksgiving long weekend, our team will be focusing on the many things we are thankful for...
A big thank you to all our families who have already paid their fees and returned their signed/corrected demographic forms!
Enjoy your last September weekend! MONDAY IS ORANGE SHIRT DAY!
September 20 Weekly Update
This short week we conducted various magnet experiments and began to plan for our magnet toy/game project due on Monday, Sept 24th. We learned about north and south poles and how magnets attract and repel each other. We will be wrapping up next week with our toy/game share. We also worked on our sorting skills and practiced sorting in a Venn diagram and placing objects based on two attributes (grade 2 curriculum). All three classes were visited by our SRO Constable Will (see picture) and he spoke with us about our inner strengths and the people that help us soar. We also kicked off our Flat Stanley project and sent home an information letter with an envelope that needs postage and labelling before coming back to school next Thursday, Sept 27th. Enjoy the long weekend and hope to see you at the BBQ and Meet the Teacher night!
This short week we conducted various magnet experiments and began to plan for our magnet toy/game project due on Monday, Sept 24th. We learned about north and south poles and how magnets attract and repel each other. We will be wrapping up next week with our toy/game share. We also worked on our sorting skills and practiced sorting in a Venn diagram and placing objects based on two attributes (grade 2 curriculum). All three classes were visited by our SRO Constable Will (see picture) and he spoke with us about our inner strengths and the people that help us soar. We also kicked off our Flat Stanley project and sent home an information letter with an envelope that needs postage and labelling before coming back to school next Thursday, Sept 27th. Enjoy the long weekend and hope to see you at the BBQ and Meet the Teacher night!
September 14 Friday Update
This week in Grade Two students continued our new science unit by exploring magnets in our classroom and dived into magnetic experiments; including beginning to create their own magnet maze! We teamed up with our new Math Coach, to review our learning from Grade One. Students also were inspired by the book "The Day the Crayons Quit" and looked at our Art Room and wrote how we can make it better!
This week in Grade Two students continued our new science unit by exploring magnets in our classroom and dived into magnetic experiments; including beginning to create their own magnet maze! We teamed up with our new Math Coach, to review our learning from Grade One. Students also were inspired by the book "The Day the Crayons Quit" and looked at our Art Room and wrote how we can make it better!
September 7 Friday Update 2018 . (Our Grade 2 blog will be updated Fridays)
This short learning week featured reading "The Best Part of Me" where students in our Team identified what body part represents the best part of them, we photographed, planned our web and wrote sentences using juicy descriptive words. A great kick off to our Author's Chair celebrations and get to know each other.
We are reviewing skip counting, addition and subtraction facts. We launched our Exploration of Magnetism Inquiry, had our first school wide assembly and completed a unique piece of water-colour artwork.
What Is Up and Coming in Grade Two?
Exploration of Magnetism continues, painting of our rocks, working with our new Math Coach, Literacy focus with read to self, journal writing using our personal dictionaries, launching Raz Kidz and visiting the Learning Commons for a Library orientation to get our library cards and sign out books!
Remember to initial each agenda message and check the back pocket for notices daily!
Thanks for sending in those labelled headsets in a zip-loc bag and completing and returning all the paperwork...
Fun Fact: A magnet is a rock or a piece of metal that can pull certain types of metal toward itself. The force of magnets, called magnetism, is a basic force of nature, like electricity and gravity. Magnetism works over a distance. This means that a magnet does not have to be touching an object to pull it.
What Did We Learn in Grade Two This Week?
First Day Back News:
1.Check agenda back pocket for notices, label the inside of agenda with emergency
contact information, send in headset in a labelled bag, clean indoor shoes & backpack
2.Book orders coming home!
3.Send in rock (size of hand).
4.School-wide Welcome Back Assembly Friday, September 7, @ 9:00 AM
1.Check agenda back pocket for notices, label the inside of agenda with emergency
contact information, send in headset in a labelled bag, clean indoor shoes & backpack
2.Book orders coming home!
3.Send in rock (size of hand).
4.School-wide Welcome Back Assembly Friday, September 7, @ 9:00 AM
What Is Up and Coming in Grade Two?
What Is Important For Me To Know... September 2018
Meet The Teacher Night- September 20th-Come and Hear All About Our Learning Year!
Meet The Teacher Night- September 20th-Come and Hear All About Our Learning Year!
Dear Families: September 4, 2018
Your child’s new agenda is coming home today and everyday filled with important information, notices, and news about our learning. Please check the agenda pocket daily!
Establish a routine for having the agenda read, initialed and returned to school each day. This will assist with effective home/school communication. More news to follow about our Team Blog and A-Z Raz-Kidz Reading Program.
Homework tonight:
Complete the front information page in your child’s agenda tonight. Parents, please be sure to include your home email address and cell phone number(s) at the bottom of the page.
Important information for Our Grade 2 Families:
• Our team enters at Door #4 in the AM for Flex Entry and exits the school at Door #3. Students will not be permitted to enter at Door #1 or walk through the school to access Door #4.
Bussing students will exit Door #2 at the end of each day (ECS doors).
• Establish a family meeting spot outdoors with your child for end of day pick-up. Bussing students will load at the front of the school supervised by The Admin Team.
• Learning begins @ 9:10 AM. It is expected that your child be on time and ready to begin their learning day. Should your child have an early morning appointment arriving after 9:10, a late slip from the Office (Door #1) is required as all the other doors are then locked.
• For the safety and security of our students, CBE policy requires all visitors to sign in at the office and must wear an ID badge before coming down to the classroom. Cell phones are to be turned to vibrate. Parent volunteers are most welcome in our team. Volunteers must complete/submit their Security Clearance (a police check) before working within the classroom (valid for 5 years). Please pick up the form at the Office if you haven’t already been cleared.
• Clearly label indoor shoes, coats, lunch kits and backpacks. Student water bottles (non-drip/lid) and a daily healthy recess snack are strongly encouraged to keep your child’s body replenished throughout the learning day. Please consider packing the recess snack separate from the lunch-kit in an easy to grab and go space within the backpack. This will help your child maximize his/her recess-movement break outdoors. A change of clothes in a Ziploc bag may be necessary if you predict any possibility of an accident.
Things to Note:
• “Opening Day” school package to arrive home shortly. Complete and return.
• Meet The Teacher is on September 20th. Kindly plan on attending for important information.
• September Scholastic Book Orders coming home this week!
We look forward to an exciting learning year with you and your child!
The Grade Two Learning Team
Mrs. Deb Campanelli (Room 249) 2A - [email protected]
Ms. Katie Jonasson (Room 250) 2B– [email protected]
Mrs. Ashlyn Walden (Room 248) 2C– [email protected]
Your child’s new agenda is coming home today and everyday filled with important information, notices, and news about our learning. Please check the agenda pocket daily!
Establish a routine for having the agenda read, initialed and returned to school each day. This will assist with effective home/school communication. More news to follow about our Team Blog and A-Z Raz-Kidz Reading Program.
Homework tonight:
Complete the front information page in your child’s agenda tonight. Parents, please be sure to include your home email address and cell phone number(s) at the bottom of the page.
Important information for Our Grade 2 Families:
• Our team enters at Door #4 in the AM for Flex Entry and exits the school at Door #3. Students will not be permitted to enter at Door #1 or walk through the school to access Door #4.
Bussing students will exit Door #2 at the end of each day (ECS doors).
• Establish a family meeting spot outdoors with your child for end of day pick-up. Bussing students will load at the front of the school supervised by The Admin Team.
• Learning begins @ 9:10 AM. It is expected that your child be on time and ready to begin their learning day. Should your child have an early morning appointment arriving after 9:10, a late slip from the Office (Door #1) is required as all the other doors are then locked.
• For the safety and security of our students, CBE policy requires all visitors to sign in at the office and must wear an ID badge before coming down to the classroom. Cell phones are to be turned to vibrate. Parent volunteers are most welcome in our team. Volunteers must complete/submit their Security Clearance (a police check) before working within the classroom (valid for 5 years). Please pick up the form at the Office if you haven’t already been cleared.
• Clearly label indoor shoes, coats, lunch kits and backpacks. Student water bottles (non-drip/lid) and a daily healthy recess snack are strongly encouraged to keep your child’s body replenished throughout the learning day. Please consider packing the recess snack separate from the lunch-kit in an easy to grab and go space within the backpack. This will help your child maximize his/her recess-movement break outdoors. A change of clothes in a Ziploc bag may be necessary if you predict any possibility of an accident.
Things to Note:
• “Opening Day” school package to arrive home shortly. Complete and return.
• Meet The Teacher is on September 20th. Kindly plan on attending for important information.
• September Scholastic Book Orders coming home this week!
We look forward to an exciting learning year with you and your child!
The Grade Two Learning Team
Mrs. Deb Campanelli (Room 249) 2A - [email protected]
Ms. Katie Jonasson (Room 250) 2B– [email protected]
Mrs. Ashlyn Walden (Room 248) 2C– [email protected]