October 30, 2019

We had a great day today!

We started our day by setting new learning goals for November. Then we worked with Miss.Janelle learning a new dance in gym. See if you recognize what dance we are doing:

After gym we dissected a pumpkin by cutting it in half. We drew diagrams of the pumpkin, brainstormed things we were wondering about the pumpkin and made estimates about how many seeds would be inside. We worked in groups counting scoopfuls of pumpkin seeds by 10. Once we had our group totals we added all groups up to find that our pumpkin had 520 seeds! We practiced our roll it, make it, expand it game with the number 520 before we headed to library.

After lunch we had silent reading and then hopped on a pretend bus in Saskatoon to observe the landscape. We completed see, think, wonder sheets to collect research topics for next week. After this, we finished our day by painting miniature pumpkins with our buddies. Check out these little cuties:

Reminders: 
- Nov.1 and Nov.11 NO SCHOOL
- October 31- orange and black day DO NOT WEAR COSTUMES
- October 31- Pillars of Care Assembly @ 12:30pm
- October time capsules go home tomorrow- I am still missing 4 of these from last month. Please return by tomorrow. 

October 29, 2019

What a busy Tuesday!

We started our day with our week 6 spelling tests. After gym we worked on our game roll it, make it, expand it. Using our place value skills of drawing numbers using base ten blocks and expanded form we rolled numbers, made them and expanded them. We also had word work centers. Our word work and reading strategy 'stretchy snake' are helping us to get much better at sounding out unfamiliar words. In the afternoon we had silent reading and in science we learned about how our bodies need water as well as plants and animals. Yesterday we began an evaporation science lab. We finished our day with music.

Check out our awesome place value skills:

Reading Give it a Shot Program- Students who brought in their home reading folders have been given a Reading Give it a Shot tracking sheet. This is a program were students work towards earning Calgary Flames hockey cards. Each book = 1 hockey card. Please send in home reading folders to receive your tracking sheet and to begin collecting cards!

Going Home:
- Week 7 spelling list 'an' family

Reminders: 
- Nov.1 and Nov.11 NO SCHOOL
- October 31- orange and black day
- October 31- Pillars of Care Assembly

October 25, 2019

What a wonderful Friday, everyone had such a great day and we got lots of work done.

Today we did our first draft of our monster stories. We did an excellent job sounding out words and using our dictionaries to write our first stories of grade 2.

We also had time to work on place value Mathletics.

To finish our day we made our plants which we researched earlier this week to add to our Saskatoon window.

What to expect next week:

1. Continuing our work with place value working on expanded form
2. Continuing our monster writing- focusing on how to begin a story/ introducing the stories problem. 
3. New spelling lists- Blend week 'an' family
4. Spelling test- leveled spelling program (sent home last week)
5. Science- Exploring water in our world/Unit wrap up
6. Social studies- What are the major geographical regions, landforms, and bodies of water in Saskatoon? 
7. Health- Continuing our work with size of the problem. Introducing the new pillar of the month (Kindness) and discussing what this looks like. 

Reminders: 

- Orange and Black day Thursday- please wear orange and black 

- No school Friday

October 24, 2019

Today was another busy day for the grade twos!

We started our day with ignite, our room hosted science experiments, we made galaxy jars using food coloring, canola oil and glitter.

After ignite we had music, we came back from music to do calendar and read a story before going to gym. In gym we are playing 4 corner soccer.

After gym we continued working on our monster art/math/writing project. We described the monsters we made using four of our senses. Check out some below:

Today in health we talked about the size of a problem and brainstormed tiny, little, medium, big and huge problems. We also brainstormed way to solve these. Check these out below:

October 23, 2019

We started our week by doing a fun word work activity to work on our reading/writing trick for the week, stretchy snake. Stretchy snake helps us stretch out a word to count letter sounds and identify each letter in the word. Scruffy the stuffed dog visited our room with some special bones. Students used bones with little mini pictures and magnifying glasses to identify the picture and use stretchy snake to sound out the word. Students wrote out all 12 of scruffy's bone words to help feed Scurffy.

On Monday we also played a place value game which helped us to identify place value in numbers. The game is called I have... Who has... Students read a card which says my number is ___ who has a number with _ in the tens place and _ in the ones place. The student with the correct number reads their card next.

On Tuesday we started a new writing/art/math project with a monster theme. We started this project by learning about adjectives and how we can use them in sentences to describe things. Students used a collection of monster pictures to choose one to describe using touch, sense, smell and sight.

In Math on Tuesday we learned how to build 3 digit numbers using base ten blocks. We worked in partners to practice this skill which will build up to us being able to write, build and expand 3 digit numbers. Check it out:

In the afternoon on Tuesday we pretended to be botanist. We learned that botanist are people who study plants and we used a cool plant website to research plants found in Saskatoon. We drew our plants and will be making these to add to our Saskatoon window.

Today we did writing about our favorite parts of the year so far for our time capsules using walking story templates. We added pictures and tried to use our word bank or stretchy snake to sound out our own words.

In math today we got number cards to draw out numbers using base ten block pictures. We are getting so good at this skill!

Today we continued working on our monster writing/art/math project by drawing our monsters using oil pastel. We will be doing some writing to go along with these pictures very soon and also some addition/subtraction math!

Today we also did a cool exploring liquids science experiment. We took a trip to the staff room to make ice cubes. later in the day we got our frozen solid ice cubes and used a hair dryer to melt them back into liquid! We recorded our results and then turned crayons into liquid to make some art for our classroom.

Reminders:

• Practice your spelling words!
• Halloween dance put on by parent council: TOMORROW 6-8pm (no drop offs)
• No school November 1 or November 11
• October 31 orange and black day / Pillars of care assembly 

Things that have gone home this week:

• New spelling words
• Picture day pictures

October 18, 2019

Today we 'flew' to Saskatoon. We took a flight on Miss.Cox airplanes and Miss.Cox was the pilot. Once we got to Saskatoon we looked out our new class window looking out to the Saskatoon landscape. We plan to keep adding to our window as we learn more about our prairie community. Take a look at our flight and our new window:

In science today we made a water pearl farm. Check to see how much water our water pearls have already observed and then check back Monday to see them fully grown. 

With our buddies we wrote stories. 

Reminders:

• Practice your spelling words!
• Halloween dance put on by parent council: October 24 6-8pm (no drop offs)
• No school November 1 or November 11
• October 31 orange and black day / Pillars of care assembly 

October 17, 2019

Hello everyone,

I hope that you had a restful and thankful long weekend. We are back and busy learning new things!

Yesterday we got introduced to our new classroom friends, the quiet critters! Quiet critters come and sit on our desk when we are working quietly and run away to their sound proof jar if we are too noisy. We used our quiet critters as inspiration for a writing assignment and we each named a critter and decided their interests for our quiet critter encyclopedia. Check them out:

We also got to explore the new Wonder Wall display which features a pumpkin inquiry project. Check out what we see, think and wonder....

Today we got a new student in our room... Welcome Zainab! 

We also began making a display of Saskatoon's landscape which we will be adding to throughout our study of this prairie community. Tomorrow we take 'Miss.Cox airlines' to 'fly' (pretend fly) to Saskatoon. In science we compared the absorbency of different materials. Check out this fun, educational experiment: 

To end our day we did word work with our spelling sound for the week 'SH'. We used letter tiles i,s,o,a,h,t and e to make some of our spelling words ex. turning ship into shop. We also tried to make as many words as possible out of the tiles. After this we read through a story about Sharon the Shark. Check these out and see if you can find any we missed! 

Reminders: 

Halloween dance put on by parent council: October 24 6-8pm (no drop offs)

October 31 orange and black day / Pillars of care assembly 

No school November 1 or November 11

What to expect next week (October 16- 18)

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are enjoying your long weekend. Here is a look at our week to come:

October 16th is crazy hair day. Where your craziest hair style!

Math- We will be continuing our work with place value, learning how to create numbers using based ten blocks.
Language Arts- We will be working on walking stories using our robot writing/spelling from last week. Students will get a new word list, this list will be from the phonetic spelling program.
Social studies- Identifying/labelling our 3 communities of study.
Science- States of matter- melting/freezing liquids. Using water to demonstrate freezing/melting and make predictions about how long these processes will take.
Health- Personal space

Happy Thanksgiving!

- Miss.Cox

October 10, 2019

Yesterday we made place value robots using base ten blocks. After we designed our robots, we recorded how many hundreds, tens and ones block we used and then how many blocks all together.
After we did our robot math, we began robot writing. Making basic sentences independently by counting letter sounds and identifying which letter we hear. Check them out:

In the afternoon we made Fall pumpkins using oil pastel. We were focusing on perspective as well as techniques for working with oil pastels (ex.layering, blending). Check out our pumpkins:

Today we had our thanksgiving snack, we walked into our room to discover it had been decorated! Each of us got a special leaf with a note from Miss.Cox about why she is thankful for us and a snack. We took turns sharing why we were thankful for one another. 

After thanksgiving snack we met with our buddies to make hand turkeys. Our buddies helped us spell things which we are thankful for. Check them out:

After buddies we did some thanksgiving writing. We used a special resource to help us each create 5 I am thankful for... sentences. 

After our writing, we learned a fun new math game. We are practicing reading numbers from a place value chart. Miss.Cox puts up a number and we raise our hand to answer, if we get it correct we take a shot on net! If we talk out of turn, we lose a point. We are getting very good at this! 

To end our busy day, we did a science experiment. We tested 3 liquids to see which were able to mix together. We discovered that oil cannot mix with other liquids. 

Going home: 

Magnetic thanksgiving hand turkeys for your fridge!

Reminders: No school Friday, Monday or Tuesday

Have a wonderful long weekend, I will post back tomorrow to update you on our week ahead! 

- Miss.cox

October 8, 2019

What a busy week so far! I hope that everyone is staying warm.

Yesterday we started two new sets of centers.

In language arts we have started word work centers for 30 minutes a day, practicing making words. These centers are made just for us, so we are each working on our own skills depending on our strengths and areas of growth. Some of us are working on letter recognition/letter sounds. Others on rhyming words and blends and then some of us are working on creating juicy words and challenging one another to make as many words as possible.

In Math we have started place value centers. Students are given a set of objects to count using groups of tens and remaining ones. They then record how many ten, ones and the total number using a place value chart.

This week in health we have been creating our zones of regulation tool kits, brainstorming how to maintain a green zone even when we start to slip into yellow, blue or red zone. We had some excellent ideas for our tool kits and we plan to use these to help us remain calm, focused and ready to learn at all times.

Today we also had our spelling test, these are graded and will be sent home tomorrow. We will take a week off of spelling words to enjoy our thanksgiving weekend with family and begin again next Monday.

Going home:
- Lunchroom rules

Reminders:
- Fun lunch orders due Oct.11
- No school Friday (Oct.11) , Monday (14) or Tuesday (15)
- Please return home reading daily if participating in leveled book program
- Please return time capsules if not already handed in

Have a nice, snowy evening,

Miss.Cox :)

Thanksgiving Snack

Hello everyone,

Another quick memo- students have been earning a special event for our classroom. On Thursday I am planning to bring in a healthy snack for students so that we can sit together and share what we are thankful for/why we are thankful for each member of our room. This goes along with our continued effort to build a strong classroom community.

As per the CBE healthy snack policy, all snacks provided will be healthy/nutritious. I am planning to bring:

• Bananas, apples, oranges
• Popcorn
• Juice 

Please let me know if your child has allergies related to any of these items that I should be aware of or if you do not want your child to take part in eating this snack. 

Thank you and have an excellent weekend, 

Miss.Cox

October 4, 2019

Today was another great day for the grade 2's of room 4!

We started our day with calendar and an All About Me presentation by Sage. Then we wrote our important thing about... pages.

In gym we did movement centers with Mr.Lancee and Mr.Beechey's class.

After gym our buddies helped us do a quiz about patterning on mathletics. Miss.Cox will be using this data to determine if we are ready to move onto the next unit.

After buddies we made Oobleck which is a unique substance that changes from solid to liquid and vice versa. We had a lot of fun playing with this and did a wonderful job caring for place by cleaning up.

We finished our day reading the story, Ada Twist Scientist and brainstorming questions we were curious about. Some of these questions were:
- How does gas make cars run?
- Which food group does water belong to?
- How is electricity work?

What to expect next week:
- In math: either moving onto place value or continuing our work with patterns (will be determined based on quiz results)
- In language arts: focus on adjectives/ descriptive beginnings to stories/ Character development. Beginning word work centers. New spelling words (phonics week)
- In social studies: finishing up Me on the Map booklets and moving into our prairie community study.
- In science: Exploring liquids- focus on mixing liquids
- In health- working with our pillar of the month: respect
- In art- continuing our work with drawing eyes

Reminders: 
Picture day is Monday :)

Check out our scientists, creating and experimenting with their Oobleck-

October 3, 2019

What an awesome day! Today was are hardest working and best behavior day yet. Everyone should be proud.

We started our day with ignite and came back to head off to music. After music, students came back and we read a book with an interesting twist on the classic 3 little pigs story. Then we went to gym.

After gym we drew pictures and used words to tell the story of the 3 little pigs ourselves. We focused on identifying the beginning, middle and end. This took us all the way to lunch and we were so on task the entire time.

After lunch students did silent reading and worked on their city, province and country pages from their Me in the World booklets. Next we made repeating and growing patterns to practice for our quiz tomorrow.

Can you identify which patterns are repeating and which are growing?

Going home tonight:
- Fun lunch forms

Reminders:
- Time capsule returns
- All students now have home reading folders, I am switching those returned daily for new books.

October Calendar

Important dates:
- October 7, Picture Day
- October 11,14,15 No school for students
- October 16, Crazy hair games
- October 17, Fun lunch
- October 24, Halloween Dance
- October 31, Orange and black day and Pillars of care assembly
- November 1, No school for students

Tuesday October 1, 2019

Happy October!

What a great start to a new month. Today Mina presented his All About Me Poster and we wrote our important thing about Mina pages. After, we had our first bi-weekly basic facts assessment. In gym today we did movement centers. After gym we journaled about our new Pillar of the month: Care for respect and wrote both what respect means to us and how we can show respect. Before lunch we played letter sound bingo to help us practice our letter sounds. After lunch we had silent reading and science water centers. We are exploring water shape, sounds, feeling and smell. We also watched a time lapse video of water freezing and melting. To end our day we had music.

Going Home: 

- New spelling words/spelling marks

- October Calendar

- 2 other notices

Reminders: 

- Picture day next Monday

- RETURN time capsules and bring home reading DAILY if participating in leveled book program

Check out room 4's scientists below!