Room on the Broom

Students enjoyed a great story called "Room on the Broom". It is a repetitive story about a witch who keeps letting more and more people/animals onto her broom. We made our own broom and students thought about who would like to ride on the witch's broom.

Ask your child what/who he/she drew and wrote about.

Also ask who was the big muddy monster at the end of the book...

Wreck n' wreck? No... rekenrek

 

If your child has been talking about math class at home, they have probably been doing a good job of confusing you! We have been working with a counting tool at school, similar to an abacus, called a rekenrek. Grade 1's were asked to make theirs to 50 and grade 2's to 100, although many students went well past the minimum. The construction of this counting tool helped students to understand counting by 10's. (It is one thing to say, "10, 20, 30, ..., and it is another to understand what that means.)

The one pictured here has 10 rows of 10 beads. Each row consists of 5 beads in one colour and the next five beads in the second colour. The two colours help students think about numbers in parts. For example, in the picture on the right, you can see that 7 is made up of 5 and 2 more or that 7 and 3 more makes 10.

Some students have been using their rekenreks while playing book store to help add up the prices of the different books and figure out the total amount owed. They have pretend money to use, although some of them have decided to make their own credit card!

At home, look for opportunities to think about and compare numbers. Your child will probably enjoy sorting all that Hallowe'en candy, counting each type and comparing which one they have more of. You can ask: How many chocolate bars did you get? How many suckers did you get? Do you have more chocolate bars or more suckers?

How many days until Hallowe'en?

 

This question is harder than it sounds! First students had to find today's date on the blackboard and read it, "October 24th". Next, they had to look at the numbers on the calendar and figure out where they would find the number 24. They also had to find out that Hallowe'en is on "October 31st". Then they had the challenge of counting on from 24 to 31, remembering not to count the 24 and being sure not to skip any days or count the same day twice. Many students were able to figure out that Hallowe'en is 7 days away. Some also noticed that today is Friday and Hallowe'en will be on a Friday too. Our work with calendars will be ongoing throughout the year.

At home, try to involve your children with your family calendar as much as possible. Have them write on the family calendar, get them their own special calendar or use the calendar in the agenda. Regularly read the date and have countdowns to special days like birthdays, holidays or special outings. Notice the order of the months in a year and (grade 2's) notice how many days are in a week and how many months are in a year.

Sharing Time and the Talking Monster

This is our "talking monster". We use it to help identify whose turn it is to speak. If you are holding the talking monster, it is your turn to share and the rest of us are looking at you, listening and waiting our turn to respond. We use it at different times throughout the day, but it is especially useful during "sharing time".

Each morning, a few (and sometimes more than a few!) students share their learning with the class. This is different from Show and Tell. Here are some examples of what sharing might look like:

• Read something that you have written
• Read a section of a book aloud
• Share something interesting that you learned (e.g., when reading a book)
• Show something that you have made
• Explain something that you figured out
• Share a question that you have or a problem that you were unable to solve

This can be sharing of learning done at school or at home. The purpose is for students to feel proud of their learning, for students to learn from each other and for students to practice their oral communication skills.

We are keeping track of how many sharing turns everyone has and encouraging those with fewer tallies to share more often.

A Creature in our Classroom

While listening to the poem "A Creature in the Classroom" by Jack Prelutsky, students visualized what they thought the creature might look like. Visualization is a strategy that can help students to comprehend a story that they read or hear.

Next students made their creature. They will be asked to describe their creature. We are learning what describe means and we are practicing describing familiar things (e.g., our clothing). Tomorrow we will describe our favourite food and also describe some of the living things we find outside.

Ask your child to describe for you what his/her creature looks like.

Jumping Over Pumpkins!

Ask your child what he/she did in gym class today... We had a variety of relay races involving the gourds that have been generously donated. Students hopped over them, ran around them, carried them without using their hands and passed them over their head and through their legs. Students had a great time and got a lot of exercise!

You did what? Really? When? Where? With who?

In writing, we have been using some of the 5W's to help add detail. On Mondays, (or if Monday is a holiday, then on Tuesdays) students talk about and write about their weekend. It is a great opportunity to practice writing without struggling to come up with the ideas. Using the organizer you see here, students are required to give details about their weekend.

At home, you could support your child by having a conversation at the end of the weekend about what you did. It is a great chance to remember fun times and also to remind your child of some of the details of his/her weekend that he/she may have forgotten about already!

We have started to use this organizer to give an oral recount of the weekend. Next, we will be putting these ideas together to write a recount in proper sentence format. Some students are expected to write one sentence, while others are expected to write several detailed sentences. Everyone is working at their own pace, trying to improve each day.

Please look at me when I'm talking to you.

 

Do you ever find yourself saying that? Well, we are working on it. Part of the Oral Communication (Language) curriculum includes active listening. When students are listening actively, they are looking at the person who is talking to them. They are waiting their turn to share and trying hard not to interrupt. At an appropriate time, they are responding with a comment or question.

Every morning when students come in, they are given a topic to discuss with a partner. Sometimes it is a topic of interest like what they did on the weekend or their favourite sport. Other times it is a topic related to a book we will be reading or to what we are learning in another subject. This is an opportunity for students to practice their active listening in a conversation with a peer.

At home you can support your child by being mindful during your conversations. Model good eye contact and respond with a comment or question. Be consistent in your expectations about taking turns speaking in a conversation.

What are we learning in math?

Symmetry is all around us. The towers we are building, the pictures we are drawing with miras, the shapes we are tracing, the paper we are folding are all examples of symmetry. All students are recognizing the symmetry and grade twos are also drawing lines of symmetry.

We have also been learning about mass. Students have been exploring the relative mass of a variety of objects using a balance scale. Grade ones are describing which object is heavier or lighter. Grade twos are counting how many cubes it takes to balance an object and ordering a group of objects from lightest to heaviest.

As well, we have been working with numbers in words. Through simple printing practice and also games like memory, go fish and hopscotch, students are learning how to read and write numbers in words. (Grade ones to 10 and grade twos to 20)