Why don't we have lockers anymore?

The new lockers that have been installed are bigger than the old ones and so there is not room for as many. For every 5 lockers that were removed, 4 were put in. Today in math we used tallies to count how many groups of 4 lockers there are in the hall. Answers ranged from the mid-30s to the low 50's! (There are a total of 190 lockers in the school.)

Lucky for us we have a hooks and shelving in our classroom so students have a place to keep all of their things. Now that boots are being kept in the classroom, it might be a good idea to keep an extra pair of socks in the bottom of the backpack (in addition to the bag of spare clothing which is now kept in students' desks).

Stouffville Spirit!

Today we were fortunate to have 3 members of the Stouffville Spirit hockey team in our class to help out. Students had a chance to read their levelled books to them. These volunteers also helped students with their writing. It was an exciting morning and students were sad to see them go!

Optimism in January

 

Monday we were busy preparing for the Optimism assembly on Tuesday. We read a familiar book called The Blue Day Book and talked about what we can do when we're having a "blue day" to try to feel better. Some ideas were: Dance like nobody's watching! Read a book! Smile! Next we watched "Never fully dressed without a smile" on youtube which got the students really excited about optimism, the song and making their optimism posters.

On Tuesday we presented our dance (posters in hand) to the "Never fully dressed without a smile song". Students had a great time and I was VERY impressed with their positive energy.

We have also been learning about optimism from a book called The Pout Pout Fish. There's a great sung version of this book on youtube if you'd like to have a look. Students had their picture taken with their best pouty face and wrote about what makes them feel like the pout pout fish.

Do Foxes Hibernate?

 

In Science, both grade ones and two's are learning about the adaptations of animals in response to seasonal changes. Our poem for this week sparked some great debate around which animals hibernate, which do not and what happens if you wake a sleeping bear!

Guess the Covered Word

chubby little snowman
had a nose.
Along came a
and what do you suppose?
That hungry little ,
looking for some lunch,
ate the carrot nose....
nibble, nibble,
CRUNCH!

 

Most mornings start with a "shared reading" poem. It is a poem that we read all week, each day learning something new from our reading. When we play Guess the Covered Word, students are learning great skills that they can use when reading independently. They read the poem and then get to a missing word. As they read, ideas for the missing word will pop into their head. They have to ask themselves, "Does that word sound right there?" and "Does that make sense?". After we take a few guesses, we start to slowly uncover the word from left to right. Now they have to put this visual information (the letters and sounds in the word) together with their guesses and find one that looks right, sounds right and makes sense!

Sorting Shapes

In math, we have begun sorting 2-dimensional figures. We have found many different ways to sort: by colour, shape, size, number of sides, number of "corners" or vertices. We made an interesting observation when we counted the number of sides and the number of corners on each shape.

At home, you could have your child create all of the 2-D figures that he/she can using whatever building materials you have. (e.g., straws and plastercine, toothpicks and marshmallows, popsicle sticks and glue). Talk about how many sides each shape has and (for grade 2's) how many corners or vertices each shape has.

Some shapes to try: triangle, square, rectangle... some more for grade 2's: pentagon, hexagon, octagon, quadrilateral (any four-sided shape like a square, rhombus, trapezoid, etc.)

"Choice" Time

If you're looking for a good conversation starter after school, you could ask, "What did you do during choice time today?". Some students will talk about a map they are working on for their Lego movie. Others will talk about making a book, drawing on the Smart Board to music (or making up a waiting list to draw on the Smart Board and watching a timer while they wait!), mailing a letter to a friend, or making a costume for their next play.

This is a time of day (which happens most days) where students get to direct their own learning. Great learning and interesting projects come out of this time. Students get to explore areas of interest and they get to "play" with their peers. I put "play" in quotations because it is a special kind of play known as "guided play". Through selection of materials, demonstrations and suggestions, I help to guide students in their play to maximize learning opportunities.

A lot of their oral language development (which is required in order for more complex writing to occur in older grades), happens during this time. It is really important for students to talk to each other, to collaborate and to "write" stories by talking them out through play.

Try this at home: The next time your child is playing pretend (e.g., Lego, dress up), ask them to tell you the story or just listen in on the play and write down what they say. You will be amazed by their descriptive "writing" skills. Let's remember that the hardest part of learning to write is thinking up the ideas and the words.