Halloween!!

Wow!! I'm amazed at how great the students were today! Sometimes Halloween can bring out the super sillies and students can have a hard time doing or thinking about anything other than the festivities to come. Today the students in Room 106 were so well behaved (all day!!) and worked hard on their learning too! We started doing some storytelling/writing and thought we'd mix it up with some spooky characters and scary settings to keep everyone on their toes! Students decided who their main character will be, what time of day the story is happening, and where it will take place. Tomorrow we will continue to work on developing an appropriate problem for our story that the main character is having. This is in connection to our work in guided reading on our comprehension. We are focusing on the retelling strategy to ensure we understand the story elements

This afternoon after our fun costume parade, we once again paired Math and Art up! We reviewed the concepts of symmetry and worked to create symmetrical jack-o-lanterns. Students also explored the artistic concepts of positive and negative space. They had to draw half of a pumpkin shape, an eye and a mouth to cut out. It was more difficult than it seems as they had to cut their shapes out very carefully to glue them onto the other side of the pumpkin so that both sides were the same. The kids persevered despite the difficulty and finished the job. Here are a few examples.

October 28

Check out our Optical Illusion art! I love how Math and Art can be so connected and interwoven. The primary reason I chose this task was to practice identifying and creating 2 dimensional shapes. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how many other math, art and fine motor skills were also practiced by doing this project. Students had to create vertical lines that were spaced 2 cm apart from one another (that proved to be the most complicated part of this assignment and we did it in short steps!) It helped me to realize that we really need to practice using rulers to draw straight lines and skip count by 2's. We also briefly discussed contrasting colours and patterns to help our shapes pop out. It took a few art classes to complete them but the class loved doing them and it is so nice to have our classroom walls covered in bright and bold creations.

October 26

We Love Evanston!!

Room 106 has spent some time this week talking about the amazing neighbourhood of Evanston in our exploration of different communities that we are a part of! The students were so excited to check out Evanston on Google maps to see familiar areas and how the streets are all interconnected. Then we attempted to use the google maps webpage to access Google Earth (we are just waiting for the Google Earth application to be installed on our computers). What we discovered was that the website was a tad outdated, in fact our school was just a big empty field! It was a great way for the students to see how quickly a community can change. The aerial view allowed us to see important landmarks in the community and services that make life a bit more enjoyable for the residents of this awesome neighbourhood.

Today, the class wrote about what they like the most about living in Evanston- here are just a few of their entries:
"My favourite thing about living in Evanston is that there are lots of shops nearby"- Ryker
"I love living in Evanston because there is a new school close to us that I can learn at"- Sisi
"The thing I like the most about Evanston is all my friendly neighbours"- Morgan
"Living in Evanston is good because there is a lot of fresh air and nature"- Manav
"I like Evanston because there are playgrounds"- Malalai


We will continue to look at different types of maps and discuss how the big community -City of Calgary is made up of many smaller communities like Evanston. Looking at ways that Calgary is unique and special will also be the focus for the next little while. Students will see how the community was first established and will learn about some key factors that have shaped the city.

Oct. 24

Today we started new word work groups! We are so lucky in that our administration team- Mr. Dyck and Mrs. Tuttle, our resource teacher- Mrs. Rempel, and a few education assistants -Mrs. Brewster and Mrs. Saidi, will be working with the Grade 2 teachers in small groups to target specific spelling and vowel patterns. These groups will continue for the next 6 weeks to allow for significant growth in both reading and writing.

Here's what the groups are focused on:
Mrs. Rempel and Ms. Saidi- Letter recognition and sounds
Mrs. Sayani- Initial and Final Consonants, Blends (bl, gr etc) and Digraphs (th, ch etc)
Mrs. Jordan- Short Vowels
Mrs. Stewart- Affricates (dr, j, tr)
Mr. Dyck, Mrs. Tuttle, and Mrs. Brewster- Final consonant blends, digraphs and R controlled vowels

Tomorrow is Picture Day! We will be doing individual photos as well as a class picture. If you have any specific requests for the photographer or myself to help make sure the pictures go the way you would like, just let me know and I will do my best.

Post from Friday! Oops

I'm so sorry that this post is way overdue! I thought I had pressed publish for my blog on Friday but apparently I did not. Sorry! I'm still growing in my technology skills. We had a really exciting Friday!  We started on the Empathize phase of the Design Thinking Process for our playground design project. We welcomed three experts into our class that we had the chance to learn about and interview.  We welcomed Margie, who is one of our school council members that helps with the fundraising of our playground, Tanya, who is the representative for Blue Imp Playground Manufacturing, and Mr. Dyck, who is our school principal. Each expert provided us with a different perspective on the process of planning and building our playground. 

Margie provided us with the money perspective and some questions we had for her were:

• Can we help raise money?
• Can we raise money by doing something like a Terry Fox Run? 
• Can we sell cards at Christmas?

With Tanya, we were interested in finding out more about the design process and materials of our future playground. Some questions we had were:

• What type of materials are best for playgrounds in Canada?
• How much space would we need for a playground?
• Are the pieces of equipment different in a city park than a CBE school. 

Our focus with Mr. Dyck was on the safety of our school and students when designing a playground. Some of our questions were:

• Is there someone who checks the equipment and what do they check?
• What equipment is too dangerous?
• How will you help us keep safe?

Our next phase will be starting to design and plan the parts of our playground that we want at Ken Taylor School. Stay tuned...

Coming Up:

• Mrs. Jordan away Tuesday morning at a Learning Leader meeting. 
• Photo Day Tuesday (ours will be in the afternoon when I am back)

Reading Comprehension Strategy

What happened in your story?
For the past few days we have been working on the reading comprehension strategy of "Retelling the story". This is proving to be quite difficult for many of us so we will be slowing it down and working through it together. Students can retell when they are reading a fictional text at their independent reading level, which they all are with their guided reading books. Retelling helps readers to think about what is happening in the story and to assess their and others' understanding of the story. It is important to not recall and list every detail that happens in the story but rather the main, important events. We have started with the framework of a High 5 Story Recall to help them remember what to include. There are also words that we can start our sentences with to make sure we don't repeatedly say "and then" "and then". Here is the visual that we will be using for the next little bit while we practice this strategy.

Beginning readers can just use the First (beginning), Next (middle), and Then (ending) sentence prompts to get started as it can be overwhelming to do more than that. As students are reading with Raz kids and their Learning Commons books they could practice retelling out loud in words or writing a response journal.

3D Shapes

In Math we have been exploring 3D shapes and looking at what 2D shapes can be found within 3D shapes. When you really start looking, you can find both 2D and 3D shapes EVERYWHERE!! Check out your house and your neighbourhood to see if you can find them! The vocabulary we are using for 2D shapes is that they have "sides" and "vertices" (vertex if there is just one-they will learn about angles in later grades). 3D shapes have "edges", "faces" (also known as surfaces) and "vertices". Today we did a few different stations to help us better understand these shapes and practice identifying the differences between them. We used playdoh, toothpicks and marshmellows, and pictures of real things in our world to sort into groups. 

A Cone! 

 

Books!

Yay! We are finally getting some of those beautiful brand new books into our reading hands!! So this week we have started our guided reading in the classroom. Students are working with books at their instructional level (just a bit more challenging for them) so that they can practice and use their strategies that they are working on in our small groups. We also visited the learning commons and started our book exchange. Students brought home books in large ziploc bags- these are their learning commons books. While I encourage students to choose books that they can read independently, I also know that many like to pick books that they can listen to or work on with their families- it is their choice. They can borrow these books for one week and then they need to return them or renew them if they need a bit longer. Every Thursday from 11:00-11:30 we will go to the learning commons to get new books. If children are done with their books earlier than Thursdays, they can bring them back to the classroom to be stored until our Library time.

With that being said, this week is an abnormality. The grade 1's are going on a field trip and asked us to switch with them so that they don't miss their block. We will go to the library tomorrow not Thursday this week. If there are any changes like this, I will try to give you advanced notice.

Reminder
This Friday is an early dismissal Friday and we dismiss at 11:30. If you have different pick up arrangements for these days would you please let me know ahead of time so that I can ensure your child is safe and goes with who they are supposed to.

Also Thursday and Friday are Twoonie Treat Days! If you bring $2 then you can get a bag of popcorn!
Thanks!!!

Incredible Brain Power!

Ask me about what the parts of my brain do for me.

We have spent some time recently learning about our amazing brains! After reading the book "Your Fantastic Elastic Brain- stretch it, shape it" we explored the different parts of our brain and how our brain makes us who we are and controls various parts of our bodies. It's a truly incredible organ!

 

Students drew a brain and labeled their pictures like scientists.

Here are some examples

As a class we discussed how your brain can be stretched and changed as you learn new things.  We were excited to find out that the best way to create connections and grow faster is to make mistakes. Over the next few weeks we will continue to explore how our brain works and what we can do to make it stronger and more stretchy!

Blue Day tomorrow

As a school we are going to have a Blue Jays Team Spirit day tomorrow (October 14th) to show our support for our only Canadian team in Major League Baseball as they compete in the American League Championship Series starting tomorrow.

Yummy popcorn!! Send toonies next Thursday or Friday with your child if they like popcorn!

As a class we are really working on giving and receiving constructive but positive feedback. Today we read and discussed this book "Thanks for the Feedback". Some students (and adults too) have a hard time receiving feedback or criticism and take it very personally or get very defensive about it. This is partly due to how the person gives it as well as the intention of the criticism.

In this book, RJ learns that feedback is information that is given to you that can help you improve and grow. In our classroom we will be providing each other with positive compliments and constructive criticism regularly so that we can practice both giving and receiving advice to help us to always improve and move forward. This will help students be supportive and helpful to each other and learn from one another. It's often easier to hear feedback from a peer than an adult, teacher or parent. We started with a simple 2 stars and a wish  feedback loop after doing "read to someone" today and students also examined each others writing to ensure they each had the proper capitalization and punctuation.

Wow! What a busy and fast day we had today! There have been some exciting changes to our classroom schedule and the class adapted so quickly today to the new changes.  Our school is now lucky enough to have a gym specialist (Mrs. Fraser) who will be planning and teaching gym as Mrs. Sayani and I support her. In order for this to happen, our schedule had to be modified significantly. Although, students have gotten familiar with our previous routines and it's hard to switch things upside down- these changes will actually be for the better and I am certain it won't be long before this schedule is second nature to them.

We also started our Word Work flexible groupings today. Students will be working in one of 4 groups focusing on vowel pattern spelling rules which will support their writing development. In addition to their improved spelling, we anticipate that the extra practice and knowledge of word patterns will also improve their decoding skills in reading. Your child may be working with a different grade 2 teacher as well as students from the other classrooms which is a great opportunity to build more positive relationships within our school.

"Without change, there would be no butterflies" 

Upcoming Events and Important Info

Community Walk- Unfortunately we don't have enough volunteers to go on our second community walk tomorrow. It also sounds like the weather may not be as nice as it was on Monday so we will look at rescheduling this walk for a later date. 

Raz-Kids- Your child should have brought home a letter about Raz Kids today with their specific login password and information on how to access the site.  This program will be our home reading program until our school receives and organizes all of our other books. Students should be able to access books on their profile that are at their appropriate reading level. Some of these levels may be adjusted in the upcoming weeks as our in class guided reading groups are coordinated. 

Book Fair- As you may already know, we have a Scholastic Book Fair at our school this week. Tomorrow the class will get a chance to visit the Learning Commons and look at what is available to buy and hear a book talk from our library assitant- Mrs. Brock. The students will not be able to buy anything on Wednesday but if they bring money on Thursday they will be able to go down and make their purchases. The Book Fair will be open on Thursday evening and Friday morning as well during parent interviews so if you would like to help your child choose what they can purchase this would be a great time. 50% of the profits from the Book Fair come back to our school in new books!

Parent Interviews-Parent-teacher conferences are this Thursday (Oct. 6th) evening and Friday morning. If you haven't had a chance to schedule a time you can do so online under your my CBE account. It looks like Thursday evening is getting fairly full- if you are unable to meet with me on Thursday or Friday, please let me know and we can arrange a different time. You can contact me at ljstewart@cbe.ab.ca or by calling 403-817-3504. 

No School- There is no school on Friday, October 7th because of parent conferences and Monday, October 10th because of the Thanksgiving holiday. 

What a fabulous community walk we had today! The weather was perfect- not too hot but not cold either! We didn't go too far but it was nice to experience the fresh air and enjoy the beautiful fall colours on our walk. When we arrived at the local park (across the street and down a bit from the school), students worked on sketching the parts of the park in their visual journals. They specifically looked at what 2D and 3D shapes they noticed. Students worked to sketch the shapes that made up a small section of the park. For example, if they were sketching the monkey bars- there would be 4 cylinders to represent the poles holding up the monkey bars, a long cylinder across the top and then 7 rounded shapes that students hang onto to swing. We practiced labelling our pictures to make sure our audience knows what our sketches are.

 A great homework extension would be examine and explore your house and community area to find 2D shapes and 3D shapes around you- they are everywhere!! This will help students discover why shape is important in our daily lives and it will give them practice with identifying and naming them.


This morning we had a really great conversation to spark our inquiry project! As a class we brainstormed what questions have to be asked and answered before the building of a playground can be done. I was amazed at how deeply students were able to think about the steps in the building process. There are many issues that need to be discussed and decided on before and during the design process. Here are a few questions that the class came up with:

"What materials will be used to build the park"- Fofo
"Who all will use this park and how old are they"- Ryker
"What will be in the park to do?" -Ava
"How will we make sure it is safe for people to use" Peyton
"Why is a park important to the school and community" -Ethan
"Where will the park go and how big will it be?" Eddie and Arash
"How much money will it cost to build and how will we get that money?" Priscilla and Morgan

This was just a start to our project but everyone had such great discussions about the amount of decisions that go into a park. I can't wait to see where this inquiry leads us!