October 28th- October 31st

We have finished up another exciting week of learning!

In our math work, we have been learning how to sort objects using 2 attributes (colour and shape, size and shape...). We learned how to use a chart to help us organize our thinking when sorting. Here is the rubric we created together which shows the criteria we are looking for within sorting tasks. Ask me to show you how I can sort items at home using 2 attributes.



We continued to learn more about the community of Meteghan, Nova Scotia as we delved into the history of the Acadians. The students were very engaged to learn more about the story of the Acadians and are discovering how the past plays a large role in shaping communities. We used sketchnoting to represent our learning.





We also learned about the importance of the editing stage in our written work. The students did a great job creating an editing checklist and then used that checklist to find and correct errors in their potion procedural writing task. We are continuing to reinforce the importance of effectively and accurately communicating our written ideas, legibility was an important part of this discussion and is also part of the Grade 2 Language Arts curriculum. Ask me to tell you about what we need to check and correct when I am editing my writing.

Grade 2 Empathy Project! Supplies Needed!

We will be engaging in an empathy project where we will be creating calming bottles and sensory bags. If you can donate any of the following supplies to this project, we will greatly appreciate it:
-water beads
-shaving foam
-heavy duty ziploc bags - size large
-clear, plastic water bottles
-glitter

Here is a photo of what the calming bottles look like:




Next weeks spelling words:
black, blue, green, red, yellow, white, go, goes, big, all

Book Orders:
Scholastic Book Orders went home with the students on Thursday. Orders are due by Nov. 8th. There is an option to pay online.

October 21st- October 25th

This past week we were busy applying the design process to our writing by creating our own potions. These potions were inspired by the Formula 86 Recipe from our read aloud novel, The Witches.

Through this process we learned the importance of using descriptive and sequencing language in our writing.

We began with annotating a recipe to look for key words and important information that we need to include in our recipes. From here we were able to create criteria for our potions. Take a look at the criteria we came up with:

We used this criteria as a guide when writing our potions. Collaboration was key to this process as we shared our ideas and had the opportunity to receive feedback from one another on what we can do to improve our work. 

Halloween – October 31^st

Students are welcome to dress up for Halloween on October 31^st. Please ensure costumes do not include masks, have weapons, or be anything that might scare our kindergarten students. On Halloween we keep to routines and learning as usual. Please ensure that students do not wear masks, have weapons or wear costumes that might scare our kindergarteners. If you would like to send in special classroom treats on this day, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher first to ensure allergies etc are considered.

Headphones

Students are beginning to use technology to enhance the learning in our classroom. We are asking students to bring in a personal set of headphones to use during this time. These headphones will remain at the school and will be sent home at the end of the school year.

Next week's Spelling Words:

are, with, your, for, here, look, make, do, so, into

October 15th- October 18th

This week we learned more about the design thinking process in our scientific explorations around Buoyancy and Boats.

We discovered the different stages of this process. The first being empathy, where we need to listen and put ourselves in the shoes of another person as we experience what they experience. We used empathy maps as a way to demonstrate our understanding of life as a fisherman based on our learning around the community of Meteghan, N.S.

This led to the next step of identifying a problem based on the needs of the person we were thinking about in the first step. We posed the challenge of "how might I create a prototype of a boat that moves?"

From here we created and developed our ideas to solve this problem. Students have come up with all sorts of ways to help their boats move through water such as using wind and water power. It will be exciting to see their ideas evolve as they enter the building stage of design thinking.


On Friday October 18^th, students split into our family house groups consisting of kindergarten to grade 6 students. This week, each group introduced our school-wide wellness goal for the year  which was to increase empathy. Ask your child what they learned about empathy in their family group.

Additional Information Items: 

Popcorn orders went home today for those who ordered popcorn.

Please remember to SIGN the FEEDBACK FRIDAY homework to acknowledge that you have taken a look at your child's hard work. 

Next week's spelling list:
like, have, has, he, she, they, him, her, of, saw

On Wednesday, October 23 we have another Library Book Truck visit.  Students are reminded to submit their yellow forms to the library so they can take advantage of this experience. Yellow forms were sent home this past week to those students who have not yet returned the form. Also, a gentle reminder to please bring in the CPL library books that they borrowed. There is a box in our school learning commons where they can drop off the books.

Remembrance Day Ceremony – Friday, November 8^th – 10:30 a.m.

We invite our Ron Southern Families and community to join us at our Remembrance Day ceremony. We also invite any of our families who have served in the military past and present to proudly wear their uniforms to the ceremony. This includes our cadets and reservists.

October 7th -October 11th

This week we have been focused on the comprehension strategy of asking questions which is a great way to gather information to understand more. We learned that there are key words that are utilized when asking questions such as, but not limited to, who, what, when, where, why and how. Students utilized this skill to dig for information around the history of the Acadians in Nova Scotia. 


We also continued our scientific explorations by conducting an experiment to understand the concept of density. We learned that liquids have different densities. In our experiment corn syrup was the most dense liquid and baby oil was the least dense liquid. 





The following is a list of spelling words for the upcoming week. These are high frequency words that students will be expected to edit for and spell correctly in their writing. Spelling tests will be first thing on Friday morning.

and, can, little, said, the, to, we, you, my, I.


Please note: 

Tuesday, October 15th is PHOTO DAY

Wednesday is our day for HOME READING EXCHANGE. Please ensure your child brings his/her SMILE folder with their books on Wednesdays.

Friday is our day for students to bring in the Library Books for exchange.