Animal experts and pattern pros

Highlights

This week we are finishing up our family traditions project with our final good copy of writing. The grade 1's are writing using their neatest printing and the grade 2's are typing up their writing on the computer. We are focusing on using our graphic organizer plans to make sure we include all 5 W's plus How into our final piece of writing. When our writing is finished we will be making a family traditions display in the hallway for the whole school to enjoy!

In math we have started some pattern centers. This is our chance to practice our pattern skills and to become really confident with patterns before we have our "show what you know" assessment. We will be working on these centers for the next few weeks. The centers are: shape patterns, animal patterns, music patterns, action patterns, design patterns, and bead patterns. Ms. Boyer will be watching to see how well we can create different types of patterns, record our work in our journals, and translate patterns using letters. Here are a few examples from the shapes pattern center.


This afternoon we started working on a new animal project in small groups. We are making animal guessing games! Creating these games in groups is giving us a chance to practice our research skills with some support before we begin our own animal research projects. Here are the instructions we are following for this project:

When our posters are finished we will be inviting other classes to come try our games. 

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday February 4 - Music Field Trip (leaving the school at 12:15, returning at 3:00)
Wednesday February 5 - Winter Walk Day (please dress for outdoor activities)
Thursday February 6 - Fun Lunch

Signs of Animals

Highlights

Today we continued our study of local animals by learning about the types of signs animals leave behind. We brainstormed some of the animal clues we have observed such as tracks, scat (poop), fur, markings, sightings, carrion (animal bits and blood), and rubbed tree bark.  We also read a great story about animal clues called "In The Snow: Who's Been Here?" by Lindsay Barrett George.

After our snack, Mrs. Hamby shared some photos of animal clues she found on her walk yesterday and up at her family farm. We took turns trying to guess what animal would have left those clues. Then we got ready to go outside to look for our own animal clues in the Whispering Woods. We worked in groups of 3 or 4 and recorded our findings by taking photos and marking the locations of the evidence on a map.  Next week will be working on a mural of our findings.

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday January 28: Twin or Triplet Day
Friday January 31: Non-Instruction Day (No school for students)
Tuesday February 4: Music field trip to the Mount Royal Bella Concert Hall. **Volunteers Needed! Please email Ms. Boyer**

January 22

Highlights

Language Arts/Social Studies: This week we have continued to work on our family tradition writing. We are using a graphic organizer to help us with our ideas. Our plan is to finish our plans this week so we can work on our final writing piece next week.

Math: Our pattern study has continued this week. We are completing our name pattern project and many of us have started creating our "Pattern Palooza" colour pattern placemats.

Science: We are really getting into our new science study of local animals. This week we are using Google Images to look up the different mammals and birds that live on Nose Hill. This is our first step towards becoming experts about Nose Hill animals. Later on in our study we will each be choosing an animal to research in detail.


Gym: Today was our first day of basketball games. We have been working hard on our skills and today we were ready to put our skills to the test! Overall the games went well but we need to work on a few things to make it more fun for everyone. First, we need to be careful not to strip the ball out of other peoples hands. Second we need to be careful not to hit people on the hand when we are trying to get the ball away from them. We will keep playing tomorrow and try to improve our skills.

Dates to Remember:

Friday January 31: Non-instructional day (No school for students)

An Indoor Friday

Highlights

Due to the very cold weather, we had to have an indoor day today instead of our usual Fresh Air Friday. We took the opportunity to kick-off a new study we will be undertaking in science that will have us heading outside a whole bunch in the next few months. We will be studying the animals that live in our neighborhood and on Nose Hill!

To begin our new study, Ms. Boyer shared some pictures and stories from the Grizzly Bear safari she went on in October. She told us about the guides she met and how they became experts about grizzly bears. Then, Mrs. Hamby showed us some antlers she and her family found at their farm. She explained how they use books to figure out which animal left behind the antlers and to become experts about the animals that live near the farm.

Photo by Jeff (Ms. Boyer's husband)

After that we worked with our table group to brainstorm some animals we think live on Nose Hill. We recorded these ideas on chart paper and we will revisit these pages at the end of our study to see if our ideas were correct and to see how many more animals we can add after we complete our animal research.  Once we were finished brainstorming ideas Ms. Boyer and Mrs. Hamby paired us up and we created some Nose Hill animals to give to Mrs. Kidd for a Nose Hill mural she has created in the learning commons. We used the iPads to look up the animals so we could try to draw them with as much detail as possible.


Important Reminders:

We are still looking to fill some home reading volunteer spaces. Please sign up on Sign Up Genius if you are able to help.

Tuesday Jan. 21 - Treat Day

Brrrrrr!!!

What a chilly week! This week Room 2 began a new whole class challenge. We are working towards some exciting rewards by demonstrating honesty, kindness, thoughtfulness, focus, and careful listening. Please ask me to explain our team challenge and how its going so-far!

Highlights:

In social studies and language arts we are beginning to write about our family traditions. To begin, we are using a graphic organizer to get our main ideas down on paper. We are organizing our ideas using the 5W's + H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How). Next week we will start to turn these ideas into a paragraph about our family tradition.

In math we are continuing our pattern study. We have been exploring patterns in many different ways including art, stories, colours, numbers, and shapes. As part of this study we have been reading stories by Robert Munsch. His stories include a lot of patterns and we have enjoyed searching for them as we read. Thank you to our class friends who have brought Robert Munsch books to share! We are also working on a name pattern project. In this project we are using our names to create a letter and number pattern. Here are a few finished examples:

In science we have completed our colour study! Today we did a final art project using corn syrup and food colouring. Ms. Boyer was happy to hear all of our correct predictions about the ways that the colours would mix during this activity. We will have to wait more than a week for these pieces to dry so they can't go on display yet, but here are a few examples:



Dates to Remember:

Tomorrow: Saa'Kokoto visiting!
Tomorrow: Fun Lunch

Patterns in Nature

Today was Fresh Air Friday! We started the day with big buddies. We read stories and played games.

After big buddies we started our activity for today. We were focusing on learning about patterns in nature. Here are a few things we learned about patterns in nature:

"They might not be perfect but you can see how they are repeating" ~ Kipling
" They don't have to be human made, sometimes they can be made by nature" ~ Porter
" Some patterns in nature can be waves or colours" ~ Max
" Sound waves would be a nature patterns." ~ Ye
" Even in nature a pattern still has to repeat, just like human made patterns." ~ Chrystal

Here are a few of the patterns we found:

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Have a great weekend, stay warm!!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great holiday.  I am very excited to be back in Room 2 with such an awesome group of students! If you need to get in touch with me please do not hesitate to send an email or call the office if you need to speak with me right away.  ~ Ms. Boyer

Highlights:

This week we are starting on some new projects and also continuing a few projects from before the break. In our writing and social studies time we are continuing work on our family traditions project. Our goal is to be finished our pictures and frames by the end of this week. Next week we will begin the writing portion of this project. Here are some completed pictures:


In math we have started our new study of patterns. So far we have talked about repeating patterns and growing patterns. Today we went on a pattern hunt around the school and recorded the patterns in our math journals. In addition to recording the patterns using drawings we are also learning to label our patterns using letters.  Ask me to show you how to label patterns using letters.

In science we are finishing off our color study with some exciting experiments. This week's experiment is called "Magic Milk". We tested to see what would happen if we added drops of food coloring to milk. Then we tested to see what would change if we added dish soap. Ask me to explain the results! 

Dates to Remember:

Fresh Air Friday - January 10 (Please dress warmly!) School council meeting - January 14
Healthy Hunger Lunch - January 16 (please send in your orders quickly if you are interested)

** We have quite a few open volunteer spaces for home reading January-March. If you are able to volunteer please go to Sign-up Genius to see available dates.