Friday, January 31, 2014

Compound Words

Students worked together today to play a compound
 word game at our working with words center!
All week long we have focused on compound words. We learned that a compound word is two words together to make one word. This week we played a number of word games, found words around our room and even in the stories we read! During our literacy centers, we got a chance to make new words and play around with words to create compound words.

We tracked the compound words that we discovered on Padlet. Click the link below to view our Padlet thinking from this week on compound words!

Ask your child to name some of the compound words they discovered this week!
http://padlet.com/wall/compoundwordsgrade2


Thursday, January 30, 2014

2D and 3D Geometric Properties

We continue to work with identifying the geometric properties of 2D and 3D shapes. We are also talking about lines of symmetry in various 2D shapes.

Yesterday, Mrs. Swan's class sent us a wonder on Twitter. They asked us to find out what the line of symmetry in a trapezoid was. We had to Google what a trapezoid was. We learned that it is a quadrilateral. We also learned that a rhombus is another type of quadrilateral during a shapes review on our SmartBoard. Quadrilaterals are shapes that have 4 sides. Today we wondered what a heptagon was. It is a 2D shape with 7 sides and 7 vertices.

Today we built models of 2D and 3D shapes using toothpicks and marshmallows. We also described their geometric properties (sides, vertices, edges and faces). Our models are in our school bags - ask your child to describe the 3D shapes. How many faces, edges and vertices?
And just for fun, a 3D shape hunt was sent home in your child's agenda. They can look around at home to find some 3D shapes in places like the kitchen or their bedroom. Happy hunting!

Monday, January 27, 2014

3D Geometry

Our new focus in Math is on 3D Geometry. Today students investigated the geometric properties of various 3D shapes. We used post-its to describe the shape, name it if we could and talk about what we notice about it. Some students noticed that 3D shapes have vertices just like 2D shapes. Other students noticed that 3D shapes have 2D faces. We created a list of what we know and learned some new 3D terms like edges, faces and vertices. Ask your child what each of these words mean. 

Friday, January 24, 2014

Explanation Writing Criteria

Today we worked on our first draft of our explanation writing on hand washing. We used a mini checklist to help us in our writing. Students continue to use a checklist to help remind them how to write an explanation text. Good writers us a checklist like a success criteria to help keep them on track while writing. We are focusing on how to wash our hands and why it is important for our health! 

Ask your child how they wash their hands and why it is important! We will do our good copy next week during our literacy centers.  

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Explaining How to Wash our Hands

Our current writing focus is on explanation writing. Students have been working to add to our writing criteria as well as think about how to explain something they are good at. Today we read a story about personal hygiene and focused on how and why we wash our hands. We did a shared reading of the story using our SmartBoard. Students took turns reading and demonstrating some of their reading strategies. We are working as a class on pointing to the words while we read! This is what good readers do so that they can focus on each word in the story.

Students will be writing a rough draft using the explanation writing criteria. Next week we will write a good copy using an app on the iPads!

Our goal is to write how to wash our hands, why it is important and to add pictures with captions. Today we learned that the captions next to the pictures give extra important information. Ask your child what they learned about why it is important to wash their hands!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

TumbleBooks Online

Great News! I just discovered a great online reading resource called TumbleBooks. It is a free online e-book service that you can access on the Ottawa Public Library's website! You must access TumbleBooks via the Ottawa Public Library in order to get the free service. Just search for TumbleBooks in the Ottawa Public Library's wesbite or follow this link:

http://ottawa.bibliocommons.com/search?locale=en-CA&t=keyword&q=tumblebooks 


Happy Reading!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Student Voice in our Classroom

Capturing evidence of student voice is a goal for our class this year. We are trying many strategies and ensuring that each day students in our class get to share their thinking or ideas in a variety of ways.

Each day that we do our literacy centers, students get an opportunity to share what they've learned. This is an opportunity for students to read or demonstrate a new strategy that they want to share with the class. The 2 girls worked at the word wall center today. They were using the magnet letters to make some of our word wall words directly on the Word Wall board. What a great idea. They were excited to share it with the class. Way to go girls!

Also in our literacy centers, we are working on a new reading program on the Chromebooks called Literably. Students log into our class Literably account and can practice assessing their own reading fluency by recording themselves reading the stories. After reading, they look at a checklist and assess what they want to work on next. Students are really enjoying this new reading program. Ask your child how they use Literably to listen and assess their reading!

Finally in Math, we are working on 2D shapes. Today we talked about the various features of different shapes like their sides, their lines and their corners. Today we learned that corners is another word for vertices. We also tweeted some new learning.

Another way we are capturing student voice in our classroom is through Twitter. Students are excited about using Twitter to share our learning and thinking. After our math lesson today, we talked about what we learned. We used Twitter to share our new learning about 2D shapes. Have a read at what we tweeted today:

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Wondering with Wonderopolis

Our new writing focus in Language is explanation writing. We have been talking about what it means to explain something and what words we can use when we explain. In our literacy centers we are focusing on explaining something we are really good at. We are working on words we can use and a success criteria too. 

We read an explanation writing text about trick candles. Students had many questions and wonders about trick candles. They decided to go on Twitter to post a question for someone to help us with our wonder. Our wonder was: How does a trick candle stop lighting up?

They decided to ask a few classrooms that we tweet to. We also asked a Wonder Website called "Wonderopolis". They replied to us and offered an explanation via their website. Have a read at what they tweeted us!! http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-we-blow-out-birthday-candles/ 

Friday, January 10, 2014

Data Review

For the past few weeks, students have been working on data management in math. We have conducted surveys and analyzed data. We compared graphs and explained our findings using math language. Data shows information on a chart (like a tally chart) or a graph (like a pictograph or a bar graph).

On Monday we will have a math test. A math review package was sent home today in your child's agenda. This will help them prepare for the test on Monday. Students can work on the different types of graphs with the math review.

Thank you for your ongoing support of your child's learning.

New Learning Skill Focus

Our class has a new learning skill focus: Self Regulation.  As a class we watched a video that explain how you can help keep control of your emotions - the students really loved it!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PnbKL3wuH4

Next we brainstormed ways we can regulate our behaviour in the classroom. We talked about why we need to recognize how to self-regulate and how this will help us in our learning.

We also created a success list...what we can do when we don't know what to do! We will continue to focus on this learning skill over the next few weeks. Ask me more about how understanding how to regulate my behaviour can make me a better student.

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Landscapes and Reading Fluency

In Art today we started working on landscapes. We are thinking about winter pictures and winter landscapes. We sang a song about landscapes and talked about what background, middleground and foreground mean. 

Today we started with the  back part of our landscapes. We used white, dark blue and light blue to create the back part of our landscape photos. 

Next time we will focus on creating the background, middleground and foreground using winter pictures. Ask your child to explain what those art terms means!

Using the AudioBoo iPad app to self-assess our reading fluency.

One strategy we are working on in class is to self-assess our reading fluency. We are trying this with our partners in our literacy centers when we read with someone. We also work on this when reading by ourselves during literacy centers time. We used the AudioBoo app to record ourselves while we read. We listen to the recording and follow the text to see if we read too fast or too slow, to see how we can read unfamiliar words and also to recognize if we've missed any words when reading. Students enjoy this strategy. It is teaching them how to self-assess their own reading while working on their Raz reading. 


Wednesday, January 08, 2014

New Words and Homework

Here are our 5 new word wall word for this week. For homework, students are encouraged to play some word wall games located in your homework book! We practice many of the games at school during our Literacy Centers time. Ask your child what their favourite word wall game is. 

In Math we are working on collecting data using different graphs and charts. We have worked with tally charts and pictographs and now we are focusing on bar graphs. Ask your child what they know about bar graphs so far.

Here is the link to Raz Kids Reading Online: http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login

Here is the link to our class DreamBox Math Page Online: https://play.dreambox.com/login/bau5/38564

Monday, January 06, 2014

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2014! 

Back to school this week after a wonderful Christmas Break. Lots of great learning will take place in our room. Looking forward to hearing all about what our friends have been up to over the holidays. Safe driving out there today on this icy snow day.