Self+Peer Assessment and Retelling

Our reading focus continues to be focusing on the important details when retelling. We are focus on the important details when we learn about retelling to help us write recounts as well. Students are focusing on only the important details when we read and retell stories both orally and when writing.


We are focusing on peer-to-peer assessment. Students are getting the opportunity to be "teachers". They are referring to the Retell success criteria checklist to see if students are including all parts of a retell. They are also looking for capital letters, finger spaces and punctuation. Good writers use a checklist to keep on track. As little teachers, we are using post-its to helps our friends edit their work. Excellent job grade 2!!
We also continue to self-assess our work. We continue to refer to the checklist to help keep us on track. We also tested out a new app called Dragon Dictation. This app allows us to read and then the words that appear on the screen. Students got the chance to re-read and check to see if they spelled their words correctly.
Another way we are assessing our understanding is through Twitter. This week we introduced a new part of our class called Book Talk. During Book Talk, we sit in a small group and talk about the books that we read. We are answering questions to extend our understanding. Students are also looking on Twitter on the iPads for a Book Talk question asked by me, and they are replying with answers to the questions. Have a read at some of our Book Talk Tweets below.

We also included some Book Talk AudioBoo responses. Have a listen to some retells so far:

FF: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1957079-ff-retells-the-very-hungry-bear

PE: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1957149-pe-retella-the-hungry-bear

HH: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1957057-hh-retells-hungry-bear

Addition Strategies

We continue to work on measurement in our classroom. We are working on measuring length using standard  (cm) and non-standard units. To get ready to measure perimeter, we are recalling some addition strategies we can remember from grade 1. 

Over the past few days, students have been working on addition problems and solving them using a variety of strategies. Today we added a few more strategies that we know. Can you think of more addition strategies that we didn't include on this list? We will continue to talk about our addition strategies tomorrow. 

Kindness Week

Kindness Week is a weeklong initiative that ran from February 14-21. The initiative started right here in Ottawa and is promoted on Twitter using the #kindottawa hashtag as well as the Twitter address via @kindottawa. 
At our school, we participated in a number of school and class initiatives to spread kindness to our friends, our family and to our school! Our class got the opportunity to collaborate both at school and online with a few other classrooms.

At school, we posted a wonder on our Twitter Wall together with Mrs. Swan's Grade 3 class. Our wonder...How do you make Assumption School a Kinder Place? We brainstormed together what that looks like in our school. We talked about how we make our school kind as well as what other people (like teachers, the principal or our friends) do to show kindness around us. Our class was so proud to post their tweet on our Twitter Wall. The grade 2's and 3's use this wall to share with the school their ideas and their learning. Excellent ideas everyone. You can visit our Twitter Wall located beside our classroom whenever you are visiting our school!

Our class also got to share our kindness learning online in a number of fun ways. At our literacy centers, we got a chance to add to our Padlet thinking about kindness. Have a read at our kindness brainstorming: http://padlet.com/wall/grade2kindness
We also created a few kindness stories using the Educreations iPad app. Have a read at some of the stories we made during our literacy centers:

WN: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/wn-shares-a-kindness-message/17187539/

AB: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/ab-shares-a-kindness-message/17187361/

FF: http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/ff-shows-kindness/17109073/

Finally, we used Twitter to connect with a few classrooms about how we can be kinder. Twitter is a great way for us to share our thinking and to connect with other classrooms. It is another way that we are practicing our writing and communication skills. Have a look at some of our kindness tweets with Ms. Alvarez's JK/SK class, Mrs. Swan's Grade 3 class and Mr. Robinson's Grade 2/3  class!!

Retelling the Important Details

Our current reading focus is on Retelling. When we retell the events that happen in a story, we focus on the important details. All week long we have used the success criteria charts to help us as we retell a story. Students are very familiar with the process of retelling a story. You can help your child to retell a story they just read by asking them about the important details. Who was in the story? Where did it take place? What was the problem and how was it solved?

At the Literacy Centers this week, some students got to do something new in our writing center. They did some peer editing of a retell! Students are checking to see if their friends used the criteria to add to their retell writing. They are also commenting on missing writing features like punctuation and capital letters. Excellent job friends!

Measuring in Centimetres

We continue to work on Measurement in our classroom. Previously, students worked on non-standard units of measurement and now we are moving towards standard units of measurement. An example of standard units of measurement is a ruler. We are using our rulers to measure in centimetres. Students have been practicing how to use a ruler to measure objects. When measuring, we need to be precise or else the measurement will not be accurate. Students are becoming familiar with what centimetres looks like and how to write a math sentence after we measure. The symbol for centimetres is CM.
We played a measuring game yesterday called Penny Flicks. We had to estimate and measure how far we could flick a penny with our fingers. They really enjoyed this game and learned a lot about measuring in centimetres after estimating. Ask your child about this fun game.

Students are also using Twitter to consolidate their thinking. Yesterday we used Twitter to tweet our measurement learning. Twitter helps us to demonstrate what we know and what we have learned. Have a read at our Math Tweets!

Measurement Vocabulary

Students are encouraged to use a marker to underline or highlight
important keywords when writing about their measurement.

In Math we continue to focus on non-standard units of measurement. We did a few different measuring activities last week that helped us to understand how we can measure objects with units other than a ruler.

We created a measurement criteria to help us identify words we can use to make statements about measurement. We are focusing on words that help us to measure length and height. We are adding to our vocabulary and talking about how we can compare objects using key words. Students are encouraged to use a marker to underline or highlight important keywords when writing about their measurement.

On Valentine's Day, we did a measuring activity and focused on a new measurement vocabulary word: Estimate. Student are being challenged to estimate before they measure. Next they are working to check their work to see if their estimate (or prediction) was right or not. We will continue to refer to our measurement vocabulary list as we work on standard and non-standard units of measurement. Ask your child to explain some of the key vocabulary terms for measurement. What objects can you use to measure items in your kitchen at home?

Non- standard units of measurement

Over the past few days, students have been exploring the concept of measurement. We are using non-standard units of measurement to determine how long something is.
A standard unit of measurement would be a ruler or a measuring tape. We have been using items like linking cubes, snap cubes and chains to measure objects.
We did a measuring activity using these items to help us compare and measure how long our shoes are. We had to choose an item, determine which shoe was longer and tell how we know.

Students problem solved different ways to show their work. We finished the activity today by consolidating what we learned. We all got a chance to share our learning and explain our thinking.

We also used Twitter to share how we came up with our answers and what we learned about solving problems.

New Reading Comprehension Strategy

Today we started talking about a new reading comprehension strategy. We will be working on retelling a story. When we retell a story, we are focusing on the important details. We are also using the Go Map to help keep us on track. Today we read a story called Snow Day. We used a new technology tool in our classroom called a document camera. The document camera allowed us to do a shared read aloud where we each got a turn to read pages of the story.
The story is projected on our SmartBoard so we can all take part in the read aloud.

After reading the story, we talked about the beginning, middle and end and focused on only the important details. We will continue to talk about retelling stories for the next little while. You can help your child retell a story and focus on the important details by using keep on track words like First, Next, Then, Last and Finally. 

We will continue to use the document camera for more shared reading opportunities and to showcase student work. 

Hand-Washing Posters

Students have completed their hand-washing posters. We followed a success criteria and used the explanation writing format to write about how and why we wash our hands. Students learned about important features like photos with captions and sequencing words to put the hand washing steps in orders. Students read stories and discussed the health benefits of keeping our hands clean. 

We followed a checklist to help keep us on track. We also wrote a rough draft before creating our good copy using the iPads. Students are learning through the editing process. We worked on how to check our own work for errors like punctuation, capitalization and misspelled words. 

Since researching, we learned about how to keep ourselves healthy and how to stop the spread of germs. We've also made a class routine of making sure we always wash our hands before we eat our lunch. Great work to all students! 


Below are our completed hand washing posters that we created using the iPad app Pic Collage  during our Literacy Centers. We hope to put these posters around our school to spread the word about keeping healthy. Enjoy!