Year: 2013

For the past two weeks, the Grade 2s have been looking at strategies for remembering addition facts.  So far we have done the +0s (super easy, it is the same number!), the +1s (also easy, it’s the next number you say when counting), and the doubles and near-doubles.

Today the grade 2s brought home a game board to play “Doubles in a Row.”  Check out this video of how to play it

In the video I said you could get the board from my website, but to protect the author’s copyright I don’t want to upload it.  If there are grade 3 parents who would like a copy to play, just let me know.

We have had a very busy week getting our science projects finished!  This has been a multi-step process, with lots of learning along the way.

It started in October, before our field trip to the Aquarium, when each student formulated a big question about an aquatic animal.  Mrs. Clark taught us some research skills in the library.  We learned how to make a chart in Microsoft Word to organize information, and how to record keywords, instead of writing everything we read.  Students learned how to use the encyclopedias in the library and World Book online, and recorded the information they found in their charts.

Once research was finished, we moved onto the writing stage.  As a class, we generated some criteria for what amazing, great, ok, and not so good writing looked like.  We made one rubric for Grade 2s and one for Grade 3s. Then I demonstrated how to use keywords to create informational writing, starting each paragraph with an introductory sentence and ending with a concluding sentences.  Grade 2s were expected to write one paragraph, Grade 3s were expected to have four (one for each of our research topics).

After rough copies were written, students had a bit of homework to get their projects ready.  The final project could be a poster, a model, or an iPad video recording with images and recorded speech.  Many students spent time last weekend writing good copies of their paragraphs, printing photos, and making models.  They also had time in class this week to type their writing, and create their finished products.  We have taken advantage of our school’s laptop cart, and the students have mastered many technology skills.  They can log on, create a Word document and know where to save it, type paragraphs and change the font, size, and style, and find images online and save them.

It was so great to see how invested the students were in their projects, some even voluntarily working through centres to get them finished up.  I am very proud of their finished projects, because I know how much learning went into them.  I think the students are pretty proud too, stop by the hallway outside our classroom to check them out!

Our classroom is all cleaned and decorated thanks to Division 7 students. Hope you stop by tonight to make some origami symbols of peace and light And if course, don’t miss singing “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” with us at the singalong!

Lately, students in Division 7 have been making things and selling them for pretend paper money.  I decided this was a great opportunity for some money counting practice, so I am going to channel their enthusiasm into a class store.  Yesterday, students started making things they wanted to sell.  After making their creations they had to price them, and sell them to the store owner (me.)  I put a price tag on and students counted the money to put in their own wallet,  saving it for when the store opens next week.  Most students were very thoughtful about how to price their products, considering how much others would be willing to pay.  Already the store has quite a bit of stock, and we are looking forward to opening next week!