Jan 31

Here we are... the last day of January.  We are halfway through grade 2 and I can't believe it. Honestly, where has time gone?  Looking back, we have learned so much, but it feels like yesterday I was meeting you all for the first time!

Today we played a fun math game as a way to practice our basic facts. This game can be played with either subtraction or addition.  To play you need 3 people and a deck of cards (take out the face cards).

1. The first player holds up two cards.  The other two players need to race to answer the question. 
2.  Once a player has answered, the first player checks the answer. If it is right, the player who answered keeps the cards. If it is not right, the cards go back in the deck. 
3.  The first player passes the deck to player two and this repeats for the other two players. 
4.  Keep playing until the deck is gone.  
5. At the end of the game, count up who has the most cards and that person wins.  

This game is great as it gets kids excited about their basic facts, requires them to use some of their strategies, and involves everyone.  After playing you could ask your child:

•  What strategies did you use?
•  Did you find any patterns in which questions were difficult/easy? (example, if your child finds the questions with 9 difficult, this may be a fact family you would work on at home)
• How does it feel to race? 
• What strategy do you go to when you are really stuck?

We had a great time playing today and when it was time to go home, we heard a lot of "awwwwww, I want to keep playing!" (I just love that!!)  I hope you enjoy the game as much as we did :)

Don't forget that our student led conferences are coming up!  Check the blog tomorrow for more information about this...

Coming Up:

• Book fair this week
• student led conferences Thursday and Friday
• School Grand Opening - Feb. 10

Jan 30

We are starting to conclude our unit on liquids.  This unit was a big unit with lots of big ideas that we will revisit through the year.  Some of the ideas we have covered are

•  qualities of water vs other liquids
•  viscosity - what materials are more or less viscous and why?
•  materials that are absorbent, materials that repel (are waterproof)
• solids vs liquids
• the water cycle
• ways we use water in our lives
• what happens when our water is polluted

Currently we are studying water that has been contaminated with oil.  At first looking at this, many of us thought that an oil spill wouldn't impact the living things in the water.  However, after testing out our own "pond", we have noticed that the oil impacts EVERYTHING in the water. We noticed that it covered our plants and our animals and after some research, learned that it would affect what animals eat, the amount of sunshine they receive and their overall wellness. 

We tested this by using a feather to dip into the healthy pond and then again into our unhealthy pond. We noticed that the feather repelled the water and was quickly dry again when it was in the healthy pond.  When we did the same in the unhealthy pond, we noticed that the oil did not evaporate or repel. This caused the feather to become heavy and greasy.  We discussed how this could impact a bird by adding weight to it and possibly even preventing the bird from flying.

Currently we are exploring different ways to clean these birds and our pond. We are applying our design thinking skills in order to do this and today we worked in small  teams to come up with ideas.

 Here are a few ideas:

We will test our ideas tomorrow and keep  you posted about our results.

Coming up:

• Book Fair this week
• Student led conferences this Thursday PM and Friday morning (9:00-1:00)

Jan. 26

Today you would have received a "Big Box of Cards" as part of Ken Taylor Parent Council Fundraising.  If you haven't had a chance, please take a moment to open the box and take a peek of the sample sent home to you.

If you choose to keep these cards, please send $33 by cash or cheque with your child's name attached. (Cheques made payable to Kenneth D Taylor Fundraising Association) You may also offer these cards to family and friends who may be interested.  After orders and cash are received, boxes will be sent home.  If you choose NOT to keep these cards, just send them back at your convenience.

Orders will be accepted until Feb. 13 and there are prizes to be won for both classes and students. (See purple paper in the card box).

Coming Up:

• Student Led Conferences Next Thursday and Friday
• Scholastic Book Fair Next Week. (More info to come)

Jan 25

I am a big believer in life long learning. I believe that by consistently learning something - anything - that we are becoming better people.  Whether it is a sport, recipe, language or professional skill, it helps us grow.

 I have been lucky enough to receive so much professional development already at Ken Taylor School.  Recently, we have been offered professional development by Miriam Trehearne, who is a leading literacy specialist.  She has been leading all the staff through different conversations, reflections, and teachings about how to make our students even stronger in reading, writing, oral conversations, and listening.  She has provided us with high yield strategies that will immediately impact our students.  I have already learned so much and today I wasted no time trying one of these strategies with the class.

Before starting, I explained to the students that I too am learning and that this would be new for all of us.  I am proud to say it was a great success!!  We worked on a strategy called "Sketch and Stretch".   This strategy helps students with their comprehension.  Here is how it works:

 sketch as many details as you remember from reading/text selection/oral story

 shares/how their sketches with a small group or partner.  This conversation opens us conversation about the story and what happened.  

extension: allow students to write behind their drawing. They can write key words, sentences, feelings or even questions. 

We read the story: Sam and the Lucky Money, which explains some of the traditions about Chinese New Year.  Here are some of the responses that the students came up with:

Jan. 24

Throughout the year, we have been working  on a variety of mental math strategies.  More recently, we have been working on applying those strategies to double digit numbers.  We will be learning many different strategies for adding double digit numbers, but we are currently working on:

This strategy encourages students to apply their understanding of place value to help them solve the problem.  This is a difficult concept and will require lots of practice for students to feel confident. Although it is a difficult strategy to learn, once mastered, this strategy is often preferred by many students as it allows them to solve problems mentally and quickly.  Here is some of our work from today:

Students can play this game at home to practice this addition.  As this is a new strategy and even concept for many of us, your child may need some support and guidance while playing. I recommend having a piece of scrap paper nearby for them to write their question, work, and answer on. 

http://www.math-play.com/soccer-math-adding-two-digit-whole-numbers/adding-two-digit-numbers.html

Coming up:

• Fun Lunch tomorrow!
• Student Led conferences next week. Please book through "My CBE Account"

Jan. 23

Don't forget that tomorrow is book exchange!

 We have really been working towards some strategies for comprehension before, during, and after reading.  The simplest strategy we have been working on is asking "Who is this story about?" and "What is happening/happened?".  This can be done periodically throughout the story and at the end.  Orally retelling the story and key events help students become more cognitive of not only this story, but the framework of stories in general.  

You will notice something new in your child's book bag tomorrow.  There will be a handout with some questions that are research proven questions that will help your child's reading comprehension.  You could use these questions with your child's library books, your family read aloud book, RAZ Kids or even after watching a TV show/movie (these are stories too!)  You will see a huge impact on your child's reading, fluency, and comprehension by just asking just 5 - 10 minutes a night to work on this. 

Here are just a few of these questions in case you wanted to get started tonight: 

Coming Up:

• Special lunch this Wednesday
• Student Led Conferences February 2 and 3:
• I know there will not be many families that this applies to... but... please email me if you require a private meeting on this night to talk about sensitive/private information.  Although we will all have the opportunity to talk, there will be several families in the room at once. 

Jan. 20

This morning, the entire grade 2 team did an art morning!  It was so much fun to have the chance to work with other students for a couple of hours. We used one of our Canadian communities as inspiration for our art for the morning.  Students were able to choose which art project they wanted to  complete.  They had the choice of painting flowers, tissue paper landscapes or a step by step pencil crayon project.

With each project, students spent some time talking about the landscape, vegetation, wildlife, and climate of each community.  They then applied some of these aspects to their masterpieces.

Coming Up:

• Fun lunch on Jan. 25 (order deadline is today!)

Jan. 19

Just a reminder that tomorrow is an early dismissal!

Over the next few weeks in writing, we will be starting some Pourquoi stories.  Why do beavers have flat tails? Why does it storm? Children are naturally curious about the wonders of nature. To feed this interest  — as well as inspire great imaginative writing — we will use pourquoi tales! Pourquoi [por-kwa] means "why" in French. Pourquoi tales are old legends told to explain why certain events happened. These tales often start in the past, e.g. A long, long time ago . . . and end when the explanation is complete. 

We will be using the communities we are studying in Social Studies as inspiration for these tales.  We will pick an animal from either the East Coast, the Arctic or the Prairies.  We will use Aboriginal tales from each community to help give us a guide and inspire us. 

We will also tie in science - as part of our learning in grade 2 is about how different animals adapt to difference environments.  These adaptations will be our starting point for the Pourquoi stories. 

Here is a simple version of a Pourquoi story (not Canadian) that we  may read and dissect to learn more about how to read our own. Stay tuned for updates on this neat project!

A long, long time ago, Leopard was the plain, solid brown-yellow color of the desert. He was so plain he was almost invisible against the brown-yellow desert. When he headed out to hunt, Giraffe and Zebra and the other animals didn't know which way to jump. To escape Leopard's appetite, Giraffe and Zebra headed into the great shadowy forest. When Leopard tried to follow them, he stood out like a bright-yellow sunflower against a dark fence. He could not hunt at all. Giraffe and Zebra saw yellow Leopard right away, and ran off deeper into the forest. Leopard had to do something. He asked his human friend to help him. So the Man carefully dipped his five fingertips in black ink and painted spots all over Leopard's fur. Now Leopard could blend into the shadows, and once again he became a great and powerful hunter!

Coming up:

• Early dismissal tomorrow

Jan. 18

It's amazing when students apply what they know to a problem.  Today we were investigating what happens when we mix together two liquids.  They remembered from making gingerbread that when two liquids are mixed, they will mix into each other to make a new liquid. Some other examples they thought of was milk into tea or cold water into soup to cool it down.

Today I asked them what would happen when we mixed oil and water.  Many students predicted that it would mix together, it would turn the water light yellow, and a couple students even said it would make the water explode.

When I added the water, they were so confused!!

They used their knowledge from dissolving and suggested that we stir or shake it, so we tried that. But no matter what we did, the oil kept floating to the top.

We learned that the reason that this happens is that the oil is less dense than the water. ("Dense" is a new word that you may want to talk about at home to reinforce).

This encouraged a lot of new questions! (hurrray!!!)  Here are a few:

•  "what would happen if I put the oil in the container first?" 
• are there other liquids that would sink or float?
• is there any way to make them mix?
• what liquids are heavier than water?

We watched a quick video that showed one way to get the two liquids to mix.  Here it is here

We didn't have time at the end of the day to discuss why that worked, but many students were interested so this may be something you investigate at home and bring back.  

Here is another neat experiment that shows the density of a variety of liquids that you could try at home.  It looks quite pretty when you are all done! Liquid Stacking Video

Coming Up:

• Early Dismissal Friday
• Student Led Conferences Feb 2, 3. Sign up for a time here: https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/myaccount

Jan. 17

You know it is a good math lesson when the teachers announces it is snack time and the students go "awwwwww, I don't want to stop math!"

Yes, you read that right.

This is what happened this afternoon. This is every teacher's dream....

Today we applied some of our mental math strategies to an open ended math problem.  We have been working on strategies: counting on, doubles, doubles +1/-1, and most recently making tens.  Today we used the strategy of making ten to help us solve this problem:

Sam scored 10 points in 2 games.  What might his scores be at the end of each game?

We talked about different strategies to help us solve this problem such as using manipulatives and using a chart to help us organize our solutions.  Although it was difficult starting this problem, students did get into it and by the end of the math lesson they were sad to clean up.  This would go well with IXL E.2 - Ways to Make Ten

Here are a few examples of their work from today:

 

Tomorrow as promised, I will give them time to finish this problem!  

Coming up:

• Popcorn day tomorrow
• Early dismissal Friday

Jan. 16

I hope everyone had a great weekend and had a chance to get outside and enjoy the sunshine!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is book exchange and also Popcorn Treat Day!

Today in Social Studies, we continued to look at the different geography and land of Canada's Dynamic Communities.  So far we have looked at a Northern landscape, a East Coast landscape and now The Prairies.

We have spent our time looking at pictures of the prairies, but more importantly looking at our own community and making observations.  We have looked at the types of vegetation (tall grasses and wildflowers) and the lack of trees.  Not only have we noticed the lack of trees, but together we investigated the reason for this in the prairies.

We have been noticing the difference between our landscape and that of Nunavut and Nova Scotia. We have been comparing the communities and discussing why our vegetation, wildlife, and climates are so different.

We worked on another "See, Think, Wonder" routine.  This routine encourages students to describe, interpret, and wonder, which are higher level thinking skills.  This task will continue to be a challenge to students as it requires a lot of metacognition. We have used this routine consistently throughout the year and students are starting to become more independent and make deeper connections.  Here are a few examples:

Coming Up:

Popcorn day tomorrow and Wednesday

Early Dismissal this Friday

Jan. 12

We enjoyed our morning with Denise Miller, a Metis storyteller.  She told aboriginal stories about various North American animals, such as beavers, deer, and even the dog!.One story we heard was about how fawns are protected by camouflage.  This is a great segway into our story writing about myths and legends of animals from one of Canada’s Dynamic communities.

In science, we did an experiment to distinguish between materials that absorb liquids from those that repel them. We had some fun by first playing a silly game called "Absorb or not". (Basically students just yelled out absorb or not when shown a material and then had to explain their reasoning. )
After, we defined the words absorb, repel and porous. Having this key vocabulary helped us complete our experiment. We used a variety of common materials to see which ones did in fact repel or absorb materials.

Coming up:

• Mrs. Jordan away tomorrow (no blog tomorrow)
• Popcorn day - Jan. 17/18
• Early Dismissal next Friday

Jan. 11

What an exciting day we had at the Glenbow Museum today! For many of us this was our first visit to the museum.  We could feel the energy when we arrived as there was so much to see and do.

We split into two groups today.  We each did the same programs, although at different times.

We did the museum tour. This was a chance look at the different galleries, sketch some interesting artifacts, and ask some questions to learn more.  We saw everything from samurai armour to rocks and crystals.  We quickly learned the importance of keeping our hands, bodies, and pencils off the artifacts in order to best preserve them.  It was interesting to see how different students were attracted to different artifacts and galleries.

The other part of the day was spent learning about the historical figures of Calgary such as James Mcleod and John Ware and how they helped shape our city into what it is today. We had the chance to wear special gloves and touch a variety of old artifacts.  We had to use our prior knowledge to guess what the artifacts were used for in the past.

For lunch we had some time to chat with our friends about the excitement of the morning and then we had some free time to explore the different exhibits.  We saw the tipi of the Blackfoot people and even had the chance to go inside.  Some of us also went through a railcar, learned about sending telegrams, or went into a small shack used by Japanese beet farmers.

We came back to school with so many questions, which will be our basis for our inquiry into Alberta and Calgary's past.  With such an exciting day, I am sure many of us (parent volunteers and me included) will sleep well tonight!

Coming up

• Storytelling presentation tomorrow
• Mrs. Jordan away Friday
• Early Dismissal Next Friday