Feb. 8

Today, the students had an excellent learning day with Mrs. Duncan, while I was in the gym doing preparations for our grand opening. She always has the nicest things to say about our class!

The class read the story "How the Zebra Got His Stripes" that one of our students brought in.  It is an African Pourquoi story that fits in perfectly with our literacy and social study focus.   They loved this story!! (Thank you Ella!)

As a strategy for comprehension, students paired up with a partner to act out the story and retell it.  This strategy is accessible for all students as it allows everyone to have a role. When they thought they had all the parts, they had the chance to perform for the class and receive feedback from their peers.

Next, students recorded their retell through their writing on our story diamond.  We use this diamond as a visual for our retells and eventually their own stories.  We have covered each of these parts except for the suspense section.

Our next step in this project is to pick an animal from one our our communities, do some research on their adaptations and finally write our own pourquoi stories.  We hope to present these to you at our next student led conferences.

Coming up:

• Grand opening rehearsal tomorrow at 1:00pm
• Grand opening Friday at 1:00pm
• Valentine's Day Tuesday. Please see Monday's post for more information
• No school Feb. 16, 17, 20

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