The last day of school has arrived! What a day of mixed emotions - happy, sad, excited. It's been a wonderful year and I have loved every minute with these fun, creative, enthusiastic kids! A few pictures from today are below as well as some last Grade 2 reflections.
I liked how much fun I had in Grade 2! - Rai I'll never forget the teacher I had. - Mollie Ms. Luttrell was the best teacher to us. - Nayoung You should go here because you will meet lots of new friends that you'll have a really good time with and you will miss them if you go away or they go away. - Bea I will never forget about my friends and teacher. - Eniko My favourite thing was math, because it was fun, When I get challenging things, I practice and get better. - Saurish In Grade 3 I'm excited to do the marble run! - Aubrey I can't wait in Grade 3 to do more math. - Rai I can't wait to have lots of new besties. - Mollie I can't wait to do more hard math. - Eniko I hope I have some of my classmates in my class next year. - Teddy I hope I can make new friends next year. - Aubrey and Kotaro If I'm in Grade 3 then I will make friends very quickly, because everyone is so nice there. - Bea I can't wait to do more Daily 5 and writing. - Teddy
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We are wrapping up this school year and our unit, Sharing the Planet. Grade 2 took a trip to Kent Ridge Park to explore various habitats. We saw many different types of plants, insects, and animals!
Students have been working hard to transfer their habitat research into some sort of presentation. Some students have decided to create slide shows, while others have created 3D models, poems and books. Students gave each other feedback on their projects this week and made changes accordingly. As they finish up this week and early next week, they will share their new knowledge with small groups. We will also continue to explore imbalances as we finish up this unit.
Students began to make connections between fractions and telling time. They created their own clocks, and brainstormed ideas about the form and function of clocks, as well as made connections to telling time. We will continue to play other telling time games next week to help students consolidate their understanding of telling time to the half and quarter hour. We explored the difference between a fact and opinion this week, and students connected this to their habitat research - identifying facts and writing opinions. We also began to explore persuasive writing, and after we write a persuasive piece together next week, students will have a chance to write their own. As we finish up in these next few weeks, please take a look at some of the events happening. Monday, 29 May - last swimming lesson Thursday, 1 June - Field Trip to Kent Ridge National Park (8am-10am). Students should bring a small backpack with water, hat, sunscreen/bug spray, and snack). Monday, 5 June - Swim Gala Wednesday, 7 June - Game Afternoon (Parents Invited) Grade 2 will be gathering for a games and snack afternoon around 1:30 in the MPR. We invite parents to join as well in celebration of the end of the year and all the accomplishments of these wonderful students. We have a sign up sheet here for parents to sign up if they wish to bring snacks. Thursday, 8 June - last day of school (half day) We will have an end of year assembly in the morning. However, we have not been informed of the time yet. We started this week off with Fraction Bingo in math. Students worked to create their Bingo boards, which were used throughout this week. They are becoming more confident using fraction names, such as 'one third' and 'two fourths' when explaining the fractional part. We've worked together on some word problems, figuring out how we could split two pizzas between eight students, or 10 cookies amongst three children. They're using counters, white boards and each other to talk through different strategies. Next week, we will move into telling time, as some students have started to make the connection with telling time, using the words 'quarter' and 'half'.
Students are well into their habitat research and are now beginning to work in their individual projects. We created a list as a class which included many different ideas about how they could share their learning. Some ideas included making a book, poser, slide show, game, song, 3D model, or poem. We will continue finishing up research and projects next week, as we move more into the imbalances in habitats. We also reviewed Cause & Effect, and made connections to our unit of inquiry. Ask your children about 'Operation Cat Drop.' They were fascinated by the 'chain reaction' of killing mosquitos in Borneo, and the effect this had on the food web in that area. Some students began discussing habitats around Singapore and began to express their concern about how many MRT stations are being constructed, but in order to build, they are cutting down many trees and taking away habitats. This leads us well into next week as we begin to explore facts vs. opinion and persuasive writing. Students completed an end of year writing task, and finished up our exploration of poetry. They used the unit books to record cause and effect and shared their findings with each other. Just a few reminders about next Friday: Friday, 26 May * Free Dress Day/Dress like you're favourite food - The theme will be "Food Day", in which students can dress as their favourite food. This is in support of our work with working towards Zero Hunger and the Singapore Food Bank. Students should bring a non-perishable food item or a monetary donation. Dressing as their favourite food is optional. * Art Exhibition 6-7:30pm * All Books Returned - All books needs to be returned to the library as check out has ended for this school year. Monday started with swimming again, and we have many students who are excited for the upcoming Swim Gala!
Students completed a writing prompt, where they used a picture to spark ideas for their writing. They completed this piece of writing independently, which is evidence of their writing skills at the end of Grade 2. We finished up poetry and will move into persuasive writing until the end of the school year. Students justified why they wanted to research a particular habitat and then began researching, using the key concepts of form, function, connection and perspective to help guide their research. Students used books and computer resources to begin gathering information. Next week, students will finish collecting research and decide how to share this new knowledge. We will also begin taking a look at our third line of inquiry: the consequences of imbalance within habitats (causation). In math, students are beginning to make connections between division and fractions. We are using the terms "3 out of 5" when describing fractions. Students used manipulatives to develop a better understanding and then began to create their own fraction Bingo board which will be used next week. In the next week or so, we will also be learning more about telling time. We didn't have school on Wednesday, which made for a shorter than normal week. The following three weeks are five day weeks, and then we end with Swim Gala and a short week. We started this short school week on a Tuesday, as Monday was a holiday. Therefore, there was no swimming this week.
In literacy, we've continued exploring poems. Students compared and contrasted a short story about a dragon with a poem about a dragon. We looked at the form and students identified aspects that were different as well as similar. They continued exploring the differences throughout the week and also wrote more poems. New words did not make it out this week, so will be coming on Monday for two weeks. Then there will be one more round of words before the end of the year. Students identified poems as having more feelings and emotion, and needing to be read a certain way. On Friday, students practiced reading poems fluently, paying attention to word choice and punctuation. In math, students continued exploring multiplication and story problems and then explored how it was related to division. We practiced dividing our class into different groups, and then students were challenged to find out how many equal groups certain numbers could be divided into. We will continue with division and fractions for the next few weeks, and then move onto telling the time. Our unit of inquiry has been exciting so far, as we began to explore habitats. Students went to the library on Thursday and checked out many books for our upcoming research. We also watched some habitat Brainpop Jr videos and began to think about what types of animals would live in these habitats and their needs. Students drew pictures and will decide next week which habitat they would like to research. As a reminder, swimming is on Monday and there is no school on Wednesday of this upcoming week. We started Monday morning with our second round of swimming. It's been an exciting way to start the week and many students are looking forward to the Swim Gala in a few weeks.
We finished up multiplication this week, exploring word/story problems and distinguishing between addition and multiplication questions. Students also had the opportunity to write their own, and on Friday, solved each other's problems. We'll be moving into division and fractions in the next few weeks, followed by time. During Daily 5, we had some mini-lessons where we began to explore the form of poetry - What is it like? Students read and explored different poems, noting things about punctuation, organisation and word choice. We spent a day exploring some aspects of word choice, including repetition, rhyming words, sound words and adjectives. More time was needed with adjectives, in order to develop a better understanding, and this carried us to the end of the week. Students had fun writing their own poems, and next week we will begin to look at the difference between stories and poems. Students will be receiving new words next week. We started our new and final unit, Sharing the Planet. Exploring our central idea brought about some interesting ideas and questions, and we starting thinking about the difference between living and non-living things. We thought about what these different things need, have and could be. Next week, we will explore our school grounds, looking for living things and their habitats. Have a relaxing long weekend, as there is no school on Monday! This was the first week of swimming, and everyone had a great time splashing, jumping in and practicing different strokes. Just a reminder that regular PE will not be happening on Wednesdays anymore, as both times have been combined to allow for a longer swimming PE session.
In math, we have continued exploring the connection between arrays, repeated addition and multiplication. Some fun games were played throughout the week to help students develop a better understanding of multiplication. We will continue multiplication next week as we look at story problems and when we would apply this in the real world. We will also begin to explore division, fractions and telling time before the end of the school year. In writing, students gave each other feedback in order to revise and edit their explanation writing. They practiced writing explanations using artefacts during Student Led Conferences as well. They also finished completing their field trip reflection from last week in their online portfolio and some added photos. We will begin to explore poetry and then persuasive writing as we get further into our next unit of inquiry. Our unit, Where we are in place and time, has come to an end this week. Students completed summative assessments where they viewed artefacts from Pompeii and wrote about what these artefacts tell us about their civilisation. They also chose an object (toys, books, pencil, water bottle, etc) and wrote about what it would tell archaeologists about them if it was excavated. We will jump into our new unit, Sharing the planet, next week. Next week is a normal week, with five days of school. Swimming is Monday and home learning is updated for the next two weeks. However, word sorts will be the same for the following week. A few reminders:
In math, we started this week with a review of subtraction strategies. Students showed each other strategies that worked for them, and tried new strategies for larger numbers. What we are noticing, though, is that many students would benefit from more practice with basic math facts, adding and subtracting one and two digit numbers. We then explored maps again, added to our See-Think-Wonder and began thinking about the form and function of maps. Some online mapping games were played, and we will continue exploring grids after the holiday.
Our field trip to the museum on Monday provided a good introduction into our exploration of artefacts and archeology. We began reading about archeologists and what their job is, what tools are used, and what skills they need to do their job. We made connections to the skills we practice in class, and also to our lines of inquiry. There was one page of the book that explained why a grid system is used by archeologists, and some students made the connection to maps, and noticed the longitude and latitude lines on the globe. After the break, we will explore Google Earth, Pompeii and speak with some archeologists. Mr. Gallagher also worked with students on Tuesday, using the Beebots to create a map. Students used their thinking and cooperation skills in order to work together to successfully create a maze for the Beebot to travel. We concluded our exploration of book reports, as students wrote their own, and then typed it up. Once we are back from the holiday, students will add pictures to their book report and these will be on display outside our classroom. Many students are adding some great reasons to read the book in their recommendation! We will then move onto explanation writing. New words will be given after the holiday. The only home learning for the holiday is to keep reading. This can be reading to self, reading to family, listening to someone else read or using RazKids. Have a relaxing holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone back in April! |
AuthorWe are 7 and 8 year old students who live in Singapore. Our teacher, Ms. Luttrell, will be helping us write blog posts throughout the year! Archives
June 2017
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