This week, we continued with fractions in math and poems and story writing using a picture prompt in Daily 5. We also began our new unit, Sharing the Planet. Kid Quotes: "I liked when we learned the fractions like whole, half, quarter." - Lizzie " I liked Grade 6 buddies. I learned about the word 'ecosystem'." - Odemar " I liked Grade 6 buddies. I learned about the word 'habitat'." - Hakim "This week I learned about fractions. At each table there were some questions. Then we figured it out." - Marin "I learned about fractions." - Joe "I liked the fraction problems."- Jasmine "My favorite thing is I got the certificate! Today we learned about our new unit." - Alik "I liked Grade 6 buddies." - James "I like that we are learning about poems. P.S. I like that they rhyme." - Tudor "I learned about fractions. Fractions are like having two sides. For example, it's like two children share a cookie. 1 cookie. They split it in half. So it's 1/2." - Rajananta "I liked learning about the word 'balance'. It was fun about writing and drawing." - Advay "I liked learning fractions with Ms. Luttrell." - Kento "I liked to make a long story. I learned how to make the correct sound." - Valencia "I liked Grade 6 buddies. I learned lots of fractions. I also enjoyed it." - Kaya Some Reminders: Field Trip: We will be going on a field trip next week, Friday 6 May to MacRitchie Reservoir. We are inquiring into living things and their ecosystems. A letter went home via email (and paper copy with each child) on Friday, 29 April. We will be leaving between 8:15 and 8:30 after students have eaten their snack. When we arrive back at school, lunch will be eaten in the classroom. There is no cost for the trip. We look forward to a fun filled day. More information is included in the letter sent home. Swimming: As a reminder, PE is not taking place on Monday or Fridays. Instead, students will have a double block of swimming on Tuesdays after playtime. Please remember all necessary items for these lessons each Tuesday. Please remind your children to use their own towels and combs in order to stop the spread of head lice during this time. No School: Monday, 2nd May Have a great, long weekend! Ms. Luttrell
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What a busy week it has been! We kicked off the week with student led conferences. It was wonderful to see and listen to the students taking so much pride in their learning, explaining themselves and showing all they've learned so far this year. I am so proud of the students for their commitment shown this week. They persevered and demonstrated responsibility for organizing their unit 5 pieces into a display for the Art Gallery. They also worked hard together to create and practice their assembly presentation. A copy of the presentation can be viewed here. The pictures below are from the last few weeks. Please enjoy! Well done Grade 2.1 and thank you to everyone who came to Student Led Conferences, the art gallery and/or the assembly. Our assembly video can be viewed below. Have a very relaxing weekend! Ms Luttrell Our next unit on fractions began this week. Students started with three different tasks: 1. Think about something that is whole. Now think about part of that whole thing. Draw how you think this looks. 2. Think about the word equal. Draw how you think equal sharing looks. 3. When and where do we share things equally? Draw or write your ideas. We then moved onto discussing the vocabulary words: whole, part and equal. Students used paper to fold, and we found ourselves noticing one whole equals two halves. As we continued folding, students noticed a pattern - each time the spaces were doubling. We've started talking about fourths, and many students noticed that four fourths make one whole. We also spent some time looking at three different ways a square could be cut into quarters. We had on quarter in the shape of a square, one in the shape of a rectangle, and one in the shape of a triangle. Students' job was to prove that these were the same size (equal), even though they were different shapes. It was wonderful to watch and hear discussions and group work as students used different strategies and shared their thinking. We will continue exploring patterns in the next few weeks. During unit of inquiry, students created a story board with a team. They then brought in props or made props with their team our of Lego and playdough. Mr. Gallagher came in to help us with our stop motion movies. Most groups had finished by Friday and these stories will be shared through our You Tube channel next week. Students have also started researching an artist of their choice. We are using the Chrome books and recording information found and sources used. Hopefully this research will be rewritten in the form of sentences by next Friday, for our Art Gallery. We spent some time reviewing the Learner Profile and working on our assembly for next Friday. Grade 2.1 is tying in the Learner Profile attributes with art, in a way where we can express ourselves and share a message with the school. A few reminders: Student Led Conferences are next Tuesday, 19 April. Sign up information has been emailed home by Mr. Pinchbeck and Mr. Gallagher. Please make sure you sign up for 1 time slot by indicating your child's name. There is room for four students in each time slot. Your child will take you on a tour of the classroom and have a few activities to do with you, including looking at portfolios. You may also visit some of the specialists. There will be a book fair in the library on Tuesday, 19 April from 8:30-4pm. Students will have brought home a leaflet on Friday, which has just a selection of what will be available on the day. However, if anyone cannot attend the fair, the books in the leaflet may be ordered from the book fair organisers as per instructions at the top of the leaflet. The closing date for orders will be Tuesday, 26 April at 3pm. Grade 2.1 will be presenting at the assembly next Friday, 22 April. Please feel free to join us at 1pm in the MPR! Each Grade 2 classroom will be having a small 'Art Gallery' on Friday, 22 April from 8:30-9:30. Parents are invited to join us to observe some of the students work related to our unit and lines of inquiry. There will be pieces of work the students have responded to, evaluated and created. Please feel free to stop by any time between 8:30 and 9:30 next Friday morning. As of the week of April 18, students will have swimming on Tuesdays. This means PE on Mondays and Fridays will not be happening. However, we will not be having swimming on April 19, because it is SLC. Therefore, students will not have any sort of PE next week. Swimming days will be: April 26, May 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. The Swim Gala is on June 6. More information will be coming home soon about the Swim Gala. Have a wonderful weekend, Ms. Luttrell Welcome back from a long and hopefully restful break! Students were refreshed and eager to see their friends. We spent some time Tuesday catching up, discussing our holidays and sharing with each other. Then we jumped back into where we left off before the break. I was impressed with how focused the students were in most of the activities. In math, we continued patterns and reviewed the word 'difference'. We made the connection that skip counting by 2 meant the numbers in the sequence all had a difference of 2. Students practiced with different tasks to show their understanding. We also had some challenge problems throughout the week which stretched our thinking! During Unit of Inquiry and Daily 5, we have been making connections between an author's purpose and an artist's purpose. We looked at different books, discussed their purposes and examined various pieces of art. We spent some time evaluating different pieces of art, and writing our own thoughts about certain pieces. We explored story mountains to help us understand the necessary parts of a story. Students came to the conclusion that most fiction stories must have some sort of problem - otherwise the story wouldn't be very interesting! Keeping story mountains in mind, students created a story map, where they thought of the characters, setting, problem and solution for their own story. Then they used this information to create their own story using only pictures, such as the book, Journey. Next week, students will trade stories and then write the text to accompany them. At Friday's assembly, we had a house team event where grade levels and houses competed in different 'Minute to Win It' activities! It was an exciting afternoon full of dice balancing, ball bouncing and running. A few notes and upcoming events:
* Student led conferences are on Tuesday, 19 April. More information about signing up for times will be coming home shortly. As a reminder, there is no school this day. * Grade 2.1 will be presenting at the assembly on Friday, 22 April. Please feel free to join us at 1pm in the MPR! * Each Grade 2 classroom will be having a small 'Art Gallery' on Friday, 22 April from 8:30-9:30. Parents are invited to join us to observe some of the students work related to our unit and lines of inquiry. There will be pieces of work the students have responded to, evaluated and created. More information will be coming home shortly. * As of the week of April 18, students will have swimming on Tuesdays. This means PE on Mondays and Fridays will not be happening. However, we will not be having swimming on April 19, because it is SLC. Therefore, students will not have any sort of PE this week. Swimming days will be: April 26, May 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31. The Swim Gala is on June 6. Again, more information will be coming home soon. Have a great weekend, Ms. Luttrell |
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 2016
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