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.
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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. |
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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