We started off the week reviewing 'Appreciation' and put our self portraits in our portfolio. We also added our reflections from our unit work last week and began to unpack our central idea. We looked at each word individually and thought about which ones we knew, didn't know and which we thought were most important. We participated in the Chalk Talk Thinking Routine again and began to develop our understanding of each of these words. Students seem to have a good understanding of communication and building, and we will continue to explore relationships and ways we communicate next week. Students also spent time reflecting on themselves in relation to the PYP attributes and picked one as a goal to focus on. In math, we continued exploring the 100s chart, and reviewing 10 more and 10 less. Some students found it challenging to apply their knowledge in different contexts, and we will continue reviewing next week. We also played some math games where we practiced not only composing and decomposing numbers, but also our cooperation skills. Word Work was introduced this week and students brought home their first word sort. They will continue working with these words, as well as other words from books they are reading throughout next week. Listen to Reading was also a focus, as we learned how to use the Chromebooks this week. Each student has brought home a card with their Gmail, Mathletics and RazKids passwords. This card can stay at home, and we have another card that will stay at school. During Daily 5, we have been working hard to retell stories, and started with The Gruffalo. Ask your child to retell this story over the weekend! We also did a word hunt during Read to Self, to find other ways of saying 'And then'. Students compiled a list of great alternatives which will be used next week in their writing. The other Daily 5 choices will be introduced next week and then students will begin to have more autonomy over their choices during this time. Unfortunately due to the haze, the Fun Run has been postponed. We had a regular assembly instead and more information about when the Fun Run will take place will be coming home soon. Thanks to those parents who were able to come to Parent Evening on Wednesday. Below is our presentation for those of you who were unable to make it. Have a great weekend, Meghan
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We've had a busy second week! To start the week, we focused on the attribute 'Appreciation'. We had a thoughtful discussion on what it means to appreciate things and students shared what they were thankful for and appreciated. We then spent time going around with sticky notes, writing compliments and things we appreciated about the different people in our class. These sticky notes were placed on self portraits, and will be hung up somewhere in the classroom or placed into portfolios. It was a great way to start the week! We started in with our first unit of inquiry, Who we are. Our central idea is: Communication builds relationships. To help us start thinking about different types of communication, students were tasked with building a structure silently as a group. The video below shows students in action. There were many different responses when reflecting on the activity: "I was excited because I love making and I like hard making more than just making." - Nayoung "I felt excited because it was cool but I felt that way because it looks like so hard and it looks like it's going to fall down." - Emanie "I felt happy, because I can work in peace and so that helps me focus." "If I did this activity again, I would change it to a little bit bigger." - Teddy "If I did this activity again, I would use more tape." - Kotaro "I felt worried because I thought it would break easily." - Eniko "If I did this activity again, I would change the no talking rule." - Rai On Friday, students were able to complete the challenge again, but this time with talking. Ask your child how they felt the second time around! Many students remembered Daily 5 from last year. We started reviewing three ways to read a book: Read the pictures, read the words and retell the story. We looked at IPICK when choosing books, making sure they are of interest, but also books students can read and understand. Some students found using the five finger rule helpful. We reviewed Read to Self expectations and students read for a solid 10 minutes the first day. They were excited to work on their stamina and set a goal of 20 minutes. On day two, students read for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. We will continue to work on stamina in everything we do. Next week, we will introduce Word Work, Work on Writing and Read to Someone. Students wrote about their summer and completed pictures in sunglasses to accompany their writing. This is displayed outside in the hallway. We will begin to look at the writing process in the next few weeks. So far, students are working on remembering capitals and full stops, and practicing sounding out their words. Next week we will also continue practice verbally retelling stories and eventually do so through writing. We began our first math unit about number. Our central idea is: Whole numbers show patterns and relationships that an be observed and described. Students started out looking at the form and function of a number line, and then compared number lines to 100s charts. We recorded their observations and introduced a game called "Guess My Number". This was a great way to review greater than and less than and also practice using the symbols > and <. We spent Friday morning practicing on Mathletics. Some of the questions were review, and others allowed students to practice what we had just learned. We will continue to explore numbers next week and begin investigating place value in more depth. In the next few weeks, students will bring home a card with their log in information for gmail, RazKids and Mathletics. We are waiting to have all passwords confirmed before making the take- home cards. A few reminders: * Students have a home/school folder they should bring back and forth each day. Next week, they will start to have their spelling words in a baggie which need to be brought back and forth for a week. Please help your child begin to establish this routine. * Take home readers and spelling words will begin sometime next week * Wednesday, 24 September - Meet the Teacher evening * Magazine collection - If you have magazines that you are willing to part with, we would love to have some in the classroom for various projects. Just send them in with your child next week! Have a great weekend, Meghan Welcome back to school! These last three days have been filled with fun classroom activities and a tour around the school. We explored how some classrooms have changed locations and some classrooms have new furniture or flooring. We read the book First Day Jitters, graphed how we were feeling on the first day, and completed a page for our class book about the first day of school. We reminded ourselves about the 4 Be's and worked together to create essential agreements for our classroom. Students also created birthday cards, which we will write in and sign for those special days throughout the year. There were some very creative and colourful cards made this week. We also read a book called Only One You and then wrote about what made us each special and unique. This was a great way to get to know each other even more. Students participated in Mandarin, PE, Art and Performing Arts this week. During the assembly on Friday, our class presented ways in which students and teachers could be communicators and principled. Each student will have a home-school folder. This folder will be used to bring papers home. They can also put their home reading books inside once those are distributed later this month. On Friday, each student brought home a 'Me Bag'. Students can put pictures or things that represent who they are in the bag, and bring it back sometime next week to share. On Monday, 15 September, all students will have their picture taken in order to update ManageBac. Grade 2.3 has PE on this day. Students who will be dressed in their PE uniform have been asked to bring a regular uniform shirt to change into for pictures. If your child is having hot lunch, they will have needed to purchase a card from the canteen for $2. Once you have recorded this card number at home to order online, please send the card back to school. The cards need to be scanned each time the lunches are delivered to the classroom. If you are unable to collect this card from school, send $2 with your child and I can collect the card and send it home. So far we have had a great start to the year, and I look forward to what next week brings! A few reminders and notes: * Please check the 'Parent Info' section to see our schedule * If your child is having school lunch, they need to bring their lunch card back to school on Monday, * Home learning (including home reading books) will not start until the week of 22 August * Please remember we are a nut free classroom * Please help your child collect items about themselves for their Me Bag and bring back next week * 15 August - wear PE uniform, bring regular uniform shirt for pictures Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to meeting you all and explaining more about Grade 2 at the parent evening on Wednesday, 24 August. 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 2017
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