Kid Quotes: "We looked at a book called Bluebird." - Bea "We did I see, I think, I wonder with the Bluebird book." - Emanie "We had to write things down we saw and wondered." - Saurish "We looked at the book and we went back a few times to write what we think, wonder and see." - Aubrey "We were inferring!" - Eniko "We counted the edges, vertices and faces." - Hagen "In unit of inquiry, we were doing the states of matter." - Saurish "We are doing How We Express Ourselves. We did Chalk Talk." - Kotaro "We drew symbols that we have seen in our lives." - Rai "We shared our symbols to the class. We put sticky notes if we didn't know that symbol and put tally marks on the sticky." - Olivia "We watched a video about different symbols, what they mean, the colors." - Kotaro "We looked at Brain Pop for shapes." - Nora "In the morning we looked at the tummy breathing so we can calm down." - Bea "We looked at the book Steps and Stones and drew our anger." - Hagen "We read the book Lost and Found." - Saurish "Last time we looked at the book called Red Book. It only had pictures, no words, so we had to think and infer." - Bea "We edited our writing." - Olivia "We were doing feedback. We read what they wrote and gave them one star and a wish." - Kotaro "We did mindful coloring." - Kotaro "Last time we got a white board and we did Math on it and we did some questions that Miss Luttrell did, and it was 25+13." - Bea "We did our morning meditation to start our day, to calm ourselves." - Saurish "We used the nets to make solid shapes and glued them in our mathbooks." - Rai Friday was pyjama day! We wore our pyjamas to school or free dress and gave money or food to the foodbank!
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How the world works unit came to an end this week, as students worked on individual projects to show their understanding of the central idea. Students created books, posters, pictures, comics, and songs! We will continue to work on presentation skills, as far as layout, colour choices, size of text and pictures, etc as the year progresses.
We continued exploring 2D shape and will make connections to 3D shapes next week. In literacy, students finished their how-to writing and we worked on inferring when reading. Students also completed a unit reflection on their online portfolio. It was great meeting with both parents and students on Wednesday to review strengths and goals. AThis week, students finished up exploring capacity and volume. They compared how much different containers could hold in the sand pit, and recorded their findings. We also moved into our unit about Shape and Space. Students participated in a Hexagonal Thinking activity. In small groups, students were given hexagons with 2D and 3D shape vocabulary on each one. Working together, discussing ideas and explaining their thoughts, they needed to make connections amongst the hexagons. If hexagons were touching from any side, that meant there was a connection. Students recognised some of the vocabulary, but some of it was new to them. We will do this activity again at the end of the unit to see how our thinking has changed. With partners, students also began to explore 2D shapes. They drew a particular shape from a container, and then used key concept questions to help guide their inquiry. They looked at form (the properties of the shape), connection (where had they seen this shape before), and change (how we can change the shape in different ways). Exploration of 2D shapes brought up great discussions, questions and many ideas. We will continue to investigate these ideas, as we move into 3D shapes where we will make comparisons. Students will also explore tessellations and symmetry. Before the end of the year, we will also revisit pattern. In literacy, we have been exploring cause & effect (key concept: causation) during our unit of inquiry. We have just started looking at how to "read between the lines", by practicing our inferring skills. Students decided it's like being an investigator. You need to use the clues in the text and pictures and what we already to know to make a guess. Many students also connected inferring to a hypothesis (Unit of Inquiry) and an estimate (math)! We will continue to work on these reading strategies next week. Students have used the pictures they emailed in, or have drawn pictures, to write a final 'how to' piece. Many students are applying what we've been working on - sequencing, using time order and transition words, starting sentences in different ways and adding enough detail that someone could follow your steps. They are taking this piece through the whole writing process - brainstorming, drafting, revising/editing, and publishing. We practiced editing our own writing, paying close attention to word choice and conventions. Along with instructional writing, students wrote up their first lab report, with guidance, after observing the Grade 6 students' experiment with water. We conducted another experiment in class and with a little less guidance, students wrote up another lab report, following the steps of the scientific method. Ask your child about the water cycle experiment. Some students had asked "Does air have weight?" when we first started looking at solids, liquids and gases. We used a meter stick and hung it from the ceiling as a balance scale, for our third experiment. Students made their own hypothesis and wrote up the experiment with very little help. Ask your child what they learned and what they now know about air! We will conduct one more experiment next week and students will have the chance to write up the experiment on their own. Next week is our last week of this unit of inquiry, How the world works. Students will work in class to on something to show how a change in matter connects (affects) their life. This week, we explored and consolidated our understanding of measurement, including length, weight/mass. Students used tools around the classroom to measure different objects and then used balance and kitchen scales to explore mass and weight. Ask your child about weighing pumpkins! Next week, we will finish off with a look at volume and capacity, before moving onto Shape & Space.
On Monday, students explored changing states of matter. We then visited the Grade 6 science lab to observed an experiment with water. Students were split into three groups, and buddied up with the Grade 6 students who explained the experiment and talked them through each step. Grade 2 students asked questions and recorded their observations. After watching a Brain Pop Jr video about the scientific process, we then transferred our observations to a science lab report. More experiments will be happening next week, as we continue to explore the changing states of matter and how this affects our lives. In literacy, students finished off their recount from the October holiday. We also spent time exploring cause and effect in different stories. We first started with the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and then students identified cause and effect in their own books during Read to Self and Listen to Reading. Next week we will explore inferencing. We had an exciting two days of catching up this week and getting back into the routine of things. Thursday was filled with lots of story telling about holidays and fun adventures with family. Students reviewed recount writing, and used what they remembered to write a recount of their holiday. Students brainstormed ideas first in a web and then selected ideas to write about. They were given the choice to hand write their recount in their journal, type it in a Google Doc or use the voice tool in Google Docs to record their verbal recount. Ask your child about this tool or try it at home! Recounts will be completed next week. We spent some time reflecting on the Learner Profile, and picking examples of when we demonstrated certain attributes. Throughout the year, students will be working on a Learner Profile journal, and they completed two pages in this during the week. Deepavali is on Saturday and we explored some books and short movie about this holiday. We also worked together as a class to create our own Rangoli. Hagen and Nayoung drew the design based off a printed pattern. The rest of the class took turns to glue coloured rice onto the design. These were displayed in the hallway across the school on Friday. During our morning meeting on Friday, we had a discussion about feelings, and not always feeling the same way as our friends. We looked at a slide show and had to move around the room to different areas, showing if we felt safe to do a particular activity, or if we felt we would be taking a risk, or if we felt it would be too dangerous for us to want to try. This brought up great discussions about why we felt comfortable or not so comfortable doing different things, and how this might be different from how our friends feel. Students chose at least one piece of math to put in their portfolio, along with a reflection. They also chose either a piece about visualsing or questioning from Daily 5. We exchanged classroom books with the other Grade 2 classes, so we will have some new books to view this term.
Friday concluded with an assembly and free choice before completing our reflection journals. Olivia, Nora, Bea, Eniko and Sophia (G2.1) performed a song and back up dance at the assmebly. Video will be shared soon! Well done girls, and way to be risk takers! Next week, we will be getting more involved with changes in matter and connecting this to how it affects us and the environment. Reminders: * 31 Monday - Picture Day! Please come dressed in uniforms on this day. We have PE on Monday so the PE uniform is fine. * Home learning will begin again next week, and students will receive a new word list This was an exciting and busy week, as we continued exploring instructional writing, measurement and matter! In writing, students looked at different examples of instructions. They worked with teams to determine what was needed. Students agreed that instructions need: materials/ingredients listed, the steps (either with numbers or using time order words), a title and bossy verbs. Ask your child to explain bossy verbs! We had listened to the book Little Miss Bossy to help us identify bossy verbs, too. During a group discussion, students were able to come up with a variety of bossy verbs that could be used when writing about sports, music class, library, packing up, and when at home. Students reflected on their own instructional writing, giving themselves 2 stars and a wish, and then drafting a new copy and including some of the necessary items not included the first time. We visually represented our ideas about measurement early in the week. Students had two tasks.
Task1: Think about the word measure. Draw how you thinking measuring looks. Think about the tools that might be used. Task 2: When and where do we measure things? Why do we measure things? Draw or write your ideas. Most students visualised ways to measure length, which is where we focused our initial exploring using nonstandard measurement tools to measure items around the classroom. We collected measurement data and with Mr. Gallagher's help on Thursday, turned this data into bar graphs on the computer. After the break, we will explore other ways to measure matter, specifically looking at weight and capacity. Students explored nonfiction books and the importance of the contents, index, page numbers and key words in a library lesson on Tuesday. With a partner, they chose a nonfiction book that related to our unit. We can't wait to start reading these! Students each had their own Matter booklet which was used throughout the week to collect information about solids, liquids and gases. We also worked with our groups to come up with questions, and practiced sorting solids, liquids and gases with some online activities. Friday was International Day and more pictures will be coming soon! We dove into our second unit, How the world works, this week. After listening to a 'Matter Rap', we identified words we didn't know, and those that we thought might be important. Students paired up using playing cards (ask your child how this worked!), and using a Frayer model, became the 'expert' about one word. Students investigated the words: matter, mass, solid, liquid, gas, and property. With a partner, they looked up the definition, thought about characteristics, and provided both examples and non-examples. Next week, we will continue exploring the states of matter and begin to make connections with our lines of inquiry. During Daily 5, students have been very independent in the choices they are making. Many students chose to practice Word Work, while others worked to create comics, stories and other books. We are continuing to work on remembering capitals and punctuation in our sentences, and were focusing on spelling question words correctly: Who, what, where, when, why, could, do. The reading strategy: Questioning, was a focus this week. Students practiced looking at the cover of a book, asking questions before, during and after reading. We noticed that some questions could be answered from the text, while others required some investigating and inferring based on the pictures and our own experiences. Students came to the conclusion that not all questions will be answered every time, but if we have questions about words, we can use a dictionary to help. In math, we began investigating data and worked hard to collect and organise data in different ways. Students came to an understanding that data is information. As we have been working on asking questions while reading, this integrated well into our math unit, thinking about different types of questions to ask in a survey. Many students realised after their initial survey, that providing choices usually helps. Sometimes, they may need to adjust a survey and add a 'none' or 'neither' category, because some people just don't know what Pokemon is, and some people have never been on a Universal Studios ride! Students organised their data into bar graphs, both vertical and horizontally, depending on preference, and explored the concept of presentation - thinking about writing neatly, adding labels, a title and being careful to organise it in a way which was readable. Next week will be our last week before the October holidays. Remember we have International Day on Friday. The students are looking forward to this exciting day! We've had a busy last few weeks finishing up our first math unit as well as our first Unit of Inquiry. We started this week as scientists, exploring different materials (jelly, flour, glue, ice) and writing down our observations - what we saw, smelled, and felt. We began writing what we thought about these things and any wonderings we had. Next week, we will be sorting our questions in relation to our key concepts. This was a fun introduction into our new unit: How the world works. We also had an author visit on Thursday. Blair Reeve visited and read from his book Hobart the Hedgehog Turns Nink. He also discussed rhythm and rhyme with the students and compared his style of writing to Dr. Seuss'. In math, we continued using our math strategies to solve story problems, and students applied their understanding in creating their own story problems. Next week, we will begin investigating data handling and then measurement. A new word sort will go home next week. We are really focusing on conventions in writing and this will continue all year. Students are working on reading through their work and identifying where they need capitals and full stops. They are able to identify this in other people's writing but have a difficult time applying proper conventions in their own writing. Below are some pictures from the last two weeks. Enjoy! What an exciting start to the week! Monday morning we headed to the Botanic Garden where we participated in different verbal and nonverbal activities. Kid Quotes: "I liked when I ran with Mr. Nathan. It was difficult to do lots of new games." - Bea "I liked when we played with Mr. Nathan, the blindfold game. I learned all about communication fun verbal and non verbal. I like the talking one." - Eniko "I liked it when I stacked the cups with Ms. M. I learned how to communicate in different ways." - Hagen "I learned how to communicate in different ways. I learned how to communicate very well. For example we learned how to communicate nonverbally and verbally." - Teddy We have been working on recount writing, which includes a focus on past tense verbs and using time order/transition words (after, later, on Monday, three hours later). Student have become more aware of these things in their writing, and are still focusing on using capitals and full stops consistently. In the next week or so, these recounts will be typed and included in the student online portfolios, along with pictures. Stay tuned! We have also started investigating letter writing, and students have written letters to Mr. Nathan and Ms. Vaughan for coming along on our field trip. We will also be looking into appropriate ways to write emails next week. Students have continued this week with their second list of words. They will have these words for two weeks, but during the second week, will choose words that are of interest to them in their reading and writing to focus on as well. As our unit continues to progress, students are now able to give examples of when and where might be best uses for verbal and nonverbal communication. We discussed how we speak to certain people might be different depending on our relationship. We don't talk to Mr. Pinchbeck the same way we speak to brother or sister! Next week, we will continue to explore cross cultural communication. If you are interested in sharing how you communicate, please sign up HERE to share for 10 minutes or so with all Grade 2 students (Wednesday, 14 September). New this week are student nominated Learner Profile awards. Previously teachers have nominated students each week. This year, students will be nominating each other throughout the week when they see exceptional displays of certain attributes. Their certificate will be displayed in the hallway for one week, and then they will be taking it home. The students are very excited for this change! In math, students have continued exploring place value and are really showing they have a deep understanding of this concept. One learning experience during the week involved students 'proving it'. They had to decide which number was smaller: 759 or 739. Then they had to prove it. There were many different strategies used: 100's board, addition and subtraction sentences, skip counting on number lines, building with manipulatives, making the numbers with base ten blocks. Most students realised the value of the number in the hundreds and ones place were the same. They focused on the amount of tens, noting that 3 groups of 10 is smaller than 5 groups of 10. There was some fantastic thinking and explaining happening this week by Grade 2.3! We will continue investigating different strategies to add numbers next week, and hopefully apply the knowledge we gained this week. We are fortunate to have a great relationship with Singapore Food Bank. We have supported them by collecting food and monetary donations in the past. Next Tuesday (13th), someone from the Food Bank is bringing a food box to the Student Action Leadership Team meeting. We will keep the box at the school so we can continuously collect donations to be sent to families in need. This work supports the UN Goal of Zero Hunger which the staff and students in MS have been learning about. We have dates set up for staff and families to volunteer. If you are interested, please choose any dates you are able to participate by clicking here. Have a great weekend! |
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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