May 2015

What a busy past few weeks it has been! With our field trip to Fort Edmonton Park, May Long Weekend, the hustle and bustle of District Track Meet coming up, and practicing for the Track Meet...it has been a very busy few weeks! The crazy part is that it is not going to slow down! 

A few things: 

-Keep an eye out for forms and information being sent home. The students will put the forms in their kanga pouch and I will try to send an email when they go home, however, best to check every night when you sign their agenda. 

-With the change of weather, the students are spending more time outside (YAY!!) however they still need a good night's sleep. They are much more productive at school after a good rest. 

Language Arts

We continue to work on our phonics, spelling, writing (empowering writers program and 6+1 traits), journals, story prompt writing, and reading comprehension. This week we have started our Novel Study on Charlotte's Web. The students are pretty excited! 

In phonics we have been learning about: 'wr' words, digraphs (wh, ck, ch, kn, th, sh, wr, etc), 'ar' words, and 'or' words. Our next section of phonics continues on to learn about 'ir', 'er', and 'ur' words, compound words, and contractions. 

Our writing unit has been encouraging the students to elaborate and add details to their writing while thinking about two important questions: What does it look like? and Why is it important? 

The Empowering Writers unit will focus on: using good description words, writing convincing statements, creating a postcard, write suspenseful writing, and be introduced to acrostic poems. 

Another important part to writing is varying their word choice, so they have been trying to write with different words and 'juicy' words. They have began learning about verbs (action words) and why each sentence needs to have a verb in it. Over the next few weeks, the 6+1 Traits of Writing will allow students to start looking at: using clues to figure out tough words, using their senses when writing, using details but not too many, and using different words to begin a sentence. 

Math

We have finished up our 'Addition and Subtraction to 18' unit. The students have come a long way with their number facts! Keep in mind that the students cannot practice these facts enough. 

The students are practicing (A LOT) their double digit addition and subtraction. Although they have been exposed to different methods of addition and subtraction, ask them to show you their favorite way. This is a great activity for you to do with them!

Science

The students have been experimenting a lot with their 'recycle items' and determining which materials float or sink, and why they float or sink. This week the students will finish up their Boats and Buoyancy unit with their final 'boat' by creating a boat that is self-propelling. The students are pretty excited to create and test their boats. 

The next unit is "Small Crawling and Flying Animals". 

Social

Our grade 2 class is diligently working on our Social presentations. It is a culminating project in which our class has been split into groups, research one of the three communities, and put the interesting information into a google presentation. Once completed, the Grade 2 class will present their information to the Grade 1 classes. This is quite a large project for them to work on so it will take a few weeks to work on. The presentations will take place in late June.