Magnet Games

Wow!  These students have created some pretty amazing games using magnets.  We only had a chance to look at a few this afternoon.  As we finish the presentations this week I will post the rest of the pictures.

Grade 2 French class is working on summer bugs and summer activities.  Check out our wall of summer words by the classroom door.

Grade 3s have moved onto division in math class.  This seems to be a more difficult concept than multiplication.  If you have time to go over some of the division homework with your child it would probably be beneficial.

Spelling Sorts - as usual

 We are currently finishing a whole class novel study of The Littles.  Once we are done this whole group activity students will be broken into small groups to study a novel more independently.  Each student will be responsible for completing a portion of the work.  More details will follow.

Reminders for this week:
Monday: Read-a-Thon pledge forms are due ASAP
Wednesday: Read-a-Thon during the school day,
  Evening of the Arts - arrive no later than 6:00pm
  Book Fair open at 5:30 pm
Friday: Boston Pizza Lunch

Mid May Magnets

What a buzz today!  The students are so excited about the magnet project they are working on.  This week their task is to create a game that uses magnets.  Today was their first work period and you could feel the excitement in the air.  We can't wait to share the finished products with you next week.

Last week we did some experiments with static electricity. 

This past week we did a few focus lessons on Connections.  We have been practicing making connections to ourselves, other texts and media forms, as well as the real world.  This is a good skill to practice during reading at home as well.

We also spent some time talking about inferring.  This skill is a little more difficult for students still.  We will continue to practice this one over the next few weeks.

Upcoming Dates:

May 26 - Read-a-Thon pledge envelopes due back at school, Pizza Orders Due
May 28 - Read-a-Thon and Evening of the Arts
May 30 - Pizza Day
June 13 - Jump Rope for Heart event - during the lunch hour

Mid May already?

We sure have been working hard the past couple of weeks.

This past week we learned the word Schema.  We used sticky rollers to make a visual of our own schema.  It was fun, and left very little mess :)  Our schema helps us understand and connect to the things that we choose to read and write about.

Our current unit of study in Science is Magnets.  We have done a number of experiments to learn about the properties of magnets.  Here is one photo of students successfully giving a nail a charge and picking up a paper clip.

Grade 2 math students are reviewing and practicing number sense.  Here are some butterflies that show various ways that they can represent numbers.  New this week is doubling and halving numbers.

Reminders this week:

Wednesday: Read-a-Thon kick off - watch for the pledge envelope coming home
Friday - No School
Monday - No School

May!

Grade 2 French videos.  Zoo animals using dialogue we have previously learned in class.

We are continuing with our work on Reading Comprehension strategies.  We are currently working together on reading a class novel and doing work related to 6 main areas of comprehension:

• Making Connections
• Visualizing
• Asking Questions
• Predicting
• Inferring
• Synthesizing

Here is a poster that helps us talk about our thinking:

The Grade 3s are VERY Excited to be starting a math unit on multiplication and division.  They were shocked to see that the concepts were actually extensions of things they have already learned.

This week:
Wednesday: Skype Chapel with Nicarugua