Important Reminders

Concert

The grades 1-5 concert will be on Wednesday December 14^th. The show is called Pirates of Pinataville. The children are expected to arrive in their classrooms, wearing their costumes at 5:30 p.m. The grade 2’s are wearing black bottoms (pants, skirt or tights) and a solid bright coloured shirts (no logos, patterns, numbers or words).

 
Secret Santa

The children may begin to bring in their gifts (Under $10) for their secret recipient. We will be exchanging the gifts at our class party on December 22, 2016.

Stonegate Family
Our laundry basket has arrived. Just a reminder that all donations are due by Friday December 16^th. Please contact the grade parents if you need additional information.  An email has been sent out with information regarding the needs of the family as well as sign up opportunities. This is a wonderful way to help another family during holiday season. It also connects with our Character Trait of Kindness and Caring. Donations are not to be wrapped. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

December Update!

December is a very busy and exciting month both at school and at home. Last Friday we were all excited to see that one of Santa's elves had come to visit us. Apparently his flies back to the North Pole every night and reports to Santa all of the wonderful things that our happening with the students in our class. We are looking forward to discovering him in his tricky and amusing hiding spots each day when we come to school,

Famous People Players
On Wednesday the Grade Two classes will be going to see Tree-Mendous, a medley of holiday vignettes with fun, up-beat music. Once again we had several parents wanting to volunteer but we are only able to bring two parent volunteers per class. Catherine (Porter's mom) and Kelly Chan      (Ayden's mom) have been chosen to join us on this trip. It is important to note that Famous People Players is a theatre group dedicated to the integration of people who have developmental disabilities. I will be talking to the students about this before we leave on Wednesday so that there are no surprises.

Secret Santa
Last Thursday I sent home a note regarding Secret Santa. Each of the students selected the name of the student they are buying for. Your child may bring in their gift beginning Dec 12th and up to Dec 21st, but don't let anyone see you putting it under our small tree. Remember to write only the recipients name on the gift. If your child will be away for Secret Santa, please let me know. We will have to make other arrangements to avoid any disappointments for the children.

Reading Buddies
Last week your child was partnered up with 1-2 grade eight student/s who will be their Reading Buddy for the remainder of the school year. We will have Reading Buddies every other week on Day 5-Period 5 in the afternoon.

Absences
Please let the office know if you will be taking you child out of school for any length of time before or after the break. Your child can always keep a journal of their travels and read daily. IXL and RAZ are also great if you have access to the internet.

Curriculum Outline for December

Language Arts
The students will be working on a variety of reading and writing activities based on the winter holidays that are celebrated this month. We have already written and mailed our letters to Santa. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get a response before the Christmas holiday begins. We have our Christmas Wish list posted on our classroom door for anyone who wants to come by to have a look.

Math
We will be continuing our unit on 2D and 3D Geometry throughout the month of December. Our goals is to complete the unit by the end of this month.

Science
This week we will be starting our unit on Air and Water.

Social Studies
The students will be learning about various winter celebrations, including Hanukkah, Eid,
Kwanzaa and Christmas. We will also be learning about how Christmas is celebrated around the world.

Media Literacy
We have be learning about the many different forms media. Please send in a few newspapers, magazines, travel brochures, menus, etc. We will be working in small groups at the end of the week and making a collage of different forms of Media.

Well, that's all for now! If you have any questions or concerns please drop by the classroom before or after school. You can also call the school and leave a message for me in the office.

Good Bye October, Hello November!

It's hard to believe another month has come to an end. The first two months of school have gone by very quickly. Thank you to all of the parents who have volunteered in a variety of ways during the month of October. The Scientist in the School, Halloween Craft Day and Halloween Party were all a great success. The students loved the crafts and I am quite sure they enjoyed bringing them home and sharing their accomplishments with you. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful and supportive group of parents this year. The students in our classroom are greatly benefitting from you sharing your time, resources and expertise.

Next week we will be going to the Royal Winter Fair. Our volunteers have been confirmed.  If you were not selected to volunteer this time, there will be many other volunteer opportunities throughout the year for which we will need your support.

On Friday the students participated in four hands on science activities related to our Simple Machines Unit. They worked with I Pads, Lego, catapults and pulleys. They had opportunities to test their own hypotheses. Many thanks to Jennifer Decaria, (Rowan's) mom. for planning the afternoon and bringing her resources so our class could have this amazing afternoon of learning. Again, thank you to the parents who helped make this afternoon a success.

A few reminders as we head into the colder weather. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather, especially if they stay for lunch. When we get into winter boot weather it will be important that students have a pair of indoor shoes that they keep at school. Putting an extra pair of socks in your child's backpack is also recommended

Curriculum Outline

Here are some of the highlights from October and some of what is coming up in November.

Language Arts:

The students have been busy working on writing fictional narratives as well as recounts about various events such as Thanksgiving and Halloween. As we continue through November, the students will continue with their weekly journal entries on various topics, spelling , printing and grammar. We are continuing to focus on Capitals, Organization, Punctuation and Spelling.

RAZ Kids is up and running and I am thrilled to see that most students have logged in and have begun reading and completing various activities. I realize that some children would prefer to read their own books in the evening and that is fine with me. The main thing is that your child is reading books at their instructional level everyday. It is also important for you to spend time reading with your child. Choosing a bedtime story or reading a chapter in a book for you to read aloud each night
is such a valuable bedtime routine.

Math

There was some confusion with IXL recently and messages indicating that your child's account had expired. This was an error on IXL's end and has been rectified. We are nearing the end of our first Number Sense and Numeration unit.  In this unit, the students have been focusing on Place Value, Skip Counting, Ordinal Numbers, Addition and Subtraction. IXL is a wonderful tool to reinforce and practise what your child is learning a school. At the beginning of each unit I will continue to send home the units your child should be focussing on in the IXL program.

Science

We are almost done our unit on Simple Machines. The children were very excited and engaged during our visit from our Scientist in the School as well as our hands on afternoon of Science with Jennifer Decaria (Rowan's mom).

Social Studies

Our social studies unit on Traditions and Celebrations continues throughout this month and next. Our focus for November will be Remembrance Day. The students will be completing a variety of reading, writing and art activities related to Remembrance Day.

SCARE Hunger Food Drive

A huge thank you to everyone who donated non-perishable food items to our annual SCARE Hunger Food Drive. This was a very successful year for the food drive and your contributions were big part of the success with this initiative

 

Terry Fox Donations

Another big thank you for all of your contributions to the Terry Fox Walk. Our school contributions are no at $20,000!  WOW!


Report cards and Interviews – Progress reports will be going home on November 14.   If you would like to book an interview you will need to do so using the online system www.schoolinterviews.ca between Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 with the user id and password provided.  Interviews are scheduled in 10 minute blocks, so I kindly ask that you are on time.

Class Trip (Royal Winter Fair)

On November 9th we will be going to the Royal Winter Fair. This is a wonderful trip that we have had the opportunity to enjoy several times in the past. Please spend some time speaking to your child about appropriate behaviour on the school bus and more importantly the importance of  listening to their group leader. It is a very busy and exciting place. Encouraging your child to remain calm, listen carefully and to be aware of where their group and parent leader is at all times is extremely important and must be emphasized at home before our trip!

     On Friday we had the Scientist in the School program visit our classroom. The children participated in a variety of experiments which helped to consolidate their learning about Simple Machines. Thank you to those parents who volunteered to help lead these experiments. The students thoroughly enjoyed their morning! 

     Thank you to everyone who has brought in a donation for the We Scare Hunger food drive. The children are learning about helping others less fortunate and they are so proud to put their donations into the box outside our classroom.  Just a reminder, please don't send in any products which contain nuts.  The Food Drive continues until Monday, October 31.

     The children attended "The Power of One" presentation on Tuesday morning.  Through watching role-playing situations the children learned that everyone has the power to stop bullying.  Each child will be signing "the Power of One" poster board to show that they would not bully others, and will report bullying.  The poster boards will be displayed in the school after all the students sign them.  

     Our school has been experiencing some difficulty with the IXL program this week. We have people looking into this issue and we are hoping that it will be up and running again early next week. I will keep you posted on this issue.

      Picture Retake Day is Thursday, October 27.  Please let me know if you wish a retake, so I can add your name to the list.  A reminder that photo orders submitted to school are due on Monday, October 24.  Payments are also accepted on-line.  See the proof form for additional details.

     

     The grade 8's will be creating a Haunted House for the students to visit. It is recommended the students bring a $2.00 donation when entering the Haunted House as the grade 8's are raising money for their grade trip. Our class is scheduled to visit the Haunted House on Friday, October 28th. Your child does not have to visit the Haunted House if they are not comfortable doing so. They will have the option to stay outside in the hallway with me.

     Halloween is quickly approaching. This week we will be having a Halloween craft morning. The children are looking forward to making some crafts that they can use to decorate their home. The children may wear their costumes to school on Monday, October 31.  There will be a school parade for the parents at 9:00 am.  The parade will be outside weather permitting.  Our classroom party will be in the afternoon.  Just a reminder that face paint is easier to manage than a mask and please no weapons.  

     Finally, a reminder that Pizza Lunch is on Friday, October 28th. Please remind your child how to behave for the parent supervisors in our classroom. The students need to use inside voices, remain seated, use their manners and to clean up after themselves. I will be speaking to the students about these expectations but an extra reminder from home will be helpful too.

    

What to Expect in October

It's hard to believe that we are in the second week of October. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! The children were very eager to share their Thanksgiving Trees
with their family. A special thank you to those parents who volunteered to cut out the foam leaves for
this craft. It was much appreciated by all of us!

Language Arts:
We have now gotten into the routine of weekly spelling lists. Each week, the students complete a variety of activities in class based on the spelling words of the week. These may include sorting words by spelling rule, crosswords, fill in the blank, proofreading and short creative writing assignments. I will send home the spelling test book every couple of weeks so you can keep track of the words your child needs to work on.

Reading:
In reading we are focussing on the reading strategies of making connections and predictions to assist with comprehension. Students are encouraged to make text to self, text to text and/or text to world connections as they are reading. The class will begin weekly Guided Reading groups next week.

The students have been working on reading some short stories in class and answering a variety of comprehension and grammar questions in complete sentences, using words from the questions to begin the answer and including greater detail. We are also working on beginning sentences with a capital letters and finishing sentences with appropriate punctuation.

Writing:
Over the next couple of weeks we will be working on a variety of short writing assignments based on Thanksgiving and Halloween. The students will learning to write recounts of various experiences, such as the Terry Fox walk and Thanksgiving. They will also be learning to write fictional narratives with a "Spooky" focus around Halloween, amongst other short Halloween writing activities.

Math:

We have completed our first Math Unit on Sorting and Data Management (graphing). Last week I sent home a list of units to practice on IXL based on what we have learned to date. This is an excellent review for all children.

 

This week we will begin our next unit as part of the Number Sense and Numeration strand and includes representing, comparing, and ordering whole numbers (place value), skip counting forwards and backwards, and basic addition and subtraction facts. We will also look at patterns in addition and subtraction and how to determine the missing number in equations ( 8+__ = 12). I will send home a list of IXL activities next week that correspond to what we are learning in class.

 

Science:

We will be starting our Simple Machines unit this week. We will be having the Scientist in the School come in for a morning of hands-on activities related to this unit on October 21st. We will need 4-5 volunteers for this amazing morning of learning!

 

Social Studies:

We are well underway with our first unit looking at Traditions and Celebrations. This month

we are focussing on Thanksgiving and Halloween.

 

Mystery Reader:

The children love discovering who our weekly Mystery Reader is. Please sign up for this. I am happy to accommodate your schedule to ensure each child is surprised by their parent, sibling or grandparent at least one time during the school year.

 

That's all for now! I will let you know when this blog has been updated again through your child's

agenda.

This week you all received your son/daughter's login information for IXL and RAZ. Hopefully everyone has had a chance to explore these wonderful learning tools. I recommend your child use the programs 2-3 times per week for 15 minutes each time.

We also started our spelling program this week. Once the words have gone home, your child will be accountable for spelling these words correctly in their daily writing. I will also be adding 3-5 "NoExcuse" words to the list each week. These words are from a list of words of high frequency words that your child is expected to know by the end of grade two. Quite often children do very well on the weekly spelling test however the words may still be spelled incorrectly in their daily writing. Your child will be encouraged to use our Word Wall, Word Wiz Dictionaries and Word Cards to ensure these words are spelled correctly in their daily work.

In Social Studies we began discussing Traditions and Celebrations. This will be an on-going theme throughout the year.

In Math, we have been learning how to make a graphs. Your child worked with a partner and came up with a question with four possible answers. Then they surveyed the class and created a graph using the information from their survey. The groups worked very well together and the graphs are on display above the hooks outside our classroom.

In Language we are working on answering comprehension questions using complete sentences both orally and in the written form.

We are looking forward to our Terry Fox Walk this week. Just a reminder, everyone is welcome to join our walk.

A Very Busy Second Week!

Thank you to everyone who attended our Curriculum Night last Thursday evening. I hope you enjoyed looking around our classroom and seeing all of the wonderful work the children have been doing over the last couple of weeks. The students are very proud of their accomplishments so far in grade two. If you had another commitment and were not able to attend last Thursday, please feel free to drop by the classroom with your child and have a look around.

On Tuesday we read The Kindness Quilt by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace and discussed ways that we can show kindness both at school and at home through words and actions. The students shared their ideas of how they could show kindness to friends, siblings, parents, classmates, etc. We then created our own Kindness Quilt with paper. The students are very proud of the quilt we made which is displayed on one of the bulletin boards in our classroom.

Last week each child chose a classmate to interview and then they presented what they learned about their friend to the class. They also had to draw a portrait of their friend. The students all enjoyed learning new things about each other. They did a wonderful job on this three part assignment.

This week I will be sending home IXL and RAZ login information. Please feel free to begin using these great learning tools as soon as you receive the login information.

We will begin our Spelling Program this week. The students will write these words in their planner tomorrow and we will have a spelling test on Friday.

Our first unit in Math is Sorting and Data Management. We will be reading and interpreting a variety of graphs and charts. Students will also be conducting surveys, collecting and organizing data, and presenting their data in Venn Diagrams, tally charts, pictographs and bar graphs.

First Week

The first week of Grade Two was a great success! Hopefully all of you have taken some time to review the detailed letters that were sent home this week. I hope that I was able to address most of the questions you may have about how our classroom works. I have been encouraging the children to bring their parent/caregivers by our classroom to show them around. This can be done before or after school. You will also have an opportunity to visit our classroom at Curriculum Night which is this Thursday September 15, 2016.

This month the Character Trait is Respect! We have read several books with theme's relating to respect and we also created a classroom chart with our ideas about what Respect looks/sounds like.
This week we read one our favourite books, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Each student was holding a paper heart. Each time Chrysanthemum was teased because of her name, we crumpled up the heart. Every time someone did something nice to her we tried to smooth it out. By the end of the story, the heart was very wrinkled and could not be smoothed. The students got the connection that our own heart feels wrinkled and crumpled sometimes when we don't like what someone says. Words do hurt. We should away stop and think before we speak. It's hard to fix a wrinkled heart!

This week we also made a list of Classroom Agreements which will help to ensure our classroom is a safe, secure and happy place to learn. Each student signed the Chart of Agreements to show they have agreed to follow our Classroom Agreements.

If your chiId is interested in participating in Cross Country, the first practice will be on Tuesday, September 13th.  Cross Country will be every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Exercise is a great way for your child to start their day!

Thank you for filling in all of those forms that were sent home last week. There are still a few outstanding. If you have time this weekend, I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a look at them if you have not done so already. Please remember to send in $8.00 for your child's agenda

Scholastic book orders are due on September 26, 2016.

Welcome to Grade Two!

Welcome to Grade Two!

Please check back at the end of this week!

May Update!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. The weather has continued to be inconsistent over the last couple of weeks. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather. Layers can always be removed. Hopefully the warm weather will settle in very soon.

This week we have the Primary Track and Field Day on Wednesday and our class trip to the zoo on Thursday. Please make sure your child brings a hat, sunscreen, water bottle and proper footwear.

Language:

We have been focusing on answering written comprehension questions using complete sentences with details from the story. The students continue to need reminders to proof read their work for proper spelling and punctuation.
Last month the children thoroughly enjoyed the read aloud, Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing written by Judy Blume and due to popular demand we are now reading the next book in this series called Super Fudge. Many of the students have even gone to the library and borrowed their own book to follow along as I read.

Math:

Last week we completed our unit on Fractions. This week we will be starting our unit on Money. We will be adding and subtracting money amounts to $1.00, using a variety of tools (e.g., concrete materials, drawings) and strategies (e.g., counting on, estimating )

Social Studies:
 

The students have been working very hard on their country research projects. They should all be completed by the end of the week. Each group will be presenting their projects to the class over the next couple of weeks. Thank you for helping your child print pictures that will help to enhance the visual part of their project. The students have been so enthusiastic about their research projects. They have thoroughly enjoyed searching for the answers to many questions they had before beginning their research..

Science:

This month we will begin learning about Growth and Changes in Animals.  This week we will begin our unit of study with a field trip to the Toronto zoo. We are also hoping receive butterfly larva in May. Each child will have their own to observe and record the changes over time. We will free the butterflies in June. The children will be thrilled to watch their butterflies being released into the natural environment.

Drama:

In Drama the children did a wonderful job performing their second Readers Theatre Play to one of the Kindergarten classes. Last week we broke up into three new groups and we are now working on our third and final Readers Theatre Plays. The children are thrilled to be doing another play. Everyone's confidence while performing has greatly improved and they are now using loud, clear voices with lots of expression. Some students are even trying to memorize their parts for their performance. They have also enjoyed bringing in and creating simple props for their plays.

Spelling:

We are now working on reviewing and consolidating the commonly used sight words. Very often the children know them for the weekly spelling test but some words are often spelled incorrectly in their daily writing. I strongly encourage the students to refer to the Word Wall, Word Wiz (Dictionary), and Word Cards. All student are responsible for spelling the words in/on these resources correctly.

Cursive Writing:

This month we are learning cursive writing. The students are very excited about learning all of the letters and eventually learning how to write their first and last name. Some students who have difficulty with printing are finding cursive writing easier and the neatness of their work is beginning to improve.

Happy Family Day!

I hope everyone is still enjoying this very cold long weekend! It is so nice for everyone to have an extra day to spend time with their families.

Last week was full of many fun activities. Our week started with Learning about Chinese New Year. On Tuesday we went skating at the MasterCard Centre. It was a huge success! It was so nice for our class to spend time with the students from the other grade two classes. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who drove children to and from the arena.

I was really impressed with the creativity of the 100th Day displays of 100 things. The children enjoyed sharing their works of art with their peers. We also filled out a 100 square chart with the letters in our names. Each letter had a different colour. We made and discussed the interesting patterns that each name created.

Valentine's Day is always fun! Thank you to those parents who sent in treats for our class party. The children were very excited to open up their Valentine Cards and to share their chocolate treats with their friends.

This week I will be sending home the students Math Books. They were getting quite full so we have started a new Math Book. Please take some time to look through the books. I am suggesting that you have your child complete any incomplete pages or to review any area where your child may have experienced some difficulty. This book does not have to be returned to school.

In Math we are going to be spending a couple of weeks learning strategies for solving addition and subtraction questions (doubles, doubles + 1, counting on, counting back). We are also going to be focusing on counting by 2's,3's,4's,5's, 10's. This will lead into our next unit on multiplication.

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January Update - February News

January was a very busy month! We had presentations on school bus safety and fire safety as well as a presentation of Hansel and Gretel from the Shoestring Opera Company. The students really enjoyed all of these presentations. Last week, the children experienced some new Google glasses. They used an app on phones which were placed inside cardboard viewing glasses. They saw pictures of pyramids, tall buildings in Dubai, ocean views and much more. It was so much fun!

I hope by now you have all received a letter from your child in the mail. Hopefully it was a surprise. The children were so enthusiastic about writing the letters and they especially enjoyed putting the letters in the mailbox and waiting for it to arrive. It was a nice way to end our unit on letter writing.

This is a very busy month in grade two. On Monday, the students participated in an Aussie X dance workshop. Yesterday the class discussed Groundhog Day with Mrs. Champagne. They read a story and a poem about Groundhog Day and completed a written follow up activity related to the poem.

During the next two weeks we will be discussing Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day and 100^th Day!  This is a continuation of learning about celebrations and traditions as part of the grade two curriculum.

Today a not was sent home about a 100^th day assignment which is to be completed at home and brought to school on Thursday February 11^th. We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on this day as well. Students who wish to bring in Valentine’s cards or treats are asked to bring in one for each child to avoid children feeling excluded. Please make sure all treats are Nut Free! The children are welcome to bring in their Valentine’s, beginning on Monday February 8^th.

Just a reminder that report cards will be coming home on Friday February 5^th. I have already requested interviews with the parents of children I have some concerns about. I am more than happy to meet with any parent who wishes to discuss their child’s progress. Please book your interview on the School Bookings website www.schoolinterviews.ca by Thursday February 4^th. If for some reason you miss the booking deadline, just write a note in your child’s planner and we can arrange a time that is convenient for both of us.

                  

IXL Update - Time – P1-P17

                     -  Focus on Addition and Subtraction of 2 digits - G1-G4 & H1-H5

                     -  Introduction to Multiplication – W1-W6

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday spending time with family and friends! I hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2016.

I would like to thank Viktoria and Cynthia, our wonderful class grade parents, who continue to help coordinate a variety of classroom events.

The children have been enjoying having a Mystery Reader each week. Please sign up if you have not done so already.

Thank you to all of the families who made donations to our Stonegate Family. Your kindness and generosity helped to make the holiday season special for another family.

Thank you to all of the parents who contributed various treats and supplies, to our class parties last term. Several moms organized two very special craft mornings (Halloween and Christmas). The children thoroughly enjoyed making all of the crafts and were eager the share them with their family.

The grade twos have worked very hard since the beginning of the school year and they will continue to work hard learning many new things this term.

 Math – Please continue to review addition and subtraction facts to 20. We will be starting Minute Math over the next couple of weeks in hopes to improve everyone’s speed and accuracy of these basic facts.  If your child is struggling with these facts please help them review them either through drill or by using the IXL program.  During the next week we will be finishing our unit on 2-Dimensional and 3-Dimensional shapes. I will inform you, later on this week as to what unit we will be working on next.

Science - During the first couple of weeks in January we will be finishing up our unit on Matter. Later on this month we will begin our study on Air and Water.

Social Studies

We will continue learning about many Celebrations and Traditions as they arise throughout the remainder of the school year. In January we will begin a unit on Mapping.

Language: We will be working on letter writing over the next couple of weeks. In reading, the students will be continuing to read books at their instructional level and learning comprehension strategies. We will also continue to work on making connections to what we read. Text-to-text (connecting to something else they have read), text-to-self (connecting to a personal event or experience), text-to-world (connecting to world events). Encouraging these discussions at home after reading or watching something on television would be beneficial.

 Thank you for your continued support with your child’s learning. Please contact me at any time if you have any questions or concerns.

 

Yours in Partnership

Laureen Souter