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!