Les aventures des jeunes

 Personal Writing We have started a unit focusing on writing about personal moments, things that we have seen, done, or had done to us (haircut, tooth pulled etc). We are using Robert Munsch stories as our anchor books as he wrote about children and events based in everyday activities.  The children are encouraged to break a moment into four parts, each part is one idea. As an idea is typically a sentence, we are working on using punctuation at the end of an idea and capitals to start the next idea. We are also practicing using vocabulary that describes the time that has passed e.g. one day, then, while, over, under, on etc.  We will also be practicing adding dialogue to our writing. Robert Munsch certainly writes entertaining dialogue including sound effects! Addition Practice We have completed our unit on addition and double digit addition and are moving on to subtraction. Although we have practiced math addition facts to 20 with games, flash cards and problem solving many of the cla

 Carnaval We had a very successful Carnaval. We had a dedicated group of children who organized the decorating of our door. The door became an ice palace complete with bonhomme. We also used some of the borax crystals as icicles. There was a second group who created a castle decorated with snowflakes and cotton balls as snow. Borax Crystals As part of our Carnaval celebration and winter explorations, we made crystals with borax. It is part of our science learning as we learn about matter. The children each had a chance to add the borax powder to the water with their pipe cleaner. We talked about how the powder when mixed with hot water, dissolved. We observed that as the water cooled, it became cloudy and we started to see crystals.  Friendship and Growth Mindset We had a wonderful Celebration of Friendship. The fruit salad was well received. The children had many helpings! As a challenge the children spent time creating a heart out of materials in class. The criteria for the heart was

 The Canadian Arctic Over the course of the year in grade 2 we are learning about the different regions of Canada. We are starting a unit on the Canadian arctic. We will be doing research on several arctic animals, learning about their habitats, food sources and about the number of offspring as well as whether or not the babies resemble the adults.  We will also be learning about the Inuit, traditional ways of transportation and traditional shelters. We will also listen to some throat singing and drumming.  Place Value and Numbers to 100 We are continuing to practice math facts during the first 30 minutes of the day. The children are playing games such as Face Off, Salute and Rolling the Addition. The goal continues to be that the children have  addition facts to 20 memorized. We are also counting and working with amounts to 100. The students are counting amounts of items up to 75 at this point. They then label the amounts with 10's and 1's and write the number on a number line

  Special Events for December.  ⛄❄ December 1st La journée des animaux To celebrate all our hard work, the children can dress as their favorite animal. They are welcome to bring a small stuffy as well. The stuffy should be the same animal as they are dressed up as.   For example a costume can be as straightforward as wearing all brown to be a deer and having a small deer stuffy. Have fun creating the costumes!   December 6 th  Concert   This is our class’ concert day. You have the option of attending the concert at 12:30 or 6:30 pm. Please see the school email for more detail about costumes.     Decmeber 8 th - Blue, White and Flashlight day   December 15 th -  Santa, Elf,  or  Reindeer hat day.   🌲🌲🌲🌲   December 22 nd  –  Pyjama, Stuffy and Hot Chocolate day  

 Forest Animals of Canada One of our forest centres We have been talking about the forest and the animals found here on the island. We have been practicing the names of the animals and describing their attributes. We have read a booklet to friends describing the animals. We have been playing with a variety of centres to encourage French oral play and discussion about these animals. The focus on the forest was an introduction to the habitat of our local salmon. We will be learning about salmon on our field trip to Goldstream. Before going to Goldstream all the grade 1/ 2 and 2 classes have been creating a salmon ecosystem. We visited the ecosystem, talked about the source of the water in the river and how it becomes brackish in the estuary. We made salmon out of plasticine and added them to the other salmon waiting to swim up river. It is getting very crowded! We will continue to work on the ecosystem adding eggs, alevin etc. over the next several months. More immediately we will be tal

 Farming and more  In connection to talking about healthy food and the Canada Food Guide, we have been reading and talking about farming. After reading A Prairie Alphabet, the students spent some time using the materials in class to build things that are found on the prairie such as grain elevators, farms, tipis and homes.  Here are some examples of their work.  La ferme Un train Une maison/ un cabane As we were talking about grain elevators and trains, we watched some CN freight trains on YouTube at lunch as they are not a sight ECH students see here on the island.  We are fortunate to have Corrine Chow presenting at the school this week about the Métis culture which originates and continues on the prairies. It will be a timely tie in to our unit. We will continue to explore in class, talking about tipis and bison and their importance to the Indigenous Peoples. Vocabulary building We are building our knowledge of the French vocabulary about farms, farm animals etc. We played an oral g

Art Cards We have started out Art Cards! Social Studies and Health One of the Big Ideas, a focus, for grade 2 is the diverse regions of Canada. As a beginning  to this unit we made a map of the school grounds. We then looked at Canada using google maps and zoomed in to our school. We were able to compare our map with what we saw on the screen.  Over the school year we will be looking in more detail at different regions of Canada. Over the next few weeks we will be talking about the food we grow on the Island. This will lead to conversations and comparisons with the prairies, what grows on the prairies, the animals and geography of that region of Canada.  As we are talking about food, we will be reading and retelling the story of La petite poule rousse. (The Little Red Hen). We will also be talking about healthy foods vs snack and treat food.   As we approach Halloween could you please limit candy to 1 item per day if that is your practice to include candy in your child's lunch. As