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