Monday February 27, 2017

Many of us brought in our Newspaper Articles from the kids news websites today. We practiced reading fluently. This means reading smoothly, accurately, in a loud, clear speaking voice and adding expression like excitement into our reading to make it interesting to the listener!

On Wednesday we will be practicing reading like a Reporter! I can also practice this at home. My news will then get pinned onto our Breaking News Bulletin Board on Friday.

In writing we planned our first attempt at solving the problem in our story. Ask me how my animal tried to help me solve my problem and why it DID NOT work?


Today we celebrated International Polar Bear Day by turning off our classroom lights, heat and technology! It was challenging but so important! 


Math
Important Subtraction Strategies:
This is what we have been working on in Math
MATH CONTEXT

Remember our Friendly Numbers 100s, 10s, 5s and extra's 1's

When we use different colours it can help us think about our Hops, Skips and Jumps!

Here we can think about how to get to a LANDMARK NUMBER (30) to then make the backwards jumps of 10 and 5 "easier".

We can create new equations by breaking the original one down into smaller parts!

So first we think about using the friendly 10 inside of the 16, and subtracting 160-10 = 150. And then we do the remainder which is 150-6= 144

Here is some work that we did today when we were trying to figure out the difference in age between Carlos his Sister and Carlos and her Dad. This difference is how many more years Carlos will need until he will reach these ages! 

Science:

In science we made a list of things that we think could be hot and things that could be cold. Tomorrow we will estimate the temperature's that we think these things might be.

Some things we talked about for Hot:

-coffee

-fire

-tea

-steam

-boiling water

Cold:

-ice

-ice cream

-popsicle

-snow

-fridge

-freezer

https://www.mathsisfun.com/measure/thermometer.html

Friday February 24th, 2017

Today we are bringing home a sheet to fill out at home. We need to record the ages of the people in our family. You can include everyone who lives in your house (mom, dad, brothers, sisters, grandma, grandpa) Please put the name and age. Your child is welcome to draw a little sketch to go with it: FOR EXAMPLE:

We will be using this information next week to create our own family chart and figure out some exciting differences in our ages and future ages! 


Current Events:
We are very excited to be talking about things that we can do to help the Polar Bear. By helping reduce greenhouse gasses we hope that the polar bear's habitat will remain a safe a viable place for it to live. On Monday February 27th 2017 it is INTERNATIONAL POLAR BEAR DAY. We have talked about what we can do to help:

-walk to school
-bring our thermostat down by one or two degrees to save energy
-keep our lights out longer
-recycle, reduce and reuse


On Monday we are challenging ourselves to go the whole day at school with no lights and no technology and to turn our heat down a degree or two in the classroom. What can you do at home to help? 

If you do turn your thermostat down can you send in how much you turned it down for Monday and how long you went without lights so we can add up all the energy saved on Tuesday February 28th?

http://polarbearsinternational.org/get-involved/international-polar-bear-day

If you find an article in this website about International Polar Bear Day that you would like to share with the class, please print it out and bring it in and we can add it to our NEWSWORTHY WALL. 
We are also practicing reading with FLUENCY. This means we can read smoothly, accurately and with expression! If you find a NEWSWORTHY article (from any of the sites posted on Wednesday February 22nd BLOG) please print it off and let your child practice reading it. If they bring it to school then they can practice reading like a NEWS REPORTER up in front of the class!! They will also get to add their article to the CURRENT EVENTS GRADE 2 BREAKING NEWS wall!! 

Science

Yesterday we learned about room temperature and some different temperatures that are important. Ask me what normal room temperature is? What temperature does water freeze at? What temperature does water boil at? 

Our challenge yesterday was to see if we could take hot water (70 Degrees Celsius) and cold water (0 Degrees Celsius) and mis them together one spoonful at a time can we make Room Temperature water? 

We made a hypothesis and reviewed how to read a thermometer. Ask me how the water felt? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q48kxEzwubQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2CH1cUkMgs

We talked about how water molecules move when they are hot vs when they are cold. 

To show how hot water molecules move faster, spread out and rise, and diffuse into the colder water watch this science experiment. This is an easy one to try at home too!

http://coolscienceexperimentshq.com/water-temperature-experiment/


We also talked about normal body temperature and what happens when we get a fever or when we start to shiver. 

Over the weekend let me use the thermometer to find out my normal body temperature! 

Wednesday February 22nd, 2017

PINK SHIRT DAY was a great success! We made the Pink Shirt Day Promise!

We decorated mini pink shirts to hang in the gathering space with messages about stoping bullying! 

We also talked about thinking before we speak. If I am going to say something first I need to 

THINK. Think stands for:

We read the book "The Juice Box Bully" and talked about how important it is to not be a silent bystander. 

We talked about The Promise from the book and how we can do this in our classroom, school and community to help end bullying.

It was so much fun decorating our mini pink shirts and the gathering space sure looks amazing!

SCIENCE

We watched two videos about Hot and Cold Temperature. Ask me something that I learned about Molecules? Ask me something that I learned about HEAT. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1eAOygDP5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTi3Hn09OBs

Writing

We continued planning for our Myth Writing. We planned our beginning. Ask mew what I am doing at the beginning of my story and what picture I drew. We looked at Ted Harrison art to get some ideas about what we might be doing in the Arctic.

NEWS CHALLENGE!!
We are going to be starting to read current events in the form on online news articles. Please take a look at these three kids news sites. If you see an article that you are really interested in read it and print it out to bring to school and share with the class! We are hoping to do this on Friday's and make a GRADE 2 NEWSWORTHY WALL in our hallway. 


http://teachingkidsnews.com/

http://htekidsnews.com/

http://www.timeforkids.com/


Also please read the article about the SPIRIT BEAR. 
http://teachingkidsnews.com/2015/02/02/orphaned-spirit-bear-gets-new-home/

Tuesday February 21, 2017

***Tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day: Please make sure to wear pink to school or if you don't have any pink then Royal Oak Royal Blue will do!

We will be having an assembly at 9:30 am. Then we will be decorating mini paper pink shirts with Grade 8 helpers from PRAT. We will be talking about bullying and how we can stop it. An important message we took away from our visit from Constable Johnson was to not be a silent bystander. That if we stand by and watch bullying happen we are contributing to the problem instead of being part of the solution. 

MATH
Today in math we worked on using all the ages of Carlos and Carlos's family to figure out how old everyone was when Maria was born? we know Maria is 10 now. Her brother Carlos is 8. We looked at using subtraction and an open number line to figure out if Carlos's mom is 33 then how old was she when Maria was born? 
We talked about how we could look at this as a subraction equation of 33-10= 
If we know Maria's mom is 33 now and we know that Maria is 10 now then if we take away how old Maria is we will be able to find out how old Maria's mom was when she was born or (0)! 


We looked at how we can break up the number we taking away. For example 33-8=If we break the 8 into a 5 and a 3 then which number would be the easiest to take away first? If we want to get to a landmark number quickly the group decided it would be best to take away the 3 first to get to 30
33-3=30
Then take away the 5 as it is easier to jump back by 5 from 30 then it is to jump back by 5 from 33. 

So 30-5=25. 
We also practiced skip counting back by 5's, 10's and 1's using a hundred chart and classroom number line to help. Moving back to get to the nearest 10 is a good strategy when we are subtracting. 


 http://mrcrammond.com/games/100hunt2.swf

We started Racket Play today in Gym. Ask me what centres I went to?

Today we finished our Animal Research and our Setting planning for our Arctic Story. We used our 5 senses to come up with descriptive words that we can use in our stories. Ask me how I would describe the Northern Lights?

We read a story called Kumak and the Fish by Michael Bania. Ask me what part was so funny!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gtAwxH9gm4

We also watched a video on Inuit Drumming. Here is a link if you want to watch again at home!

http://icor.ottawainuitchildrens.com/node/27

Wednesday February 15th 2017

Reminder: There is no school Tomorrow, Friday or Monday February 20th. Enjoy your extra long weekend with family and friends!

Wednesday February 22nd, 2017 is PINK SHIRT DAY. We will be having an assembly to start and decorating mini paper pink shirts with Grade 8 students from PRATT. Please wear Pink or Royal Blue that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjmf3I1_ZhU

Today we uploaded some pictures for our Dissolve science experiment our Absorbency science experiment and our Inuksuk/Inunnguaq building. Please visit IRIS and read my comments about my learning.

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b402/

SOAPSTONE CARVING!!

Our soapstone carving was too much fun! We carved Polar Bears and can't wait for you to see them at the Celebration of Learning in April. The Soapstone carvings will be for sale by donation as we are hoping to raise money to help save endangered arctic animals like the Polar Bear, Narwhal, The Arctic Fox, The Snowy Owl or The Beluga Whale. These are all Arctic Animals that are endangered according to the World Wildlife Foundation:

http://www.wwf.ca/?gclid=CPH4gNvgktICFYRnfgodCvQMqw


In math we continued to work on subtraction and using the strategy of "making a ten" and adding back the difference after. For example:

24-9=(turn the 9 into a ten)
24-10=14
****Make sure whatever you added the number you were subtracting you then add back into your answer
14+1=15

Practice a few of these at home.

It is an important skill to be able to jump backwards by 10 and by 5. This makes our subtraction quicker. Just like when we skip count forwards by 5 and 10 we need to be able to do it backwards now for subtraction. Here are a few sites that you can practice skip counting backwards and forwards and subtraction on an open number line.

http://mrcrammond.com/games/counting_on_and_back.swf  

http://mrcrammond.com/games/Subtract-NumberLinev5.swf

http://mrcrammond.com/games/drawon_numberLine.swf

http://mrcrammond.com/games/countonconvict.swf

tp://mrcrammond.com/games/countonconvict.swf

Tuesday February 14th, 2017

Reminder: There will be no school Thursday and Friday due to Teachers Convention and No School Monday February 20th due to Family Day.

Tomorrow we are so excited to have our last day on Alien-In-Line Skating from 11:05-11:50. We are also anticipating much fun learning how to carve a soapstone polar bear with Teacher's Pet.

Happy Valentine's Day! Thank you for all the wonderful Valentine wishes. We were very excited to exchange cards today.

Today we had a visit from Constable Johnson. He taught us about being special and not caring what others think about but knowing that we are wonderful just the way we are. We read a book called You are Special by Max Lucado. We traced our footprints with a partner and we had to write 3 I will Statements on each footprint. We are going to create a pathway on one of our classroom walls to show our footprints of being a kind and caring person.

Below is the video link if you would like to read/listen to the story again.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15QuHygLwFU

Ask me about what I Will:

Social/Science Inquiry

We continued our Polar Bear research and moved on to researching an Arctic Animal of Choice. Ask me what I learned about my animal today?

-Diet
-Habitat
-Predators
-Features and Interesting Facts

We also watched a Howard B Wigglebottom story about Bullying and listened to the Be Brave song. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfYdShEdUTA

Monday February 13, 2017

Reminder: Tomorrow is Valentines Day. Student's are welcome to pass out valentines (no candy or sugar please) and we will be writing friendship notes. 

****I am still in need of Volunteers for this upcoming Wednesday afternoon from 1-3. We are so lucky to have Teacher's Pet coming in to teach us how to carve soapstone. We are so excited to make polar bears. It is a lengthy process and will run much smoother with some volunteers. Please email me if you are able to come: imlagrana@cbe.ab.ca


Science/Social
Today we decided on one Arctic animal that we want to research about. We practiced doing research all together from an article about Polar Bears. We used highlighters to show the important info that we needed to answer the research questions. Later in the week we will research our arctic animal of choice. Ask me which one I am doing. 

Math

In math we continued working on using an open number line and subtraction strategies to solve the different ages Carlos's family members would have been when Carlos was born. Ask me how I know if a question is a subtraction question. We also learned a new strategy for subtraction.

54-8 could be solved by making the 8 a 10 and subtracting 10 from 54 as subtracting 10 is easier once we know how to count back by tens. Then 54-10=44 ****We must remember to add 2 back to our answer because we actually only subtracted 8! So 44+2=46. 

PRACTICE ONE AT HOME 

63-8=??

We also read the book Hide and Sneak by Micheal Kusugak and watched a video about the importance of Inuksuk's to the Inuit people. We practiced building some with our own rocks too. Ask me what I build with my group and what kind of an Inuksuk it was? What would it's purpose have been in the Arctic? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKQ97rOwBH0

Friday February 10th, 2017

Next week is going to be BUSY BUSY BUSY!!

Monday: In-Line skating from 11:05-11:50

Tuesday: Valentines. Below is a class list of names. If you are going to bring in Valentine's please feel free to do so, however no candy or sugar treats please. We will pass them out into everyones class mailbox that day. We will be looking at the concept of Friendship, and how we can all be Responsible for helping others feel Belonging.  We also have a presentation by Constable Johnson our Start Smart Stay Safe representative from Calgary Police Services. He will be talking to us about how to prevent bullying and how not to be a silent bystander. This will also tie in nicely for our PINK SHIRT DAY that will be happening Wednesday February 22nd. Below is the website if you want more information on S4 and the police visit. 
Class List:
Jack
Lindsay
Shubhangi
Maguire
Jagger
Brandt
Ikrash
Sophie
Prisha
Kaelee
Tommy
Carter
Ella
Nirat
Kengo
Kaden
Bethany
Aidan
Piya
Jonah
Amy

S4 in Schools | Start Smart Stay Safe

Today we looked at Traditional Inuit clothing. We looked at what animals would have been used to make the Inuits Park's. We also looked at the designs and fur. Ask me what I made to represent myself traveling to Iqaluit. What kind of things did I have to do to my clothing?

http://www.johntyman.com/arctic/inuit201.html

Today we had buddies. We helped our Kindergarten buddies to upload a picture and a comment to IRIS.

Thursday February 9th, 2017

Reminder:

Happy Weekend from your Fundraising Society!  Thank you to all parents for sending in your Coffee and Tea orders so promptly!  Orders are due tomorrow, Friday, February 10th, but we would like to invite you to share the order forms over the weekend, and return ALL ORDERS BY MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12th.  If possible, please combine all payments into one cheque made out to ROS Fundraising Society.  PM Kindergartens, please send your orders in tomorrow, Friday!

 

We also need parents to help sort and package the orders when they arrive approximately the last week of February.  Please indicate on your order form, or email us directly if you might be available to help!

 

Looking forward to a little Winter Warm Up!  Thank you for supporting your Fundraising Society, and the excellence in programming we can provide for our children! 

Today during Guided Reading groups in our classroom many of us added a new reading goal, strategy and understanding myself as a learner comment in IRIS. Please ask me if I did this and read this with me.

Math
In math we worked on What is Subtraction? We looked at what subtraction is and how we know if the question wants us to subtract or add. 
We practiced figuring out a simple subtraction question using multiple strategies, and focusing especially on the number line. Ask me what is different about the number line when I am subtracting?

10-8=

These are some of the strategies that we used: 

Ask me which one I used? 


Science
We started to look at Hot and Cold Temperature. We looked at a thermometer and how it works and what it is for. We learned how to use one and we did an experiment where we looked made a prediction/hypothesis about what the temperature or cold water versus hot water would be. We also took our thermometers outside and tested what the temperature of the snow was! Ask me what I found out! What does it mean when the line on the thermometer goes up? What does it mean when it goes down? 

Here are some different thermometers used for measuring. Try them out and see which temperatures you could put on there. You could also visit www.theweathernetwork and look at the temperature for Calgary, Alberta and Iqaluit, Nunavut. 
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/interactives/thermometer.php


Check what your thermostat says at home and come ready to tell us tomorrow what the temperature is in your house!



We continued our planning for our Myth Writing. Today we looked at Setting. We used our picture and made sure that we had lots of descriptive words for our setting. Ask me what the setting of my Myth is going to be? 

Tuesday February 7th, 2017

Thursday is our next Alien-In-Line skating day! Don't forget to wear socks!

Math:
Today in math we started a new Inquiry. We read a story about a boy named Carlos and his Great-Grandfather (Bisabuelo) from Puerto Rico. We found out that Carlos is 8 years old. His Great-Grandfather was 8 years old 79 years ago. We were trying to figure out how old Bisabuelo is now. 

79+8=


Some of us used a number line, some of us used the stealsies and some of us used breaking apart the numbers and then putting them back together. Ask me how I solved this problem and I can show you how! 

Today we had special presentation about the Saxophone. Ask me one thing that I learned about the Saxophone and what one of the songs the presenter played on it?


We read a story called Hide and Sneak by Micheal Kusugak an Inuit writer. Ask me what it was about. Micheal grew up in the Arctic and has written many children's books about his memories, experiences and culture. Ask me what the message of this story was? We learned a little about a Inuksuit and a character called a Igiraq. 

In Inuit mythology an ijiraq (/ˈiːjᵻrɑːk/ ee-yə-rahk or /ˈiːdʒᵻrɑːk/ ee-jə-rahk) is a sort of shape shifter who kidnaps children and hides them away and abandons them. The inuksugaq (or inukshuk) of stone allow these children to find their way back if they can convince the ijiraq to let them go.

An inuksuk, plural inuksuit, (from the Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ, plural ᐃᓄᒃᓱᐃᑦ; alternatively inukshuk in English or inukhuk in Inuinnaqtun) is a stone landmark or cairn built by humans, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found from Alaska to Greenland, a region above the Arctic Circle that is dominated by the tundra biome and has areas with few natural landmarks.


http://www.michaelkusugak.com/

We continued planning for our Myth Writing today. We decided on our 3 Characters (1 Human (me) + 2 Arctic Animals). Ask me about my characters. What are they like? What descriptive words did I use to start to plan for them? 

Monday February 6th, 2017

Reminder: Scholastic Orders are due tomorrow (I have a one day extension because 2 other student's asked). I will place the order tomorrow after school.

Tomorrow we have a special presentation of the Saxophone. Our time is from 11:15-11:45. It will be neat to learn about a new instrument and hear it played!


Science
Today we continued practicing the water cycle songs. We also watched a video on the Water Cycle. Ask me to explain in my own words what happens during each part of the water cycle: Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation and Collection. 

https://www.schooltube.com/video/59305b1fdd59475f9314/Magic%20School%20Bus%20Wet%20All%20Over

Today in Math we learned a strategy called "Stealsies"!! This is when we steal from one side of equation to make a ten because adding tens is faster and easier!

Social Inquiry

We continued to look at the social studies books "Looking at People", "Looking at Places" and "Looking at Work" in order to find out everything we can about Iqaluit and life in the Arctic. We had to write Did you know _______________ sentences about what we had learned from the books. We also continued to work on our Arctic Window picture. 

Reminder: Book orders due Monday February 6th, 2017. THERE IS NO SCHOOL TOMORROW. Have a great weekend and we will see you Monday February 6th, 2017.


Science
Today in science we reviewed the Water Cycle. We watched a video about the importance of water and we followed the path of a simple water molecule as it travels through the water cycle. We also talked about how a molecule that first evaporated from ocean water and then went through condensation and came back to the earth as precipitation could end up staying high up in the mountains as ice or buried in an aquifer and not end up evaporated again and back in the water cycle as Ocean water for millions of years!! 
http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/1902405/water-water-everywhere

We practiced singing the Water Cycle Song. I can practice singing it at home with these lyrics!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWb4KlM2vts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T05djitkEFI

In math we looked at using base ten to solve subtraction problems that require regrouping. We also looked at checking our own work by flip and flop so that now we are using addition to check if our subtraction is correct!

Ask me if I can show you one!

We also talked about how if you add or subtract 0 from any number the number just stays the same!

Today we began some IMAGINE IF writing about moving to Iqaluit (The Arctic). We had to imagine:

• what we would wear?
• what we might see (landscape)?
• how we would get around?
• what we would do for fun?
• what we might eat?
• what our house might look like

We also started a picture in our Visual Sketch book as if we were looking out a window from Iqaluit. In our picture we had to draw ourselves, the landscape, 2 arctic animals and something magical. Ask me what I drew?