Wednesday, June 27, 2018

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!

Today is the last day of school for the 2017-2018 School Year. Report Cards are being sent home today, so please check your child's backpack. 



The first day back at school for the 2018-2019 school year is Tuesday, September 4th, 2018. 




RAZ-KIDS



I have updated ALL students RAZ-KIDS reading levels and sent home their userid and password in order for them to be able to continue to practice building their literacy skills by using this fun and interactive reading program all summer. 

https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login

If you are looking for a fun reading program to keep your child interested and engaged in reading all summer long the Calgary Public Library has a great reading program you can participate in:

https://calgarylibrary.ca/news/make-it-a-library-summer/


HAVE AN AMAZING SUMMER!!







Monday, June 25, 2018

Bucket Lists, Plasticine and Pastel Bugs and Word Problem Review

Bucket Lists! 

Today we made our very own summer bucket lists. We thought of all of the things we would really like to take the time to do over the summer. 



Last week we brought home our 'Are you a ___?' insect narrative nonfiction stories. Please share these stories along with the plasticine insect character we made to go along with our narratives!





Math Word Problems

We have been practicing solving math word problems. We are remembering to follow the CUBES steps as a way to help us determine the important information and what the question is asking us to figure out. Here is one example of a question we might try to solve using the CUBES steps to guide us. 
Last Tuesday the Grade 2 class went on a wetlands insect adventure to see how many insects they could find. It was a beautiful day outside. They found twenty-three ants, sixteen grasshoppers and thirty-nine dragonflies. How many insects did they spot in total? 








We will continue to practice our problem solving skills for both addition and subtraction for the next the remainder of this week. 

BUG ART
Today we completed our pastel resist bug art! 
First we practiced sketching: butterflies, dragonflies, bumblebees, bettles, ladybugs, and even grasshoppers!

Then we chose the one we liked the best and felt the most confident drawing a good copy of:

We then used oil pastels to create our insect:

Next we used a watercolor wash in an opposite color (we looked at the color wheel to determine what our opposite color would be) to paint over our insects to create our final product:



We will bring our final products home tomorrow, mounted and ready for you to display proudly in your living rooms! 














Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Mission Impossible!!

Physical Education
Students have been working very hard this week to master the obstacle courses in Mission Impossible. On Thursday and Friday we will be dimming the lights in the gym to add excitement and more of a challenge. Students will be allowed to use a flashlight or headlamp if they would like to. If you choose to bring in a light please ensure that it is clearly labelled with their name.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Wetlands Field Study, Mission Possible and Student Surveys

Wetlands Field Study

Today we walked to the wetlands to do a final field study of our wetlands. We switched sides to observe so that we could explore a new area of the wetlands to see what insects, bugs and water creatures we could find! 


We had to then record our observations on clipboards about how many legs? Does it have wings? Anything interesting or notable about it's appearance? We sketched and discussed what we found.














We also did some water testing in order to compare our results from October and see what differences we found? 

Ask me what we noticed from our water testing results? Why might these results be different between September and June?


Mission Possible!!!

We have been having so much fun and will continue to do so all week, participating in Mission Possible challenges in gym. Ask me what the most difficult station is for me? 












Student Surveys and Goal Setting in IRIS

Yesterday we did our last IRIS post. We all added a new Learning Note about how we learn best, a goal for over the summer and a strategy for how we could work on this goal. Please have me share it with you and discuss. This afternoon we finished the student survey for the 2017/2018 school year. It asks us questions about our learning at Royal Oak School and what we enjoyed or are most engaged about learning about. 


Monday, June 18, 2018

BBQ LUNCH June 26th

YEAR END BBQ!!!


Just a reminder that next Tuesday June 26th is our end of the year BBQ. Fun lunches for this BBQ must be ordered by Tuesday June 19th. If you have not done so already please go to https://ros.hotlunches.net/admin/?sid=&un=0

Reminder: Tomorrow we will be heading to the wetlands for our last insect/bug field study! We will be leaving at 10:15 and returning by 12. Please dress appropriately (sunscreen, water bottle, repellant, hat, rain boots or runners etc). 

Friday, June 15, 2018

Art, Math Review, Insect Story Writing and Letter to my Grade Three Teacher!

Important: We will be going to the wetlands for one final field study on Tuesday June 19th, 2018. Please email me imlagrana@cbe.ab.ca if you are able to volunteer. It will be from 10:15 am- 12:00 pm. 



Art

We have been busy creating watercolour paintings of flowers, insects and birds. These are coming home as Father's Day gifts along with another special surprise. Ask me what was the hardest part about creating with watercolour pencils? 




Math Review

This week we have been reviewing important concepts in math, such as making 10 as a way to add double digit numbers more efficiently. 

Making a ten:





Adding Double-Digit Numbers by using a t-chart and regrouping


Adding Double-Digit Numbers by stacking:

Next week we will continue reviewing some important math strategies for subtraction and working on word problem challenges for addition and subtraction. 


Insect Story Writing

We have started our Insect stories. They are modelled after the series Are you a Spider? 

https://youtu.be/p_RpT-jTRks

We have researched an insect of choice and are now using this research to create our own NARRATIVE NONFICTION story that follows this model. 

Letter to my Grade Three Teacher


Today we wrote a letter to our future Grade Three teacher. We introduced ourselves, explained what we like to learn about, how we learn best, what we hope to learn next year and any questions or things that we are wondering about for next year. 










Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Reading about bugs and insects, Wetlands Field Study and Non-Fiction Research

Reading about Insects and Bugs:

Today we read different articles about insects and we had to answer comprehension questions about what we were reading:







Today we read an article about insects and made think notes about what we were reading: 



Wetlands Field Study

Yesterday we walked to the wetlands to do a field study of land insects and water insects:
We looked in the grass, under rocks and twigs, on the trees and bushes and pond dipped in the wetlands to see what we could discover.






Insect Research

We have been doing insect research on an insect/bug of choice that we would be able to study and observe in our wetlands or school grounds. 

First we are filling out this research graphic organizer:

Tomorrow we will add to our research by using non-fiction texts

We will use this research to write out narrative non-fiction stories modelled after the Are you a butterfly? Series.