What's New Archive 2013-2014
Painted Lady Butterflies
May 26, 2104 Our class has been following the lives of three little caterpillars, which we have named Rainbow, Lazy, and Spike. We have been journaling about the changes we observe and adding new scientific vocabulary into our glossary. Our caterpillars certainly ate a lot and grew a lot and as a result there were many caterpillar droppings, called frass. Before entering into their pupa stage the caterpillars shed their skin, or molted leaving evidence of 4- 5 instars. All of our caterpillars are now in their pupa or chrysalis stage, and we are anxiously awaiting their metamorphosis into butterflies over the next few days. |
Spring Art April 4, 2014 While it is still chilly and gray outside, we have been busy creating colourful collages with silhouette figures ready to “Spring Into Action” whenever the warm weather does arrive. We have also been playing with paint and mixing tints to create some spring pastel dots. Happy Spring! |
Pioneer Village
March 17, 2014 The first day after March Break our class spent the day as pioneers at MacSkimming outdoor education centre. First, we worked in family groups to build a log home. Then we experienced life in a one-room schoolhouse writing with quills and ink under the strict supervision of our teacher mistress Crabtree. Following that, we learned about tapping maple trees and the process involved in making maple syrup. Afterwards we did some pioneer chores; grinding corn, using yokes to carry buckets, lifting ice blocks with tongs, and drilling holes in logs, (taking out the garbage doesn't seem that difficult anymore). We finished off our day at the wood shop, where we made our own wooden tops. Students gained first hand experience of daily life for the early settlers. What a great day! |
2014 Winter Olympics
February 13, 2014 Students have shown enthusiasm for the Winter Olympic games and demonstrated their school spirit wearing red to support Canada’s Olympic dreams on February10th. We talk about Olympic news on a daily basis, updating our Canadian medal count graph, and keeping track of the time difference, “Right now it is 11:00 am in Ottawa, which means it is 8:00 pm in Sochi, Russia.” We have also been busy reading and writing about the various winter Olympic sports and finding out about the athletes themselves, discovering the character traits of an Olympian. The determination needed to work four years for a goal, and the perseverance demonstrated when athletes experience disappointments along the way. Students put their own focus and attention to detail into an Olympic art project using pointillism, to create the Winter Olympic sport icons. See bulletin board photo and close up at left. Go Canada Go! |
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Friday December 13, 2013
In Social Studies, students have been learning about urban and rural communities and the way people live in different places around the world. The Grade 3’s are busy creating their urban or rural dioramas and the Grade 2’s have been filling their passports with information on a variety of countries. Check out some of our Urban CityScape artwork in which students learned about background and foreground in art and showed their understanding of the structures found in an urban community. |
November 18, 2013
Inspired by reading the book “What does Peace feel like?” by Vladimir Radunsky, Students wrote about their own ideas of peace using their five senses. Here are some vivid examples of peace: “Peace feels like soft feathers of a baby bird.” by Maida “Peace feels like puppy’s fur, a soft pillow and floating in the water.” by Zyggy “Peace looks like laying on the grass on a spring day with my friends.” by Fekeremariame “Peace looks like kids running around the garden because they are happy.” by Aya “Peace sounds like kids laughing.” by Christine “Peace sounds like soft ocean waves and rainforest animals.” by Ibrahim “Peace smells like fresh, juicy mango that was just cut open.” by Lawrence “Peace smells like nice roses, watermelon and chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven.” Hadrian “Peace tastes like icecream with oreos and sprinkles and a cherry on top.” by Romeo Continuing with our theme of peace, we used line patterns and watercolours to create the beautiful peace art shown top left. |
October 21, 2013
Story Gloves Students are using a story glove to help them retell the important parts of a narrative: the characters, the setting, the problem, three main events and the solution or ending. Here is a sample of one of our Grade 3 students’ reading response journal for, “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse” by Kevin Henkes. We also think about our own connections to the story (the heart symbol), i.e. what does it remind them of in their life or in another book. The Light Bulb represents the main idea, what is the author’s message. When students are reading at home this is a great way to have them retell what happened in their story. Give it a try. It really works! |
September 27, 2013
This past week we have been learning all about Terry Fox. We have been reading news articles, books, and graphic text and writing about the character traits, that would best describe Terry. Here are a few student quotes: “Terry Fox is courageous because he never gave up even when he had a prosthetic leg.” Ibrahim “Terry Fox is athletic because he ran everyday the length of a marathon.” Labiba “Terry Fox is selfless because he ran across Canada to raise money for Cancer Research” Samuel “Terry Fox is loving because he helped kids with cancer.” Maryam Friday afternoon our whole school participated in the Terry Fox Rubber Chicken Relay. It was a glorious day to be outside, and incredibly moving to see such student enthusiasm for Terry’s Marathon of Hope. Thank you to generous student donations, Terry’s dream of every Canadian donating $1 to help fund Cancer Research lives on. |
September 16, 2013
Big Shoes to Fill in Grade 2-3 Our first art project! Check out these amazing self-portraits, with the overlapping hands and feet, and colourful line patterns on the soles of their shoes. WOW, we have some talented artists in this class! Sorry I don't have a panoramic lens to fit them all in the photo, I guess you'll just have to come see them for yourselves at the Meet the Teacher BBQ on September 26th. |
September 13, 2013
Students had a chilly but fun filled middle block playing "Welcome Games". There were 10 teams with students from grades 1-6 on each team. Lead by Grade 6 captains, the teams traveled to each station, where teachers introduced them to a variety of low organizational games like: wall ball, bump, marbles, skipping, four square, and hop scotch, to name a few. It was a great chance for students to be active, get to know children from other grades and classes, and learn some games that they can easily play at recess. These same teams will re-unite on Friday Sept. 27th for our Terry Fox Relay afternoon. |
September 6, 2013
Fun with Names! Today in our Grade 2-3 class, students graphed the number of letters in their names. We discovered that 5 letter names were the most common. Then we cleared all the desks away in order to partake in a cooperative challenge. Starting with the longest name (a whopping 13 letters!!), we each added our letters in crossword style in order to fit all our names together. The result is a great class name scrabble board! See the aerial view photo. |
September 4, 2013
Welcome back to school! This week we are establishing our class routines and getting to know everyone in our learning community. Students went home today with their new agendas this is our main way of communicating homework, reminders, notes etc. Please take a moment to sign their agenda each night. I am looking forward to our Grade 2-3 Journey! |