November 16th

Hi Parents,

This week we learned about the letters Z, X, and E. We have now learned all the letters of the alphabet and we are continuing to work on using our knowledge of letter sounds to sound out words when we are writing and reading.

Our words of the week this week were: all, had, not, they
Our words of the week next week will be: but, his, one, so

In writing this week we did a free write, where we were allowed to write about whatever we like, for example our weekend. We also used our learning and discussions in social studies to write about how we help in our communities.

In math we continued to develop our number sense and knowledge through calendar, games and activities.

We also continued to develop our reading, writing,  letter recognition, letter sounds, storytelling, and listening to reading through literacy centers.

We worked with our grade 2 buddies to roll a character. Together with our buddy we used a sheet and dice to roll our a character. We really enjoyed this activity, we may even be able to use our characters in one of our stories during writing!

In social studies we continued  learning about communities. We learned about our next community, which is the community of Cranston. We also discussed who is apart of our Cranston community, such as police officers and doctors. We then discussed ways in which we help our Cranston community to be a better and safer place. Some of the ways we help our community are by picking up garbage we see on the ground, being respectful to nature, using the cross walk when crossing the street and helping others in the community.

This week we started a discussion about how we can be problem solvers when we are having problems with our friends. So far we have learned about six strategies that we can use to help us solve problems.

1. "I Statements". We use these when our friends do something we don't like. This can make us mad, sad, or frustrated. Instead of hitting or yelling we can use an I Statement.
I feel (emotion) when you (action) please (new action)
For example. "I feel mad when you push me, please keep your hands to your self".

2. Make a Deal. We make a deal when my friend and I disagree about what to do. This can make us mad or frustrated. Instead of hitting or yelling we can make a deal so we both are happy.
For example, instead of fighting over who goes first, we will play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first this time. Then next time the other person can go first.

3. Say Sorry.  Sometimes when I am playing with my friends I may do something that is not nice. I can tell that my friend did not like what I did by their body language and/or words. I may have done it on purpose or by accident, when this happens I need to say a sorry statement.
I am sorry for __________
This was wrong because_________
Next time I'll___________
Please forgive me 
 For example, I am sorry for not including you in our game, this was wrong because it made you feel sad, next time I'll include you in our game.  Please forgive me. 

Most often I feel happy when I am with my friends. But sometimes my friends might do something that I don't like. This might make me feel annoyed, frustrated or mad. I don't need to hit or yell, I can use the following strategies to keep this problem small.
4. Ignore Them.  I can ignore what they are doing and tell my self it isn't a big deal.
Sometimes ignoring someone may not work and I am still feeling frustrated and in the yellow zone. If ignoring them doesn't work I can use my next strategy
5. Ask Them to Stop. Before I say something I take a deep breath and look at the person who is bugging me. I then use a calm voice and say "please stop doing that" or " I feel frustrated when you...".
If that doesn't work I can..
6. Walk away. Walk away quietly to another spot in the classroom then I can use my calming down strategies to stay in the green zone.

Next week we will continue to practice these strategies and discuss the other problem solver strategies so that we can become independent problem solvers with our friends.
Check out the picture below to see all the strategies that help us  to be a problem solver.

Reminders:

Friday November 23rd is a PD day. No School

Monday November 26th-Thursday November 29th is our Hip Hop Dance Residency in Gym.

Friday November 30th will be our Dance showcase. Parents are invited to come and watch your child perform the dance they learned during the week. Our class will be performing at 8:25am on Friday.

November 9th

Hi Parents,

This week we learned about the letters K, V,  U, Y, and "Qu"

We are getting so much better at sounding out words and we are even able to sound out some whole words correctly now!

We continued to practice the words of the week

Our words of the week this week were: as, have, she, with 

Our words of the week next week are: all, had, not, they

In honour of Remembrance Day we learned about poppies and how they came to represent Remembrance Day and peace.  We decorated poppies with words and pictures that we felt representing peace. These poppies, along with the rest of the schools' poppies, were put up in the gym for our Remembrance Day assembly.  We also created poppy art using our fingers and paint. We created our classroom wreath by tracing our hands on green paper for the leafs and using tracers to make our poppies. Our wreath bearers did an amazing job presenting our wreath during the Remembrance Day assembly. The whole class did an amazing job being respectful during the Remembrance Day assembly today 

In writing this week we discussed how lucky we are to live in a peaceful community and read the story "The Peace Book"by Todd Parr. After reading this story we wrote about what peace is. Eg. "Peace is making friends"

This week in math we continued to work on our number sense and number recognition for numbers 1-20. We learned a new number buddy game, where we all given numbers shown in different ways (tally marks, ten frames, dots) and we had to find our partner with the same number as us. 

We also learned a new game called Roll and Build, where we had to roll a die,  or two if we were up for a challenge, and then whatever number was on the dice we had to find on our game board and build using unifex cubes. 

When working with our grade 2 buddies, we had the chance to teach them Buzz, which is our favourite math game right now, and Find the Fish. 

We learned that numbers can also be representing in words. We were given two sets of cards, one set had the number symbols on them (eg. 2,3,4) and the other set had the numbers in words (eg. two, three, four). In our groups we had to work together to match the numbers with their words and then we had to build each number using manipulatives. It was challenging  but by working together each table was able to match and build for each number 1-20. 

We continued with our literacy centers this week. We are still working on letter recognition and sounds, listening to reading, telling stories through puppets, letter bingo on abcya.com, and finding words around the room. 

In music we practiced our special peace songs for the Remembrance Day assembly. 

Reminders:

Thursday November 15th is Math Night from 6:00pm-7:00pm. Families are invited to join us at school to learn math games that you can play at home to help practice and develop your child's math skills. 

Thursday November 15th is also the bake sale, which is being put on by Cranston School Fundraising Society. It is during Math Night and they hope you will donate some delicious baked goods! They are looking for cookies, cupcakes, loaves, squares, trail mixes and various other items. Please find attached the sign up list for baked goods. They ask that you please package items individually or in small portions for sale (loaves can be sold as a whole) and include an ingredient list with your donated goods. If you have any questions please email at cranstoncares@gmail.com.  If you are coming to math night, bring along some change so that you can purchase the delicious baked goods and that the talented parents of Cranston school have donated. 
Link for the signup page: http://signup.com/go/MUyzMdr

Friday November 23rd is a PD day, so No School


Monday November 26th-Thursday November 29th is our Hip Hop Dance Residency.

Friday November 30th is our Dance showcase assembly. Students will be performing the dances they have learned during the week. Schedule TBA

November 2nd

Hi Parents,

Wow! What a busy and fun filled week.

This week we learned about the letters N, W, I, H, and J. We used these letters, and the others letters we have learned to continue to work on sounding out words. We are really starting to be able to sound out whole words! 

In writing, some of us wrote about our weekend, others wrote stories and all of us wrote about our Halloween. 

We also started literacy centers this week. In literacy centers we are working on our letters through letter bingo on abcya.com and a game called letter detective. We are working on writing words through word hunt. We are working on listening to reading by listening to books on CDS and on storytelling through play with puppets. 

Our words of the week this week were: are, be, for, we

Our words of the week next week are: as, have, she, with

In math this week we worked on building our number sense with numbers 1-20. We learned two new games. One was called Buzz the other was called Find the Fish. We did a button activity where we were given cards with jars on them. Each card had a number 1-20 on it. We had to work with our group to order the numbers and then we had to fill the jars with matching number of buttons to the card. We also worked together as a class to make our own number line. First Ms. Hill gave us each a card with one number from 1-20 on it. We then had to put ourselves in the correct order. Once we were in the right order we had to choose a manipulative of our choice to make that number. Check out the pictures at the end of this post to see our number line. 

In Music we are learning  a Peace song called "Day of Peace" for the Remembrance Day assembly next Friday. 

In gym we learned about how to throw and catch a football underhand. 

We loved being able to dress up in our Halloween costumes this week, it was so much fun! We also loved getting to wear our Pajamas to school on PJ Day! 

We had a lot of fun creating our pumpkin designs and voting on which one Ms. Hill should carve. We also enjoyed gutting our pumpkin, although some of us thought it was super gross touching the pumpkin guts! We also worked together to count the number of seeds in our pumpkin. We estimated how many we thought there would be and were very surprised to find out there was 649 seeds in our pumpkin!! 

Reminders:

It's fall back this weekend. Don't forget to change your clocks on Sunday! :)

Wednesday November 7th is fun lunch. Don't forget to pack your child a snack

Friday November 9th is our Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:40. 

October 26th

Hi Parents,


This week we worked on the letters P, O, D, and G. We are really improving our ability to identify whether the letter sounds are at the beginning or the end of the words. This week we also started using our letter knowledge to sound out whole words!  We also continued to practice printing our letters and started doing word hunts around the room to find words that start with those letter. We even went on a whole school word hunt with our grade 2 buddies!

We worked really hard on practicing our words of the week this week.
We were introduced to our new words: at, on, said, you 
We also had our first words of the week test where the words of the week were read to us and we had to try and write them correctly. We are getting so much better with the words of the week and we are going to keep practicing.
Our words of week for next week are are, be, for, we

In math this week we continued practicing our number sense and counting through calendar. We continued to count the number of days we have been in school. We have been in school 36 days already! We also practiced representing numbers in different ways.
We continued our work on subitizing and patterns.

In science we went outside to draw our "Fall Tree". Each season we will go and observe our tree and draw how it changes throughout the year.
In social studies, we continued learning about communities and discussed our school community. We talked about who is apart of our school community and how we help to make our school community a better place.

We finished our Todd Parr Self Portraits. Everyone did an amazing job, they look great! :)

Reminders:
The Halloween Howler is on Tuesday October 30th from 6:00pm-8:00pm in the gym and hub. Tickets are $5 and still available. Tickets will not be sold at the door. If you would like to purchase tickets you can do so online through Cranston.hotlunches.net/CODE CSHL

Wednesday October 31st is Halloween. Students are invited to wear their Halloween costumes to school. We just ask for no masks or weapons

Thursday November 1st is PJ day. This is the second event set up by our leadership club. Students are invited to wear their PJ's to school. No stuffies or toys please.

October 19th

Hi Parents,

This week we focused on stories by Todd Parr.  We read "It's Okay to be Different" and wrote our own version of "it's okay to...". We also read the story "The Family Book" and wrote about our favourite thing to do with our family.

In social studies, we discussed what "community" means. We also discussed how we are a part of many different communities and  came up with different examples of communities. For example, home and school. We realized that we are at the center and all these communities surround us and slowly get bigger as we move farther away from ourselves.  At home we may only have 5 people in our community but in our school we have over 500 people who are apart of  our school community. We learned that in communities everyone works together and contributes. In our visual we wrote and drew pictures about ways we help ourselves and ways we help at home.

In science, we continued to learn about fall. We discussed how apples grow and are harvested in fall. We learned about the apple life cycle and then we made apple crisp with Mrs. Hardie's class. We also went on a fall walk and used 4 of our 5 senses to discover the signs of fall. Today we wrote about what we saw, heard, smelled and felt on our walk.

As we read our Todd Parr books we discussed how his illustrations are unique and what features tell us it is art done by Todd Parr. We then started to create our own Todd Parr inspired self portraits.

Our grade 2 buddies came and taught us a game to help us practice our words of the week called 4 in a row. You have to say the word of the week to place your counter on the square and you have to try and get 4 in a row before your partner. We read the Todd Parr book "It's Okay to Make Mistakes" and discussed how we might have made mistakes during the game, but thats okay because it helps us to learn!
We also got to buddy read with our Grade 3 buddies today.

Our words of the week this week were: he, of, that, was  We will continue to work on these words next week, along with our new words of the week
Our words of the week next week are:  at, on, you, said 

In math, we continued to subitizing, number sense, and patterns.

Today was our first Club Friday of the year. We were all super excited and loved our clubs. We can't wait until its Club Friday again!

Have a great weekend!

From: Room 80

Reminders:

Thursday October 25th is Parent Teacher Interviews from 4:00pm-7:00pm
Friday October 26th is Parent Teacher Interviews from 8:00am-12:00pm
Sign up is now available through your powerschool account. If you are having any trouble signing up please send me an email
Friday October 26th -No School 
On Thursday and Friday our book fair will also be running in the library

October 12th

Hi Parents,

It was a short but very busy week this week!

We used all the letters that we've learned so far (m,f,s,b,t,c and a) to try spelling words and we also learned about the letter R.

Our words of the week this week were: to, in, it, is 
We went on word hunts to find the words of the week in our books, we also tried to find them in poems.  We started to realize that  the words of the week show up a lot in our books and we see them in lots of different places. We also practiced printing our words of the week.

Next week the words of the week will be: he. of, that.was 

We started home reading this week. We are really liking being able to practice reading at home.

We also had our first fun lunch and it was McDonalds

On Thursday we had stuffy day. We loved being able to have our stuffies at school! We read to them, we sketched them, we sorted them and we wrote about them. Some of us wrote stories about what our stuffies would do if they were at school when nobody was there, some of us wrote about what our stuffies looks like and some of us wrote about what we like about our stuffies.


In math, we continued practicing our subitizing and counting. We also practiced our sorting by cutting out buttons, sorting them into groups and telling Ms.Hill our sorting rule.

Our grade 2 buddies, helped us learn about making 10 with cards. We had to find two cards that made ten and then we traced them and drew them into our visual journals.


In music, we learned two new songs called "The Ten Little Pumpkins" and "Hey Jack!"

In gym we leaned about teamwork and played with the parachute. We were the first class to ever use the new parachute.

Reminders:

Our library day is Thursdays.  Please make sure your child has returned both their books by Thursday so that they can get two new books to bring home.


We are a peanut free classroom!

October 5th

Hi Parents,


Monday was Orange Shirt Day. To honour Orange Shirt Day we wore our orange shirts. We also each create a leaf that represented where we belong and how we feel when we belong. We drew pictures and words on our leaves. They were then put up with the other leaves that were made by each student in the school.  Keep an eye our for our leafs in the hub! We also wrote about all the different  places we belong, such as home, at school, with our family and with our friends.

We started our words of the week this week. Our four words of the week were  a, and, I, the 

We also started guided reading this week. We are practicing our reading stamina by doing read to self and we are also working with Ms. Hill in small groups to read "Just Right" books.

Our letter of the week this week was the letter "a".

We also continued our printing practice by printing the letter "A" and our words of the week.

In math, we continued working on subitizing, sorting and patterning through centers. We also played Higher or Lower and Go Fish with ten frame cards to help us subitize 10 frames. We played a new subitizing game on the smart board, where we answered subitizing and counting questions.  With each question  we got  right we slowly cracked open an egg and a monster popped out. We loved this new game!! We also created patterns in our math books and we had to circle the core and label the type of pattern (eg. AB pattern, ABC pattern, AAB pattern).

This week with our grade two buddies our buddies showed us how to use the computers. They showed us how to get the computers, how to hold them, how to log on, use word, log off and put the computers away.

We also met our grade three buddies today and did some buddy reading with them.


In celebration of Thanksgiving we talked about what it means to be thankful. We also read "The Thankful Book" by Todd Parr and wrote in our writing journals about what we were thankful for.
We did some Thanksgiving art this week. We created hand print turkeys and coloured a thanksgiving picture.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

From: Room 80! :)

Home reading will be starting next week. You will receive a letter home with information about reading with your child at home and information about our words of the week.  A reminder that it is okay to read a book more then once, home reading books do not need to be returned each day. They will be switched every second day or so. If you have any questions, after reading the information sheets,  regarding home reading or words of the week please let me know. 

Reminders:

Our library day is Thursdays.  Please make sure your child has returned both their books by Thursday so that they can get two new books to bring home.

Monday October 8th is Thanksgiving. No School 

Thursday October 11th is Stuffy Day. This is a day put on by our leadership club. Students are invited to bring a stuffy to school. Please put your child's name on the tag. Also, we would suggest not bringing stuffy's that are very special to your child.

We are a peanut free classroom!