Can You Dig It?

This week we started a new Science theme unit. We started our unit off by going for a nature walk and recording some of the changes that have occurred with the change of season. The students worked in pairs and recorded their findings on a clipboard. The next day, we started learning all about soil. We are lucky enough to have a school garden, so we headed out to the back field to collect some soil samples. When we returned to the class, we examined each of our soil samples using a magnifying glass. We also sorted some of our finding and recorded them on the white board.

 

As a follow-up activity, we created a soil flip book which included information about the components of healthy soil.

 

Next, we moved onto learning about the life cycle of a bean plant. We started off by examining some bean seeds. We soaked our bean seeds over night (to soften the shells) and carefully split our seeds open so that we could examine the inside. We learned about the different parts of a seed which included the seed coat, embryo (little plant) and food storage.

 

 

After examining our seeds we completed a "label it" diagram of a bean seed.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we planted our bean seeds into individual cups so that we can continue to observe our plants as they grow.

 

 

 

This lead us into our next activity - learning about the different parts and jobs of a plant. Here are some photos of the plant flip books that we created to demonstrate our learning.

 

 

The students really enjoyed each of the activities we completed this week and it was great to get outside and out of the classroom. Many of the students have been extending their learning during the recess and lunch hours by examining the different kinds of plants in our school yard, not to mention the endless supply of insects and earthworms that have been making their way into the classroom.

 

Earth Day is just around the corner (April 22) and we will be continuing our Earth and Life Sciences unit

 

Last week I wrote all about some of the fairy tale activities we have been working on. Here are a few photos of the "Princess and the Pea" art project that we completed.

 

First, we drew the image using pencil.

Next, we traced over our pencil lines with a black crayon.

 

Then, we used coloured crayons to add patterns and designs to our drawings.

 

 

Finally, we used water colours to paint over our drawing.

 

 

Our work is now on display in the hallway outside of our classroom.

Come on down and take a look.

 

Important Information:

 

 

Don't forget that tomorrow is our field trip to watch the drama presentation "The Little Mermaid".

Don't forget to bring your booster seats!

 

-Mrs. Singh

 

 

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - OH MY!

If you read our last post, you would know that we just completed our informational writing unit. Our final drafts are complete, along with a cute craftivity, and are now on display in the hallway. Don't they look amazing!

 

Here is a close-up of one.

 

Lion and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!

 

Our new Language Arts theme is "Fairy Tales". We started reading "The Wizard of Oz" and we are absolutely loving it. This is the version we are using for our class read aloud times.

 

 

This story has provided a lot of opportunity for discussions about friendship. Today we took our discussions a bit further and practiced our conversation skills by learning appropriate ways to "join in" when we see a group of friends playing together or maybe even other students we may not know.

 

First, we learned, discussed and reviewed the steps needed to appropriately join in and play with others. We kept with the "Wizard of Oz" theme and called it...

 

 "Follow the Yellow Brick Road - Steps to Joining In".

 

 

Second, we discussed positive and appropriate ways we could respond and created a reference chart for future discussions.

 

 

 

Next, the students were partnered up and provided a scenario that would cause then to want to join in. Here are a few of our scenario cards.

 

 

Then, together in pairs, the students brainstormed a joining in statement along with a positive response on a conversation bubble activity page.

 

Last, the students role-played in front of their classmates, acting out each of their scenarios.

We will continue with our "Wizard of Oz" friendship theme tomorrow with some more writing activities that I will be sure to post.

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - Oh My!

 

Oh My! was exactly what I was thinking when I decided to complete some messier experiments in matter this week. At first I was worried that the mess would be too much but the students were awesome and even though there were a few shrieks of excitement, it was well worth the end result.

 

On Monday we read a  Dr. Seuss story called "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". 

 

 

This story is about some ooey, gooey green goo that a king orders from his royal magicians. After reading the story, we made our very own oobleck. It was a sunny days so we decided to take the experiment outside and have a little more messy fun.

 

 

 

 

Today, we experimented with ways to blow-up a balloon using baking soda, vinegar, a small bottle and of course a balloon. We used our super scientist knowledge to form a hypothesis, complete the experiment and then discuss our observations. The look on their faces says it all.

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun, I will definitely be searching on Pinterest for some more fun experiments to try out before Spring Break!

 

Hope you enjoy your evening!

-Mrs. Singh

Solid - Liquid - Gas

Wow! We've learned a lot since our last post. Here's what we've been up to the past couple weeks.

After a fun study focusing on communities, we took a break from our Social Studies curriculum and started a new Science unit on Matter.

 

What is Matter?

 

Everything around us is made up of Matter. Matter can be a solid, liquid, or gas.

If you click on the link below, you can watch a short scholastic video that explains it all a little better.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/studyjams/matter_states/

 

Our first lesson had the students acting as the molecules in solids, liquids, and gases. Next, we created a tri-fold book to demonstrate our understanding, which also included a quick sorting activity.

 

 

Our second lesson involved some experimentation with changing states of matter through cooling and heating. After our experiments, we watched a music video on the changing states of matter. By the end of the video, we were all singing along.

 

We were still singing it today!

 

Over the next week or two, we'll have a little more fun with some messier experiments involving more changing states of matter. We'll try and keep everyone posted as we take more photos.

 

Don't forget that tomorrow is Anti-Bullying Day.

 Remember to wear your pink t-shirts!

 

-Mrs. Singh

 

Fun with the iPAD

This morning, our class had the opportunity to use the school's iPAD. We attached the iPAD to our classroom document camera. The document camera allowed us to enlarge the image on the iPAD and view it on our classroom projector screen. The entire class was then able to utilize and benefit from the iPAD, rather then one student at a time. Isn't technology amazing? The spelling City app was downloaded onto the iPAD, so we played a few spelling games using our words of the week. All the students were having a great time learning and practicing their weekly words and there was a TON of enthusiasm in the air. What a great way to start the day!

 

After our fun with the iPAD, we completed our weekly word work activities in our work word duo-tangs. It is really amazing to see how much my sweet ones and twos have learned in just 3 short months. They are turning into independent lovely learners. Yay!!!!!

We also had a chance to visit the computer lab today. Most of the students accessed their RAZ-Kids reading accounts and engaged in a variety of activities to help improve their reading and comprehension.

 

In the area of Math, we are continuing to improve our number sense by describing, comparing, and ordering numbers up to 100 as well as using mental math strategies to solve addition and subtraction facts to 20. Grade two students will be moving onto double-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping shortly. I always find that double-digit addition and subtraction is much easier for students when they have their basic facts memorized. For this reason, during the month of December, we will begin a new morning Math warm-up that will help all of the students memorize and master their basic math facts.

 

We have been having a lot of fun in gym learning and performing a number of folk dances. One of our favourites is the Kinderpolka. The Kinderpolka is a children's dance from Germany that mocks the adults scolding finger and uses a clap and slap pattern. The students create a circle and are assigned a partner. Next, they perform a number of side steps, stomps and claps which are repeated several times throughout the music. Too cute!

 

Tomorrow, we will be working on completing some animal classification riddles that we started working on this afternoon. Each of the students chose an animal and then researched information and facts about the animal of their choice. They started creating riddles using the information they gathered. Tomorrow they will have other students in the school try and guess their animal after reading their riddle. I'll definitely be posting photos of their work on this blog.

 

Have a great evening! See you tomorrow!

 

- Mrs. Singh

When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.

This week in our word study, we will be learning words that have the long a vowel sound. Last week, we learned how this sound can be created with the magic "e". Some other spelling patterns that create this sound are :

ay as in day

ai as in pail

eigh as in sleigh

One way to help the students remember the ay and ai vowel patterns is to remember this rhyme:

"When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking."

Here is a fun video and song clip to help reinforce these patterns:

 

 

We created a list of words with the long a vowel sound and we will continue to add to the list as the week progresses.

 

Onto animal classifications...

 

Today, in Science, the search was on when six poster boards were displayed throughout the classroom. Each poster board represented one of the six animal classification groups that we have been studying (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects). Each of the students cut out animal pictures from a variety of magazines and then pasted the magazine pictures onto the appropriate poster boards.

 

    

 

Searching through magazines

and

our mammals poster board

 

 

When we were all finished, we checked over our work and crossed out any animals that were pasted into the incorrect group (penguins had some of us confused, but we learned that they actually belong in the bird category).

 

Next we completed our animal classification windsocks (which some students have taken home to complete as homework) and displayed them hanging from our ceiling.

 

 

 

Have a great evening!

-Mrs. Singh