November 22 to 26

 Hello,

It was great to get a chance to meet with all of your virtually over the past couple of days.  It is nice to have a check in and talk about how your child is doing.

Please note that the homework posted Sunday is a two week homework with a Science project.  It will be due on December 10th and it is our last homework assignment before the break. 

This week went by quickly.

In Science, we have been working on our Magnetism unit.  This week we look at different materials and made predictions about whether or not they would be attracted to a magnet and then checked.  Students enjoyed working with the magnets.  In the homework starting next week there is a magnetic toy project.  On Monday I will be sending home two magnets for your child to use for this.  

In math this week we focused on 2D shapes.  Students are asked to identify the shape names, tell how many sides and how many corners.  They are also asked to compare two shapes - how are they the same and how are they different?  Next week we will be looking at 3D objects.

In Social Studies, we are looking at Iqaluit as our second community of study.  We look at the physical geography and climate this week.  We talked about it differs from both Calgary and Meteghan.

In Language Arts, we have continued writing use description with our walking stories.  This week students were asked to describe a favorite toy.  We have also been using wordless pictures books in Language Arts.  This week we focused on making inferences, predictions and connections based on the pictures.  In reading our focus has been on making connections to self, the world and other texts.

This week we also focussed on some editing of our writing.  One of the most common things that I am seeing is repetition in sentence beginnings.  Many times students are starting all their sentences in the same way.  We are also looking at making sure we are adding details through similes and the use of our senses.  

I have begun to read "Charlie at the Chocolate Factory" as a read aloud so that students will have a good idea of the story before we begin prep for the spring play.  Many students have seen a version of the movie but not heard the story.

Have a good weekend,

Mrs. Coulling 

Updates up to November 19th

 Hello,

I hope that everyone is doing well.  It was so nice to see the students in their hip hop attire today at school.  You will be getting a link on Monday with our classes video that we made today.  Students were so engaged this week in learning the dance.

Just a reminder that next week is parent teacher conferences.  They are scheduled for Thursday November 25th from 4 to 8 pm and Friday November 26th from 8 am to 12 pm.  If you have not have a chance to sign up for an interview please do so.  This is a great opportunity for us to connect about your child and talk about any concerns that you have or I have in the classroom.  Because of this just a reminder there will be no school Friday, November 26th.  

Here are some curriculum updates

Math - this week we have been doing math centres in order to review some of the number concepts that we have been working on including addition and subtraction.  One of the centres was working in a small group with me focusing on number lines.  I have noticed that this is an area where many students are having some difficulty.  We focused on numbers to 100.  

Science - We have finished our Small, Crawling and Flying animals unit.  Students are bringing home their labelled diagrams and information about the 5 animals we focused one.  We began Magnetism this week. Students seem very keen to start the unit.  It is a lot of hands on experiments so that is always enjoyable for students.

Social Studies - We have finished our in depth look at Meteghan which was our first community of study.  Students should be able to tell you about the geography, culture, people, natural resources, goods and services about this village.  Next week we will be starting to learn about Iqaluit, Nunavut, our next community of study.

Language Arts - Students have continued to work on their reading strategies and comprehension.  Our comprehension focus has been on making connections.  Connections to self, connections the world and text to text connections.    In writing, we have continued with walking stories.  Studies have focused on adding description to their writing through their senses and the use of similes.   Next week will be be doing some targeted work on editing.

I look forward to seeing you virtually at conferences next week,

Mrs. Coulling 

November 1st to 5th

 Hello,

I hope that everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather for November!

We had a full week this week.

Here are some of the things that we have been up to:

Math

We spent some time looking at strategies for estimation for quantities up to 100.  We also looked at using a referent to help estimate.  That is if I can see what ten of the item looks like then I can make a better guess.

We also worked on a problem this week that used patterning.  Students were able to solve the problem by making a chart or drawing a photo. This led to a discussion about how multiple ways can lead us to the same answer.

In Science we are just finishing up our unit of Small Crawling and Flying animals. Next week students will do an assessment to show all that they are learned.

In Social Studies we looked at the culture and the different traditions and celebrations in Meteghan.

In Language Arts.  Students worked on using similes in their writing.  This will be part of the homework for the next two weeks.  Students were asked to write similes about their moms.  Next week we will write about dads.  We also continued to work on our reading comprehension through retell fiction stories we are reading.  Students are asked to identify the setting, characters, problem, attempts to solve the problem and solution.  As you are reading at home you can also ask your child about these things.

In gym students are working on a listening unit.  On Thursday the got to be builders.  You can ask them about it, it was a great class and they enjoyed the 4 missions.

Just a quick note about the homework since next week is a three day week with Remembrance Day and a PD day on Friday.  The homework and spelling test will be due on Friday November 19th so not next Wednesday.

Grade 2's are putting on the assembly so that link will be shared with you.  You can see our classes contributions.  

Have a good weekend,

Mrs. Coulling 

 

October 25th to 29th

 Hello,

What a busy week.  Today as a fun day.  It was nice to see the students in costumes or their casual clothes.  We focussed our learning on bats today (we are still working on Small Crawling and Flying Animals in Science).  Students got to rotate through some different centres today in groups they don't always work in.  

In math we have continued with patterns specifically number patterns and determining if a number is odd or even.  Students in grade two needs to know whether any given number between 1 and 100 is odd or even.  Next week in Math we will be looking at estimating quantities up to 100 and discussing strategies for that.

In Social Studies we are continuing to learn about Meteghan.  We have been learning about their food, culture and traditions.  

In Science we are looking to finish up Small Crawling and Flying Animals by mid November so that we can start Magnetism next.  This week we focused on worms and bats.  Students were challenged this week to read information about worms and extract the information that they needed such as their habitat, body parts, adaptations etc. 

In writing this week students were asked to creatively think about creating a Witch's Brew.  It was interesting to hear all of the gross things that they would put in their brew.  Next week we will be doing some non fiction writing about bats.

Happy Halloween if you are going out on Sunday evening,

Mrs. Coulling 

October 19th to 22nd

 Hello Parents,

We had a great week.  

One Tuesday we had Adventure Running come to our gym class and teach us about their program and orienteering on a map.  On Wednesday we were able to walk down to Flint Park and try three different courses.  Even though it was a little chilly the students really seemed to enjoy it.

Just a few reminders for next week.

Thursday is our book exchange book please make sure your child's book is at school.

Next Friday is our Halloween Celebration at school.  Students are allowed to wear costumes (school appropriate).  They are not expected to be in school uniform but still must have a face mask.  I have heard from them lots of great costumes that I can wait to see!

Grade two is responsible for the Remembrance Day assembly.  We have begun talking about that as each class is doing something as well as creating art.  We will be filming the assembly prior too and it will be shared on the 10th.  Students are engaging in conversations around Remembrance Day, why we wear poppies, what do the words peace, freedom etc mean to them.

We are still going outdoors for gym.  Our class is the last block before lunch so it has generally warmed up by then but it can still be chilly.  Please make sure that your child is dressed to be outdoors including a warm enough coat, mitts and a toque.  Thank you.

Have a good weekend,

Mrs. Coulling 

October 12th to 15th

 Hello Parents,

How is it already the middle of October!?! This year has really flown by so far. 

I have sent home the October Scholastic flyer if you are interested in ordering books please use the class code on the top of the flyer and put the order in online.  Thank you.

This week we continued our look at Meteghan in Social Studies.  We specifically looked at the geography and climate.  

In Science, we looked in depth at bees and started with a detailed drawing of a spider.  Next week we will learn more about spiders.  

In math, we worked on sorting groups of objects with 2 attributes.  This was a bit tricky for some of the students but by the end of the week most of them understood and could show me they understood.  At first they want to use the same attribute like color so red and orange but they they do not have any that have both attributes. See below. 

In math next week we will be looking at number patterns and reviewing skip counting. 

In Language Arts, we are doing literacy centres and for writing we are continuing with walking stories.  This week we talked about scarecrows and students students some art today that goes with this topic.

This we during character education we have been talking about respect.  Specifically how we can respect others.  Today I read the book "How Full is Your Bucket for Kids" and discussed how we all have buckets that we can either dip from or fill other people's buckets.  This was a good reminder as I am finding that students are quite concerned with what other students should be good rather than worrying about their own self.  We will continue to explore this topic in the next couple weeks. 

 

Enjoy the great weather this weekend,

Mrs. Coulling 

October 4th to 7th

 Hello,

I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving long weekend.  We will be back to school Tuesday, October 12th.  Homework will be posted by Sunday night and is due Friday October 15th.

We started our library book exchange this week.  Please note that our library exchange day will be Thursdays.  Please return books on Thursdays so that the students can choose a new book to take home with them. 

This week in Science we went in depth about ants and began looking at bees.  We look at their descriptions, adaptations, relationships with humans, habitat and diet.

Example of a labelled diagram 

In Social Studies we have been furthering our look at Meteghan, Nova Scotia after our Teacher's Pet Field Trip.  Students looked at the geography and landscape of Meteghan. 

In math we continued to look at increasing patterns and started to talk about sorting rules and sorting by different attributes.

In language arts, we are continuing with walking stories.  We are fully into literacy centres now.  So each student has one session of guided reading with me each week.  Two groups are also going for a second guided reading session with Ms. Stephenson our partner class teacher.  

Our character trait we are looking at is Respect.  We have focused so far on respect for self, others and the environment.  

Happy Thanksgiving,

Mrs. Coulling