Last Blog!

Well this is the last blog. I really didn't want this year to come to an end because we have had such a great year. This is a fabulous group of children. Hats off to all of the families because you are doing a great job raising happy, confident, wonderful kids! We had such a fun year! Thank you for all of your support this year, the gifts and kind words. It is greatly appreciated. Enjoy the video:)

100 Nights of Reading!

Congratulations 9s!

The Butterflies Are Free!

Today was the big day! As soon as we got to school we realized it was a perfect day to let our butterflies free! As soon as we opened the top of the home about 10 butterflies flew out. The rest had to be coaxed out. After the first ten or so butterflies were out the boys started to chase them all over. The girls took turns gently helping the other ones out of the container. After the butterflies were all out, the kids really enjoyed seeing them fly all around-and the boys enjoyed chasing them! As we were walking home we stopped to enjoy all the new little ducklings on the lake. That was a perfect ending for our unit on life cycles. Well we actually aren't finished yet.

  And the boys go crazy!

 I love how the girls on the left are ducking back from the butterfly!

 The ducklings were perfect timing.

Proud Teacher and Classmates

Mrs. H. and the rest of the class are so very proud of 7b!  About a month or so ago we had some great class discussions about community problems and what we could about them. 7b took it upon herself to write a letter to the Mayor about our poor roads and the potholes. She just received a letter back from the Mayor! I couldn't be more proud of her for her community involvement. That is the kind of citizenship we are trying to encourage. Congratulations 7b!

100 Nights of Reading!

Congratulations to these two guys for continuing on with nightly reading. Keep it up!

Science Stations

We are working our way through the animal groups. This week we are learning about reptiles. We have four stations to visit. In each station we try to use a different way to learn about reptiles. Here are a few pictures of us at the stations.

Waiting For Butterflies!// Deep Thinkers While Reading

Well all the larvae are in the chrysalis stage now. They have attached themselves to the little plastic lids of the containers they were in. I had to tape the lids holding the chrysalis' into the top of the butterfly home. Now we wait for the painted lady butterflies to emerge! It will be exciting!

We are finishing up our unit on using "deep thinking" comprehension strategies. In this unit we have really focussed and practiced how to really think about what we are reading. Instead of concentrating on literal questions such as who, what, where, and when, we are trying to make connections that may help our understanding, make inferences to further our learning, ask questions to deepen understanding and fuel our curiosity, and determine importance in order to help us organize our learning into main ideas and details. These types of comprehension skills really get children thinking about what they are reading. As we practice these strategies together, I am always amazed by what the students can do at this level. I have seen such a huge improvement in their reading skills. The children no longer think that fastest reading is best! They know now that sometimes a great reader needs to read slowly, reread or even pause for thought-especially when reading non-fiction. 

Swimming Pictures

Not the best quality as I only took them with my phone but for those of you who didn't get a chance to come-here's a peek. I don't keep track of who is in the photos. I just take them so if I miss anyone it's not on purpose!

May 27-31-Special Visitors and Spelling

Well hopefully by now you have heard about our "visitors"-butterfly larvae. We put each larvae into it's own little container along with some food. Once there they will grow and form a chrysalis. Once this is formed we will transfer them into a large mesh like container and wait for the butterfly to emerge from the chrysalis. I was very relieved to get to school this morning and see the larvae are all still moving and have grown! Many have almost doubled in size. We are studying animal groups and life cycles in science so this was a great start to get us excited about the unit.

Today we learned about the various jobs that ants do. Ask your child about what they would be doing if they were an ant!

And just to remind me of another animal group, I came across this little guy on my way home from school today. He was just on the hill path in the park across the street from the school. When I came up close to take the picture, he curled up his tail up over his body. Grade Twos-why would the salamander do this?

We are back to having a spelling list this week.
Group 1-able  table  simple  people  grumble  bubble
Group 2-able  table  simple  people  grumble  bubble  single tangle double sample turtle
Group 3- adore/adorable, like/likable, love/lovable, remove/removable, value/valuable,  disable, vegetable,  
               This group will be studying how adding the suffix able can change the meaning of a root word. We
                are also gaining experience in identifying which words have a root word.


Just one note about our year end excursion to Regent Park Pool. If you haven't been there before, it is a safe place to take younger children swimming. The pool starts at paddling depth (8 inches??) and gets progressively deeper. This way children that are not yet comfortable swimming can relax and enjoy the water. Children that want to go down the slide must prove that they can swim the whole width of the pool. The lifeguards are very strict about this.

We've Been Busy!

Yes I know it has been awhile since I've posted but........ kitchen renos are interfering!

Swimming is going very well. The kids are fabulous.  Taking care of eachother by reminding about items left in the change room, walking so nicely to and from the pool, listening to the swimming teachers- I can't say enough about how great it has been.

In Math we have been having fun with data management. We have learned how to ask a question or take a survey to solve a problem. Then we organize the data and present it in a number of different ways. Tuesday I will send home a graph that your child made with some data about the class.

In Social Studies we are just finishing a unit about community leadership. We have identified some problems in our community that we want to bring to the attention of our community leaders. We will be writing some letters to the Mayor, Mrs. Beattie and the Leader Post about three different problems we have noticed in our school and neighbourhood.

Next week we are starting our last Science unit of the year on Animals. This unit looks at different animal groups and the life cycles of the animals. We will be starting this with something very exciting on Wednesday ( if it arrives on time!).  Stay tuned!

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids gathering data for a question they posed.

Have a great long weekend!

Don't Look At This Until Mother's Day!

Okay, I hope it is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms. You all have special, wonderful children and I get to share a little of your joy everyday! Thanks for sharing!  Here are a some  pictures of the children as they worked on your presents.