3D Robots!

   A big THANK YOU to all of the parents who sent in so many wonderful 3D shape objects for the students to use! Everybody had a great time building some very unique Robots and were able to identify all of the 3D shapes used to build their masterpieces.

   We will continue to use these Robots as part of a bigger project where students will continue working in their groups to complete different tasks, such as: a descriptive text, an acrostic poem, an advertisement, a commercial, and a count of all the 3D objects.

   Here is a look at the completed Robots so far! Great job!

Mrs. Miller

 

levers everywhere!

** Please don't forget to bring your skates and helmets tomorrow for our skating outing at Ray Friel arena! Our group will arrive at the arena around 2:15pm. Any parent volunteers can meet us at the arena then :)


   Today we continued our discussion on simple machines and focused on the lever. We watched a quick video explaining levers, and then students were challenged to use any objects around the classroom to construct their own levers! Their creations needed two things in order to be considered a lever: a flat object that rests upon a fulcrum. They were very creative and did a great job! You can see a few of their creations below.

Stack, slide, and roll?

Yesterday our class did a hands-on activity to explore the properties of some 3D shapes. Students were given a list of six 3d solid figures and predicted which shapes would roll down a ramp, which shapes would slide down the ramp, and which shapes could have other items stacked on top of them. After we discussed their prediction, students were able to test them out in groups using the 3d solid shapes. They did a great job with their experiment, and were able to discuss afterwards what each 3D shape must have in order to roll (a curved surface), slide (a flat surface), and stack (at least two flat surfaces).

   Mrs. Miller

I hope everybody had a great weekend!

Please note that there will be no posted homework this week. Instead of the weekly homework there is an optional activity for your child to complete on the back of the note that is being sent home on Monday in your child's mailbag. **Please make sure to look at the note as soon as possible! There will also be no new word wall words to study this week.

Don't forget to send in your child's Library book tomorrow to help with the book exchange!

  Mrs. Miller

More hands-on math and some announcements

First, some house keeping items for next week:

   - Next Wednesday, skating day, will also be Jersey Day. Students are asked to bring in a Toonie to support our Lenten Projects. 

  - More information for volunteers for our skating event will go home early next week!

  - Thank you to everyone who has been bringing in your "Chores for Change" money. We collect every Friday.

Now, on to a recap of our busy week! On Thursday we constructed 3D shapes using printed nets, and students counted how many vertices, edges, and faces their 3D shape had. They turned out really well, and students had some rich conversations with their friends about the 3D shapes while they worked.

We also started our Drama unit on Thursday! We began by having a fun game of "charades" where students acted out different animals, and their classmates had to guess what they were acting out. We talked about different elements of acting, such as facial expressions, body movements, facing the audience, etc. Everybody had a great time! We continued our introduction to Drama this morning by having another round of charades where students worked in small groups to act out different scenarios (i.e. "going to the zoo") and had their friends guess what they were doing; students had a blast!

Today's Math Centers focused on both 2D and 3D shapes and gave students different opportunities to work with and discuss the shapes. 

 Sorting common objects into their 3D shapes

 2D shape challenges: create shapes using specific pattern blocks. 

Using Osmo Tangrams

I hope that everybody has a wonderful weekend! See you all back on Monday,

   Mrs. Miller

2D and 3D Shape fun!

** Homework has been posted for this week, sorry for the delay!**

 Today we had a lot of fun in Math class building 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks! We recorded how many sides and vertices each shape had, and discovered that all of the 2D shapes had the same number of vertices and sides but 3D shapes had different amounts. This opened up a discussion of why this was, and students had some great ideas! It was a fun way to get thinking about our geometry unit.

  Mrs. Miller

Welcome Back!

Welcome back! I hope that everybody had a wonderful March Break! Just a few things to note as we get back into the swing of things at school:

 - Please continue sending back your child's library book every Monday morning to help with the book exchange. Also, please continue to send your child's Mailbag and communication book every day; it makes handouts and sending work home much easier!

- Next Wednesday, March 29th we will be going to Ray Friel with the school to participate in skating. If you have not returned your child's permission form yet please do so ASAP. If you have indicated that you would like to volunteer your time at our skating event more information will go home shorty.

- I am sending home a math quiz on money today in your child's mailbag; students did great! The quiz was marked out of 18 based on the questions that addressed grade 2 curriculum expectations, and the "bonus" questions (4) were more difficult and addressed higher levels.

- This weeks homework will be posted later today or early tomorrow morning for students to complete. Homework that has already been submitted will be returned today.

  Keep checking the blog for more news!

 Mrs. Miller

March Break

I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful March Break!! I will see everybody back to school on Monday, March 20th.

    Mrs. Miller

Quiz tomorrow

Tomorrow morning students will be completing a quiz on counting and making money amounts up to $1.00. There will also be some "bonus" questions about making money amounts up to $5.00.

  To help students prepare for tomorrow we completed some money focused math centers today, where everybody had a chance to complete all 4 centers. Students had a lot of fun and also had another opportunity to practice their money counting skills with their peers and with myself!

 Mrs. Miller

   I hope that everyone enjoyed their weekend and was able to stay warm! Weekly homework has been posted, and please note that we will be studying the same weekly word wall words this week as last week. All homework that has been handed in to me in the past couple of weeks will be sent home today. There will be NO weekly homework posted for next week during the March Break, please take the time to relax and enjoy family time :)

   We have been focusing on many different Lent activities in the classroom over the past few days. Last Tuesday we began talking about what Lent is and learned some of the history of this special time. On Wednesday we created a "Prayer Chain" together as a class where we came up with a person/group of people to focus our prayers on each day during Lent. Each day we will take a link off the chain and focus our prayer for the day on that person or group of people. On Thursday we discussed more in dept about three things that we are meant to do or do more of during Lent: Pray, Fast, and Give. Students then came up with a "Promise for Lent" where they decided how they were going to show those three things during Lent. We then put our promises up on the wall at our prayer table.

 Our Prayer Chain

 Some of our promises for Lent

 Our Promises for Lent proudly displayed at the prayer table.

  On Friday we had Mrs. Bennett come in and lead a special activity that the whole school is participating in: "Chores for Change." Students are encouraged to do extra chores around the house during Lent to earn change, and they are invited to bring in their change on Friday's to add to our school collection for fundraising for a special cause (more information to come). Students created special labels that can be added to a jar at home to collect their change.

"Chores for Change" jar labels students created on Friday. 

  We will continue to do more activities throughout the Lenten season!

    Mrs. Miller