Happy Snow Day!

Today marked the beginning of Snow Day season! I hope that everybody had a safe and happy day today. We had a total of 6 students in our class today.

  I have added this weeks word wall words to the list; these will be the last new set of words before Christmas. We will be having a spelling quiz sometime before Christmas to see how everybody is doing!

  A reminder that Scholastic orders are due on Thursday. If you would like to order anything as a gift for your child, please don't hesitate to let me know that you want it to be a surprise and I will send the books home with your child in a bag they cannot see into.

  Looking forward to seeing the rest of our class tomorrow!

Mrs. Miller

Dance-a-thon

Wow, what fun we had today at our Dance-A-Thon! We got to dance for a full hour together in the gym. Thank you to all families who helped raise money for this fundraiser; together as a school we raised just over $8000 to spend towards St. Francis!

  Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy :)

     Mrs. Miller

 

Dance-a-thon Tomorrow

Our Dance-a-thon is taking place tomorrow! Thank you to everyone who returned their fundraiser sheets. We are asking students to wear purple tomorrow for our dance to support our awareness of this week's Bully Prevention and Awareness week. We will be dancing for an hour in the gym so also make sure that your child is dressed comfortable so they fully participate.

   Mrs. Miller

67's visit and a new Daily 5 activity

Today was a busy day!

Students were treated to a visit by two members of the Ottawa 67's hockey team today! They listened to one of the players, Pat White, read a story and then were able to ask questions to the players afterwards. Students were then given a voucher to redeem for 2 free tickets to any home game for the Ottawa 67's. Look in your child's mailbag or school bag for a bookmark explaining how to get your free tickets!

   Students were also introduced to the fourth "Daily 5" activity today: "Listen to Reading." This part of the Daily 5 uses our classroom IPads for students to listen to stories using Apps such as RAZ Kids.

  Have a great night!

    Mrs. Miller

Dreambox and RAZ kids update.

Thank you very much for your patience in receiving information about RAZ kids and Dreambox Math access! Here is some information on how to access your child's account. **I am sending home your child's login information AND passwords tomorrow in their communication books.

   DREAMBOX - You can access dreambox both on your PC or as an App on your IPad.

     1. PC access - click on the link below and click on "Miller-2." Find your child's name and enter the password for your account.
       
                     https://play.dreambox.com/login/bau5/stfoa


  2. App on your IPad -  To access DreamBox on iPad, go to http://www.dreambox.com/ipad, or search for "DreamBox Math" in the App Store. Download DreamBox Math Green and DreamBox Math Blue to ensure your student has access to the full catalog of DreamBox Learning Math lessons. When prompted in the app, use this School Code: bau5/stfoa

   RAZ Kids - You can access your RAZ kids account both on your PC and on an App on your IPad.

 1. PC access -  Click on the link below and click "Kids Login." Enter the teacher user name: smiller98. Click on your child's name and enter the password provided.

                 https://www.raz-kids.com/


  2. App on your IPad - Download the "Kids A-Z" app and enter the teacher username "smiller98". Find your child's name and enter the password provided.


Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any further questions!

   Mrs. Miller

Dance-a-thon

Next Thursday, November 24th is the annual Dance-a-thon at St. Francis! A reminder to please return any of your pledge forms by next Monday, November 21st at the latest. Thank you,

  Mrs. Miller

Parent Teacher interviews

Next Thursday, November 24th there will be parent-teacher interviews held between 4:00 pm-8:30 pm. Only students who are currently experiencing difficulty and/or are experiencing some issues that I think need to be addressed will be formally invited to attend an interview; I will be sending notes home tomorrow (Wednesday) inviting parents who I would like to meet with.

   If you do not receive a note from me and you would like to have an interview to discuss your child's progress, please do not hesitate to contact me! Just write a quick note in your communication book telling me that you would like to meet. If you are available on Thursday, November 24th in the evening please let me know and tell me a preferred time frame for us to meet and I will schedule an interview time for you. If you would rather set up another time/date to meet please also indicate that in the book.

 Thank you!
        Mrs. Miller

I hope everybody had a great weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather!

Just a reminder that if you didn't already send back the blue first communion/reconciliation books from the weekend please do so as soon as possible. We will be working in the books this week so I need to have them all back!

Also a reminder that this Friday is a P.D. Day so there will be no school.

Mrs. Miller

Remembrance Day reminder and Weekend Homework

Just a quick reminder that students can bring in a small donation to purchase a poppy tomorrow (Friday) to wear for our ceremony. Also, all students who are in Brownies, Scouts, Cubs, etc... are invited to wear their uniforms to school tomorrow.

   Today I have sent a small homework assignment home with each student. There is a note as well in your child's mailbag explaining the task. Please complete over the weekend and return the workbook by Monday, November 14th. Thank you!

  Happy Thursday! Mrs. Miller

Our Math Block Today

**Here is another blog post written by our wonderful students! Here is a Retell of our Math block today. Enjoy! :)


Dear Parents,

      We did some math today and we used graphs and tally marks. First we chose a partner and we did our first assignment using a spinner. The spinner had two colours and when we spun the paperclip we made a tally mark for what colour it landed on. Then we made a graph of our results. We learned that on the spinner even though there was a small amount of blue it could still win but all of our green colour won. Green won because it had the most amount of space on the spinner.

  After the spinner activity we talked about likely and unlikely events and drew different spinners to show likely, unlikely, certain, and impossible events.

  Last we did some more math and what we did was we picked coloured tiles out of paper bags. Whenever we picked a colour out of the bag we put the colour on the graph and we stopped when one colour went to 10 and it was called "Race to 10." We learned that even though red had 10 and blue had 5 that blue could still win.

  From, Mrs. Miller's Grade 2 Class.

Important Updates: Poppy collection and First Eucharist

     This Friday is Remembrance Day and students at St. Francis will have an opportunity to purchase a poppy starting tomorrow and again on Thursday; please bring in a small donation to contribute in exchange for a poppy. Our goal is to have all of our students wearing a poppy to our Remembrance Day celebration on Friday. Our celebration will be starting at 10:30 on Friday morning.

   I would also like to remind our families of the special meeting tacking place at Divine Infant Parish tomorrow night (Wednesday, November 9th) at 6:30pm. Hopefully you can attend! I have posted all of the important dates that you need to know regarding your child's First Reconciliation and First Communion under a new tab "Sacramental Schedule."

  Have a great night!

  Mrs. Miller

Please check your mail bags

If you haven't already checked your child's mail bag tonight please do so, a couple pieces of important mail went home today. Thank you!

Mrs. Miller

What a fabulous Friday!

Students had an amazing and busy day today!

   In gym class today students were treated by a visit from the "Rocks and Rings" program. They learned some of the rules to curling and played a version of curling adapted to by played in our school gym. They did great!

  In Math we finished off the week by doing some more Math centers. Here are pictures of this weeks activity choices:

ABCya addition games on the Smart Board

Roll and make tally marks with Popsicle sticks. 

Roll and write (make a graph) with word wall words.

Addition sentence puzzles.

Make 10 with playing cards.

Math games on the IPad.

Addition and Subtraction game with playing cards.

Tic-Tac-Toe (Addition version)

   Students also had their first opportunity to paint in Art class today! We worked on different techniques to create texture in our painting, and prepared some art for next week's Remembrance Day Celebration. They turned out beautiful!

  Have a safe and happy weekend,

  Mrs. Miller 

Our new Daily 5 topic

** Today's update has been written by all of the students in our class! We worked together to tell you all about our new Daily 5 topic. Enjoy!

Dear Parents,

   I hope you have a great day and night :) We have a brand new topic in Daily 5 and it is called Read To Someone. We have been doing good so far on reading and focusing on the book. We have done 3 Daily Five's so far: Read to Someone, Read to Self, and Word work. We are trying to build up our stamina in reading and focusing on our book. We are still trying to work on staying quiet and reading in one spot.

Right now we are practicing our Read to Someone.

Yesterday we made this chart explaining how we should Read to Someone.

From,

     Mrs. Miller's Grade 2 Class

Pyjama Day

This Friday is Pyjama Day! Our school is holding a fundraiser for United Way and students are invited to wear their Pyjamas to school as well as bring in a toonie as a donation.

November Update and Calendar

     Wow, I can't believe it's already time for a November Update! It seems like just yesterday we were starting out our school year, and now we are well into our routines and curriculum.

     The November Calendar is posted under the Calendar section of the blog. Please check it out, and you are welcome to print if you would like! There are a few important events on the Calendar which will also be posted under the "important dates" section on the right hand side of the blog.

     Progress reports are being sent home on Thursday, November 3rd and there will be interviews taking place during the evening on Thursday, November 24th to discuss your child's progress; more information to come regarding interviews.

    I have noticed that more and more Mailbags are being forgotten/left at home these days and I am having fewer and fewer being returned on a daily basis; this makes it difficult to ensure that important notes and handouts get home to you, and leaves me without a communication book should I need to send a note home. Please ensure that your child is bringing the mail bags to school every day.

   Mme. Cote would also like me to remind all of the parents to please ensure that the green French Homework duo tang and reading program book are returned every Monday so that she may assign new homework for the week and a new book every Tuesday. She also wants to remind parents that she does have her own Blog set up for the French program which she updates on a weekly basis. The blog also contains links to many of the songs that your child sings in class. Her French Blog can be found here:  http://mmecote.blogspot.ca/ 

   Please continue checking out our blog on a regular basis for constant updates on what we are doing in class. Here is a brief outline of what are planning on working on during the month of November in the following subjects:

     Language Arts: This month we will add two more elements to our "Daily 5" by introducing "Read to Someone" and "Listen to Reading." Students will work on building stamina in these new areas of the Daily 5. We will wrap up our work on writing proper "Retells" and will move into Procedural Writing tasks.
     Math: We will continue working on our Data Management unit and will also start working on our unit on exploring addition and subtraction.
     Phys. Ed: We are currently working on specific throwing and catching skills related to volleyball, and will continue working on our cooperative play through games.
     The Arts: We are continuing to focus on elements of design, such as texture, by creating works of art using various materials. This month we will also make a colour wheel to reinforce knowledge of Primary vs. Secondary colours.
     Science and Technology: We are wrapping up our unit on "Growth and Change in Animals." Students will be writing a test to finish up the unit as well as completing a research project on an animal of their choice (more information to come home shortly). We will then begin our next unit: Properties of Liquids and Solids.

   Thank you again for all of the continued support I have received throughout the school year from everybody!


 Mrs. Miller