See you at the Christmas Concert tonight! :)

We hope you all can make it to our Christmas Concert tonight at 6pm! We will meet in our classroom from 5:45pm onwards. Here's a glimpse of the Christmas Concert action fresh from today's rehearsal and performance for residents of the Oddfellow's Home in Pictou:

And if' you've got a chance, check out our "If I was in a snow globe..." stories and snow globes on display outside of our classroom! :)

Have a fabulous rest of the week! :)

Wolfly December Update

It's hard to believe that we only have nine days of learning left in 2017! I hope each and every one of them will be meaningful, full of learning and fun as we celebrate our successes of the year and set goals for the start of a new one! :)

We are wrapping up our learning about 'Healthy Choices' at school, but that doesn't mean the students won't be encouraged to make healthy choices for the remainder of the year. Students are still encouraged to bring fresh, healthy snacks and lunches, as the correlations between diet and academic performance are endless. Students should also be encouraged to get outside and play on a daily basis, continually wash their hands and take time to reflect on their days; these are all things we've learned about. Below are a couple of links to articles about healthy eating and behaviour; one of them is based on a study done on Nova Scotia students:
https://wellnessmama.com/36873/do-food-dyes-affect-behavior/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-healthy-diet/healthy-diet-means-better-school-performance-idUSTON47353620080414

A big thank you goes out to Sandra White (Miriam's grandmother) and the Home and School Committee (Connor's mom) for helping us to eat a healthy meal two weeks ago. Mrs. White brought in a big bag of apples for the students to snack on while the Home and School Committee helped support me in purchasing fresh food items for the Wolves to have a healthy snack and lunch. Students did well to eat most of the food and most reflected that their tummies and energy levels were good at the end of the day. You can check out photos from our pizza making below:

As part of our Grade 2 Mathematics program, students are completing Jump Math textbooks and activities. This, combined with a lot of hands-on learning centers and our 'Math Fact Ninjas' will be how we continue to extend our number sense skills and knowledge. 

A week ago, Ms. Beck's Grade 1/2 class invited us to their classroom to play some math games and broaden our repertoire! You can check out videos and photos from the action below! Thanks, Ms. Beck's class! :)

Over the next couple of weeks, and this past week, we will be learning about 'Holidays around the World'. So far, we've covered the U.S.A., Germany and Canada - are you an expert on holidays abroad? Have something to share? We'd love to have you tell us more! Please contact me! :)
Below, you'll see us comparing our Canadian traditions to those we read about in a book:


Our cooperation and teamwork skills have been a big focus this past week and they will be skills that we work on for the rest of the year. Working in groups is something that we all need throughout life, so that we can get jobs done better, more efficiently and with more responsibility and empathy. We will be partaking in activities that promote positive participation in groups, but that will also motivate students to work better as part of a team, and independently. To wrap up our learning last week, we talked about our thoughts and feelings (they come from different places!) and did some activities both independently and in groups so we could compare our results.


IMPORTANT UPDATES/NOTES:

Wednesday, December 13th @6:00pm - Wolves perform in the West Pictou Consolidated Christmas Concert!

Monday, December 18th - Wolves go to Empire Theatres to see Ferdinand!

Thursday, December 21st - Wolves' last day of school for 2017!

Friday, December 22nd - Tuesday, January 2nd - WINTER HOLIDAYS - NO SCHOOL!

Wednesday, January 3rd - Wolves' first day of school for 2018!

Term 1 Wrap-Up with the Wolves!

Tomorrow, the Wolves will bring home report cards marking the official end of our first term of learning together! Congratulations to all of the Wolves and I look forward to your continued progress! :)

Since our last update, we took some time to reflect and respect those who have fought and fallen for the freedom we're privileged to have today. I was lucky enough to borrow some World War II soldier items from my childhood neighbour - Raymond 'Labman' Gregory - that were shared with the Wolves. You can see these modeled by Ethan below:

Thanks to Labman and also to Pyper and Rhys for carrying our A-Z list of things we're thankful for to the Remembrance Day ceremony that took place two weeks ago. Check them out below:



Thanks also to New Glasgow Academy for hosting us for a live performance of 'Elf'! Last Tuesday, we travelled to New Glasgow to catch a little bit of the holiday spirit, and have some laughs, while NGAs talented students put on a great show!


We have also been digging deeper into our learning about 'Healthy Choices'. Students have been looking at how diet, hygiene, exercise and mindfulness all play a roll in keeping us healthy. As part of this, a couple of weeks ago, we all touched a slice of bread. Students had not washed their hands before this. The other piece of bread was not touched. We had them both hanging on our whiteboard and we've been making predictions about the bread and the colours it's changing along the way. One lesson we have learned, is that we probably have dirty hands and hopefully we'll be better at washing them - especially before we eat! :)

Touched by students - 17/11

Not touched by students - 17/11

We have also begun keeping food journals to keep track of what foods we eat and how they make us feel. After we have a healthy snack and lunch tomorrow, students will record their feelings. They'll do the same when they have 'normal' lunches from home this week as well. We'll then look at some trends and see if there are any correlations between how we feel and what we eat! Stay tuned for our results! :)

And you've probably heard ALL about our arcade! Well, it was a success! Thanks to those parents who allowed their Wolves to bring in boxes and/or other materials from home to help with the construction of their arcade games. The Wolves wrote plans to create their games, built them, tested them and then had students from Ms. Beck's and Mme Brown's classes come and play them. Well done, Wolves! :)
You can check out photos and videos of our games below:

Congratulations to two more Superstar Students: Alex and Ben! Alex and Ben took initiative to clean the classroom during their free time, and then consistently make good choices (i.e. to read a book) when they have finished work early. Thank you and keep up the great work, Alex and Ben! :)

Happy Birthday to Ethan and Tristen who celebrated their birthdays over the past two weekends! All of the Wolves hope that you have an awesome year ahead! :)

Thanks for tuning in and have a great week! I hope to see many of you at parent-teacher conferences this coming Thursday and Friday! :) IMPORTANT DATES/REMINDERS: 

We have a student with a SEVERE NUT ALLERGY in our class. Please be mindful of this when packing your child's lunch! Thank you! :)

Monday, November 27th - Healthy Snack and Lunch Day - Your child does NOT need to bring a lunch or snack today!
- Report Cards go home Thursday, November 30th @6:00pm - 8:00pm - Parent - Teacher Conferences - I'll be having 10-minute chats with parents/guardians about their child's progress so far this year
Friday, December 1st - NO SCHOOL
@1:00pm - 3:00pm - Parent - Teacher Conferences

Happy November!

I hope the weekend has offered some time for the Wolves to come out of their Halloween candy comas and overdoses! What a week it has been though! But before we touch on this week, we've got to rewind two weeks back!

In the spirit of impending Halloween, students spent their end-of-the-week language time (two weeks ago), reading and then writing stories about Halloween. Students were told to think about a Halloween character - be it a pumpkin, owl, cat, ghost, goblin, vampire, etc. - that would be the star of their story.
We then brainstormed a list of different Halloween words and sorted them into 'nouns', 'verbs', 'adjectives' and even a few 'adverbs' to help us write descriptive, fictional stories about our characters.

Then, we created our characters using toilet paper rolls and other craft supplies! I'm sure many of you saw these coming home in backpacks! :)
The Wolves then had a chance to share their stories and character creations with the class! You can see in the photo and videos below:

(Pyper's character is missing from the video!)


We also looked and and discussed 'WOW!' pages in just-right books that we chose to read for silent reading. We then shared with partners why we thought the pages we chose made us say or think 'Wow!'
This week, when you're reading with your child, choose your own 'Wow!' page and share with your child! :)



Now that running records have been done for all of the Wolves, we've been doing some Guided Reading and mini-inquiries into books! Reading in small groups allows me to better assist your child in bettering her/his reading skills! During this time, students are also playing games or partaking in other activities that practice our reading and/or writing skills. You can see some of the sentences students built using some Duplo we have with words on it!

During our Mathematics time, we continued to work on our number sense knowledge and began adding double digit numbers. Check out our number posters we made since our last update:

While we initially planned on moving into patterns, student inquiry continues to steer us into a number focused area. We'll also be using numbers to help us keep track of our progress while we investigate 'Healthy Choices'.



Speaking of healthy choices, after some help from Bill Nye the Science Guy this past week, students chose an aspect of health and wellness that they were going to focus on (or a bad habit they were going to try to kick or limit!) for the next four weeks. To keep track of how this change might affect our bodies, we ran a 40m (20m one way) sprint and did a flexed arm hang for as long as we could. Students recorded their times and then made predictions about how fast they may run next time - and how long they might hold their flexed arm hang for! If any of you at home want to join us, please do?

As part of this science-(and math-)based unit, we've also been exploring foods and students have asked many questions about why we need food, how our body processes it and why some foods are better than others. To kick start our inquiry into these questions, students drew pictures of their favourite foods and then they were randomly distributed and students placed them next to signs indicating that we should eat 'some', 'a little bit' or 'a lot' of them. You can see this in action below:

We also celebrated two birthdays last week. Kara and Miriam had birthdays on October 24th and Lucas had his birthday on October 25th! HAPPY BIRTHDAY from the Wolves! :)

Halloween was a blast - and so was the dance! - and it was fun to see the Wolves all dressed up! That being said, it was really difficult for some of us to focus in school, given how much sugar was in our systems! Please limit the amount of junk food that is being sent to school with your child - it really, really does make a difference! :) Thank you!!

And CONGRATULATIONS to Emma and Henry who were recipients of our 'Superstar Student' Awards this past Friday. Emma and Henry have been consistently setting and achieving high standards for themselves and their classmates in completion of work and other class activities! Keep up the great work and THANK YOU for being such positive role models! :)

IMPORTANT DATES/REMINDERS:

We have a student with a SEVERE NUT ALLERGY in our class. Please be mindful of this when packing your child's lunch! Thank you! :)

Wednesday, November 8th - @10:10am - Library
-Meet with Green Schools Coordinator

Thursday, November 9th @7pm - Home and School Meeting

Friday, November 10th @1:30pm - Remembrance Day Ceremony
-Book Orders Due!

Saturday, November 11th - Remembrance Day

Monday, November 13th - NO SCHOOL!

Mid-October Update

Time continues to fly as the leaves continue to fall; I hope you were all able to get outside this weekend and enjoy some of the beautiful colours nature has on show for us! :)

To celebrate Friday the 13th this month, the Wolves hiked Fitzpatrick Mountain! It was a beautiful day and it was great to get outside and enjoy nature. A big thanks to Braeden's mom, Alex's mom and Ms. Battist for joining us on our trek! Below, you can see a couple of group photos...and of course a pre-hike selfie! :)

On Tuesday the 10th, all the Grade 2 students in Pictou County were invited to the deCoste Centre in Pictou for a performance by three musical Newfoundlanders who were also teachers called "The Swinging Belles". They put on quite the show and literally had us dancing out of our seats! :) Check out some of the action in the videos below:



It got really crazy when they brought out some bubbles!



Our learning during the past two weeks had us investigating number sums of single digit numbers as well as adding and subtracting with zeroes. Students are getting a better understanding of how to work with 'base 10' and '10 frames' as we look at what numbers mean and how they're represented! We'll continue learning about numbers for another week before we start exploring patterns - we'll definitely be having a look at those awesome natural patterns Mother Nature has laid out for us too! :)

The Wolves have also been working on improving their writing. We have a 'Writing Goals' list on display in the classroom and at the beginning of the week, students choose an aspect of writing that they're going to focus on - be it letter spacing, using punctuation, writing neater, adding more details or using capital letters. We also had our first spelling test this past Friday. Students were given 10 of their 'No Excuse' Grade 2 words on Monday and played games that had them practising spelling these words. The words won't be sent home as this is teaching students independence and taking ownership of their learning; they had a lot of free time to work on learning the words as well. You can see some of this learning in action in the video below:


This week, students will be coming home with a 'Take Home Reader'. This 'homework' is just meant to promote healthy reading behaviours at home and by all means, please engage with your child about the book she/he brings home. Your child will be assigned a day (Monday - Friday) and this will be the day she/he us responsible for bringing the book back and changing it. If you have any questions, please let me know! :)

To get us in the mood for Halloween, we visited the River Breeze Farm Corn Maze last Tuesday (October 17th). We had a great time getting lost in the maze and then playing on all of the fun playground equipment. Check out some photos and a quick video of the pig race we got to watch:

 
Congratulations to Riley for being our first "Superstar Student" of the year!
 


Riley has shown a considerable amount of progress in his school behaviour and attitude towards getting his work done. He has really been dedicated to learning over the past two weeks and to recognize him for his efforts, he received this award! Stay tuned to find out who our next Superstar Student will be! :)

UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER:

Thursday, October 26th - Home and School Halloween Dance
Friday, October 27th - NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, October 31st - Halloween

DECOSTE CENTRE TOMORROW!

Sorry for the late notice, but tomorrow morning, we'll be attending a play at the DeCoste Centre. The Wolves took home permission forms today to be signed - this will ensure they're able to attend our trip TOMORROW (Wednesday, October 11th)!

We'll also be going to Fitzpatrick Mountain on Friday (October 13th) and forms were sent home for that today, too!

Thanks for your cooperation! :)

A lot to be thankful for this update...! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!  추석 잘 보내세요! :)

I've been thankful for my time getting to know the Wolves and look forward to learning more with them in the coming weeks!

On Friday, we had a special guest who came in to help us make a Korean craft - a 'sogo' drum.
Yewon, a Korean student in Mrs. Fraser's class, would have just celebrated Chuseok if she was back in South Korea; it's like Korean Thanksgiving. So, we wanted to do a a craft that included and appreciated this important time of year for Yewon but we also included our own Canadian twist!
Traditionally, the Koreans believe in a perfect balance between earth, heaven (whatever that may be) and humanity. The Wolves (and 2A) designed one side of the plate with the three traditional colours but as much of each as they saw important in their lives. On the other side, they wrote or drew things they were thankful for this Thanksgiving. The drums were used in traditional dances that were done in hanboks (traditional Korean outfits) that are worn on special occasions - like Chuseok! :)

This week, we also worked on our language skills by writing 'Thank You' cards as well as some acrostic name and 'Thankful' poems. One thing is for sure, the Wolves have a lot to be thankful for and I hope they all celebrated that this weekend! :)


During our Math time, we continued to work on and build our number knowledge as we looked more at how we can represent numbers or what they mean or look like, other than just a numeral. At home, you might continue the conversation about - what numbers are used for and why they're important - as you see them pop around your environment. Can you imagine a world without numbers?


In the series of videos below, you'll see the Wolves working with a variety of coins to show their understanding of 'greater than' and 'less than'. To demonstrate how complex the world of numbers is, we did a guessing activity where students chose coins they thought were the most valuable, and then we used www.xe.com/ucc to do conversions to Canadian $ and compare the amounts of the guessed coins. Some minds were blown! :)



Caroline and Emma:


Charlee and Connor:


Ben:


Henry and Lucas:


Allison and Rhys:


Kara and Pyper:
 
DATES TO REMEMBER:

We've got an exciting week coming up! On Friday, October 13th we'll be doing a Primary-Grade 2 hike on Fitzpatrick Mountain. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and I'll aim to take a nice group photo of us! I'm excited for some fall colours - please ensure your Wolf dresses appropriately for the weather and with comfortable shoes - it's a big walk! We'll have our lunch there as well!

On Tuesday, September 17th, we'll also be embarking on a field trip to River Breeze Farm to try out our teamwork skills in the corn maze while also exploring and learning about one of Nova Scotia's oldest and most important industries! This trip will also have us eating lunch off school campus...and hopefully we'll all return from the corn maze! ;)

And we're off!

Time has been flying by and another week has come and gone!

Tomorrow (September 26th) is PICTURE DAY at West Pictou Consolidated! 

Please make sure you comb that hair, brush those teeth and bring in your best smile for the photographer tomorrow, Wolves! :)

We wanted to send a big happy birthday wish out to Ms. Kennedy who celebrated her birthday yesterday! We sent her a big card, signed by all the Wolves, and we hope it helped to make her big day a little brighter! Ms. Kennedy - this video's for YOU! :)



During our Mathematics time this week, the Wolves continued to inquire into numbers and number sense. At home, you can continue to extend your wolf's knowledge by having them count various items by 1s, 2s, 5s or 10s! We've also been learning about estimating so if you need anything counted at home, have your wolf (and yourself) take a guess and then see who had the better guess after counting!
Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below this post! :)

During our Language lessons, we've been writing recounts of our weekends/days and also drawing on some of our past experiences. Students have also been working in centers/stations that rotate and focus on different writing/reading/literacy skills as you'll see in the video below.
We also had a Scrabble table challenge that went on for most of the week - the winner of this challenge will be announced in our next post!

This week, we'll be getting down to the nitty-gritty of what a sentence is and why before we carry on exploring poetry in the coming days! We'll also be writing about what makes us awesome!
Who are some of our favourite poets? Writers? Songwriters? Lyricists? Stay tuned...



Below, you can see us applying our 'I PICK' strategies to choose a 'just right' book for ourselves in the library. Thanks to Ms. Mattie who comes in to make Wednesday borrowing happen for us! :)


To wrap up last week, we made some slime*! Like estimating in math, scientists make predictions (or educated guesses) about what they think will happen when doing an experiment!

The Wolves collaborated in table groups to make their own slime but also talked about and then recorded the steps necessary to make the slime as well as predictions and results!
*All Wolves were warned to wash their hands after playing with their slime! Just to be safe! :)

REMINDERS
We'll be running to show our support for Terry Fox on Thursday (September 28th) so please ensure your Wolf wears comfortable/appropriate shoes! If it rains, we'll likely still be running but in the gym!
There is NO SCHOOL FOR WOLVES on Friday (September 29th) as teachers will be partaking in an in-service day.
Please check and send your child's agenda to school everyday. Even if there is no important information, it's still a good routine for the Wolves to be getting into. Independence is so important for children to develop and this is a small piece of that big puzzle!

Also, please subscribe (-->) with your email in the sidebar! That way, you won't miss out on what's being posted and you have some good conversation material for reflecting with your wolf at home! Thanks so much for everything you're already doing! :)

PLEASE KEEP POKEMON CARDS AT HOME!
Many students are bringing Pokemon cards into school but they don't yet possess the skills to trade and play with them. This is creating a lot of tears in our hallway after recess and lunch time so I think it'd be best to encourage our Pokemon Masters to just be Masters at home or outside of school with their friends!
Thanks for your understanding and support with this! :)

First Full Week Wrap-Up

The Wolves have had a busy first full week of learning...but I'm hoping they all had some fun, too! :)

Is anyone missing a sweater at home? I think I might know where it is; the above 11 sweaters were left behind at some point this week! Please label your child's clothing, water bottles and lunch bags/boxes and please continue to build that sense of independence in holding them accountable for their belongings...other than their Pokemon cards because they have no problem with those! :)

We celebrated Emma's 7th birthday on Thursday and we'll try to have a mini celebration for our September and summer birthdays at the end of the month! I hope seven has treated you all well so far! :)

Thanks to all of you who came out to "Meet the Teacher (Creature)" this past Wednesday. It was nice to meet some of the Wolves' parents and I'll be sure to share my contact information with you all, as soon as I receive it! You'll see that the 'Meet the Wolves' tab has been updated along with the 'Class Info & Notices' tab - I'll continue to use this space to keep you informed on happenings at West Pictou and in our classroom! :)

For a little glimpse into our learning this week, check out the videos below:

The Wolves each drew a random classmates' name, asked them five questions and then wrote up the information to be published here, on our blog! The published blurbs were then printed and pasted into the students' writing journals where they also rewrote the blurbs and looked for mistakes in their original writing. 
These steps are part of the Writing Process which will become more fundamental in student literacy skills in Grade 3 and beyond. In Grade 2, students will be exposed to different stages of the Writing Process as their expectations for writing increase as the year goes on. 

During our Friday Mathematics learning time, students participated in different stations that incorporated number skills and knowledge! At home, you can increase the complexity of any board game by adding an additional die OR adding a die with '-' or '+' symbols on it (use some stickers to cover up the existing numbers!). You can also do the same with a deck of cards playing 'War'; the '+' or '-' is a literal game changer! :)

Welcome to Grade 2!

On Thursday, September 7th, we started our first day of Grade 2! ...and so did Ms. Melinda!

While we embark on our Grade 2 learning journey together, I wanted a space to show continuous evidence of your child's learning as well as all the fun we're having at school! I'll post any important email information and online notices under the "Class Notes & Info" tab and you can learn more about the Wolves in their personal biographies - written by none other than - the Wolves themselves! (Coming soon :)

Why the Wolves?

Well, as part of our first Mathematics activity, we had a vote to name ourselves. While it was a close call - with the Leopards, Pirate Ships and Cheetahs among the other hopeful names - most of the class decided that we should be called the Wolves! While we'll try to integrate Math into all facets of learning, we'll be focusing on our number knowledge and skills over the first few weeks of the school year. We'll be learning about Math as a whole class, in small groups, with partners and one-on-one with me for some assessment tasks! Here we are below, playing some number knowledge games on Monday and making a Dominoes number line on Tuesday; I was very impressed with the Wolves' cooperation and problem solving skills!

On our first day together, the Wolves had the opportunity to design their ideal classroom with a group: What should our Grade 2 classroom look, feel and sound like? Students then presented their designs to the class and Ms. Melinda did her best to accommodate their desires...we won't be getting a pool though, Tristen! :)

While we've been learning together, we've also been learning more about each other. "Find a Friend Bingo" and our "All About Me" bags got us talking, sharing and asking questions about each other! Thanks to our parent(s)/guardian(s) for helping us prepare these for school! :) 

Check out some shots from our sharing as well as a video of us playing Bingo:

Thanks for reading/watching! :)