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! :)