Pictou Landing Friends and Animal Research Projects

On Wednesday, May 30th, the Wolves travelled to Pictou Landing First Nations School to meet our penpals, who we've been writing with for a couple of weeks now.

We had a lot of fun learning about our penpals' school and making new friends who we will continue to communicate with via written letters. We also learned some new Mi'kmaq words and the Wolves took home some handouts to teach YOU at home as well! I hope they did! :)

Here are the seven sacred teachings in Mi'kmaq culture - can your wolf tell you the sacred colours? There are four! :)

We have also been busy working on, and finally, presenting our animal research projects. Because the video files are large, and there are quite a few, you can access a folder of them here (they're only available to you when you click the link - no one else has access to them).

We have our trip to Pictou County Solid Waste on Wednesday, June 6th and permission slips have been sent home for that! :)

Have an awesome week!

April & May Madness

WARNING - This post contains lots of awesome footage of the Wolves in action. Make sure you're viewing on a device that can play the videos - your subscription email is just a link! :) 

Can you believe we're fast approaching the final four weeks of school? I know I can't!
We've got a very exciting next few weeks coming up and we've had a lot going on in the Wolves' classroom these past several weeks!

Happy Birthday to Caroline, Alex Henry who celebrated birthdays this spring! Speaking of spring, we've been outdoors a lot, enjoying the sun when we can. On Thursday, May 17th, the Wolves participated in National Outdoor Classroom Day that was organized by Mrs. Richardson! It was a lot of fun; the Wolves learned some new games, got some writing inspiration and learned about respecting nature. Thanks to Mrs. Richardson and all of the leaders/volunteers who made this day so successful! :)

Over the past month, we have been super fortunate to have the help of Ms. Belinda - a social worker who was doing some training about the role of the educational assistant (EA). Ms. Belinda was helping out in our classroom for two periods a day, so we really got to enjoy having her around, and we really are going to miss seeing her smiling face and helpful personality! All the best as you wrap-up your school year, Ms. Belinda! :)

Ms. Karen has been taking us out and leading us in some stretches to kick-start our mornings. We also signed up to the 'The Daily Mile' and have been using a little forest walk as our 'mile' of exercise. You can learn more about the benefits of morning exercise by clicking here and check out the videos of the Wolves in action below.



As you know, we've got a field trip coming up on Wednesday! We'll be heading to Pictou Landing First Nation School to visit the P/1/2 class and learn a little bit about their school. We have been pen-pals with this class for the past few weeks! It should be interesting to actually meet the people we've been writing to! Here we are receiving letters below:


During our Math learning, we've been working on getting belts for our addition ninjas, looking at how addition and subtraction work across tens and ones places as well as discussing symmetry and halves. Below, you'll see the Wolves finding and explaining lines of symmetry, as well as explaining some of our addition/subtraction games to Mrs. Fraser's class:


Over the past couple of weeks, the Wolves have also been paired up with a student from Mrs. Fraser's class, to take on the task of completing an animal research project. Students had to choose and animal, find information about that animal in a book (using an index), summarize and record important information about the animal, draw it, create a clay portrait of it and finally, students will present their animal projects this coming week. I'm very proud of how awesome the Wolves have done with their research! Stay tuned for videos/photos of our presentations! :)

The Wolves also paired up with students from Ms. Beck's class to do some partner reading. We'll hopefully continue with this in the coming weeks, as it's always nice to explore reading with different people! :)

We found a new game that our class is just AWESOME at. It's called "I have, who has" and the Wolves will practice spelling words with their own decks this week.
Finally, we'll wrap up this post, with a little taste of one of our recent music lessons with Ms. Emmy. Thanks for being such an awesome Music Teacher, Ms. Emmy! :)


IMPORTANT UPDATES/DATES FOR YOUR CALENDARS:

Monday, May 28th - DAY G - 'Get in the Zones' Healthy Eating Presentation
-Please return all permission slips for Pictou Landing First Nations School Trip!
-Please return all outstanding Library and/or Take Home Reading books!

Tuesday, May 29th - DAY A - Please return all permission slips for Pictou Landing First Nations School Trip/Pictou County Solid Waste Field Trip
-Please return all outstanding Library and/or Take Home Reading books!

Wednesday, May 30th - DAY B - @9:30-12:15 - Field Trip to Pictou Landing First Nations School

Thursday, May 31st - DAY C -

Friday, June 1st - DAY D - 

Monday, June 4th - DAY E -

Tuesday, June 5th - DAY F - 
-Please return all outstanding Library and/or Take Home Reading books!

Wednesday, June 6th - DAY G - @11-1 - Field Trip to Pictou County Solid Waste
- LIBRARY
-Please return all outstanding Library and/or Take Home Reading books!

Thursday, June 7th - DAY A - 

Friday, June 8th - DAY B - 

Student-Led Conference Success

Our first part of Student-Led Conferences were a giant success thanks to the awesome Wolves and their parents! Thank you for coming! :)

Our second session of Student-Led Conferences will be on Friday, April 20th from 1-3pm; I hope to see the rest of the Wolves and their families there! :)

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring, Wolf Blog Readers!

I hope you were all able to enjoy some of the spring sunshine we had today, as we prepare for a busy week of learning ahead! :)

The below notice will be sent home with your Wolf tomorrow, but please take note:

We had an awesome trip to BayFerg Farms on Thursday! We checked out their old and new ways to milk cows and attempted to do some eagle watching; unfortunately for us, the eagles were not a fan of our big yellow bus! A big thank you to Jenny and Willie Ferguson for showing us around, as well as to Bob, Tanya, Dave and Zack for joining us on our adventure! :) (I'll add more photos once Bob sends them to us!)

Here are a few bird shots from our trip/inspired by our class bird watching interests:

As part of our science learning on solids, liquids and gases, we made rock candy! We're anxiously awaiting for the rocks to start forming but you can see some of our creating in the videos below. Keep your fingers crossed our experiment worked! :)





Our math skills have had us focused on our sorting skills as students learn mathematical terms used to sort and classify objects. Students have also been working on solving story problems; they've been looking for clue words in story problems that help ensure the problems are solved correctly and that they're not being tricked. The below videos show students cooperating to sort and justify why/how they've sorted a set group of objects:




A big thank you goes out to Madame Richardson for organizing some fun events for us to participate in, leading up to our long Easter weekend. Below, you can see some of the Wolves cooperate on building an egg tower:




Our language learning has been focused on comparative text, written comprehension, organizational strategies and persuasive writing. We'll continue to focus on these text types, as well as letter writing, in the coming weeks.

Thanks for tuning in and I'll update this space with more bird pics as we receive them! :)

Marchin' on...!

WOLVES! Just this morning, I was treated to the appearance of a cardinal at my cousin's house in Kentville. Check it out! :)


Speaking of birds, we've been continuing to practise our ornithology skills in watching birds in the Peace Garden. Two of our jobs for the rest of the year, will be bird watching. We narrowly missed being involved in the 'great backyard bird count' but we will be counting birds on our own accord nonetheless. This beautiful graphic, found at: https://shop.katedolamore.com/products/nova-scotia-backyard-birds-field-guide-art-print, is what we've been using to help us identify the birds that come to feed. Have you seen any of these birds in your backyards?

After March Break, we will travel to Bayview to watch some birds of prey in action, and we'll also watch some ducks at the Pictou Waterfront! Special thanks to Mr. Bob for helping upskill us in the birdwatching area! :)

We've been continuing to learn about shapes and we will wrap-up our geometry learning before March Break; after the break, we'll be back to investigating numbers! To consolidate our shape learning, we've completed a couple of art projects, played some games and completed some activities in our Jump Math books! Here's some of our artwork below:

We're now well past our 100th day of Grade 2 and we had a fun time celebrating on February 22nd. We did a lot of counting and sorting and we wrote about what we hoped we'd be doing when we are 100 years old. Here's what 'AgingBooth' predicted we'd look like when we're about 100 years old! :)

We also celebrated the Olympics in our classroom with the Wolves each drawing a country and colouring a flag for our tally board which was updated as part of our classroom jobs. The Wolves developed a sense of appreciation for a country other than their own, which did very, very well in this year's Olympics in Pyeongchang!

As part of the Green Team's Envirolympics, we also competed in different events as "The Recycling Masters". We took home lots of medals, and some honorable mentions, but didn't place in the top three finalists this year! Thanks to the Green Team for orchestrating two weeks of fun activities! Well done to Miriam and Charlee for participating in the trashion show! :) Check out some action below:

Finally, we've also been learning about Black Heritage month. We read a couple of Martin Luther King Jr. novels and discussed human rights activists like Rosa Parks and Jessie Owens. We will continue to take time to respect cultures different from our own with hopes that one day, the whole world can be as tolerant. Thanks for your support in being open-minded and inclusive at home - this pack of Wolves may just change the world yet! :)

IMPORTANT UPDATES/NOTES:

Everyday - Please pack an extra pair of pants, underwear and socks in backpacks in case of falls on the playground.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OLD T-SHIRTS AT HOME? If so, we'd love to use them!
We're making bags out of recycled t-shirts and need to have some to use! Thanks in advance! :)

Wednesdays - Return Library Books!

Monday, March 12th - Friday, March 16th - March Break - NO SCHOOL!

Thursday, March 22nd - Bird Watching at Ferguson's Farm in Bayview (Tentative - TBC!)

Friday, March 23rd - Assessment and Evaluation Day - NO SCHOOL! 

Friday, March 30th & Monday, April 2nd - Easter Weekend - NO SCHOOL!

Thursday, April 19th @6-8pm - Parent-Teacher (Student Led) Conferences (SLC)

Friday, April 20th - AM - Professional Development  - NO SCHOOL!

                            PM - Parent-Teacher (Student Led) Conferences (SLC)

Active Pictou County - Second Skate

I'm sorry I didn't upload these videos sooner, but here's the footage from our second Active Pictou County Skate Session at the Hector Arena on February 22nd.
We had a lot of fun - thanks so much for this opportunity @ActivePictouCounty! :)

February Fun with the Wolves

February is turning out to be a month of fun with some of the events and learning we've got going on!

First, and most importantly, are the ENVIROLYMPICS taking place courtesy of the Green Team! Each day, we'll have a different class challenge to earn points. More information will be shared this week - with agenda updates - and you can see a list of events at the end of this post! In the meantime, if you have any old t-shirts at home, we'd love to recycle them into shopping bags! Thanks in advance for helping to prepare your child as an environmental champion! :)

We'll also be following the Olympics and keeping track of medals for the top finishing countries from the 2014 Olympic Games. I'll update this space tomorrow with a photo of our medal board! :)

This week, we were lucky enough to have the entire ice surface to ourselves at the Hector Arena in Pictou! Thanks to Active Pictou County, we had an hour of ice time with a few of the Crushers players to help us skate around! It was a lot of fun and we'll have another opportunity on Thursday, February 22nd - feel free to come join us/watch! It was so nice to see so many of the Wolves step up and help some of their less-confident skater-classmates. Likewise, it was awesome that EVERY Wolf put a pair of skates on and TRIED skating, even if they never had before. Congratulations to ALL students, but especially to Riley (for being such a patient and caring helper) and Caroline (her first time on the ice and she was helping another classmate get comfortable on the ice) for their efforts!

Our Math learning has been geared towards shapes and geometry this past week. We'll continue to investigate shapes and how they play a role in the real world over the next couple of weeks.

We took a quick detour from our persuasive writing, to focus our attention on procedural writing. This past week, we made Valentine Boxes for Valentine's Day. Before creating our boxes, students used iPads to research a variety of box styles. They then made decisions on a few box designs and then groups were formed. Next, students had to come up with a group plan to make their own versions as a group. They wrote down the materials they needed and four steps they'd take to create the intended designs. By working in a group, students were meant to support each other, problem solve/troubleshoot, encourage each other and make lighter work. We'll continue to reinforce these skills - there were definitely lots of 'bumps in the road'. I'll update the blog with photos of our finished products when we get there! :)

Our Amaryllis flower treated us to a SECOND opportunity to observe it blooming. A second stem bloomed four flowers this week - a lot faster than the first stem - and we drew pictures daily in a plant observation journal.

We've also been having a lot of fun in PE and Music classes. You can check out some of our fun in the videos below - can you tell what skills we're working on?

IMPORTANT UPDATES/NOTES:

Everyday - Please pack an extra pair of pants, underwear and socks in backpacks in case of falls on the playground.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OLD T-SHIRTS AT HOME? If so, we'd love to use them!
We're making bags out of recycled t-shirts and need to have some to use! Thanks in advance! :)

Wednesdays - Return Library Books

Wednesday, February 14th - Valentine's Day!

Thursday, February 15th - Litterless Lunch Day - The class with the least amount of lunch waste wins a prize.

Monday, February 19th - HERITAGE DAY - NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, February 20th - 100th Day of School

Thursday, February 22nd @ 11am - 12pm - Wolves go SKATING with Active Pictou County! 

Measuring-Up and Skill-Based Learning with the Wolves

These past couple of weeks, the Wolves have been focusing on different skills that will help us be better learners. We've been thinkers, inquirers and we learned about being respectful; our focus this and next week will be on independence.

In a world where most knowledge is accessible online (I would even argue too much knowledge is accessible online for youngsters!), it's important that we teach and model skills. These skills should help us assess information we're accessing and it's validity. These skills should also help us to be independent, enthusiastic, imaginative, respectful, lifelong learners - especially in Grade 2! Stay tuned to our learning by subscribing to our blog using your email address in the column over here! :) ------->
If you're interested in learning more about this topic, here are some good, reputable sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2011/nov/22/knowledge-or-skills-solo-taxonomy
https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/10155081394521479/?hc_ref=ARQ3pLhM913GGJNHxOtsbPP_1nvgCibY-gKH2vp4bGdX5uagyuqqftKg6TZbnEbcBl0&pnref=story
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2016/01/knowledge_vs_skills_what_should_teachers_target.html

Spreading kindness is one way to show respect, appreciation but also, it's a way to make others smile. Last Friday, the Wolves embarked on a mission to make some of the lower elementary teachers smile, when they delivered motivational/thank you notes and Smarties. We'll continue with these acts of kindness to show thanks to the people around the school who make learning fun, safe and accessible!

THANK YOU, STAFF OF WEST PICTOU CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL! :)

We have also been working on our collaboration and problem-solving skills. To help us with that, we've been partaking in The Incredible Flexible You program with Ms. Battist's help. Last week, we looked at 'The Group Plan' and how working in a group is everyone in the group's job. Students came up with plans and had to delegate roles, come to compromises, negotiate and communicate effectively to complete two challenges in their teams. These tasks proved frustrating to many, but provided valuable learning and take-away lessons for the team members. This week, we'll conference about what worked well, what didn't work well (and how we can fix it), how we can effectively evaluate a group's performance and how we can ease frustrations! I took several videos of the students in action so that we can reflect and discuss what we see happening in groups and as a class. Feel free to do the same at home! :)

MARBLE TRACK CHALLENGE:



LEGO CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGE:



To encourage our inquiry skills, we'll start our Wednesday mornings with 'Wonder Wednesdays' where Wolves will have a chance to search for answers to questions they have as they relate to matter, the water and environment around us, birds or other science-based wonderings. We'll then use the iPads and/or school Chromebooks to search for answers on Kidrex and share them with the class. (It's important that we ask questions but also that we ensure students find answers that are kid-safe and friendly and Kidrex is a great tool to help with that!) Through using their thinking skills and asking questions, students will determine whether or not the information they're accessing is reliable and/or reputable.

Maybe you asked, 'Why birds?'? Well, thanks to Mr. Bob, one of our bus drivers, we're going to do some bird watching. Mr. Bob has some cool equipment that he's sharing with us to help us get to know more about the birds in our environment. We saw some gold finches, blue jays, chickadees, seagulls, crows and Canadian Geese on Monday. I'll be sure to share photos when Mr. Bob passes them along and hopefully we'll have the chance to visit and observe some bald eagles in Bayview! In the meantime, please be on the look-out at home for different species of birds that may visit your neighbourhoods! :)



Thanks to Henry's mom, Katrina, for coming in and sharing with us about New Zealand last Thursday. As part of our learning before the holidays, the Wolves explored holidays around the world. She taught us about some of the traditions she grew up with in New Zealand and we learned what a hangi, a haka and a Maori were - ask the Wolves if they remember! :)


Happy Birthday to Charlee who turned 8 two weeks ago! We had a great day celebrating with Charlee and we hope that this year is her best yet! :)

We've been measuring up our math skills with, you guessed it, some measuring! Over the past two weeks, the Wolves have been experimenting with non-standard units of measurement. We've been looking into how and why we use measurement and will start to look at standard units of measurement as they exist in the real world. Below, you can see two of the Wolves measuring a paper chain with some unifix cubes:

We will continue to work on our persuasive writing skills, as well as measurement, as we kick off a new month of learning. Keeping in mind that we are focusing on being independent and respectful, please encourage these values at home as well! :) Thanks for your support! :)

IMPORTANT UPDATES/NOTES:

Everyday - Please pack an extra pair of pants, underwear and socks in backpacks in case of falls on the playground.

Wednesdays - Return Library Books

Thursday, February 8th @ 11am - 12pm - Wolves go SKATING with Active Pictou County! 

Wednesday, February 14th - Valentine's Day!

Monday, February 19th - 100th Day of School!

Thursday, February 22nd @ 11am - 12pm - Wolves go SKATING with Active Pictou County! 

Happy New Year!

While 2018 is well underway, our fun and learning for the year is just getting started! :)

Thanks to all of you for sending along best wishes and Christmas presents with the Wolves. I really appreciated all of them - thank you! I've sent you individualized thank you videos via email - if you've not received one, you can also view them under the Meet/Thank the Wolves tab.

Our last class photo with Braeden as a 2C Wolf

Just before the new year, we bid adieu to our friend, Braeden. Braeden has transferred to another school but is still in the county and keen to meet up with his wolf friends! Let me know if you need his contact info; we miss you Braeden and we hope you're doing well at your new school! :)

To kick off our learning this year, we investigated patterns and now we're 'measuring up' during our math lessons! At home, you can continually be looking for patterns as they exist around the house or even in nature! If you send along some photos, I'll be sure to share them on here! Check out our more of our math learning in the video below - can you identify the sound/visual patterns?

What pattern or order can you see us showing here? Where is Charlee in the line?

As part of our science learning, we've been investigating the scientific process through making predictions and observations. We did this with our moldy bread (the photos below are from this week - as your wolf about how they feel!) and then again when we planted an amaryllis bulb! Our plant JUST flowered this past week and we're pretty excited to see another stem growing from the bulb! We've been drawing and guessing when we thought it would bloom since before the Christmas break - anyone who guessed this past Monday (January 15th) was on the money as we had all four flowers in bloom!

Day 14 - Day 30 Amaryllis Growth

8 weeks later...eww!

Speaking of science, over the next few weeks we'll be exploring the air and water around us as well as the three states of matter. This past week we did some predicting, observing and concluding when we investigated how long it takes for snow (a solid) to melt into water (a liquid). We then timed how long it took for the water to turn back into ice. We know it takes longer than 4.5 hours and our jars are currently outside until our arrival at school tomorrow! You can see us in action in the videos below:



In the coming weeks, we'll be exploring persuasive writing and letter writing. Students will take a stance on different topics and defend them using their writing skills. We will also continue to work on our reading skills as we wrap up learning about holidays around the world, blends, rhyming words and other writing conventions. Please ask your wolf what day is their take home reading day so that they can be prepared to change their book(s) at school each week. My apologies in advance for snow days and other day-to-day disruptions that may alter your child's reading schedule!

Happy BIRTHDAY to our Wolves who celebrated over the holidays and this week - Allison, Connor and Charlee all celebrated birthdays! I wish them all the best for a fabulous year of learning and fun! :)

As always, please get in touch with me if you have any questions or concerns about your child's learning. I look forward to a fun few months and will be sure to let you know when I hear of any news regarding Ms. Kennedy's return.

I hope you enjoyed the snow day today! :)

IMPORTANT UPDATES/NOTES:

Everyday - Please pack an extra pair of pants, underwear and socks in backpacks in case of falls on the playground.

Tuesday, January 23rd @ 1:00pm - Wolves watch "Alice in Wonderland"

Thursday, February 8th @ 11am - 12pm - Wolves go SKATING with Active Pictou County! 

Thursday, February 22nd @ 11am - 12pm - Wolves go SKATING with Active Pictou County!