Our North Star!

Thursday was an exciting day in our class. It began with a review of our Global Read Aloud book The North Star by Peter Reynolds.  Then we visited Ms. Lirenman`s class blog and looked at the videos they had created using their iPads.  We were inspired to do the same (thank you for sharing your idea with us!) so we used our iPads to draw ourselves with a star.  Then we recorded ourselves as we talked about what we want to be when we grow up!  What do you want to be when you grow up?

Once we had finished we had an opportunity to Skype with Mrs. Stard's Grade 2 class from Yellowknife.  Mrs. de Jager`s class joined us and Mrs. Stard had another grade 2 class join her, so altogether there were about 88 students learning from each other!  There were a few minor technical difficulties to start with but we were very patient as Mrs. Betts worked them out.

 All the classes had completed a survey answering the question, "Did you enjoy reading The North Star.  Most people liked the story.  Many of us were able to tell what we liked about the book.  After we shared our results from the graphs we shared where we thought our north star would take us (what we hoped to be when we grew up).  It was fascinating to realize that we were so much alike in our hopes and dreams! Some people from each group wanted to be soccer players, baseball players, doctors, singers, scientists . . . . there were so many dreams. 

Then Mrs. Betts read the next book by Peter Reynolds called, I`m Here!  We used visualization (making pictures in our head) while we listened to the book.  This was really hard because you had to listen carefully and concentrate on the words to understand the story.  We had a short discussion about what was happening in the book and then we were left with some deep thinking questions from Mrs. Betts. . . .  ``If you could take anybody with you on a trip who would you take, why would you choose them and where would you go?"

I wonder how YOU would answer that question?  We plan to Skype again next week to share our thinking.

Global Read Aloud ~ What's It All About?

 The Global Read Aloud (www.globalreadaloud.com) is a collaborative project that unites classrooms from around the world around a similar book or author.  This year we chose to do the author study option and are looking forward to reading many books by Peter H. Reynolds.  Last week was the official "kick Off."  Every classroom read the story The North Star.

After reading the book we did an interest survey to find out the things we enjoy doing or are good at.  Once we had gone through a list of items we had to choose one or two  of our favourite items to decorate our own North Star to hang in the classroom.  It's exciting to see how different we all are!  Have you talked with your friends about their own strengths and interests?

Author's note:   Thank you to Maribeth Bush, a school Counselor in Falmouth Maine for sharing this lesson on the web.

Next week we plan to Skype with Mrs. Stard's Grade 2 class from Yellowknife and share some of our thinking around the book!  I wonder what book by Peter H. Reynolds we'll read this coming week?  Have you read any of his books?  Do you have a favourite?

We Are Thankful for So Many Things!

On Thursday we read a book called, Thanks for Thanksgiving and then we brainstormed for the many things in our life that we are thankful for and listed our ideas on the board

We realized how fortunate we are for our families and friends, the safe places we live, the good food we have to eat, the clean air we breathe, the school we go to and so much more. 

 
What are you thankful for?

We've Been Busy!

The last few weeks have been a busy time in our classroom!   We spent Thursday morning working in small groups capturing some of the highlights.  Here's a snapshot of what we have been learning and doing.

Respect for You and Me
Once we had our classes set we brainstormed what a good classroom looks like, sounds like and feels like.  After we had all our ideas written on sticky notes we put them into groups of things that went together.  Mrs. Betts then introduced us to the word respect.  We talked about what that meant and then came up with three big expectations that we wanted to follow in our class.  Respect for self, respect for others and respect for this place.  We talked a lot about what each would look like if we were doing it.  For example, respect for self means getting lots of exercise (trying our best during our fit breaks), getting lots of sleep, eating healthy food and drinking lots of water.  Respect for others means using kind words and gestures, including others in our play and listening to what others have to say.  Respect for this place means cleaning up after ourselves.

We practice these everyday!  Mrs.Betts says we are doing a fantastic job!

Our Busy Brains!
During our reading times we have been learning what good readers do when they read.  We learned that our brains are very busy while we read.  The first thing we talked about was how we make connections to the stories we read.  We read two books and made connections to the big ideas in the story.  The first book we read was called "When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry," and the second book we read was called, "The Invisible Boy."

 We had many connections to this book.  We were able to talk about a time when we were angry and what we did to solve the problem!

 This story was about a boy who felt lonely and sad.  He was new at school and the other kids weren't including him at recess or lunch or during school time.  Many of us have felt this way.  The story ended with the boy making 2 new friends.  It was exciting to hear that many of us have made new friends this year too.












 Patterning!
Check out what we have learned about patterning!  

We spent some time making patterns with a variety of materials.  This was a lot of fun.  Then we met as a group and brainstormed for all the ways we made patterns.  

 Next we learned how to find and circle the core of the pattern and label a pattern.  We know that a pattern needs to repeat 3 times.  When we learned to name patterns, we discovered that the pattern doesn't change just because you use different shapes or colours, or pictures! 

We LOVED working with the stickers in Draw and Tell to make patterns, circle the core and name them!

Have you ever used Draw and Tell to show your Math thinking?










Word Work
Look at how many words we can spell!  We are learning about word families . . .  we know that if we can spell "at" then we can spell . . . . cat, that, brat, flat, hat,chat and oh so many more words.  We also learned to spell words in the "an" family.  Mrs. Betts couldn't believe all the words we thought of . .  we came up with fan, tan, Chan's (our local vegetable store!) plan, planner, banner and more!  

Spelling words in the "an" family











How do you practice words in your classroom?




We Have a New Class Name!
This year our class is called "The Huskies."  We have been busy learning all about the Husky.  We know that. . . .

 We also know that. . . .
-they have a bushy tail like a wolf
-they have special markings on their face
-they have either blue or brown eyes, or one of each!
-they have pointed ears


Check back soon because we want to find out where they live, what they eat, how many babies they have and other interesting facts about them.  Once we find this out we will let you know! We also had Mrs.Metz come in and teach us how to draw a husky.  We haven't finished them yet but will post them as soon as they are done!  They already look amazing!

 Brain Break
Sometimes our brains just need a break! To help us stay in shape . . .

Every day we have fit break.  Our goal is for each person to run 3 laps around our school.  We can't wait to see how far we have run in the month of October!

Buddies are the BEST

Wow!  That's a lot of learning in such a short time!  What have you been doing in your classroom?

Ready, Set, Learn!

We have finally set our classes!  This year we are a straight grade 2 class.  There are 10 boys and 12 girls.  We are excited to be working and learning together and sharing our learning with others. This week we chose our class name . . .  we are the Huskies!  As soon as we have all our permission slips in we will begin to share more of our learning with you.  Please check back soon to see what we have been up to!

A Fond Farewell!

Thank you Cheetahs for an amazing year!  I loved being your teacher.  I wish all of you a happy, fun-filled summer and look forward to hearing all about your summer adventures in September.  Keep blogging!

Love, Mrs. Betts

PS  To all our friends in the blogging community . . . we are now on summer holidays.  We look forward to connecting with you again in September! 

Similarities and Differences

We have been blogging to the students in Ms. Betts grade 3 class in Yellowknife to learn about their community.  First we looked at our own community and it's unique features.  Then we sent our blog post to them.  They did the same and sent their blog post to us.  Finally we both compared the two communities.  We found that we had lots of things in common but there were also some differences.  We both decided it would be fun to visit each others community. Check out what we learned!

Sarina chose to do this Venn Diagram during free choice time!  Thanks for sharing, Sarina!