Holiday Concert and Hour of Code

Elf on the Shelf
Our elf, ' Holly Sophia Twinkle' has been up to mischief and fun in our classroom. She escaped to the library for some excitement! We have enjoyed reading her letters and getting the occasional treat! 

 Holiday Performance
A big thank you to the students and Mrs Kirk who put on such a great Holiday performance. I hope you had a chance to look at all the great student artwork that was up in the gym and hallways. Even though we haven't had much (any?) snow, it sure felt like the Christmas season on Thursday night!

What is 'HOUR OF CODE'?
This past week, Mr Cann (our wonderful librarian) has been running the 'Hour of Code' sessions during his lunch hour in the computer lab. Students who were interested participated in learning how to create computer code. They watched some videos including one with President Obama (we really need Prime Minister Trudeau to do a video too when he isn't so busy) discussing how children should not just "consume but create" when using computer programs. Interesting! 

Here are some of the links and computer coding games our students learned about this week:

Link to the coding games


****Please remember to check the Twitter Feed (located to the right of this blog) for school updates! Also, weekly homework updates will help keep you informed of what will happen each week. 

Have a wonderful Holiday everyone. Looking forward to 2016! 

An 'Awesome' author visit

Have you ever heard of the 'Awesome' book? Have you ever heard of the 1000 Awesome things blog?

This week, Neil Pasricha visited our school to talk about his latest venture, a book written for children. 

Here is the video he shared with us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek5xQcytgjE

Remembrance Day Assembly
Florence Meares Public School presented a reflective and respectful assembly. The choir sang 'Peace, I give to you', which is a lovely song. What was very thought provoking to the students was the connections made to our teachers and student families. We heard about Mrs Binn's father and Ms McWhirter's grandfather. Mrs. O'Rourke sang a song she wrote herself. What a beautiful tribute to Nathan Cirillo! Mrs. O'Rourke made us proud with her talent, piano playing and demonstrated for the students such empathy and kindness. Mr. Russell's brother spoke via Skype from where he is deployed in Afghanistan. In class, we read Sadako and the thousand paper cranes and each student received an origami crane as a momento.  Remembrance day is such a tough concept to teach young students. I think our school did a great job helping students make meaningful connections. 

Updates will resume shortly!

Thanks for checking in! 

There will be many activities (Author visit, Remembrance Day assembly, Terry Fox Run) this week which I will post about soon. If you are a parent of a student in my class, please check the updated weekly homework section. Pictures, information and news will all be available shortly! 

Our class graph
Class pictures will be taken on September 21st! In the meantime, here is a graph we made of our class. I think it looks just like us :)

The students drew pictures of themselves and we learned how to sort information and why this is so useful. We have investigated how to read and create 'pictographs' as well as understand horizontal and vertical graphs'. A big skill is learning how to neatly draw tally marks. 
We use this little poem:
                               1,2,3,4
                               Number 5 shuts the door,
                               6,7,8,9
                               Number 10 draws the line
                           
This helps us create our tallies so we can count by 5's easily and accurately. Ensuring accuracy has been a big focus for our class. Learning to colour the bars neatly and accurately as well as making sure all our information has the same number (e.g., "I asked 10 people information so 10 squares should show on my graph") is important.

Raz Kids, Book -flix and Dreambox
I have recently sent notes home and information to you about the on-line programs that are paid for by the Halton Board of Education. The students have been taught in class how to use these programs. I will update Raz kids books to the correct levels once I finish determining reading levels.  In the meantime, the whole 'bookroom' is open for your convenience. 
Did you know....
These programs provide excellent feedback to both the teacher and to you...the parents. Please take advantage of the offer to log in and look up your child's progress. I can already see that I need to do some lessons on 'inferring' based on my students ability to answer those type of questions when reading. I will post more on this subject later in the year. If you are wondering what this reading skill is about, I wrote about it here previously: Inferring reading strategy

A final note: Things may go quiet (for what I hope) will be a short while on this blog due to 'technical difficulties'. Know that your students are cared for and will be using their agenda for communication between home and school.  Thank you for your understanding. 

Welcome to a new school year! (September 2015 to June 2016)

Hello and Welcome!

I've been busy setting up the classroom ready for a new group of students! Here is a sneak peak...

Desk groupings are in sets of four to enable cooperative group learning. Each desk has a name card, hundreds chart and an alphabet chart. As well, for some students, just having an inside to their own desk is kind of exciting. 

In the centre of the desk groupings is a round table. I often sit there when students need to work in groups with me on difficult tasks. Also, being in close proximity to working students really helps a teacher keep a close eye on students who may need a little extra help. There is nothing more frustrating for a student than doing a whole page wrong before finding out an issue. Better to find out early and be successful for the rest of the page!

Smartboard
Our classroom finally got a smartboard installed to the wall. This means that the smartboard won't need calibrated as much since it is fixed to the wall and not on a moving trolley. Trust me, this is a big help in Grade two! I enjoy using technology with my class but I expect the children to use it as much as myself. 

Underneath you will see a number line and a world map. Each have livescribe stickers that when used with a smartpen allow the students to record and hear information. I also have done this with the word wall. If you are interested, there is more information here:
Ms Fink (with a cold) explaining the word wall (video)

Book Centre
I have a big interest in reading myself. I enjoy buying books for my classroom as well. We have quite a large collection of books, organized by author and subject matter in the classroom. Can you see all the 'Back to School' books? As well, our class will have a Friday library visit this year where they can visit Mr. Cann and take out a book weekly! 

Here is my desk. Where I jokingly tell people...'this is where I place my morning coffee and it goes cold'. I rarely get to sit there unless I'm working with students. Can you see the semi-circular blue desk? This is a guided reading table where students can read to me and I can get close enough to hear them and help teach small group lessons. Our classroom is located on the upper floor with a wonderful view onto the playground and escarpment. Sometimes on a foggy or cloudy day the classroom appears to be floating in the clouds (or maybe I just have a good imagination). Regardless, there have been many wonderful views out that window. 

Organization
I think it is important for students to see the 'big picture'. On the left you will see a daily agenda where I put in what is happening in the day. The calendar pages give students an understanding of special dates and times throughout the year. A curriculum focus for Grade Two involves learning about Traditions and Celebrations. This area helps us keep track of when events are happening both in the school and worldwide. 

The orange pylons are for students who need to use the washroom. They simply place it on their desk and make eye contact with me and are able to go! This system takes a bit to implement but really allows students some independence. As well, I just need to glance at the student desks to know where they are at all times. 
                  So that is a sneak peak of our classroom.

Looking forward to a great year with your child at Florence Meares Public School! 

Butterflies, Mosaic sneak peak, Tumblebooks, Talent show

Butterflies soar over Florence Meares!

We had well over 30 chrysalis that turned into butterflies! So, being mindful of the weather we released most of them to nature today. Those butterflies knew what to do. They started flying as soon as we walked outside. We opened the lid (of the butterfly nursery) and away they went. It was fun to watch the students in little groups chase after their butterfly as it flew high in the sky. One of my students wrote in his 'Diary of a Butterfly' journal that he hopes his butterfly "finds a girlfriend or boyfriend soon as two weeks isn't a long lifespan so you have to do these things quickly." The butterflies will stay in the area so you may see some in your backyard. 

Mosaic Update

This is a panoramic photo of two classes working on the project with the artist. Click to enlarge. (it is a little blurry to ensure privacy)

Our Grade Two classes completed their mosaics as part of the big school project with artist Heather Vollans. Here are a few of them to give you an idea of how they will look when all 75 tiles are put together. 

Tumblebooks

I would highly recommend 'Tumblebooks' which can be located through the Burlington Public library. This is similar to Storyline on-line with a lot more choices and options that are updated often. It is good to hear Robert Munsch read some of his own stories. If you go through our school website you can access this easily. I will also provide a link for you. If you go through Burlington public library you will need a library card to access. However, perusing this with the students, I noticed the Burlington Public Library now has Zinio. This is a great way to download free magazines onto your IPAD or Tablet. I use this resource all the time and there are some great magazines on there for both children and adults. I'm also a big fan of freegal which is an on-line music download source (you can load two songs a week I believe). It's worth it to pick up a library card! 

Talent Show

Florence Meares has so much talent from within our school. Students who tried out for the talent show have been working hard to get their acts ready to share on June 19th. There is usually dancing, singing, piano playing, joke telling, magic tricks and so much more! It's a lot of work for teachers and of course the students performing but it makes such wonderful memories. Looking forward to it! 

Music Monday, Mental Health Week, Mosaics!

This week was a whirlwind of activity... I will give you the information in pictures.

Music Monday
Monday was a celebration of music. Due to the inclement weather we held the celebration indoors. As it was pointed out to me...the electrical microphone system does better without rain. Good plan. The band did a great rendition of 'Don't stop believin(g)' by Journey! Our primary students sang wonderfully as well! 
My view from the gym equipment room:

Mental Health Week
Part of a teacher's professional learning involves the understanding of the holistic needs of students. Helping students develop 'resilient' strategies will ensure further academic and social/emotional growth moving forward. While we often talk to students about feelings and read books that discuss issues in a child friendly way, it is important to help students develop strategies to manage their anxiety or frustration levels. A great strategy introduced this week was to simply take a walk.The whole school went on a long walk down Berwick Avenue. It was a beautiful day and everyone felt better for having gone outside and enjoying nature.

 Caterpillars Arrived! 

They arrived and are growing daily! They have begun to shed some skin, create webs and in one unfortunate case of cannibalism....eat each other. Luckily there seems to be only one carnivore in the group!

Wondering what happens next? Here is a time lapse video of Painted lady butterflies as they go through their complete metamorphosis! Click here

Mother's Day
Hope every Mom enjoyed their Mother's Day gifts. The students were very excited to create these for you. 
Blackboard painted candle holders! Lot's of fun :)

As one student said, 'We can decorate this for every occasion, just by washing it off and drawing new designs!" 

Mosaics
The mosaic project has started! In the square, the grade 8 students at our school started their mosaic squares . Each grade has a colour and a theme. If you look to the right in my twitter feed you can see some of the projects started. I think the school will look amazing once all the artwork is mounted on the walls. I've been cutting mosaic pieces like crazy. It's a big project but the results will be so worth it. Our grade two students will start on March 19th and our colour is blue.

Spring Flowers, More Mosaics, True Flix

Spring Art

Even though today is a little chilly, here are some spring flowers the students created for our windows. We created collages in either primary colours or secondary colours. We read the book 'Mouse Paint' to help solidify this knowledge of colour theory. 

Students were able to choose their colour combination. Here is a primary colour tulip. 

Secondary colours

Mosaics
The whole school is getting ready for our school wide mosaics. To practise, we used paper to create mosaics using simple line or shape. Can't wait for the real project to start! We have been very lucky to have parents in our community offer to help with donations of building/art materials. 

True Flix
Many of my students are familiar with Book flix which allows our students to have free access to fictionalized stories and books. True Flix is similar in format but offers non-fiction subject matter. I showed the students how to use this free site and where to locate it. It is a great free source for those students who gravitate towards non-fictionalized reading material. Unfortunately I can't post a working link as you have to navigate from the home site. Here are instructions:
(Go to Florence Meares webpage and find elementary internet tools. Scroll to bottom, right hand side of the page and you will see an icon for True Flix. Your child has their 'log in' information on a sticker inside their agenda. This will grant you off school access. Enjoy!)

Funny Little Bunnies

Looking for a quick Easter video that includes lots of 'simple machines'? Here is a very old cartoon that is a lot of fun, very quick and the students enjoyed spotting the many levers, screws, wedges, pulleys and inclined planes. Enjoy!
                           Funny little Bunnies movie

Cursive writing, Growth Mindset learning and Mosaic Art

Welcome Spring! Hope everyone had a great March Break. 
Cursive Writing
During the break, I spent some time talking to people about teaching. Yes, even though I was on a break! Two separate discussions involved someone asking me "why don't children learn how to write in cursive anymore?" I have also recently read an article in the Hamilton Spectator about this and if interested you can read it here: Hamilton Spectator article on cursive writing
After reading a number of articles and thinking about what my students need currently (who knows what the future holds), I decided it was important that my Grade Two students be able to recognize their names in cursive and be able to write their names as well. So, off came the old printed desk tags and I wrote each childs' name in cursive for their desks. I will encourage them to try to practise writing their name in cursive on their work. I think this is a life skill and something that is easy to teach especially while the students are eager to do it. Yes...they are very eager to try!

Growth Mindset activities
Another topic that interests me is cognitive learning and memory. Essentially, I am always interested in teaching students not just 'what' to learn but also 'how' they learn. For example, it took me years to learn that I am a visual learner. I remember being very frustrated trying to memorize things that didn't mean anything to me and then wondering why some of the strategies weren't working for me. How many of you remember cramming for a test or exam and then not being able to retain the information almost immediately after the test? Eventually I learned some tricks on how to study and what strategies were successful for myself as a learner. I hope to teach my students how to do this as well. This week, we have been doing some activities about how our brain learns best. If you are interested, here is a short video that helps students understand how their brain functions and how to move through stress or frustration to achieve success. Brain function and learning movie
We also co-created a chart to help students understand what happens when they use 'fixed' mindset phrases like "I give up" or 
"I'm not good at math". The students re-phrased these to become more positive. We found that adding the word yet (e.g., I'm not good at math yet) could make all the difference!

(Interested in this subject? Consider reading more information by Carol Dweck)
 We have also been busy making 'Bitstrip' comics to visually show how a situation can be changed and learning can happen with a positive attitude! 

Mosaic Art 
Did you know that Florence Meares Public School is busy planning a Mosaic art experience with the whole school? Teachers are busy staying after school and working hard to learn the art techniques necessary to teach the students. We are being led by artist 'Heather Vollans' on the technique. It should be exciting! Here is a sample of a sculpture that Heather did with some students as part of a community project. It will give you an idea of her talent! Can't wait to teach the students all that we have learned! 

Earth Rangers Visit, Blue Spruce books, Geometry

Earth Rangers!
Our school had a wonderful visit from the Earth Ranger team. We learned a lot about animal conservation, endangered species and the 'Bring back the Wild' campaign. Although the focus was on animals in their natural environment, the team did bring 4 animals to show and share. The students saw a snake, two birds of prey and a pine marten (my personal favourite) The marten was just as interested in the children as they were in looking at the pine marten. I did try to take pictures but was a bit far away to take really good ones. This is a young bald eagle. The students were amazed to know the bald eagle only weighed about 10 lbs. Equally amazing was the fact that a young eagle looks more brown until it begins to mature and then the feathers change. 

A brochure was sent home in your child's agenda. Consider having your child join the Earth Ranger team. It looks like a lot of fun :)


Blue Spruce books
Mr. Cann, our wonderful librarian has begun the Blue Spruce program once again. Each week we introduce a new book and showcase it. This past week he read, 'Young Frank, architect' by Frank Viva.  This is the 'Museum of Modern Art's' first book. The students really enjoyed this one.

Geometry
Students have been working through 2D and 3D Geometry. We have done a lot with symmetry and understanding flips, slides and turns. If you are interested in the Ministry curriculum outcomes for Grade Two, I have written about them in a previous post. 
Here are some examples of art we did with 2D Geometrical shapes. 

There is real learning and value when understanding how to use shapes in art. As well, we learned how to make an object appear in front or behind another object. 

We have had many indoor recesses in the last two weeks. I'm looking forward to slightly warmer temperatures and the students getting the opportunity to play outside :) 
                                    Have a great week!

Snow Day and Symmetry

*****Snow Day*****
Well, February 2nd was a surprise for the 'Groundhog' and those of us not expecting a 'Snow Day'! 
As part of our 'Traditions and Celebrations' unit, we learned about the origins of 'Groundhog Day' by reading a few books, watching a movie and working on our shared reading paragraphs. The students joked that yesterday 'Wiarton Willie' probably couldn't get out of his den because of all the snow! Here are a few pictures of the snow build up on our windows at school. Remember we are on the second floor!

Symmetry
Here are some of the great examples of symmetry that the students built. We used a ruler to create the line of symmetry and then students built one side and a partner built the other side. Pretty amazing!

                                                              Have a great week!

Welcome 2015! Procedural writing and Math talk

Welcome 2015!
Hope everyone had a Happy New Year! We are off to a busy start in Grade Two.

The students are enjoying knitting on their knitting machines while I read aloud 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'. I will post some pictures of the knitting as we get more projects done. I am liking the Ninja headbands some of the boys are making :)
Here is a great link to a video about why learning a skill such as knitting as a child can be an important skill as an adult. 
Knitting to learn mathematical skills


Procedural Writing
We have been learning to write 'How to...' instructions. Using everyday tasks, the students are writing instructions. I have been introducing success criteria as well as we are using the 'Bump it Up Wall' to move our writing along a continuum. We recently wrote about such topics as, "How to brush your teeth", "How to wrap a present", "How to put your jacket on", "How to use the slide", "How to do a somersault" and "How to build a snowman". Students had to plan out the steps and in some cases role play to figure out what steps are involved. Using language such as 'First, Then, Next, Finally' we planned out how sequenced instructions need to be detailed and concise. I have seen big improvements with our writing as we continue to read instructional books and make personal connections to our every day life. A great moment happened when one of my students got out a 'knitting book' from our library and one student read it while the other taught herself to finger knit. Then they both came to me and said how important it is to have detailed instructions or else they never would have figured it out. A fun connection!

Math Talk

 Here is a chart outlining the questioning that I have taught the students prior to our math talk.

Here is an example of how students counted an array. The numbers at the top were the student answers as to how many dots were on the plate. If an answer is wrong, we accept that answer but through discussion we talk about how to count to achieve accuracy. The sectioned areas are how we 'Subatized' our thinking! In case you are wondering (as I did at first) what subatizing was, it is merely a word that refers to the 'rapid, accurate and confident judgement of numbers'. When you consider that most primary students are still consolidating the idea of number and value, then this is a skill that will improve through familiarity and experience. By showing and discussing the varied strategies that other students are using, we can expand and further develop those strategies. 

Trip news: We are planning a winter trip. Stay tuned for more details once they are finalized.