Patterns, Upcoming events and more!

We have been off to a great start in Grade Two! 
In Math we have been making patterns, learning about a pattern core and understanding the ways in which a pattern can change! 
Of course we enjoy the 'hands on' building part the best! 

Being Mindful!
We are working on ways to solve problems and understand how to work through difficult tasks. Each week we have watched a part of the 'Growth Mindset' movies. They are only a few minutes long and really helpful for students to change the way they think about learning. Instead of saying "I can't..." students can say "I can't.....yet". In this way they are changing their 'Fixed Mindset' to a 'Growth Mindset'. 
Here is the link if you would like to view them! The characters are very engaging for students!
Growth Mindset Class Dojo movies 1/5

Walk and talk - I love the outdoors and hope my students will as well. We try to walk at least 2 times a week. This gives us an opportunity to get fresh air and exercise as well as talk to friends and make new ones. The students now look outside and say, "it's a beautiful day can we go for walk and talk". We found a whole field of grasshoppers, crickets and dragonflies and discovered the subtle fall changes that are beginning to show. Taking a walk shows students how to take a break, clear our heads and come back energized for our school work!

Upcoming events:
Re-scheduled to October 5th - Terry Fox Run (1:40 start)
October 4th- Open house (meet the teacher)
October 7th - P.A. Day
October 21st - Grade two Safety village trip (no charge for this one)

Please check out the Homework section. I will update this weekly.

Welcome to a new school year! 2016/17

                                         Getting ready!

Welcome :)
I have been busy setting up the classroom for another school year. 
Each child has their own desk (with an inside to place our belongings). I've put the desk groups in 4 to start the year. Later, we will decide together on good working groups and make changes so students can make and meet new friends throughout the year. 

You can see our class Smartboard with the overhead mounted projector! Florence Meares P.S. has access to chromebooks and I often use the Smartboard to teach technology skills as students follow along. 

Our carpet area where I teach focus lessons is along the window side of the classroom this year. As well the talking word wall (smartpen activated) is near for our use when reading.  

This is the view from the window of the classroom. Normally, during school hours the field is full of children at play :)

My desk area in an unusually clean moment. The blue table is a guided reading table where I can work with students on developing reading skills. 

Book area! I buy a lot of books for my classroom...what can I say...

ROUTINES
Starting a new routine is exciting! Some students find it helpful to know what will happen ahead of time. Here are some items you can 'rehearse' with your child.

First day: Students and parents will find their teacher (me) on the blacktop. It's a busy time. I will ask you how your child will be going home (bus, pick up, after school care etc.).  If it is raining the grades 1 and 2 will meet in the small gym. Students will have to wait a few minutes as we gather students and make sure they are in the correct lines.

We will go to our upstairs classroom and find our lockers. I will have them already labelled with each name. No one has to share, each child gets their own locker. Students can put away coats, backpacks and lunches.

Students will then enter the classroom and find their labelled desk. 

We will do some 'get to know you' activities and meet teachers who will be working with our class. Mr Cann will be teaching my class science, three times a week and Mrs Mucaj will teach French on Fridays. Mrs Kirk will be covering music on Wednesday. We will be sharing Gym classes with Mrs. Lee's class. This is a great opportunity to see our friends! 

What to bring! Please don't spend a lot of money on school supplies! Some students like to have their own items or special things which is great. Please label items! It really helps. 
Many items are provided by the school and please don't worry if you haven't picked anything up yet. 
Here is a list of suggested items:
- glue stick
-running shoes to keep at school for gym
-skinny markers (optional, I always have crayons)
-pencil crayons (with a small sharpener or pre-sharpened)(optional but some students are ready to do more detailed work)
-labelled pencil case
**Consider providing extra socks or pants in a labelled bag to keep in your child's locker. It saves me having to call home if your child finds a mud puddle :)
**Primary students do not use locks on their locker. We will provide a 'Carabiner' to keep the locker closed. 

The school will provide you with an agenda for the year. This is a great way to communicate with me. I look forward to meeting everyone. I hope you find this blog helpful!
Enjoy the rest of the long weekend and see you Wednesday :)

Bitstrips for Schools

Bitstrips
Our Ministry contacts have alerted us that Bitstrips for Schools has suddenly decided to cancel their web product as of August 31st, 2016. (However, they seem to have disconnected it earlier!) The ministry hopes that Bitstrips may re-consider providing an Educational solution in the future. For a comparable program, students in Halton have been using the Google Drive connected app Powtoon for Education and also, using comic strip templates in Google Drawing. 

A quick note from Ms Fink: 

I understand that at some point teachers will get an archive of past student work from Bitstrips. If that happens I may be able to send some information to students. I suspect that Snapchat recently buying Bitstrips may be responsible for the sudden end of this program. 

If you are a new parent checking out this blog. I will have information posted soon for you! Have to set up the classroom first :)

Burlington Art Centre trip, Butterflies fly away, Summer Reading

Burlington Art Centre Trip
Our trip to the Art Centre was a great success. We toured the facility and looked at the exhibitions and the gardens with sculptures. Some of us visited the pottery studio first and began shaping our clay into butterflies. 

Later we visited the weaving studio and made bracelets on these looms. They were so organized and all set up for us. 

Here is a video of how our looms worked. What a great idea!

(I would highly recommend this trip to any local elementary teachers out there who are reading this)

Butterfly Release
Our real 'Painted Lady' butterflies left us one sunny day. It was a lovely release. The butterflies stayed in the meadow and even landed on the children. I was able to get some great pictures! 

              This shot of the butterfly entering the JAWS shirt! Yikes! 



Summer Reading
Mr Cann our wonderful librarian posted a great link for summer reading ideas! Here is the link:
Summer Reading 2016

Of course your Raz kids account will work all summer so please take advantage of that. 

Burlington Public Library Summer Program
The Burlington Public Library's theme for this year's Summer Reading Club is "Go Wild" and it runs from July 2nd to August 27th.  All of the details can be found on page 19 of the BPL's Summer Guide.  Check it out!


Have a wonderful summer holiday! This class has been a very special group and it has been a privilege to get to know all these little beings. As for my summer,  I am looking forward to hanging out with friends, working in my garden, creating art, trying new recipes, travel and watching the hummingbirds. Ok, maybe a rock concert or two as well, I'm not that boring :)
Reminders: 
Reports go home: June 29th
Last day and early dismissal: June 30th at 1:40 p.m.

Caterpillars, Butterflies and Google Classroom

It is that busy time of year when there are so many things to do and so little time! It is also a special time for a teacher, when you feel you have gotten to know your class and developed a bond. 

Here are some things we have been up to in the last little while....

Caterpillars!

They arrived on May 18th and have grown like crazy! Here are some of my boys helping me put the food in the containers and making sure there are air holes!

                         The little wiggly critters after 2 days

Same caterpillars after the long weekend (7 days)

(See those little round things under the caterpillars? ...yep that's poop)

Butterfly Art

Wax paper Raindrop Art (April showers bring May flowers) - see the flowers and bird inside the raindrops?

                        It's supposed to look like raindrops :)

Google Classroom

We have been working on a special project involving Google Classroom. Your child should be fairly adept at logging into their classroom account. Ask them to show you! Eventually, it may be the way your child will access homework assignments in the older grades. Using Nearpod lessons we have been working on assignments on-line. It has been quite the learning experience (for me too). When there was a technology problem yesterday and I had to problem solve on-line with the on-line support, one of my students said, "Don't worry Ms. Fink, you're in the dip but you can get out"! Of course this is a reference to our Class Dojo movie ...

Here is the link:

Class Dojo movie 'Katie discovers the Dip'

Mathies website, The Power of YET, Mosaics

Mathies
Are you looking for math games to play with your child to help them improve their math skills? Then 'Mathies' is for you! You can play games on-line as well as download game cards and activities to play with your child. When I am looking for great sites for children, I always play them first and see if they are useful. As well, I look for websites that have minimal to no advertisements. I think you will find this site very useful.
MATHIES WEBSITE

The Power of Yet
We have seen the last (Part 3) in the Class Dojo series! We really hope they produce more this year. The discussion around 'getting out of the dip' when we face challenges and 'reflecting' on our work to help us improve has really done wonders in our way of thinking about learning. I have seen a real difference in the 'self talk' my students use to handle a difficult task and overcome frustration. Here is the last Dojo movie in case you haven't logged on to the 'class story' section and viewed it. You will see at the end of the 'Art show' that there are examples of student work. We entered the drawing competition and sent our art into Class Dojo. We aren't sure if we won but it is kind of fun to see some student art in the animation of the movie!
Part 3 Growth Mindset Movie 'The BIG show'

Here is an example of the bulletin board we created for the 'Mountain of Yet'. Students re-created their Class Dojo monsters and brainstormed things they 'can do' already and things they 'can't do yet' but ultimately will succeed at doing. For example one student wrote, "I can tie my shoelaces into double knots but I can't ride my two wheel bicycle YET." Another student wrote, "I can skate really fast in hockey but I can't score a goal YET." It is interesting to see students read the bulletin board and then use the expertise of other students. When one child had trouble doing up their shoes, they simply looked at the bulletin board to find the student who put 'tying shoelaces' as their expertise.

Did you know? 
Mosaics
The big unveiling of the school mosaics will be at an assembly on May 5th. This has been a two year culmination of effort by artist 'Heather Vollans' and our students. The mosaics were made with small pieces of cut glass and each grade had a character trait as the theme to their artwork. Here is a sneak peak picture from upstairs through the window. You can't really see the colours and can only guess at the size but they are most impressive and will really give our school a creative, colourful and welcoming atmosphere.

Butterflies
We have ordered a class set of Butterflies (or larvae) that will arrive on May 18th for us to study and watch grow. Some students may have had the benefit of watching this 'life cycle' process if they were in a split grade last year but I think they will still enjoy it again. We are very lucky that our administration allows funding for this project in 'Grade Two'. Once again we have ordered 'Painted Lady' Butterflies from Boreal Laboratories as we have met with good success each year. Here is what they will eventually look like...

Art Gallery of Burlington trip
There will be a note coming home mid-May about our final trip of the year to the Art Gallery of Burlington for an all day trip. The students will do a tour of the gallery and see whatever exhibit is on display for the month of May, followed by a Pottery class and a Weaving class. The A.G.B., has offered to do a butterfly theme for our pottery experience so this should be a lot of fun! The trip is on May 30th!

There are many school activities coming up! Be sure to monitor the 'twitter feed' to the right of this blog for all the excitement. Dance-a-thon and Music Monday are happening soon! There is always something happening at FM!

Math Investigations, Growth Mindset movies, Spirit Days

Math Investigations
Our school recently purchased some math kits 'Context for Learning' that promote the application of math in conjunction with a literacy component. First we read a book about organization and how running a small t-shirt business involves mathematical reasoning to keep organized. Student have been working in small groups to organize bundles of 10 and figure out what remains for their individual businesses. It has been a big learning curve for many of us...learning to work in groups, listening to various opinions, consolidating ideas, understanding there could be more than one way to solve a problem...and so much more!
Here are some pictures:

                                                  Figuring out our inventory!

Naming our t-shirt factory, finding out our mystery sizes and doing more inventory! Owning a business involves a lot of math!

Growth Mindset videos!
Our Class Dojo continues to motivate my students to do their very best work! Please consider logging on to your child's student account to see how they are doing. There is a new series of videos that have just come out April 4th. I really find they provide a lot of discussion for students and enable them to understand that we all struggle at some points in our lives. Learning resilience is the key to success. Click here to view Growth Mindset movie

Spirit Day
We have had lot of fun with Spirit Days at Florence Meares! 
                                         Hat Day! 

           Oh, and this class loved to fool me on April Fool's Day!
             I was offered a plate of Brownies...get it ...Brown E's

                   And the scary spiders! Yes, that happened!

Did you know...
Lastly a big shout out to our School Parent Council who purchased four chrome books each for our primary classrooms. We have used them so much and it really helps to keep our Daily Five reading centres up and running. Thanks so much !