The Greatest Concert of All

Spread the news...tell everyone....

this class was angelic.....

at our Christmas Concert today!

Thank you parents for helping make the angel wings, donating the silver garland, the elastic and having such adorable, talented children.

God's blessing to you during the holidays.

Jesus is the reason for the season!

Writing with a purpose

I believe that students will write better when they understand the power of words and they have a purpose for writing.  Yesterday, they were able to accomplish both!

This clever book suggests reasons for the manner in which Santa does things, because of his previous jobs such as why he goes down chimneys, delivers things at night and uses reindeer to pull a sleigh.

 We came across a HELP WANTED sign and decided that we would all apply for this job!

Each student filled in a two page application with the vital information required (including finger prints)!

They then created an elf that looks surprisingly similar to themselves!

The elves turned out to be almost life size and took up more space than the bulletin board had.

Each student had to explain why they were perfect for the position that they were applying for. My favourite one was where a child circled no to the question that asked "Do you like toys?"

When I asked if he thought Santa would want to hire someone who didn't like toys, the cutie answered "I don't have to like toys to load the sleigh and that's the job I want to apply for!"

Christmas Concert Costumes

Christmas Concert Costume Update

News flash!!  The students in Mrs. Matheson’s Grade Two/Three combined classroom have been upgraded to angels in the 2011

Christmas concert production!

(That sounds a lot better than there was a tiny mistake made!)

The students are to be dressed as angels.  The costumes are being sewn as you get this notice.  But there is a way that YOU can help!

Please come on the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 15

@ 12:30 to Jean Vanier School and participate in the angel wing making marathon.  The 21 sets of wings will be made of white Bristol board with silver garland trim and elastic arm supports.

We are in need of the following donations:

a)       Silver garland - the kind that goes on Christmas trees) that will go around the wings and also create the halos for each child

b)        Skeins of sewing elastic that will be attached to the wings and then be used to comfortably support the wings onto the children

Doubles

The students have been focusing on the facts that are called 'Doubles."  That means the same number is added to itself.  They drew a monster and whatever they drew on one side had to be drawn on the other.  Thus, the monster had 3 hairs plus 3 hairs and 5 eyes plus 5 eyes.

When they wrote out these numbers as a mathematical sentence they noticed a pattern!  The answers are like skip counting by twos!  Tonight the students will be bringing home the 'flash cards' that they make in class.  Please practise so that each student knows them as quick as a wink!

 Within the classroom, the students practised first in the " I have...Who has..." game.  They noticed that they did not all know these facts.  They then paired up with a peer and played a game called "On the Double" which supports the learning of the facts in order to be the first to acquire the winning number of bingo chips.

 Winning isn't everything, but in this case, it is encouraging the learning of the double facts!

Christmas Presents

I find this a difficult subject to broach, but I appreciate this opportunity to share.  

I would like you all to know that I love to teach, love to see those eyes light up when the child knows something new and love when the confidence continues to grow.  If you are interested in keeping with the spirit of sharing during the Christmas season, please consider a gift that would be of benefit to our classroom and continued learning.  I am continually finding new books that would benefit the children, purchasing craft and paper supplies and now with the IPods and IPad, downloading stories and hopefully other apps that could be used in the classroom.  I hope that no one is offended if I share that I, myself, would prefer not to receive any personal gifts.  I would offer instead the opportunity to extend your generosity to our classroom family, or a charity that supports children in need. Thank you!

Odd and Even Numbers

After a few busy days of exploration using "thinker toys", the students have come to recognize that odd and even numbers follow each other in a pattern.

They are also able to recognize that it is the digit in the ones place of a two digit number that will determine whether the number is odd or even.

 Recognizing that the "even-ness" or "odd-ness" of a number is not changed when the amount in the tens place of a two digit number increases (or decreases), was achieved through the use of our ten frame train cars.  The first train car has 3 cubes.  We recognize that 3 is an odd number, or that every cube does not have a partner.

If a second car is added filled with cubes, first we do NOT need to count them as we know that there are 10 in the car and that 10 add 3 is 13.  Second, we know that 10 is an even number so we can put our attention to the digit in the ones place of the two digit number.  Again, 13 is an odd number because one cube does not have a partner.

This reasoning follows for all numbers where the digit in the ones place is 3.  Above is the concrete example of 23, which is an odd number, but we know that the same would be true is the two digit number was 53, or 83 or 43.

Christmas

I feel like this is a "get to know" me confession.  I am a saver.  I can be quite organized, so I can find things easily.  In my "Christmas - Jesus" file that I was looking through today, I tripped over this card that I have kept for a very LONG time.  I grew up in a small community and the priests and nuns came to the school on Wednesday afternoons to teach Catechism (the Orthodox kids didn't have to go!!)

The note is dated Dec. 20, 1968 and says:

Dear Sherry,

Both this year and last year you asked me if I had a list of the prayers you may say to make a crib for Jesus before Christmas.  I found one and I'm sending it to you.  It doesn't have to be followed exactly for all the prayers and acts of kindness you do for Jesus show Him your heart is open to receive Him at Christmas.  Remember the prayer "Come, Lord Jesus, come."  May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

Love, 

Sister Veronica

A CRIB FOR JESUS

Bed stead - 4 Stations of the Cross

Spring - Abstain from candy

Mattress - 10 Rosaries

2 Linen sheets - 200 Holy phrases

Blanket - 5 Acts of Contrition

Blue Comforter - 4 Acts of Kindness

White spread - 20 Our Fathers

Pillow slip - 5 Acts of Faith

Gift for Mary - 9 Masses

May your family share the love and joy of knowing Christ has come to fulfill the promise of Our Father.

Moongame

Although it may appear at times, that the activities that the students are engaged in are purely 'fun', there is always a basis for that activity in the Alberta Curriculum of Studies.  Today's activity demonstrates an opportunity for the students to "identify how pictures, illustrations and special fonts relate to and enhance print and other media texts". The students read a story by the author/illustrator Frank Asch.  In the story the bear learns how to play hide and seek with a bird.  At night he decides to play hide and seek with the moon. 

We are aware that it is important that the students understand the criteria by which an assignment is being assessed.  In today's case, exemplars were shared to visually demonstrate the difference in the creation of an excellent, proficient and a basic sample of work.  By having those exemplars available, the students can recognize how their own efforts will measure up to what is being expected of them.  When you see assessments attached to assignments, know that the students are given those before the assignment begins, again so that they recognize what criteria is to be used in the assessment process.

Can you find the moon?

Where is the moon hiding in this picture?

Bet you can't find the moon here either!

Place Value

The purpose of this blog has always been to allow parents into the world of their children as students, learning new concepts, practising, making mistakes and then finally, after much hard work, being successful.  Sometimes it takes a great long time to understand the value of new ideas.

The best way to learn is to be able to hinge our thoughts and ideas onto a real life experience.  In teacher talk, that is called scaffolding.  The students in Grade two are just beginning to work specifically on the concept of place value for numbers.  I decided that a real life application would be to count groups of objects that are really large.  We read a story about the Masloppy Family who took inventory of various collections of items in their home.  We have been taking inventory of items in our class.  On the first day, pairs of students counted bins of books.  As I watched and listened I finally heard a child count by 2's and not singly.  It was then that I called a math congress.  Basically that is an opportunity for all students to share their ideas in a safe way within the class, knowing that their ideas are valued and helpful to others.

Once we discussed why counting by 2's worked better than counting by 1's (the smart child told us it was much faster!), I encouraged the students to choose other groups to count by.  The group today that was counting keys, decided to count by 2's until 100, then they went onto create another group of 100 and so on.  Here they are using pen and paper to record their ideas.  That's the other thing that is different than when you (parents) went to school.  The teacher doesn't immediately tell you the best way to do something.  The students discover through some trial and error and then through sharing during the math congress, what ways work best for them, or which may be more efficient.

These girls decided originally to count the centicubes by 5's but when they saw how many groups they were getting, they changed their strategy and moved 2 groups of 5 together so they would have groups of 10.  They were making decisions based on their needs in the situations...that's becoming real problem solvers!

It was also interesting to hear  one girl share that when she was making groups of 5, she looked for groups of 2 and groups of 3 to put together (rather than counting individually up to 5).  She is demonstrating her understanding of composing (putting together) numbers!

Finally, another girl shared that she and her partner chose different groups to count by depending on how many items were in the container they were going to count.  If the amount seemed small, they counted by 2's, but if the amount was larger, they grouped by 5's and when they thought the amount would be very  large, they then used groups of 10's.  Math is about making sense of the world around you.  Listen to how your child is thinking BEFORE telling them how you would solve the problem!

Attributes

What are attributes?  Why are they important?  What subject would we use them in?

Attributes are the characteristics of something that we are discussing.  They are important because they show the similarities and the differences between a number of objects.  For that reason we use them in all subject areas.  Currently and concretely, the students are looking at how to sort objects by attributes in mathematics.  How are the keys the same?  Sort them into two or more groups and ask your partner to name the attributes that you were using to create the groups.  For example, you can sort buttons by the number of holes they have or sort keys by the shape of the tops.

What attributes did the girls use to sort these flowers?

How to Blow a Bubble

The fun of the Fiftieth Day of School just keeps hanging on!  Writing non-fiction is very different than writing fiction and having some experiences to 'hinge' our understanding onto makes the actual exercise much easier.  Bubblegum was a relatively new chewing delight in the 1950's and being able to blow a bubble with gum is a sign that you are really growing up!

What are the items that are needed if you want to blow a bubble? What are the steps to creating a bubble?  Could you write these down in full sentences in order and have a reader follow them?

When the students write their sentences, they have had the opportunity to try, to talk and share with others, have created a plan and have reminded to use the mechanics of writing appropriately.  For all of that, you will notice that some still do not start sentences with an uppercase letter, end with punctuation or spell the words (or copy them) correctly.  That makes the difference when assessment is being done.