February - a Busy Month!

I am not a tech. expert as you can tell!  Try as I might, these pictures will not upload any other way but sideways!  Hope you can still see that our own little groundhog here at our school DID see his shadow, which means we are to have six more weeks of winter!  Is he right?  We are tracking the weather to find out.

Sister Gertrude came to visit both Grade Two classes last Tuesday, which was Shrove Tuesday.  She helped us understand that when Father says "Do this in memory of me.." that the unleavened bread that he blesses becomes Jesus' Body and that the wine becomes Jesus' blood.  We see a miracle each and every time we go to mass.  

She helped us to understand that when we participate in the Adoration of the Eucharist, that we are seeing Jesus right here, right now. Our school will be having mass at 9:15 on Thursday Feb. 18th at which time Father will be placing Jesus in the Monstrance.  We will be going into the chapel for Adoration later that day.  ALL parents, grandparents and family members are invited to be part of this wonderful opportunity.  Please come if you are able.

Later on Tuesday, we were lucky enough to receive some pancakes and fruit as our morning snack.

Shrove Tuesday is sometimes called Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras.  It is the day before Lent begins.

We were able to travel to our parish church and participate in Ash Wednesday celebration.  

The students in my class were so excited to see the red light that was on in the sanctuary, letting us know that Jesus was present in the tabernacle.  After mass, we all went into the area so that we could see the tabernacle and the light.  That worked well because they had heard all about these important symbols the day before from Sister.

A little look into Inuit culture

Goota always teaches the class so very much in her in-school presentation.  She makes the life of the Inuit come alive through the various items she brings, the stories she shares and her willingness to explain.  She told the children that she was raised until the age of 16 in the area called Cape Dorset, at the southern tip of Baffin Island.  She left her family behind at that early age so that she could complete high school in Iqaluit, only seeing them at Christmas and during the summer.  It is wonderful to know that today, children in Nunavut do not have to leave their families to attend schools.  Each major centre has a school for students up to Grade Twelve.

Here she is showing us the way that the women kept their families warm in the winter, using a fire bowl made of soapstone, filled with seal oil, with a wick made of Arctic cotton that was picked from the land in the summer.  She told the children that the women had to keep care of this fire, more closely than they did their own babies.  Without it, they would not have survived the cold winters.

She demonstrated the difference between the kamiks of the eastern and western Inuit lands.  The one on her foot is from the west and has beading on it.  She said that it is very soft.  The pair would cost about $300 to purchase.  The other pair was made in the east, out of seal skin in the traditional manner.  She explained how to tell that this pair was made for a man, and said that to purchase a pair would cost $1200!

She shared how the Inuit would never waste anything from nature, and that they were always sharing what they caught with all of their families and neighbours.  She had amazing pictures and made a few of the students want to try to eat an eyeball, which she explained was a true treat!

She explained that currently there is a ban on hunting caribou, so we were really in for a treat because she shared some caribou with us.  It is the larger frozen piece of meat on the cardboard.  Many of the students asked for seconds!  

She also shared some Arctic Char and the students quickly made the connection to salmon.  It too was a great hit.  She used the traditional woman's knife, the ulu, to cut and serve the meat.

This was such a rich personal way to begin our exploration of our next Canadian community, the city of Iqaluit in Nunavut.

Move over Punxsutawney Phil and Balzac Billy...

Our own little groundhog did see his shadow today.

Who will we believe?  Will there be six more weeks of winter or is spring just around the corner?

We're doing a little weather forecasting to find out!

Another week of fun and learning. with plans for more busy weeks to come!

We are beginning to work towards visualizing in mathematics.  That means that the students, after working with numbers up to 100 for almost five months are asked to 'see' the 100 chart or number line in their head, moving from concrete to abstract.  Using our iPad minis, the students worked in pairs to find one more, one less, ten more and ten less than the target number.  Here the number was 46.  The students practised finding one more and one less than 46.  Those numbers are found in the same row as 46.  They then practised finding ten more and ten less than 46.  Those numbers are found in the same column as 46.  Once they were able to do many, many examples, both with a partner and on their own, the hope is that they will be able to find these numbers in their head without a 100 chart in front of them.  That is visualizing.

To extend this activity, making it more challenging, the students were given a target number, in this case 73, and asked to find two more, two less, twenty more and twenty less.  What thinking would they have to do to be correct?  What truth about how numbers work would they have to hinge this new learning onto?

They have had multiple opportunities to see how odd and even numbers form a pattern in our number system.  What number always follows an even number?  What number always follows an odd number?

In most elementary  classrooms, worksheets are not what drive the learning in a math class.  Instead, discussions, working with others and manipulatives are the tools for understanding.  What you are seeing is the forming of new understanding as this group works together to discuss their plans to solve the problem that is written on the SMARTBoard.

This problem is specifically written to tease out the students who are reading with understanding.

In small groups, the students work together to demonstrate their thinking.  They are often asked to prove how they know that their thinking makes sense.  The correct answer is not always the goal of the lesson.  Being able to explain your thinking so others understand is!

I love when they are confused!  It means that their brains are really engaged!  They are challenging themselves.  It is the #1 goal of education....to think, to figure out, to believe you can!

Thank you again to those parents (and nanas) who came to watch our final assembly.  Ask your child why we celebrate Valentine's Day.  Who was St. Valentine?  What did he do that was special to become a Saint?  How can we become saints?

It's our last day of working with the stories of Frog and Toad.  One of the stories we read was entitled 'A Swim'  The students used plasticine to create an illustration of the setting of the story.  They watched a short video of how Barbara Reid how done this technique for her many books.  They learned how to mix two colours together to create a new colour and they also had to manipulate the plasticine to cover a large surface area.

They then layered other colours onto the original background of the sky and water.

They added rocks again mixing colours,

showing another part of the scene from the story.

Finally, they used a different technique to roll the clay to create bullrushes or cattails to add detail.  Tomorrow, the final aspect, adding the two main characters will complete the scene.  

Remember that:

a) Report cards come home tomorrow.  So do Literacy Bags.  Writing scribblers are due tomorrow.

b) There is no school for students on Friday, but never fear, I'll be at school!

c) Monday - book orders and hot lunch orders are due. Writing scribblers will go home.

d) Teacher's Convention is next Thursday and Friday.

e) The next week we have Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday mass at church, and another PD Day on that Friday.

f) There is no school on Monday, Feb. 15 as it is Family Day.

St. Valentine's Day falls on a Sunday.  On Thursday, Feb. 11, the students may bring Valentine cards (for everyone in the class please) and we will do an exchange.  As evidenced by our so, so busy month, there just won't be time to have a party.  Please understand.

Student Faith and Wellness Day

It's a difficult task to try and capture what our Student Faith and Wellness Day is really about.  This day centres around the students at the school exploring what they are interested in, in a variety of small sessions throughout the day.  There is a HUGE faith component to this day as we are given the gift of Face to Face Ministries  to be the anchor for all the students.  This is provided through the REAL Foundation, a dedicated group that brings our Catholic identity to the forefront through experiences at the schools and the parish.

My students were given four choices for their two sessions during the day.  Students in Grades 3 and 4 had more choices, but it can be overwhelming to have that much choice!

The day began with the whole school meeting together in the multipurpose room, hearing the message that God loves  you, period  from Face to Face Ministries.  There was a choice session to go to in the morning, another visit with Face to Face, a choice session in the afternoon and a final whole school concert at the end of the day.

Some of my students chose the session on responsibility and were given the opportunity to create a t-shirt demonstrating their own knowledge and involvement in an act of responsibility.  Some chose to show traffic rules, some chose to show their own chores at home and some chose their involvement with friends and families.  They enjoyed the process.

Another choice that my students were given was to try karate.  They learned the importance of being safe, being active and being aware during this time.

Here is a session that my students didn't get to try.  It was about making 'healthy' pizza.

'Art from the Heart', another session choice for Grade Two involved putting their own talents to work.

The 4th session that my students could attend was about the care and rehabilitation of wildlife that might be injured.  The students learned that not all animals are meant to be touched and that there are reasons that a fawn, bunny or duckling might not have its mother around.  They learned not to assume that they needed to intervene and to never touch wildlife without first asking an adult.

The rest of the photos are during one of the three times we joined Face to Face and sang, danced and praised God.

(Game played with Gr. 2 and 3 during the morning session with Face to Face)

They loved the fact they were encourage to scream!

Working with BIG numbers

Sometimes we assume that students know what we know.  They might not!  We took the tin with all the little counting bears and put them on the floor.  I asked "How could we find out how many bears there are?"  The students had a few strategies:

One said we could make groups of two.  We did.  There were 95 bears.

Was there another way?

Another student said that we could make groups of five.  We did.  There were 95 bears.

Here was the ah-ha! moment.  One boy said "That's weird, it was the same number."

The third student suggested we could make groups of 10.  We did.  There were 95 bears.

The same boy said "That's freaky!  It is 95 again!"

The lesson had to stop there.  The conversation had to address this new idea for this one student.  He did not have a clear understanding of the conservation of numbers.

The concept that needs to be clear, is that an amount is the same UNLESS some more are added, or some are taken away.  No matter if the original group of items is organized in twos, fives, tens, twenties, or in one large pile.....the amount will be the same.  The amount is CONSERVED.

This wasn't a planned lesson, but it was SO important to remind the students of this concept.

We moved onto how a big number is written.  How would the students write these amounts?
63

75

16

What does the 6 in 63 represent?  Does the 6 mean the same in 16?  How do you know?

This is the concept of place value:  where the number is (the place) helps us know the value of that digit

The value of the digit changes depending on the place it sits at.

I asked one of the students how they would write the amount 112 on the red 2 digit card.  He made the perfect Grade Two mistake!

It allowed the students to have a conversation about what happens when a place is full.  The tens place cannot hold more than 9 groups of 10.  Using these manipulatives, I was able to demonstrate how 10 groups of 10 go together to make 100.  In our class, it is important that there are opportunities to use the concrete BEFORE the students are asked to think in the abstract.  Knowing what 112 is difficult without the experience of seeing what 112 is.  

I bring this up because sometimes parents forget that it is a big leap for some students to move from concrete  to abstract.  That is our goal though, to understand the system of numbers so well that we can think about this system abstractly.

We looked at the 100 chart.  We looked at the way it is organized.  The students noticed the patterns that can be seen in this chart.  With a yellow highlighter, the students found the even numbers in the chart.  They counted by twos.

Many of the students noticed that when one counts by fives, there is a column of fives.  They also noticed that the tens column already was outlined in yellow!  What does that mean?

Using the blue highlighter, the students also outlined the numbers that would be said if you counted by tens!  Goodness! Those numbers were also outlined in yellow and blue!  Why was that?  There is a great deal of learning in the exploration of big numbers to 100!

Look who came to our assembly today!  Jesus!

Today, our class told the story of how St. John the Baptist baptized many people in the River Jordan.  He was s surprised when Jesus also wanted to be baptised!  The water was some cloth held up by some reliable students!

After Jesus was baptized, a dove appeared.  The voice of God was heard from above!  It is the first time that Father, Son and Holy Spirit appear together in the Bible.  Did you know that this story appears in all four gospels?  That is a sure sign that it was an important event!

We related the baptism at the River Jordan to our own baptism.  We had the mom and dad and godparents bring the baby to be baptised by the priest,.  The students are very happy to be sharing their understanding and learning about Jesus with their friends in other classes at assembly!