Quarterrific: A Coin-Counting Song

Hello there,
Blogging works so much better on my Mac!

We are continuing with our unit on report writing in Language. We will also be learning about prefixes and suffixes this week.

In Math, we have started our unit on linear measurement. The class seems to be excited about measuring with rulers.

Here is a song about quarters. Remember, children in Grade 2 need to remember how to add and subtract coins up to $1.00. The money in this song seems to be American currency, but the concept works.

Please send in the $4 for the Aussie sports program as soon as possible.
Thanks,
E. Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Sorry for the lack of posting last week. Ms. Vincent and I have been very busy planning our school's road salt project that will be displayed at Eglinton Square Mall next week. We're very excited about the learning that has come from this experience and proud that the school can share their work with the community.

In our class, we will begin the early steps in report writing this week. In Reading, we will be reading reports and also continue working on inferring as part of reading comprehension.

In Math, we have started money. Please take every opportunity to either show real money or use play money with your child. Grade 2s need to be able to add and subtract money amounts to 100 cents. Grade 3s need to do the same, but to $10.00.

We are also hard at work on Social Studies. Grade 3s have been learning about the life of First Nations people and early settlers in Upper Canada. Grade 2s have been learning about different religious and secular celebrations and traditions. They are in the process of constructing a Big Book of Celebrations and Traditions which should be completed by late May.

Have a great week.
Don't forget that there is no school on Friday (Good Friday) and Monday (Easter Monday).
E. Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,
This week is very much a continuation of last week, so I won't repeat the post information from last week. We will wrap up our unit on Geometry this week. Both grades will build structures out of their 3-D net solids constructed over the past two weeks. Once built, they will be asked to describe the attributes of the structure (faces, vertices, edges). The Grade 2s will design a picture using 2-D pattern blocks and share their work with the class. Grade 3s will do a little more work on right angles and we will talk about parallel lines.

Scholastic is due this Monday.
Have a great week!
Erin Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Hello there. Scroll down the page to see some pictures of your swell kids exploring forces and simple machines when Scientists in the School came to our class last Friday. We had a fun time learning!

This week we will begin our new unit in Writing on report writing. There will be a lot of pre-teaching, shared reading and shared and guided writing before students begin their own reports. Most of our mysteries have been completed as we have officially completed our creative writing (narrative writing) unit. Students will bind their stories and illustrations this week into a booklet form and they will share with their classmates. 

In Math, we will continue with Geometry. Students have been very busy creating 3-D shapes out of paper nets. We will use these models to touch and talk about vertices, edges, and faces of 3-D shapes. Later, they will use their shapes to build a model of a community for their units in Social Studies. That's the plan anyway. Grade 3s will look at right angles too. 

In Science, we will build on the information they absorbed with Scientist Tracy last week. We will discuss strong shapes and also  consider how simple machines help make work easier. 

In Social Studies, the Grade 3s will continue their unit on Early Settlers in Upper Canada. We will begin learning about the Mohawk people. Grade 2s will carry on with Celebrations and Traditions. They wrote a brief explanation of St. Patrick's Day last week and the goal is to complete their good copy this week. Everything takes time. 

Have a terrific week. Don't forget that Pizza Lunch is this Wednesday. 

Sincerely,

E. Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,

I hope everyone had a great March Break filled with good times and with as much relaxation as humanly possible. 

Below, you'll find pictures of our field trip to the Kortright Conservation Centre, our capacity and mass centres I set up in the hallway and also a swell model one of our amazing grade 2 students. The model showed the class how road salt can end up in our rivers and streams. Bravo! She did a terrific job of explaining the process and it wasn't even homework.

This week, we'll attempt to have all mystery narratives completed in good copy. We will continue to learn about inferring as part of reading comprehension, and we will continue working on verbs and adverbs in grammar. 

In Math, we will be reviewing 2-D geometry and we will dive into 3-D geometry, learning how to describe their attributes and building shapes out of paper. 

In Social Studies, the Grade 2s will learn about the celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The Grade 3s will begin their unit on early settlers in Upper Canada (pioneers). 

Have a great week!

Erin Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Congratulations to the fantastic kids of our class for their awesome performance in the African Heritage Concert last week. Bravo! Scroll down to see some pictures I snapped prior to and during the performance. 

This week will very much be a continuation of what we were working on last week. Don't forget that our field trip to the Kortright Centre is this Wednesday. Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. Let's hope it's not bitterly cold that day. We're all hearty Canadians, but even hearty Canadians have their breaking point!

There will just be a short piece of homework for this week since it is another short week and we're all needing a little break. Details in your child's homework bag.

Cheerio!

Erin Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,

We are going to have another busy week as we prepare for the African Heritage Concert this Thursday evening. A handout went home regarding this and I will send home more specific information tomorrow or Wednesday regarding time, etc.

Please send in your child's field trip form if you haven't already done so as it is coming up very soon.

I have decided not to send home spelling or math homework this week as students will be given research questions to respond to and I don't want your children overloaded with stressful work. If your child has any difficulty with the research, please let me know ahead of time and I will try to help them in the computer lab if we can secure some extra time.

In Language, we will be writing poems that celebrate Africa. We will continue working on our mystery stories as part of narrative writing. We will also branch out and learn more about verbs and adverbs in grammar.

In Math, we will be learning about mass and capacity for the next two weeks and we will also be working more on multiplication.

Science and Social studies will be connected to road salt and the impact it has on people, communities, animals, plants, and soil.

Have a lovely week and hope to see you at the concert!
Erin Hawkins





Websites the help get your started for salt research
Sifto Salt (Goderich, ON) http://www.siftocanada.com/

Windsor Salt (Windsor, ON)http://www.windsorsalt.com/

Environment Canada - road salt - http://www.ec.gc.ca/nopp/roadsalt/en/index.cfm

http://www.ec.gc.ca/nopp/roadsalt/reports/en/rms.cfm

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,
I hope everyone had a great weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the extra day to be together. We had a very busy week of activities last week, including practising for the African Heritage Concert. Our class will be dancing with other Primary students as Junior students tap out African drum patterns they have learned. A handout was sent home last week with details of the concert on Feb. 27th. If you did not see the handout, please check the school website for more information.

Just a reminder that there will not be any homework nor will there be a spelling quiz this week.


Language:
This week, students will continue working on their mystery narrative. This is a major piece of writing and we look forward to sharing our completed drafts when everyone has completed their story. We will also continue writing and reading poetry.
We will also review common and proper nouns and adjectives, which we've been working on.

Math: We will continue working on multiplication. The Grade 3s will be looking at the 4 times tables while the Grade 2s will work on word problems using concrete materials to find the answer by grouping objects together. We will also begin perimeter. Grade 2s will be introduced to the concept of perimeter and will engage in some activities measuring the distance around objects using non-standard units (e.g. how many sneakers does it take to go around a tile in the hallway?). Grade 3s will be measuring perimeter using standard units (how many centimeters will it take to measure the perimeter of an atlas?).


Science/Social Studies: We have started a unit on the impact of road salt on the environment. This is a school-wide project. Our class will be looking at two different aspects: Grade 2s will be learning about the impact that salt has on animals and in our local community. Grade 3s will be looking at how the Sifto Salt mine in Goderich, Ontario impacts the town's economy as well as environmental impact. They will also be learning about the impact that road salt has on plants and soil.

That's all for now,
Have a swell short week!
Erin Hawkins

P.S. Here are two Schoolhouse Rock tunes from my childhood. They used to show these on the commercial break during Saturday morning cartoons. Believe it or not, I remembered what nouns and adjectives were because these songs were so catchy that they stuck in my brain like an ear worm. We've been listening to them in class. Who said grammar has to be boring?

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,
Sorry for the lack of posting last week. I've been very busy working alongside Ms. Vincent on EcoSchool activities with our Junior students. Add to that report card writing and of course teaching... well time can slip by very quickly. 

This will be a busy week. We are excited to go to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra tomorrow. 

I haven't had a chance to tell you about this Thursday. If you have an older child at Clairlea, you will know that Thursday is Winter Activity Day. Junior and Intermediate students will spend the day either skiing or skating. The Primary students will enjoy "Winter Carnival Day" back at the school. There will be fun stations for students to rotate throughout. I will be running a salt dough station. You'll have to ask your child about all the fun they had when they come home on Thursday. 

As a result of these two action-packed days, we'll only have three "regular" days. I am going to use the time to carry on and complete some of the units we've been working on. In Math, we will carry on with multiplication and area. Students began writing mystery stories last week as part of our creative writing unit. They will have time to work on their stories this week as well. 
Just a reminder that there is school this Friday and we will have a little Valentine's Day craft party. Students are welcome to bring in Valentine's Day cards for their classmates. If they do, please make sure nobody gets left out. Here are the names of our students in no particular order:)
Panos, Brian, Arjun, Olivia, Alishan, Rishi, Monica, Hannah, Jayla, Rowan, Abby, Alishba, Lavina, Regin, Mahira, Sahil, Sarah, Arhum, Siam, Mahdi, Fahim, and last but not least, Stephen!

Have a lovely week,
E. Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Dear Families:
Sorry for the lack of posts last week. It was a very crazy week and due to the weather, students we kept in at recess and lunch and that made it very difficult for teachers to find a quiet place to get some of those extra things done that we can usually accomplish in an empty classroom. 

Please try to get field trip forms to the TSO in this week and if you are ordering from Scholastic, please aim to get orders in by Wednesday and I'll phone in January's order. 

This week we're working on:
Language: Wrapping up poetry. In Reading we will begin our unit on Inferring as a reading strategy.

Math: We have finally completed graphing (Data Management) and we will begin multiplication. The Grade 2s will be doing some simple grouping activities using concrete materials. The Grade 3s will be moving into learning their 3 times tables. Ultimately, Grade 3s need to be able to multiply up to 7 X 7.

Science: We will begin looking at structures as they relate to the GTA.

Social Studies: Grade 2s will be learning about the tradition of Groundhog Day and the 3s will be learning about the mining industry in Ontario. Oh the variety of a combined grade class. 

Don't forget that if there is a cold weather advisory, students can enter at the Primary doors as soon as 8:25 where a teacher will watch them in the hallway and line them up for teachers to pick up. I am usually doing some last minute things to get ready for the class at this time of the day and only teachers on morning yard duty are responsible for watching children at this time. Thanks for your understanding in this matter. 

We always keep children in if their is a cold weather alert, so please don't worry about your child freezing while at school. Do ensure they leave home dressed warmly enough for the journey to and from school.

Thanks a lot and have a wonderful week,
E. Hawkins