This Week in Room 108

Hanging out on the glass floor of the CN Tower. 

Welcome back!I hope everyone had a fun and restful holiday. We had a busy week easing into our program and this week, we return to our usual routines including homework and spelling. 

In Math, we continue working on graphing as part of Data Management. We will also be reviewing time. I will be giving students a short time and graphing quiz on Friday just to see what they remember. Please help your Grade 2 child practise telling time to the nearest quarter hour. Your Grade 3 child needs to tell time to the nearest five minutes. Grade 3s need to be able to tell how time passes between hours, half hours, etc. 

In Language, we're continuing with poetry and journaling daily and current events. For reading, we're looking at the purpose and audience of various media texts. 

In Social Studies this week, Grade 2s are zooming in on the various communities in Toronto. Grade 3s are looking at the different types of work people do in urban and rural communities in Ontario. They will be learning about careers in agriculture, mining, and forestry this week. 

Enjoy the pictures of your kids at the CN Tower. We had time to stop by the CBC building and you'll see a couple of our students who were interviewed by Sook Yin Lee for her radio show Definitely Not the Opera. Cool!

Help For Math

Hello there,
Here are a couple of videos to help reinforce what we've been working on in class. Remember that Grade 2s need to be able to tell time to the nearest quarter hour and Grade 3s need to be able to tell time to the nearest five minutes. For rounding, Grade 3s need to be able to round to the nearest two-digit numbers to the nearest ten and Grade 2s need to locate the ten that is nearest to a given two-digit number (e.g. 47 is closer to 50 than 40).

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,
Just a short post this week. This week will be a shorter week due to being out on our field trip to the CN Tower on Thursday. 

We continue working on poetry in Language, keeping track of current events in Media Literacy, and in Math, we will keep working on time - including time in problem solving. There is no homework or spelling until the new year, but there will be a Math quiz this Friday that will touch on what we've learned so far this year. 
Have a great week!
Erin Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Cheers to soil!

Hello there,
Above and below, you'll find photos of some educational activities your children have been doing lately including the ways in which water drains through different types of soil. We've also been wrapping up our unit on movement in geometry and we're now learning about measuring time and temperature. Thanks for the prompt return of field trip forms. When I announced that we're going to the CN Tower, the kids shrieked in unison. 

Here's what else we're working on:

Language: Most students have completed at least one "good copy" of their piece of procedural writing. We are now moving into our poetry unit. Students will be reading and writing different types of poems. 

Media Literacy: Almost every day, we look at the news headlines from the major newspapers and discuss what is going on locally, nationally, and internationally. Students are journaling daily news in their Media Literacy Portfolio and illustrating their chosen story with a thumbnail sketch. 

Science: How plants make food and how water and air play a part in photosynthesis. 

Social Studies: We're wrapping up our look at the provinces and territories of Canada. As well, we're learning about climate and culture in the Philippines. 

Math: Measurement - time and temperature.

Have a great week!
Erin Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Hello again,
Due to illness, I was away from the class several days last week. We will carry on with what we were working on last week (see last week's post), including a review of movement in geometry. As well, we are beginning Measurement in Math, starting with measuring time. We have also started reading poetry and will soon begin writing it.

We welcome Siam back!
Have a great week,
E. Hawkins

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,

This is shaping up to be a regular week of learning. Thanks to everyone who was able to come out for parent/teacher interviews. 

Here is what we're working on this week:

Language: Procedural writing continued. If you would like to continue working on this at home, get your child involved in preparing a meal, either following a recipe or writing down their own. In class, we've broken procedural writing into the following sections: a title that clearly explains what you will be doing, a list of what you need to do it (e.g. ingredients or materials), a catchy introduction that will make the reader want to read on, sequential steps on how to do or make whatever it is, and a satisfying ending that wraps it all up. 

In Reading, we will be looking at elements of plot in fiction.

Math: we will be wrapping up our unit on movement in geometry by reviewing rotation and reflections (symmetry). 

Science: We will be conducting experiments to find out how water drains through different types of soil. See photos below for last week's exploration into soil and water. 

Social Studies: We will continue looking at the different urban and rural communities throughout Canada. 

Have a great week!

Below you will see photos of your children engaged in math and science activities. In the first math activity, they each had to create a map on grid paper and write down four direction questions in the math notebooks. They were then partnered up and had to see if their partner could answer the direction questions using the map. Of course, they had to use "math/direction language." The second activity involved using a spinner to get from one point to another in a direction game. 

This Week in Room 108

Hello there,

Below you will find some photos of your wonderful kids just being kids at our Halloween/Dress up party. Below that, you will find pictures from a math lesson as part of Movement in Geometry. Enjoy. Please don't forget that this is a short week as there are no classes this Friday. I am looking forward to meeting everyone this week or next for parent/teacher interviews. We are having our Remembrance Day assembly this Monday, so please ask your child what they observed. 

In Math, we will continue with Movement in Geometry. We will be working on rotational geometry (turns) and reflections (flips). I am trying to reinforce the proper math terminology in keeping with the curriculum expectations.

In Language we got off to a rip roaring start in procedural writing last week. Ask your child what they wrote about. This week, we will be sharing our writing and writing second and third drafts before publishing our work on the bulletin board. We are also continuing with contractions as part of punctuation.

In Social Studies, we will be discussing the impact of the recent typhoon in the Philippines. We will learn about typhoons and discuss what is happening to the communities that were hit hardest. Please encourage your child to talk about the news at home. If you can, please send in newspaper articles related to this. 

In Science, we will continue making our observations about the ways in which different chemicals can alter the growth of plants.

Have a wonderful week!

E. Hawkins

How We Roll

Last week, we kicked off our adventure in geometry with the Cha Cha Slide. This movement activity was used to reinforce terminology used in transformational geometry. At home, ask your child about reflections, translations, and rotations.