A morning dove guards her eggs: Morningstar Mill, St. Catharines April 8, 2011Hello,
Sorry that I didn't post last week. It was a jam-packed week at Clairlea, plus I'm working on my Reading Specialist at OISE right now, so some things had to take the back burner. It was great seeing so many familiar, friendly faces at the spring concert. Needless to say, I was incredibly proud of your children. They did a fantastic job with their performance. I've had many teachers and assorted armchair critics give us enthusiastic "thumbs up." I will be sharing pictures from the concert and other classroom activities in the next days or weeks. There's a lot.
Last week we said goodbye to Miss Torres. She worked incredibly hard with our class and will be missed by us all. Good luck as you begin your career in teaching!
Here's what we're working on:
Language: I hope that students will have their final drafts completed of their Andy Warhol recounts. Some students are finished, while some are still working away. I may have to think about keeping in some students at recess or after school to complete his/her work so that we can move on with narrative writing.
Word Study: Synonyms and a review of homonyms.
Guided and shared reading will focus on reading fluently.
Math: We've wrapped up our unit on money and tomorrow I'll kick off our unit on algebra by comparing missing numbers in equations, to balance scales. If you'd like to work on this at home, come up with some simple equations such as 12-3 = 4 + __
Science: Miss Lowen will continue working with the 3s on stability. I'll be kicking off our look at animals as part of Understanding Life Systems (Growth and Change in Animals) for the Grade 2s.
Homework:
1. This week, both grade 2s and 3s will be asked to borrow a book from the class and respond to questions about it in their Home Reading Journal.
2. A new list of spelling words will be investigated. Choose an activity in your Home Word Book and complete.
3. Students will write 2-4 journal responses. I will be sending home journal prompts to try to freshen things up for students stuck with writer's block.
All homework is due Friday. There will be no math this week as I'm starting a new unit and I can't give out homework for something not taught yet. Feel free to work on pairs of expressions, as suggested in the math section.
Keep reading and talking about what you're reading (children and parents).
Have a great week!
Don't forget those field trip forms.
Erin Hawkins
