News for April 5

News for April 5

This week the children learned about air in the environment, fractions and began to make their own art journals!

In writing, the students are working very hard on writing their books based on their "flat" characters, inspired by the book, Flat Stanley. The class reviewed how to edit their writing (using pencil to correct mistakes) and how to revise their writing (using coloured pen to add words to put more information into sentences). A few students began to publish their books by writing good copies of their stories, incorporating the editing and revising changes.

In reading, the students finished hearing the read aloud book, Flat Stanley and then wrote a book review about the story. They identified the parts of the story (e.g., characters, setting) and then wrote their opinions of the book.

In guided reading, the small groups continued to explore fairy tales. This week, we chorally read The Bremmen Town Musicians. The children worked on identifying the characteristics of fairy tales as applied to this story, as well as their reading expression.

In math, the class began the unit on fractions. In grade two, the students focus on the concept of a whole and fractions of the whole, or equal parts of the whole. The whole can be one object divided into equal parts or a set objects divided into equal groups. The class worked in partners to solve a fraction challenge: How many different ways can you equally divide rectangle-shaped cakes? The children created posters and worked on dividing the "cakes" from two pieces to ten pieces and more! They also learned how to name fractions using what they know about ordinal numbers, for example,when a cake is divided equally into six pieces, each part is called one sixth.

The students also learned about the power of doubling numbers. We discussed a folktale from India called One Grain of Rice, where a young girl was repaid by the Raja for a kindness by being given grains of rice each day for one month, based on the doubling pattern of one grain of rice the first day, two the second day, four the third day and so on. After 30 days the amount of rice was almost unbelievable! We now are using the doubling rule as the pattern on our April calendar. The class also watched a video based on this same idea involving grains of wheat on the 64 squares of a chessboard. Here is the video:



In science, the class began the unit on Air and Water in the Environment. The students learned what air is, why air is important to living things and how air takes up space. Air is invisible but we can feel it (e.g., wind) and we can see how it takes up space (e.g., air blown into a balloon). At the end of the week, the students did an experiment with aluminum foil observing how a flat piece of foil falls as compared to a ball of foil.

In social studies, the children read the history of April Fool's Day and answered some reading comprehension questions.

In art, the class finished their cursive symmetry art and each child wrote a reflection on their artistic process. These are now on display on the bulletin board in our classroom.

On the Room 222 Interview Show this week, our guest was Ms. Chang. She is a teacher at our school. This video can be seen in a separate posting.

On Friday, the class began a project to design and create their own art journals. Working in an art journal is a very popularactivity in our classroom and most students have filled up the pages of their art journals they received in September. Now, they are designing the covers of their homemade art journals and next week, they will sew blank pages into the covers.

On Friday, the children finished solving the jigsaw puzzle of a picture of all the flags in the world!

Books read aloud this week:

Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown (chapter book - now finished)
The Bremmen Town Musicians retold by The Brothers Grimm
One Grain of Rice - A Mathematical Folktale from India by Demi
The Gingerbread Man retold by Jim Aylesworth
The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse