Valentine's Day

Another Valentine's Day has come and gone!  We enjoyed some special activities in our class to help us celebrate friendship. Here is a glimpse of some of the fun things we did in Grade 2 on February 14th!  

*We mailed and enjoyed looking at the Valentines we had received from our friends.

*We estimated, sorted, tallied and graphed the Smartie Box Valentine from Mrs. Stacey and then we ate our smarties!

*We played some fun Valentine games involving words (ABC order) and a fun Valentine Math game that was similar to tic tac toe but involved even more strategic planning to win!   

*We did some Valentine problem solving with a partner.  

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day!  

Humane Society Visit

Humane Society Visit

Thank you to the Humane Society for visiting us today with 'Buddy' a beautiful, calm teaching dog.  Here are some things we did during our visit.
*We checked out the Humane Society Adoption Center on their website to see animals that were looking for homes.
*We learned that you can visit the Humane Society during March Break for special activities and can even hold your birthday party there if you really love animals.
*We learned rules for pet owners (stoop and scoop, leash law).
*We learned how to take care of pets by providing for them, protecting them and preventing unwanted 'litters'.
*We learned how to approach a dog that we don't know and everyone got to pet Buddy!

Here are some tips:
Never approach a dog that you don't know- leave it alone.
We learned that we should always ask an owner if we can touch their dog.
When touching a dog, curl your fingers underneath so that the animal can't bite fingers.
Stand beside the dog and let it sniff you.
Stroke the chin, chest or back.....NEVER the head.

After this visit, we were inspired to think about other ways animals help humans. We read books about animals that help people and also discussed how animals can harm people. We had a debate in our class about the best pet to get.  We read books about different kinds of pets (cats, dogs, fish or rabbits) and wrote reasons to support our opinion on which pet is best.  The students had some very convincing arguments.  

Pancake Day!

We certainly enjoyed 'Pancake Day' in Grade 2.  We read a wonderful book to get us started and then we followed a recipe to make pancakes right in our classroom.  Students enjoyed mixing the ingredients and watching the process from start to finish.  We even practiced our 'procedural writing' by recording the recipe and including step by step directions.  Even though we had made pancakes in our class, we hadn't had enough, so we also got to eat the pancakes that had been made by our Parents In Action.  Both batches of pancakes were delicious!  Thank you to this amazing team of adults for the yummy treat!  

Buoyant Boats!

Earlier this month, students applied their knowledge of buoyancy to create a boat out of modelling clay.  Each student was given the same amount of clay.  Initially, we noted that the clay would sink, but with some creative changes, students could alter it's 'shape and density' to make it float.  The goal was to create a boat that would float and hold a number of gems before sinking. 

After our initial testing, students were encouraged to change their boat design in order to improve its performance.  Many students were able to use their knowledge and observations of more successful boats to successfully change their boat.  We had a lot of fun cheering for each other.  Eventually, everyone managed to create a boat that would float!  Great job everyone!Ministry Expectation:  

By the end of Grade Two, students will :
-use technological problem-solving skills and knowledge acquired from previous investigations, to design, build, and test a structure that involves interactions between liquids and solids (e.g., an object that floats)
Sample guiding questions: What did you build? How does it use the properties of liquids and solids? What changes might you make based on the testing that you did on your object? Who might find this information useful? 

Matter, Money and More!

Even though it was only a four day week, we managed to get lots accomplished in our classroom. Unfortunately, that nasty flu bug took me down and I missed some of the fun on Wednesday and Thursday, but I did manage to capture the students working hard on Monday and Tuesday. Here are some highlights:

*We read a great book called 'Brave Irene'. We looked for evidence in the text to prove Irene was brave. Along the way, we discovered more qualities of this character and wrote about her.
*We have been talking about money, counting coins and playing various money games to strengthen our understanding of the relationship between coins. We have noticed the importance of knowing how to count by 5s and 10s when we need to count nickels and dimes. Using a hundred board to help has made this easier for some.
*We tested different solids to see which ones would absorb water and which would repel water.
* We learned that buoyancy refers to whether something will sink or float. We predicted and tested many different materials to determine if they were buoyant or not. We learned that matter that is more dense than water will sink and matter that is less dense will float.