November 21 - November 25

It was great to see you all at the goal setting conferences today.

As you may have heard from your child we are going to be starting a unit on animals. I gave some of you an animal homework assignment at the conference. The assignment is optional but I know many of you enjoy working at home with your child. Here is a copy of the assignment in case you need it again:

Animal Homework Assignment –Optional
1. Choose an animal that is interesting to you.
2. Go to the library and choose “Good Fit” books about your animal.
3. Do you have any questions about your animal that you want answered?
4. Read books about your animal. Are your questions answered? Do you have any new questions about your animal?
5. Research your animal by reading books..you can try searching the internet but remember that everything you read on the internet is not necessarily true.
6. Learn about your animals life cycle.
7. Learn some interesting facts about your animal.
8. Optional: You can choose another animal to learn about and compare it with your animal.
9. Create a way to share this information with the class. You could write a report, make a poster, make a habitat in a shoe box, make a sculpture or painting, make a powerpoint presentation. The possibilities are endless!
10. Bring your project to school by December 21st to share with the class.
11. Remember that this is YOUR project. You will need help from your parents but it is not their job to do your assignment for you.
12. Have fun!!

Parent Information
Here is the outcome and a few indicators related to this assignment. Each child’s assignment will be different. This assignment gives you the chance to work closely with your child while reading non-fiction text and searching for important ideas in the text. We will be covering this information in class but this is some enrichment that you can do at home if you choose.

Outcome: Analyze the growth and development of familiar animals, including birds, fish, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, during their life cycles
Indicators:
a)Pose questions about the growth and development of familiar animals.
e) Compare the length and stages of life cycles of familiar animals.
f) Describe the characteristics common to each stage (e.g., birth, youth, adulthood, and old age) of the life cycle of familiar animals (e.g., dog, cat, beaver, frog, fish, bird, ant, wasp, and chicken).
g) Analyze which traits (e.g., body size, head size to body ratio, and number of limbs) remain relatively constant and which change in specific animals as they grow and develop.
h) Create a physical, visual, or dramatic representation of the growth and development of familiar animals during their life cycles.
j) Design an animal suited for life in a particular environment (real or imaginary) and represent its growth and changes throughout its life cycle.

This month in math we will be working on a unit called Addition and Subtraction to 100.

We are collecting gently used toys for another school. Please send any items by November 29th.

Each classroom at Jack MacKenzie school is making a Christmas Hampers. The sign up sheet is on our door. Please let me know if you didn't get the chance to sign up at conferences and I can let you know what items are still available.

Our recess dance group did a great job performing at the magazine assembly this week. I will TRY and get the video up soon!

Students have been busy working with a partner creating inventions. They finished these just in time to put them up in the hallway for conferences. Everyone has been working hard at learning to work together cooperatively.

Upcoming dates:
December 1st - Wear Pats Colours
December 2nd - No School
December 6th - Christmas Concert
December 9th - Special Lunch and photos with Santa

Website

In the fall, I gave you a handout that outlines what we will be covering this year. If you would like more specific outcomes you can check the Saskatchewan curriculum online at https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-BBLEARN/index.jsp

If you want to know more about what we are doing ask your child! Here are some suggestions from an article. http://www.scholastic.com/parents/index.php?cID=632

The trick is to ask about things that are specific, but still open-ended. Move beyond "fine" and "nothing" by asking your child to describe his world. It's also great to start the conversation with an anecdote from your own day. Try one of these conversation-starters:

Tell me about the best part of your day.

What was the hardest thing you had to do today?

Did any of your classmates do anything funny?

Tell me about what you read in class.

Who did you play with today? What did you play?

Do you think math [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?

What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?

What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they're
fair?

Who did you sit with at lunch?

Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?

See you at the goal setting conference!
Mrs. Sanchuck

November 14th - November 18th

This week we continued with our theme, Kids Who Care. We have been learning about cooperation and different ways we can work together. We started a group project of making our own inventions! The kids are working hard at drawing and writing about their inventions. We will also be painting our inventions next week. They will be all done in time to share this with you at the conferences.

In language arts, we have been learning about a new comprehension strategy called the questioning owl were students understand the importance of asking questions before, during and after they read a book. We also have been working on shaking words out of our PWIM picture. Next week we will be looking at different ways to sort words.

Today some of our grade 2's performed a dance called "Honesty". For the past few weeks they have been working hard at recess to learn this dance! We performed it for the all of the grade 2 students, teachers and Mr. Clark. The student's danced great! Mr. Clark also invited them to dance at the Magazine Assembly.

We will also post a video of our dance very soon!

The Report Cards went home on November 18th, see you at the conferences on Friday, November 25th.



Ms. Scherle

November 7th - November 9th

This week we continued to work on our theme, Kids Who Care. We talked about cooperation and how we can work together. We have a new PWIM picture featuring some of our students. The picture shows some kids who care. We are shaking out the words and we will will have a title soon.
On Tuesday we went to an Animals in Winter Presentation. The students were very excited to learn about Animals in the Winter. Their favourite part was touching the real stuffed animals that the presenter brought. We will be starting an animals unit at the end of November.
On Wednesday we had a Remembrance Day Assembly. Author and singer, Marny Duncan-Cary presented her book called "Who's That Man". It was great to see so many of you at the literacy lunch. Marny stayed for awhile after and sang to the kids. They loved her singing and guitar playing.

Hope you have a safe and restful long weekend!

Ms. Scherle

October 31st - November 4th

This week in our theme "Kids Who Care", we learned about honesty, respect and peace. We learned a song called Truth. I also started a recess dance club with the students in the class who wanted to learn a dance to this song. You can listen to this song at the link below. The students also learned about what respect is and we talked about different ways they can be respectful at school. We also talked about peace and what peace means to them. This ties into Remembrance Day that is coming up next week.

Truth Song

Miss. Scherle