January 28th - February 1

What a week we have had!  Lots of indoor recesses and energetic kids!

This week we talked about kindness in the community.  Part of this lead to a discussion about the spray park that is being built in our area.  I have been having discussions with some other grade 2 teachers in the community and we have decided to work together to try and raise money to enhance our community.  Everyone is getting involved and excited about this project, even Mr. MacKenzie!!  Your kids have come up with some great ideas including having a talent show to showcase their many talents, everything from drumming to roping. They have talked about having sales of every kind.  A note was sent home today regarding our first fundraiser. I will attach it at the bottom of this blog!

It just happened that our student council planned a FUN IN THE SUN day so we decided to make a video asking the other grade 2 classes in the community to join us. Hawrylak  and WF Ready grade 2 classes are already on board.

Check out the cute video!  We had made one in the morning and Mr. MacKenzie came to see it.  They wanted to do another one with Mr. MacKenzie.  It is not perfect but it is priceless!

Keep your eyes on this blog to see what the grade 2 students in the community are doing!
http://aecgrade2communityproject.wordpress.com/

Letter written by our class today:

Dear Grade 2 Families,
 Our class is raising money for the splash park that they are building at the Sandra Schmirler Centre.  Please help us with our first fundraiser!  We have decided to have a candy guess at the school.  If you would like to help us, please send one of the following items by February 6th.
1. Hershey Kisses
2. Gumballs (red, pink, white, and purple ones!)
3. Smarties
4. Heart Suckers
5. Mini chocolate bars in the wrappers (Mars bars, KitKat etc)

Thank you! From All The Grade 2 Kids At Jack MacKenzie School

Here is a copy of the parent letter that came home today:
Dear Parents,

We are beginning a new unit in Social Studies,  In this unit Grade 2 students will explore the meaning of community.  The aim of social studies education is to help students develop values, attitudes, knowledge, understanding, skills and processes necessary to become active and responsible citizens.  It is also to help them become engaged in democratic ideas and develop an awareness of their capacity to effect change as responsible citizens.

We would like to give the students in Grade 2 an authentic opportunity to see how they can get involved and make a difference in their own community.  After several discussions with our classes one project that came up was the Arcola East Spray Park.  The spray park is a place that all citizens within the community can use and enjoy.  We have begun to talk about the work that needs to be done and how we can contribute to the development of this project.  We are exploring the main issue at the moment, which is the funding that needs to be raised.  The students have come up with several ideas about how we can raise money as a school. 

Thank you for your continued support!

NEXT WEEK:
OUTDOOR FIELD TRIP ON FEBRUARY 7th

January 21st - January 24th

Our field trip has been rescheduled for Thursday February 7th.  We are all very excited that we found a new time to go!

This week we have been busy working on paragraph writing.  Grade 2 students should be able to independently write a six sentence paragraph by the end of grade 2.  We have been creating sentences and sorting them to get us started.  This is part of PWIM (picture word inductive model) that we use in the classroom.  This term we focus a lot on writing and the blog is a great tool to maintain student interest.  Please encourage writing at home as much as you can. 

We are continuing with our Explore Plus 4 in math.  This week we had Mrs. Gabriel, our learning resource teacher, work with the groups as well.   Students seem to enjoy this structure of math and we are making excellent progress with this unit. 

We will be starting our Liquids and Solids unit next week.  Stay tuned for some science experiment talk from our classroom!

Next Week:
January 28th: Students may start bringing books for the book swap. 
January 31st: Book Swap Day (bring a book and take a book)
January 31st:  Fun in the Sun Day (dress in school appropriate summer clothing.  Students will be going outside for recess so make sure that they bring clothes to wear over top of their summer clothes.)
February 8th: We will be celebrating the 100th day of school on February 8th.  Some special homework will be coming home next week.

Field Trip Postponed

Due to the high windchill, we have decided to postpone our outdoor field trip for today.  I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.  You just never know what our Saskatchewan weather will do.  I will notify you if we can find a new date that works. 

Thank you for your understanding! 
Mrs. Shannon Sanchuck

January 14th -18th

This week we have started our new math unit on Addition and Subtraction to 18.  The structure of our math class has changed and we are doing something called Explore plus 4.  We have different activities that we work on during math including Explore, MOMO (math on my own), Math Talk/Tech  (journals and computers/IPADS..coming soon), and Games.  Mrs. Gabriel time will make the four and she will start working with us next week.  Everyone seems to enjoy working on different activities in small groups.  You can practice addition and subtraction facts to 18 at home with your child to help them with this unit.

We continue to talk about kindness in the classroom.  Students can tell you how to be kind and what a bucket filler is but sometimes they forget how to act.  Please talk with your child about using kind words and actions towards their classmates and schoolmates.   This will be an area that we will continue to work on all year.

We are all getting excited for our January 23rd field trip to Boggy Creek.  We will be having a dress-up day on Monday January 21st to ensure that everyone has the proper attire.  We will be out in the cold all day so we need everyone to be prepared.  Please send newspapers on Monday so that we can make our situpons.

Keep up with the reading and blogging at home!

Upcoming Dates:
Monday Jan 21st: Dress up for Boggy Creek, send newspapers, Scholastic Book Order due
Wednesday Jan 23rd : Boggy Creek Field Trip
Friday January 25th: No School - PD Day

Items Needed for Trip

How to dress

 - to dress in layers (no jeans)

- winter jacket

- ski pants

- wool socks

- winter boots

- toque or balaclava

- neck warmer

- warm pair of mitts

- backpack (no agendas or books please!)

Food Items

- 1/2 litre of water (put in ziplock bag if possible)

- optional hot beverage in thermos (optional: put in ziplock bag if possible)

- healthy snack

- hotdog and hotdog bun with condiments already on them (sandwiches if your child doesn't eat hotdogs)

- optional:  smore fixings (marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers)

- extra large healthy lunch

- No gum, seeds, junk food or pop

Other items

- bathroom tissue in a plastic bag

- sit upons (we will make in class)

- plastic bag for garbage

- dryer lint for the fire

January 7 - January 11

Welcome to 2013! 

This week we have started blogging.  You can read our blogs here.

http://kidblog.org/Grade231/

The reason that we are blogging is:

1.  To expand our audience.

2.  To learn about writing for an audience.

3.  To document favourite events over the next few months.

4.  To communicate with each other. 

5.  To respond to class assignments. 

6.  To inform families of what we are doing.

7.  To use another form of writing.

8.  To integrate writing with other subjects.

9.  To write journal entries/book reviews.

10. To develop keyboard skills.

11. To have fun!

Please feel free to read and comment on your child's blog. Comments and blog posts will not get posted until I have read and approved them.  Each child has choosen a fake name and are not permitted to post information that may identify who they or their classmates are.

Our winter field trip to Boggy Creek is on January 23rd.  I have  one parent volunteer but I would love to have two more!  I will send home the permission slip and more information on Monday.  In the past students have said that this is their favourite day in grade 2.

Next week we will be starting Unit 3 in math.  It is called Addition and Subtraction to 18.  Practicing basic addition and subtraction facts at home with your child will help them with this unit.

If you haven't done so yet please complete and send back your Random Acts of Kindness homework.  

We are working on our kindness unit for the month of January and then we will be moving onto learning about Liquids and Solids in February.  

December 17th - December 21st

Here are some highlights from our week!
This week we we did wordwork with snow (aka shaving cream).  The kids had a blast and they said our room smelled "handsome"!  We practiced spelling our 100 words I need to know.

We made some cute elves this week! Here are the pictures.

Reading in our PJs was a treat!

I hope that you all make wonderful memories with your children over the holidays! Get lots of rest and relaxation time in.  Don't forget about the holiday homework too!

Thank you for all of the cards and gifts that were sent this week.  It is a gift to work with each of your children every day! Happy holidays!

Upcoming Dates:
- School resumes on January 7th
 - We are going on an outdoor adventure to Boggy Creek on January 23rd.  I would love to have 2-3 parent helpers for this trip.  We will leave the school around 10:15 and return at 3:30.  Please let me know if you are interested!

Random Acts of Kindness

HOLIDAY HOMEWORK

Mr. Jack Mackenzie talks about effort and kindness.  He also talks about doing random acts of kindness.  Your holiday homework is to do three random acts of kindness!!

You can draw a picture, take a picture or write about what you did.  Bring your homework back to school on January 7th and be prepared to share your acts of kindness with the class.  Talk with your family about random acts of kindness.  

Here are some ideas if you are stuck!

Random Acts Ideas 1

Random Acts Ideas 2 

Random Acts Ideas 3