Orange Shirt Day

Today is Orange Shirt Day. Orange Shirt Day is an opportunity for all people to come together in the spirit of reconciliation. We honour the people who attended Residential Schools, the people who we lost and the people who survived them, and the legacy that was passed on. We remember the bravery, resilience, and strength of our Indigenous Peoples.

We read "When I Was Eight" by Christy Jordan-Fenton and we compared Olemaun's first day of school and her expectations of school with the story of our first day and our experiences at school. Here were some of our thoughts and reflections:

• Instead of them having fun activities like Phys. Ed, their activities were (really hard) chores. (Zaeem)
• The Residential Schools cut people's hair short and if you don't do stuff right, they might send you down to places where you might not survive. (Drayden)
• They needed to wear clothes that the schoolteachers said to wear. (Sayeh)
• They put your arms in boiling hot water and they burned your clothes. (Drew)
• They changed her name and took away her language. (Zoey S.)
• We read about Myles' family history with Residential Schools. (Corbin).
• Olemaun tried to read a book but she couldn't, so she got sent to the corner. (Mila)
• I felt really bad for those people. (Jaxon)

Reminders:

• please send appropriate outdoor clothes (boots, snowpants, jacket, mitts/gloves, hat, etc.) for the weather... we go out unless it is -20c or below
• Scholastic book orders are due on Friday
• you can order Fun Lunches for the entire year by updating your account at Healthy Hunger
• snowy days are perfect for Raz-Kids!

Coming home today:

• hundreds chart activity from September 19th
  Math Outcome: students will order numbers up to 100 (they are expected to do this by the end of Grade 2 - we wanted to see what kinds of patterns and relationships they identified with the numbers. Students had almost 20 minutes to complete this chart.
• picture day save the date (October 16th)
• club forms for Ozobots - due this Friday, October 4th

Upcoming Important Dates:

• October 10: Fun Lunch (Chopped Leaf)
• October 10: Family Movie Night - 6pm
• October 11: Non-Instructional Day (No School)
• October 14: Thanksgiving Monday (No School)
• October 16: Picture Day (Individual)
• October 24: Fun Lunch (Little Caesars)

"The best day of Grade 2" (Chase)

Orange Shirt Day is this coming Monday, September 30. We read a story today called Tyson's New Orange Shirt. Some of the things we learned/talked about were:

• it reminds me of I might have gone to a school like that (Laith)
• I learned that Orange Shirt Day means that all children matter (Sayeh)
• I didn't realize that Orange Shirt Day was so special (Zoey S.)
• I didn't realize that in the past they didn't want people to be who they really were (Jaxon)
• Everybody is different and it doesn't matter what you look like (Aaron)
• Some people thought it was okay for their kids to go there but it wasn't (Myles)
• I wonder when this stopped, and if it was in September (Avery) - we'll look into this for Monday
• It doesn't matter what you look like, we're all special (Maddox)

We look forward to seeing all of your orange shirts on Monday! (if you don't have an orange shirt, don't worry - don't worry about going out of your way to purchase one or anything)

Science objective today: I will describe the interaction of magnets with other magnets and with common materials

"I thought that the horseshoe magnet would be the strongest because it was the biggest and it looked big and strong, but it turned out to be really weak" - Kohde

"I learned that if you just keep the magnets together through glass and be careful, then it will just stay there until you let your magnet go, then it goes down and sticks to the bottom of the door." - Drayden

"Magnets stick together and when you tip it the other way it turns" - Colby (talking about north and south poles of the magnets)

"I guessed the horseshoe magnet because it was the biggest and it looked like it could hold the most paperclips, but it could only hold 20 or under. The bar magnet is the strongest, it held around 80!" -Eric

"I learned that small ring magnet doesn't mean it's not strong." - Chasity

"For some reason when I used materials that were not magnetic, when I used objects that didn't really stick, I put a magnet on one side and on the other side I put a paperclip, then I let go of the paperclip and I put my hand on whatever object it was, then I moved the magnet around and on the other side the paperclip moved!" - Jaxon

Today we noticed that we had a lot more fun and a lot more learning than we did yesterday. Yesterday we were super chatty and had a hard time working together. It was hard to learn because not everyone was trying their best. Today, it was WAY better! EVERYONE was focussed, EVERYONE was learning a TON. We got to play some math games and some literacy games as well. Great job, Grade 2s. Overheard in our classroom: "Today was seriously the best day of Grade 2 so far."

Raz-Kids Update:

We sent home login information for Raz-Kids today. We hope you all have fun reading on the weekend! Click here to begin:

Mrs. Cose's teacher username: amcose 

Mrs. Seymour's teacher username: hseymour5

If you would like to be updated and receive progress reports, the easiest way is that after your child logs in you can click on the green "parent" button at the top of the screen and enter your email address. See form for alternate methods of signing up for updates.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend! We look forward to more great learning next week.

Magnificent Magnets

Highlights from today:

• we watched a video and learned about when magnets attract or repel (Corbin) 
• we learned different types of metal that stick to magnets, which is iron, nickel, and (Jaxon)
• in science we learned about stuff that could attract to other stuff and some that are not attracted to other stuff (Zaeem)
• in music we learned how to do spoons with our hands (Sayeh)
• the whole earth is a big giant magnet (Stone)

We sent home Scholastic orders today... they are due next Friday, October 4th. Feel free to order online - see the note below, or click here: www.scholastic.ca/canadaclubs.

Orange Shirt Day is on Monday. We're going to learn all about it tomorrow, but you can keep an eye out for your orange shirts :)

Stay tuned: RAZ Kids logins are coming home TOMORROW! :)

Dear Families,

This month’s Scholastic Reading Club flyers are now available! Please take a few moments to explore the selection together and let your child help choose books he or she is excited to read. When children choose their own books to read for pleasure, they enjoy reading more and spend more time doing it!

Scholastic Reading Club flyers are made for you and your child to shop for books your child will love to read. Each month, the flyers are filled with trusted, excellent quality children’s books that are just right for your child’s reading level and interests.

Plus your order helps our classroom earn FREE books and resources!

Once you’ve made your selections, there are two ways to order:

1. Submit your order to me and pay by credit card or PayPal online at www.scholastic.ca/canadaclubs Your online order will be sent to me automatically.
2. Return the paper order form to me with a cheque made out to Scholastic Canada.

Thank you for supporting your child’s reading success both at home and in the classroom! 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Cose & Mrs. Seymour

PS: Please let me know if your order includes a gift for your child, and I will contact you when it arrives!

Today: Terry Fox Run!

Thank you to everyone who brought in money for Terry Fox! As a class we brought in $71.60

Highlights from today:

• we learned about our province Alberta (Alivia) and we continued working on our flipbooks (Colby)
• we learned about Terry Fox that he raised money and is a hero (Myles) and we wrote about Terry Fox (Chasity)
• we ALL learned about colours, size, shapes (Corbin) and that they are called attributes (Ibrahim)
• we started a new Junie B. Jones book at read-aloud (Ibrahim)

Happy Birthday Drew! 

Reminders:

• Fun Lunch tomorrow - please remember to bring snack(s)
• the weather is rapidly changing in Calgary - please check the weather and dress appropriately

Terry Fox Run TOMORROW!

Happy second day of fall today!

The Terry Fox Run has been moved to tomorrow, Wednesday September 25th. Please ensure that your child's outdoor shoes are appropriate for a walk/run around the pond. Feel free to bring in a "Toonie for Terry" (or any amount) to fundraise for cancer efforts. If you donate more than $20 we can provide a tax receipt. Here's the song we're going to perform tomorrow at the ceremony. If you have any friends, family or neighbours who have fought or are fighting against cancer, there will be an opportunity to honour those people by identifying their names on a "I'm Running For ______" sticker tomorrow. If you don't have anyone specific to run for, you can run for Terry Fox :)

Highlights from our learning today:

• we learned in math a new game called "Shake, Sprinkle, & Subitize" (Anna) to practice our recognition of numbers 1-10
• we learned to make an "Oops" into WOW pictures, and we turned them into writing (Avery)
• today in Social Studies we learned about our community and our homes and we are making a flipbook in our visual journals! (Zaeem)
• we made different types of patterns, including ABAB, AABAAB and more! (Sayeh) 
• in Phys. Ed we learned about teamwork with our new game "Take Out the Trash" ... ask me about it!

Highlights from today:

- We had some guest teachers this morning (Chasity). We heard that the "skulls" group did a good job with writing, and that everyone was very excited about the science activities.
-  We did some Science and tested magnets to see what they attracted to (Anna)
- My group tested materials to see if they would work through materials and it was weird because some magnets worked better than others through different things (Drayden)
-  In music we learned a new note ask us about it (Sawyer)
-  We did word work to spell new words with the letters a, e, m, n, g, t, s. I found more than 30 words.(Jaxon) The letters were sent home today so students could practice making words at home.
- We fixed some Oopses into beautiful WOW art.
- This afternoon we explored GoogleEarth and started looking at our country, province, city and community. This is a hard concept for many students to grasp, parents can support our learning about this by looking at maps, exploring google earth at home and talking with students about what they notice.

Reminders:
- Library books should be returned every week.
- Terry Fox run is this Thursday morning. Please dress appropriately to be outside for 30-40 minutes

Parent-Teacher Conferences a Hit!

We just wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of the parents who came out to our "Meet the Teacher" conferences this week. We are so excited to be partnering with you in your child's learning journey this year, and we appreciate the input we got from you about your child's strengths, goals, and learning needs. Please don't feel that you need to wait until the next conferences to be in touch. Our email addresses are linked below - feel free to email anytime.

Note: there has been a Little Caesars fun lunch added for next week, Thursday September 26th, which means that today is the last day to order. Please create/update your account at http://healthyhunger.ca

Thank you so much, and have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Cose & Mrs. Seymour

Secret Mission One!

Highlights from today:
- We found a secret note that we needed to do stuff for Coco and Brockly and the Big Cheese(Chasity)
- We did read to self and we were all able to read for 15 minutes! (Drayden)
- It was a half day, but we were working VERY hard. (Aaron)
- We looked at the graph in the hallway for math - be sure to check it out when you are here mom and dad!(Ibrahim)
-  We didn't get to do our WOW time because of our secret mission. (Eric)
-  We did PE in the gym and we played Keep Up and Team Tag.(Sawyer)
-  Big Cheese told us to name our super foods that give us energy to play.(Stone)
- When we did writing some kids finished their We're not waiting to grow up... work. (Maddox)

Reminders:
Conferences tonight and tomorrow morning
Check out the book fair when you are here!
No school tomorrow
We play outside everyday so please send appropriate clothing and footwear

Reminders:
Reminder from Colby: it is a half-day tomorrow. Please pick up your children at 11:45
- Conferences Thursday evening and Friday morning. There is still time to book!
- Early dismissal TOMORROW
- Fun lunch orders can be made through Healthy Hunger.ca


Highlights from our learning today:

• we wrote about "I'm not waiting to grow up to be..." and I said hockey star (Corbin)
• we finished our literacy rotations about learning how to form new words (Ibrahim)
• in eye-opener today we wrote about words that start with the first letter of our name... I wrote jam, jellyfish, and jaguar (Jaxon)
• we skip-counted, instead of 2, 4, 6, 8, we did 1, 3, 5, 7 (Stone)

Magnets in real life!!! Mrs. Seymour had the problem of having a hard time collecting the staples that had dropped... magnets to the rescue! This was an opportunity to learn that magnets can be helpful in solving our every day problems. The staples did NOT sweep up as well as the magnets picked them up.


Today we talked about skip counting and explored how to use number lines and hundreds charts to help us count by 2's. Here is a link to a hundreds chart you can use to find your own skip counting patterns:

Splat Squares

A Terrific Tuesday!

 We have been learning about Magnets in Science and today we watched a video to learn more. Some things it made us think about are:

-      There are some rocks that are magnetic they could even stick to the ceiling (Drayden)

-       There are magnets in some walls (Eric)

-       There are tiny magnets in big things and if you turn them they can pull together or push away from each other(Bennett)

-       Some Whistles are magnetic (Sofia)

-       Small magnets can hold up pretty big things (Sawyer)

-       I didn’t know that magnets can hold people (Laith)

-       Magnets can be found everywhere and in lots of things(Aaron)

Other highlights from today:

-       We did writing about sports and also about how we can turn a problem into an opportunity(Corbin)

-       Mrs. Seymour was away this afternoon and the lovely Mrs. Lewko was here with us!

-       For our Eye Opener today we got started right away on finishing some work from yesterday. (Anna)

-       We talked about how problems can become opportunities and drew pictures (Rana)

-       In PE we played a new game called Nanavaty’s Tower. We worked as teams to build a tower with blocks and do a relay (Sayeh)

-       In Math we traded roles and the other group got to do their survey with the white boards (Jaxon)

Reminders:

- Parent conferences Thursday & Friday, please book!

- Early dismissal on Thursday. No school Friday.

- Library books should be returned weekly