March 24th

 

Today we caught up on finishing all of our work before the break! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Spring Break. Over the break keep reading, writing and practicing adding and subtracting two digit numbers within 100.

See everyone on April 3rd!

March 2

Today was Imagination Day! It is great practice to use our imaginations.  

We read the book "If Kids Ruled the World." There were so many interesting ideas in the book about what the world would be like if kids ruled the world. We then brainstormed ideas about what it would look like if we ruled the world. First we drew our ideas in pictures and then we wrote about our ideas!

"Beautiful Oops" is a book all about making something beautiful from a mistake. Each of us got a paper that had a mistake. It could be a coffee stain, paint mark, rip, line or spilled ink. Then we had to use our imaginations to make it something creative.  Can you make a mistake beautiful at home?

Reminders:

-read 20 mins

-last day before Spring Break tomorrow!

March 22nd

Today we showed off our two digit subtraction skills by answering some story problems. Many of us showed multiple different strategies. Practicing adding and subtracting within 100 is a great way to support your child at home!

We started a Science experiment to see what would open over time to the water in two containers. What is your prediction?

We focused on the vowel teams oa, ow, and oe for long o today. They are found in words like road, slow, and toe. What other words can you think of that have this sound and vowel teams in them?

 

Reminders:

-tomorrow is Imagination Day!

-please return library books to school every two weeks. Our day to return and get out new books change

SEVEN IMAGINATION ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS (FROM ‘I SEE ME’)  On Thursday, March 23, our Spirit Day at Northern Lights School will be Imagination Day! Imagination can also be sparked at home. Imaginative children are generally more creative, better problem-solvers, and more confident than their peers, so child psychologists emphasize the need for imaginative play.  Unfortunately, the modern world’s fixation on television, video games, and highly structured activities tends to stifle, rather than encourage, imagination.  We’d like to suggest seven imagination activities for kids to help them grow and develop their creativity: Dress Up: Dress-up and play "let’s pretend" games have fostered imagination activities for kids for centuries. Encourage them to create their own imaginary worlds with a trunk of dress-up clothing. Old Halloween costumes, interesting clothing from thrift stores, and a selection of hats and accessories can keep kids occupied for hours.  Reading: Reading encourages children to actively use their imagination in ways movies and television simply cannot. Reading introduces children to a near infinity of worlds and characters to include in their imaginative play, while encouraging them to visualize the book’s story. A television story doesn’t require any mental effort from a child, but books ask them to imagine locations, acts, voices, and feelings. Books can build empathy and kindness in children, teaching them that even small acts can make a larger impact. Combine favorite books with props and toys stimulates pretend play. For instance, if your child loves pirate books, offer toy ships, bandanas, and a plastic sword and you have all the ingredients needed for swashbuckling adventures on the high seas and a fairy wand to transform your child into a fairy prince or princess performing magical deeds.  Boxes: Few toys hold the imaginative possibilities of a large cardboard box. To a child, a large box is a fort, a rocket ship, a palace, or a secret headquarters. Boxes just seem to generate imagination activities for kids. If you don’t have a large box, ask your local furniture or appliance store if they have any boxes you can take. children can decorate the box with crayons and markers, and you can help cut out needed windows, doors, or portholes.  Cloud and Star-Gazing: People have created shapes in the stars and clouds for millennia. Grab a couple of blankets, lie on your back with the kids, and ask them what they see. Have contests to see who can come up with the silliest shapes for new star constellations or try to guess what each person sees in a cloud.  Arts and Crafts: Provide children with paint, pencils, or clay and letting them create their own masterpieces. Sure, the resulting art may not be as nice or well-formed as more complicated, adult-led crafts, but that’s not the point. You’re allowing your child to explore creativity on her own terms, which helps build a healthy imagination.  Spend Time Outdoors: Nature has inspired the imagination of some of humanity’s most brilliant artists, so why not your child? Ever-changing, the great outdoors offers all manner of opportunities to explore and play, as well as an ongoing source of all-natural leaves, twigs, and flowers for art projects.  Let Them Get Bored: As parents, we’re expected to provide scheduled activities for children on a near continuous basis, as if boredom is the greatest disaster we could afflict on a child. It isn’t. In fact, allowing children to get bored can stimulate their imagination. Cries of “I’m bored” can be met with a challenge to use their resourcefulness and creativity to entertain themselves. If you’ve already primed them to use their imagination, children will think of something to do (or something they aren’t supposed to do—it pays to keep an eye on things, just in case).

March 16th

 My blogger is having difficulty once again uploading pictures. So sorry! Today we did procedural writing about building our leprechaun traps. Ask me what transition words I used. Our traps are set and ready for tomorrow. 

In math we practiced all of our subtraction strategies by playing Subtraction Junk Its. Ask me to show you how to play!

Reminders:

-read 20 mins

-wear green on Friday if you want to!

March 15th

Today we put our plans into action! There was a lot of creative ideas on how to catch our leprechaun friends. Tomorrow we will write about the building process. Take a look at our traps below. 

Reminders:

-read 20 mins

-wear green on Friday if you want to!

 

March 14th

Over the last few days we have been practicing adding and subtracting using a number line. Ask me to show you how!

In Maker Space we used the different materials to create leprechaun traps. We are looking forward to building our traps tomorrow. Don't forget your supplies from home!

 

 Reminders:

-read 20 mins

-bring in items for leprechaun trap by Wednesday! 

March 13th

Today we explored the question Do oil and water mix?

We found out that they don't mix because water is more dense than oil. But if you add soap the soap will stick the molecules in oil and water together. 

We started planning what our leprechaun traps might look like. We focusing our learning the week on building, designing and writing about our traps. 

 Reminders:

-read 20 mins

-bring in items for leprechaun trap by Wednesday! 

March 9th

 Today we had a busy day finishing up different learning tasks from the week. Next week we will be building leprechaun traps. Please collect items that you ALREADY have at home. The recycling is a great place to start. Some ideas that we think might be useful are: boxes (cereal, shoe etc.), clean yogurt containers, egg cartons, popsicle sticks, toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, pipe cleaners, pom poms, string and lots more! I was going to upload some examples, but the blog is acting funny. If you need ideas for materials if you Google leprechaun traps you can see lots of different pictures. 

 Reminders:

-sign up for Teacher/Parent/Student Conferences that will be on March 9th and 10th (thank you to those already signed up)

-please bring your Grade 2 with you to conferences

-read 20 mins

-no school on Friday for students

March 8th

Today we did another visualization with the book "In the Tall, Tall Grass." We focused on adding picture words or words that helped us visualize to our sketches.

In Science we had a liquid flow race. Ask me which liquid was the quickest and which one was the slowest!

 Reminders:

-sign up for Teacher/Parent/Student Conferences that will be on March 9th and 10th (thank you to those already signed up)

-please bring your Grade 2 with you to conferences

-read 20 mins

-no school on Friday for students