Swimming Pictures

Not the best quality as I only took them with my phone but for those of you who didn't get a chance to come-here's a peek. I don't keep track of who is in the photos. I just take them so if I miss anyone it's not on purpose!

May 27-31-Special Visitors and Spelling

Well hopefully by now you have heard about our "visitors"-butterfly larvae. We put each larvae into it's own little container along with some food. Once there they will grow and form a chrysalis. Once this is formed we will transfer them into a large mesh like container and wait for the butterfly to emerge from the chrysalis. I was very relieved to get to school this morning and see the larvae are all still moving and have grown! Many have almost doubled in size. We are studying animal groups and life cycles in science so this was a great start to get us excited about the unit.

Today we learned about the various jobs that ants do. Ask your child about what they would be doing if they were an ant!

And just to remind me of another animal group, I came across this little guy on my way home from school today. He was just on the hill path in the park across the street from the school. When I came up close to take the picture, he curled up his tail up over his body. Grade Twos-why would the salamander do this?

We are back to having a spelling list this week.
Group 1-able  table  simple  people  grumble  bubble
Group 2-able  table  simple  people  grumble  bubble  single tangle double sample turtle
Group 3- adore/adorable, like/likable, love/lovable, remove/removable, value/valuable,  disable, vegetable,  
               This group will be studying how adding the suffix able can change the meaning of a root word. We
                are also gaining experience in identifying which words have a root word.


Just one note about our year end excursion to Regent Park Pool. If you haven't been there before, it is a safe place to take younger children swimming. The pool starts at paddling depth (8 inches??) and gets progressively deeper. This way children that are not yet comfortable swimming can relax and enjoy the water. Children that want to go down the slide must prove that they can swim the whole width of the pool. The lifeguards are very strict about this.

We've Been Busy!

Yes I know it has been awhile since I've posted but........ kitchen renos are interfering!

Swimming is going very well. The kids are fabulous.  Taking care of eachother by reminding about items left in the change room, walking so nicely to and from the pool, listening to the swimming teachers- I can't say enough about how great it has been.

In Math we have been having fun with data management. We have learned how to ask a question or take a survey to solve a problem. Then we organize the data and present it in a number of different ways. Tuesday I will send home a graph that your child made with some data about the class.

In Social Studies we are just finishing a unit about community leadership. We have identified some problems in our community that we want to bring to the attention of our community leaders. We will be writing some letters to the Mayor, Mrs. Beattie and the Leader Post about three different problems we have noticed in our school and neighbourhood.

Next week we are starting our last Science unit of the year on Animals. This unit looks at different animal groups and the life cycles of the animals. We will be starting this with something very exciting on Wednesday ( if it arrives on time!).  Stay tuned!

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids gathering data for a question they posed.

Have a great long weekend!

Don't Look At This Until Mother's Day!

Okay, I hope it is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms. You all have special, wonderful children and I get to share a little of your joy everyday! Thanks for sharing!  Here are a some  pictures of the children as they worked on your presents.

Healthy Lunch

Well we had a great lunch today. All kinds of fruits, veggies, grain, dairy and meats. We voted after the lunch on our favourite food group and fifteen people voted for fruits. We discussed what that could mean for bringing snacks and treats for the class. I must say that is was difficult to discuss our healthy foods when there was a slushee sale on this afternoon. Many of the kids decided ahead of time that it wouldn't be making healthy, lifestyle choices if they had a slushee this afternoon.  I think we will take this opportunity to write letters to the Grade 8's, suggesting that they could offer something healthy as a fundraiser.

Anyway we did have a great lunch and I hope the kids were able to see that healthy food is tasty.