December 10th, 2014 week with Ms. Selimos

Greetings Parents and Students,

We are wrapping up our Grade 2 Math Unit; facts to 18.  Please practice +/- facts to 18 over the holidays with your child.  Many of the photos are of math strategies we have been working on over the past week or so.  Have your child explain the DOUBLES STRATEGY, NEAR DOUBLES STRATEGY, MAGIC 9 STRATEGY and TENS STRATEGY (photos 1 to 3).  Use the photos to help your child explain.  You can easily make ten frames at home using paper/pencil or an egg carton with 2 parts of the egg carton cut off.  

 The children used TEN FRAMES as a visual to SEE ten in numbers.  
EXAMPLE:  7+6 = (7 + 3) + 3 = 13 EXAMPLE:  5 + 9 = 4 + (1 +9) = 14

Photos 22 to 26 are based on a math lesson reinforcing minus 1 and minus 2 math facts (NEAR DOUBLES).  Try some of these questions at home with your child.  

The Grade 2s had a lot of fun working on their Diwali dija candles and coasters last Friday afternoon, while the Grade 3s made their sugar cube houses.  Kichu and Sonakshi were able to share about their own personal Diwali celebrations.   Following this, we painted the dijas on Monday and hopefully they were able to transport them home in one piece. Be sure to watch the following Diwali sites with your child:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp59n0So-XE  cartoon
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrrW3rO51ak  non-fiction
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK4ztMNKcjI bilingual song and history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTkUj6H0G3A song

The children learned about Hanukkah over the past few school days.  New vocabulary included:  menorah (8 oil lit candles), latkes (potato pancakes), dreidel (top).  We read:  My Two Holidays; A Hanukkah and Christmas Story by Danielle Novack.  We watched  some short videos from Hanukkah websites (one was from Sesame Street).  We sang the Dreidel song.  We created a web of words on the whiteboard.  Our culminating activity on Tuesday was to make our OWN dreidels and to play the dreidel (top) game.  Here are the Hanukkah sites for you as follows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VfChLAADS8  Sesame Street 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G40SlkmZkqU  Dreidel cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tws_uMAEOs  Story of Hanukkah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKreDYVWark Awesome dreidel song

Our French focus (photos 27 to 29) this week continued with Christmas vocabulary through LOTO/ BINGO, French story about a lonely Christmas tree and the song:  Notre Arbre de Noel; www.youtube.com/watch?v=h81AK0-s7xM 

Our adorable STAR OF THE WEEK was Ramiha, who was born in Toronto.  Ramiha has a younger brother and a pet fish.  She enjoys spending time with her mom, dad, and baby brother and knows how to speak Bangla.  She enjoys bike riding in the summer and playing in the snow in the winter.  Her favourite food is pasta and her favourite colour is pink. 

On Wednesday morning we read and sang the story, A Wart Snake in a Fig Tree.  We had a lot of fun presenting the story/song to Mrs. Evan’s Grade 1 class, as part of our Reader’s Theatre. In the afternoon, we had 2 guest speakers from the Board of Education, Doug and Wayne, who shared their knowledge of Bears of the World.   

REMINDERS:  

1.      Please send your child’s GINGERBREAD HOUSE MATERIAL to school on Thursday or Friday.  Next Tuesday will be the class MULTICULTURAL BREAKFAST in the morning and the afternoon/evening concert (dress your child in red & green) later that day.  

2.       I will be collecting READING LOGS on Thursday, December 18th.  We will be going bowling that morning. 

3.       Friday is the last day of school before the break with a 2:30 dismissal.  Classes resume on January 5, 2015th. 

The boys and girls have been enjoying the wonderful weather this week!  They are enjoying the snow, the sunshine and playing together on the playground.

Ms. Selimos                        

December 1st week with Ms. Selimos

Dear Parents and Students,

We have a lot of fun activities occurring over the month of December!

1.  The Grade 2/3 MULTICULTURAL BREAKFAST will be on TUES.DEC. 16^TH with ALL Gr. 2 & 3 classes at 9 a.m.        Please send your child to school with a food sample of a dish (small portion), if possible, from your cultural background.  No nuts please. EXAMPLES:  6 to 12 portions of something:  6 yogurt cups, 6 cheese strings, 6 spring rolls, 6 samosas, 6 tiropites (Greek cheese pies), small bag of crackers or tortilla chips.  Each child will be asked to bring something and to present their items.

2.   On Tuesday, December 16^th your child is participating in the Grant Road concert held at Campbell.  The afternoon performance is at Campbell Collegiate High School at 1:15 p.m.  The evening performance is at Campbell Collegiate High School (102 Massey Road) at 6:30 p.m.  Please have your child at Campbell by 6 to 6:10 p.m. You are responsible for transporting your child to and from this venue. The Gr. 2 classes costuming is simple… They are elves, so we ask that your child be dressed in RED & GREEN CLOTHES if possible.

3.  You may send GINGERBREAD HOUSE MATERIALS to school NEXT Wed. 10^th or Thurs. 11^th.

4.  RAMIHA is our STAR OF THE WEEK on MON. DEC. 8^TH.

It was wonderful to meet with you last Thursday evening and Friday at the 3 Way Conferences to celebrate your child’s academic successes and achievements!  This week’s photos feature some our final copies of our farm animal research.  They are all on display in the hallway.

Photos 5 and 6 are samples of math problems using the following vocabulary:  difference, subtract, how many more.  Addition and subtraction of 1 and 2 was another target area.  The children played the ONE LESS, TWO LESS GAME (photos 27 to 29).

Best wishes to Miss Kezama and Miss Lechler, our 2 University of Regina student teachers, who completed their semester with us on Tuesday.  Good luck with finals girls!  Please come back and visit us in the New Year!  Thank you for the cookies!

Thank you George Bothwell Librarian, Marilyn, for your visit on Monday afternoon.  We always enjoy your reading sessions!

We began our new Core French unit; Christmas vocabulary, this week. One of the videos we enjoyed was:  Quand le Père Noël.wmv - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynt7aO8CuGw

Through Santa puppetry and song, the children learned their prepositions in French:  sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière, à côté de.  See photos 30 to 33.

Merci beaucoup, Imogen, for bringing the book, Counting to Christmas.  We have been counting down the days using a red piece of yarn and making knots. 

Hunter and Corbin are featured in their winter gear!  PLEASE make sure you LABEL your child’s ski pants, boots and other winter attire.  We have many similar boots and ski pants this year.

Photos 17 to 24 are from a story the children read in pairs.  They read I Can See Christmas by David Booth in pairs. The activity involved reading comprehension (cloze procedure, questioning at different levels), which is one of our reading goals, as discussed at the interviews.  The children did a comparison/contrast page of climates; winter/Christmas in Canada vs Hawaii/Mexico/Philippines.

 Lukas did a fabulous job as Star of the Week!  Lukas is a middle child, with an older and younger sister.   He loves spending family time with his mom, dad and his sisters.  He enjoys baseball, water polo, water sliding and hockey. He exercises in the summer on his trampoline. He has visited Lego land.  

Earlier in the week, the children learned about Kwanzaa.  We made Kwanzaa place mats with kinaras on them, which we will use during our Multicultural breakfast on the 16^th.  We discussed the 7 principles of Kwanzaa (see photo 16).  Ask your child to tell you about some of the principles and the significance of the colours of the candles on the kinara. We also made paper dolls and coloured them. 

Check out the following Kwanzaa videos:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kV-6qVp98Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_frs4KQ_aE

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/kwanzaa-history/videos/history-of-kwanzaa

The last few photos “show of”’ some of our PRINTING BOOK samples. We wrote a poem about Peppermint Candy and today’s printing was a joke. 

This afternoon we will begin to learn about Diwali.  On Friday afternoon, the Grade 2s will be making clay dijas, which they will paint later on next week and place on a decorative coaster they will design.  While Gr. 2s are making dijas, the Grade 3s will be making their sugar cube houses with the other Gr. 3 classes.

Tumblebooks website has CHANGED!   

THE OLD LINK NO LONGER WORKS.  

To access Tumble books NOW go to the RPL website;       http://www.reginalibrary.ca/databases/db_ebooks.html

From here, scroll down and choose Tumblebooks.

Have a great rest of the week one and all!  Stay warm!

Ms Selimos

November 26th, 2014 Agribition and Canine Presentation

Greetings Parents and Students,

We ended last Friday with Readers’ Theatre presentations, where the boys and girls performed their stories to various classrooms from Kindergarten to Grade 4.  They enjoyed practicing their stories and working on reading fluently and expressively.  See photos 1 to 15 (email). 

We completed our farm animal research study on Friday and this week, following Agribition, our two writing projects entail Agribition brochures (will be shared later this week at interviews and by email) and farm animal paragraph writing. See photo 8 for initial lesson on “Strong paragraph starter”.

Thank you, Create Artist, Mrs. Beckel, for our 3 Visual Arts sessions with you.  The final project entailed creating maps of the school and using water colour pencil crayons and brushes to paint with.  Feel free to have your child show you his/her “masterpiece” at the interview. 

Photos 27 onward are of Agribition highlights and special moments. Thank you VERY much to the 7 parents who were able to join us for the day.  We could not have done the trip without you!  Your children were in excellent hands, in small groups of 3 and the day was educational, relaxing and a lot of fun for everyone.  There was so much to do and to see in the barns, at the rodeo, at the Family Pavilion, the Farm Machinery Mall and more.   Have your child explain the photos TO YOU.  One of my personal highlights was the Hoop Dance, as the performer, Terrence Littletent, was one of my students, 24 years ago, at Thomson School.  He invited Roan and myself, to perform with him. 

  Feel free to email me additional photos if you have any on your cell phones, parents who volunteered.

This afternoon, Constable Jess, Constable Neil and canine, Eko, joined us in the classroom for a canine presentation/demonstration.  After discussing and reviewing DOG SAFETY and the role of the police dog Constable Jess works with, we were invited outside to the playground to see the three police members IN ACTION!  Thank you to Gr. 3 student Anika and her mom, Constable Jennifer, who were  able to arrange this visit for our classroom.  It was Constable Jess’s VERY FIRST classroom presentation ever!

Finally, we welcome another Grade 2 student to the classroom, from the Philippines, tomorrow morning.  His name is Brylle. 

See you later this week for INTERVIEWS students and parents.  Remember to send your bowling permission forms and method of payment to school this week.

Cheers,

Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Students,

Brrrrrrr!  It’s getting cold out there!  Please make sure that your child comes to school with ski pants and warm winter clothing.  With the wind chill today earlier this week, we began with an indoor recess.

On Monday we welcomed new student, Sauravi, to our Grade 3 class and today, Zaid (photo 41), to our Grade 2 class.  We now have 24 students in the class.

We continue to work on NUMBER FAMILIES in math.  We have done many Number Family activities this week using ten frames, dice, 2 sided counters and dice. Our math focus this week was about MISSING addends. New math vocabulary included:  equal and unequal. We did some MATH DRAMA, where I was trying to reinforce the “missing number” within an equation. For example:  8 + ___ = 14.  We continue to explore +/- and the missing elements:  __ + 5 = 13 or 2+__ = 11 or __-6=5.  The children used a math number line and a hundred chart as a tool.  This afternoon’s math lesson and next week’s focus is using a NUMBER LINE. 

Our Star of the Week was Sonakshi.  Sonakshi enjoys ballet.  She has traveled to  Banff and the Rocky Mountains.  She is an only child, who was born in Kolkata, India. She enjoys swimming and dressing up.  Her favourite food is pasta.

On Tuesday, our 2 awesome University of Regina students, Miss Lechler and Miss Kezama, taught the children a little bit about beekeeping.  They showed a short Magic School House bee video, followed by a discussion about bee keeping.  Miss Lechler modeled a beekeeper uniform and the children even sampled some delicious honey from Miss Lechler’s farm. 

Our science focus this week has been to explore and to create jot notes, working in small groups about the students’ specific farm animals of study.  This afternoon’s lesson will be about organization of jot notes (photos 38 to 40) and order.  Friday and next week for science, each child will create a paragraph(s).

For health on Wednesday, Mrs. Beckel showed the video www.poison.org/prevent/Elementary.asp  The video dealt with poisonous substances in the home.  It is well worth viewing again and discussing with your child.

We received some wonderful mail this week from the Humane Society with a Certificate of Appreciation for the cat toys we made and donated using the socks you sent to school.  Thank you once again for your support!

We engaged in 2 PWIM (Picture Word Inductive Model) lessons this week.  The new poster features the fall and pumpkin patches.  One of the PWIM lessons focused on sorting the words based on suffixes. Another lesson focused on alphabetization (photo 1).  When reading WITH your child at home, ask him/her to point out words with suffixes (ed, s, es, ing) words.  Take 3 or 4 of your child’s spelling words and see if your child is able to put them in alphabetical order.  Our Writing Traits lesson this morning focused on organization and putting things in the right order.

Report cards go out for all Grant Road students on Friday, 21^st.  All report card envelope papers are YOURS TO KEEP.  I look forward to meeting with each of you and your children next Thursday after school or Friday morning, at your designated time for the 3 – Way Conference.

On Tuesday, our guest speaker, Louise, from the Board of Education, presented a very interesting Arctic Animals lesson to Grade 2 classrooms. We learned about polar bears, seals, musk ox, caribou, tundra wolf and more. The children will share their journal paragraphs with you at the interviews.  See photos 14 to 23, 29 to 34.

During French, he boys and girls are having a lot of fun learning the farm animal vocabulary and the sounds the animals make.  We have read “Old Macdonald” in French this week, also “Petit Poussin, Que-Dis Tu?” and have listened to the farm song www.youtube.com/watch?v=oczhw6ikmSE   We also created favourite farm animal drawings in individual barns and on Wednesday, we wrote Garfield cartoons.  See photos 24 to 28, 35 to 37.  They LOVE French class and all the interactive activities and games. 

The countdown to Agribition has been ongoing this week! We have been learning barnyard dances such as:  The Alley Cat www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fFf0ClVLao, The Bunny Hop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajWqQaq5dE.  We did a circle/partner dance to the song B-I-N-G-O, as well.  Watch the videos and have your child show you the moves. 

 Please send a healthy lunch for your child with a bottle of water for the Monday Agribition trip. Please make sure your child is wearing BOOTS, as we will be in the barns. Dress in layers.  No ski pants, as we will be doing a lot of walking and will get warm.  Do NOT send the AGENDAS to school in the backpacks.

 THANK YOU IN ADVANCE TO THE PARENTS JOINING US.  PARENT VOLUNTEERS: It is important to attend the ON SITE workshop on SUNDAY, November 23rd at 10:30 a.m. The purpose of the workshop is to familiarize you with an appropriate, safe route to take on that day.  Please meet at the Co-operators Centre Foyer at 10:30 a.m. at EVRAZ PLACE.  The workshop will last approximately one and a half hours and is well worth attending.  The Showcase exhibitors will also be on hand to explain their displays and answer any questions.  Remember to dress for barn conditions and to bring a pen/pencil.  Maps will be made available.

We will be leaving at 9 a.m. sharp, after attendance is taken.  

REMINDERS:  1. Reading logs with NOVEMBER minutes due next Thurs. 27^th.

  2. Return TERM I STUDENT WORK SAMPLES IN BLUE FILE FOLDER if you have not already done so.

3.  Grant Road book fair is on Thursday.  BOOK FAIR preview time for Gr. 2/3 is from 10 to 10:30 a.m. in the library.  If you would like your child to purchase a book, please send the money in a labeled zip lock bag and I will place change in bag from your child’s purchase.

4.  Lukas is * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of Dec. 1^st.      

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone!

Ms. Selimos  

November 12, 2014 week with Ms. Selimos

          Hello Parents and Students,

It has been a short week, but a busy one.  Thank you to birthday boy, Brodie, for the delicious chocolate chip birthday cookies last week.  We really enjoyed them.  

We read many Remembrance Day books last week, including “Who’s That Man?” by Marny Duncan Cary, one of my favourites.  We joined our Grade 4 Learning Buddies on Friday, 7th at 11 a.m. for a beautiful Remembrance Day assembly.  The slide show was very effective and the Gr. 2/3 proudly and peacefully shared their “Peace” paragraphs.  At the Term I interviews, your child will share his/her “masterpiece” with you.  The children wrote a poem in their printing booklets about poppies, as well.  They are encouraged to use an erasable pen when writing in their printing booklets.  See photo 17 from email.

Artist, Mrs. Belcher, joined us last Friday afternoon for a Visual Arts lesson, exploring mapping skills with us. We discussed imagery. The children practiced sketching our classroom with a literacy/numeracy focus on spatial and 2-dimensional representation.   We made "shorts" books.  Ask your child to explain this book making process and the "bone" tool we used to help us to crease the paper.  See email photos 3 to 9.

Please reinforce +/- to 18 at home using flashcards, math sheets and on line games from my website.  One goal is to learn facts using automatic response.  Begin with adding one or two more (ex:  5+1, 8+2).  Next reinforce doubles (5+5, 8+8).  We can discuss more strategies and tips at the 3 way conference.  Number families continue to be reinforced.  In and Out of the Toy Box was a math book which I used this week to reinforce +/- strategies.  

The Sub Lunch last Friday was a huge success.  Thank you to the parents who helped in the classroom.  All went smoothly.

Our science focus this week has been to explore and to create jot notes, working in small groups about their specific farm animals of study.  Next week each child will create a paragraph. 

Our phonics letter of the week was Ff.

SONAKSHI  is  * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of Nov. 17th.

Report cards go out for all Grant Road students on Friday, Nov. 21st.  On MONDAY the 17th, I will be sending a FILE FOLDER for you to sign of your child’s Term I work samples. Please look at the work WITH your child and discuss. 

Stay warm this weekend and GO RIDERS!

Nov 3 2014 with Selimos PEACE

Hello Parents and Students,

I hope everyone is keeping dry with the rain… No snow, yet! 

  The first photo is of Mr. Chernoff, our Vice Principal and Phys. Ed. teacher. Thank you to last week’s, Star of the Week, Hunter, for the birthday cupcakes on Thursday. Yummy!  On Halloween Friday, we enjoyed dressing in orange and black and were excited to have Veterinarian, Dr. Sally, join us after lunch to teach us about Dog Bite Prevention Safety.  The children practiced “STANDING LIKE A TREE” if a dog approaches them.  They practiced “TUCKING IN” like a rock, if they are already on the ground. Have your child share the ABCs of petting a dog:  A = ask owner permission, B= be sniffed and C= cootchie coo.  Check out some of the journal writing samples from the children. Also, be sure to view websites:  www.doggonesafe.com and www.be-a-tree.com

Our Vertebrate party on Friday afternoon was a big success.  Thank you for sending nutritious items with your child.  We enjoyed healthy snacks, watched a video and danced to:  Monster Shuffle song:    www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFxo-IkCNQ Have your child show you the dance (photos 21 to 27) at home and try it with him/her.

Reinforced Gr. 2 math vocabulary this week:  greatest, least and ordering numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least.  The children played a GREATER THAN game (thousands, hundreds, tens and ones) in pairs.  Each needs a set of 0 to 9 cards.  Write the words:  Hundreds, Tens, Ones on a piece of paper.  Each player draws a card and strategically placing it under Th, H, T or O.  The person with the highest number wins.   You can also play this game trying to create the LOWEST NUMBER. It is an easy game for you to create and to try at home with your child. It is an excellent game for reinforcing place value. See photos 2 to 7. 

Grade 2 Math Binders (Unit 2) went home on Monday. Please sign UNIT 2 and return the binder with the first 2 units to school.  Our NEW UNIT 3 for Grade 2 math is:  +/- to 18.  I hinted to the children to ask for flashcards for Christmas or for a birthday, as it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for them to know their facts to 18 automatically by the end of the year, in preparation for Grade 3.

On Monday afternoon, University of Regina SUNTEP student, Mr. Austin McCabe, joined us for the afternoon.  He shadowed me in the classroom and enjoyed helping me to teach a Core French lesson introducing “Le Jour de Souvenir” vocabulary; Remembrance Day (see photo 34), a vertebrate lesson and a health lesson at the end of the day with Mrs. Beckel.  We completed our Vertebrate study, after researching amphibians last week and wrote a “pop quiz”.

We began a new PWIM poster (Picture Word Inductive Model) on Monday.  Review the words on the poster with your child.  Clap out syllables.  Choose 5 words and do a mini lesson on alphabetical order.  Can your child make some sentences for you using a few of the words?  Can he/she write a sentence using quotation marks in the right spots?

Brodie was our fabulous Star of the Week.  He has an older brother in Grade 5.  He enjoys spending time with his mom, dad, brother, grandparents and cat named, Willy.  He has been to Douglas Provincial Park for camping, fishing and tubing.  He had his picture taken with a real monkey in Mexico!  He LOVES football and cheers the Riders on.  He plays hockey for the Colts and his favourite NHL team is the Oilers.  He LOVES to read and his favourite subject is math. 

On Tuesday, we had the pleasure of having Professor Mark Brigham, from the U of R Biology Department, join us in the morning.  His slide show presentation was EXCELLENT!  We discussed bats of Canada and bats of the world.  Some cool facts:  The bumblebee bat is the smallest bat of the world.  We discussed bat anatomy and roosting.  Canadian bats are insectivores.  Saskatchewan bats DO NOT live in caves, but can be found in hollow trees, buildings, attics.  One of the highlights was the LIVE bat he brought to share with us. See photos 71 to 74 of bat journal writing. I hope the visual arts clay bats and writing pieces made it home to you on Tuesday, after school.

This week, we studied some books about peace and war in Canada, as part of our Remembrance Day study.  A Bear in War by Innes and Endrulat brought tears to a few eyes, including mine.  The children and I brainstormed about peace at home, in the classroom and on the playground.  They will be creating paragraphs about PEACE,  which will be featured on the bulletin board outside our classroom for you to read in a few weeks when you are here for the 3 Way Conference.

Please return the 3 Way Conference note sent home today in your child’s agenda.  I will be running interviews AFTER SCHOOL on Thursday, November 27^th (3:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. or so) and on MONDAY, November 28^th in the morning. Please select your preference and I will try my best to accommodate your requested time.

Agribition is a few weeks away.  Thank you for sending the $1.50 bus fee and for signing the permission/helper note.  I still need a few more to come in. 

Here is a cool bat video for you to enjoy with your child.  Please take the time.  It is only a few minutes long: http://www.motivious.com/orphaned-bat/

Next week is a short week.  No school on Monday and Tuesday.

  Enjoy the long weekend with your families.

Happy Wednesday and peace to one and all!

Ms. Selimos

October 27, 2014 SPOOK-TACULAR WEEK

Greetings on this “Spook-tacular” Day, Parents and Students,

I cannot BELIEVE it is the END of October!  Time flies when we are having fun in Grade 2/3!  We worked on a visual arts/writing project this past week.  We molded our clay bats last Friday and painted our bat creations on Monday.  Each child created a paragraph about his/her Canadian bat (hoary bat, silver haired bat, little brown bat, big brown bat, silver haired bat, eastern long eared bat, eastern red bat, etc.).   They will be taking them home NEXT week, after University of Regina Biology Professor, Dr. Mark Brigham views them. 

Hunter was our incredible Star of the Week and did a fabulous job presenting.  He enjoys his trampoline and downhill skiing.  He has traveled to the ocean, The Grand Canyon, Montana and Lake Diefenbaker.  His family owned Bonburger.  He enjoys spending time with his older sister, parents and cat, Molly.

This week the kids explored reptiles and amphibians.  The word reptile is a Greek word which means “to creep”.   We created jot notes and supported our notes with illustrations.  A few new videos/songs  we enjoyed this week include: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkqKSSea9As  and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMHUq9djPA4.

Miss Kezama and Miss Lechler helped us with COMPUTER STATIONS on Tuesday morning.  The focus was raz_kids and abcya.com money bingo.

French fun this week entailed creating Halloween puppets and performing short dialogues in French in pairs using the puppet theatre.  The children LOVED this activity.  They were very motivated and excellent participants, having fun and encouraging each other.  See photos 51 to 61.

Mr. Cross and Miss Saunders, ECS 100 students from Mrs. Pankewich’s Grade 2 class, assisted us on Tuesday afternoon, helping us to create over 200 catnip toys out of recycled socks for the Humane Society!  On Wednesday afternoon, Kristin Folk joined us from the Humane Society, entertaining us with a story (A Friend in Need) about a puppy, needing a home.  Then the children participated in her “Pet suitcase” activity, where they discussed items such as leashes, collars, dishes, pet toothbrushes, nail clippers and more.  Kristin even brought an adorable kitten for us to enjoy and to love.  This was a big hit!  Parents, thank you again for your catnip contributions and socks! 

Photos 72 to 77 include money games we played on Wednesday after our lesson on new vocabulary:  least to greatest and greatest to least. 

We read a silly, spooky story called The Ghost of the One Black Eye to support our reading and writing.  After reading this story, we acted out parts of it, using some of our class finger puppets.  The focus with the puppets was to introduce DIALOGUE and QUOTATION MARKS.  I refer to the quotation marks as “sixes and nines”.  Have your child show you what this means at home.  Write some fun sentences with your child using dialogue and see if he/she can place the quotation marks in the right spots.  When you are reading with your child, look for dialogue in the stories and discuss. 

The boys and girls briefly met my mom at lunch time today.  She made some yummy Greek orange cookies for them to try.  What a wonderful surprise for the kids.  Thanks mama! J

Parents, please send your child to school tomorrow with his/her READING LOG and MINUTES TOTALED for OCTOBER.

HERE IS A BIT OF PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK: 

  BRODIE is * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of Nov. 3^rd.

                    

MON., NOV. 3^rd (Day 3)         Austin McCabe, student from Faculty of Education, Gabriel Dumont Institute - SUNTEP Faculty, will be “Job Shadowing” Ms. Selimos in the afternoon.

Tues. 4^th (Day 4)         University of Regina ECS 100 students, Miss Kezama and Miss Lechler will be working with us in our Grade 2/3 classroom, every Tuesday morning until December! J

LIBRARY EXCHANGE

Professor Mark Brigham visits in the a.m.   TOPIC:  BATS J

Wed. 5^th (Day 5)   Welcome: CREATE artist, Joyce Belcher for Visual Arts Session #1 of 3 in p.m.

Spelling Test # 8         Parents sign test page 

         

Thurs. 6^th (Day 1)       See NEW SPELLING LIST in your child’s agenda. 

                                    George Bothwell,  Librarian Marilyn visits in p.m.

Fri. 7^th (Day 2)           Remembrance Day Ceremony in individual classrooms at 10:50 a.m. Parents welcome to join us.

                             SPECIAL SUB LUNCH for those who ordered, today.

SONAKSHI is * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of Nov. 17^th

On Monday, November 24^th, the Grade 2/3 class will be attending the Western Canadian Agribition.  In preparation for the Agribition, we will be learning about agriculture and farm life through Science, Language Arts, French, Visual Arts and Dance.  We will be leaving the school at approximately 9 a.m. and will return in time for the 3:37 p.m. dismissal.

I will require 5 parent volunteers, so that our students are well supervised. This involves a commitment to supervise 3 to 4 students on the field trip (Pre-schoolers are NOT able to attend). It is important to attend the ON SITE workshop on SUNDAY, November 23rd at 10:30 a.m. The purpose of the workshop is to familiarize you with an appropriate, safe route to take on that day.  Please meet at the Co-operators Centre Foyer at 10:30 a.m. at EVRAZ PLACE.  The workshop will last approximately one and a half hours and is well worth attending.  The Showcase exhibitors will also be on hand to explain their displays and answer any questions.  Remember to dress for barn conditions and to bring a pen/pencil.  Maps will be made available.

____ I am sending $1.50 cash for bus cost.

______ I am paying $1.50 bus cost on PARENT PORTAL. 

______ NO, unfortunately I am UNABLE to assist with this class trip.

October 24, 2014 week

Hello Parents and Students,

We have had another FABULOUS FALL WEEK in the classroom!  On Monday we continued our vertebrate study about FISH and then mid-week, discussed reptiles. Google NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FOR KIDS, then reptiles and check out some of the reptile videos.  The children really enjoyed the lizards, snakes and turtles videos.  Check out the crocodiles and alligators, as we ran out of time.

Mathematically, this week rods, units and coins were reinforced. The new math vocabulary term was:  unequal or “not the same as”. See photos 19 and 20.  There is an EXCELLENT site your children LOVE, for reinforcing counting of MONEY with coins!  Check out: www.abcya.com/money_bingo.htm

On Tuesday, the Guest Teacher read the book:  CinderHazel to the children.  University of Regina students, Miss Kezama and Miss Lechler, ran a math graphing station and Bingo vocabulary activity based on CinderHazel.

The afternoon trip on Tuesday (Voices of Nature) went smoothly.  The children participated by singing, dancing and watching musicians on stage. The reinforced themes were: recycling, being environmentally friendly, recycling technology and climate change.

On Wednesday, the boys and girls created their own BAT SONGS to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  They presented to their peers and we sang along.

Does your child know his/her phone number?  Does your child know his/her address orally and in writing?  Please practice this at home.  I will retest them in a few months.  Many children were unsure of their addresses.

We began a printing/cursive writing book this week, as well.  The printing samples (photo 17) you will see will be based on poetry, songs, rhyme.  The children were excited and engaged in this lesson.  

For French, we wrote our CLASSROOM OBJECTS QUIZZES which have been added to Power School.  Our focus this week and next week is Halloween vocabulary.  Visit the site: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYfmQ5eAQlg  and listen to  C’est l”Halloween.  We have played French Halloween 7-up using my props (photos 21 to 25).  We read a few chants/rhymes, sang songs and began making haunted houses (les maisons hantées) on Friday.

On Thursday we welcomed, Occupational Therapist, Arlene Jachak, who reviewed Self Regulation zones with us and provided us with some Sensory Tools (photos 27 to 29)  for our own toolboxes. 

Our phonics letter of the week is Dd.  We will be doing this lesson after lunch.

It was wonderful to have such a GREAT turnout of families this morning for “Breakfast with Books” for Education Week.  The kids are counting down to this afternoon’s bat clay project activity.  Photos to follow…

REMINDERS:

TUESDAY:  PHOTO RETAKES

 Making Happy Socks for Humane Society cats (p.m.)

Return SPECIAL LUNCH forms (Subway).

WEDNESDAY:      Kristin Folk from the HUMANE SOCIETY visits in p.m.; “Friends for Life” presentation

         

THURSDAY:           HAND IN READING LOGS FOR OCTOBER! 

Grant Road Halloween Family Dance is tonight!

FRIDAY:               DOG BITE PREVENTION PROGRAM with DR. SALLY (vet) in p.m.

Spirit Day:  Wear orange and black

We are nearing the end of our VERTEBRATE study and would like to celebrate on Friday, Oct. 31^st with your child.  Please send your child to school with 6 servings of a food for sharing, which is healthy (no Halloween candy) for his/her vertebrate (bones, skeleton).  We have discussed calcium for bones and teeth, so many of the children are asking if they can bring foods from the dairy group.  Other foods with good sources of calcium include:  broccoli, spinach, kale, turnips and tofu.  We will share our healthy food items and play a few games/watch a video the last hour of school.

Have a great weekend everyone!  GO RIDERS!

Ms. Selimos

Oct. 14 2014 week and EDUCATION WEEK NEWS

HELLO PARENTS AND STUDENTS,

I hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving long weekend!  I heard the paper mache turkeys were a huge hit! 

We began Oct. 14^th week with Kichu’s “Star of the Week” presentation.  Kichu is an only child who lived in Waterloo, Ontario, before joining us in the 2/3 class in Regina.  He can speak 4 languages and has traveled to Singapore and Ottawa.  He enjoys water sliding, bowling and spending time with his mom, dad and grandparents.  He enjoyed strawberry picking and sampling berries in Ontario with his dad.  His mom is a math professor at University of Regina. 

We welcomed U of R ECS 100 students, Miss Kezama and Miss Lechler to our classroom on Tuesday morning.  We are excited to have them with us every Tues. p.m. until December!  They enjoyed getting to know my fabulous class and they participated and helped with a PWIM lesson about sorting words.

Happy birthday to Emaan.   We enjoyed the yummy, chocolate cake.

We studied different kinds of bats and predicted their names before researching about them on the internet as a class (photos 29, 30).  We also explored the anatomy of a bat (photo 16).  Check out these GREAT bat videos with your child: 

echolocation song :  www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-Y2Tt8gFE

Bats, bats, bats song:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9y4r-VI_qY

We will be making clay bats on Friday, Oct. 24^th at 2:30 p.m. as part of our science and language arts unit.  Parents, grandparents who have had a recent criminal check are welcome to join us.  Please let me know in your child’s agenda.

For Science this week we studied birds and fish.  We had a blast dancing to the Bird Dance.  We used the following link:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmV5uHWNag

We also broke into small inquiry groups, exploring non-fiction material, becoming “bird” experts in our teams and presenting facts to the class.  Mrs. Pankewich’s U of R students helped with this lesson.

We also read the story:  Miracle for Maggie by Jean Little, as a class and discussed vocabulary, answering comprehension questions orally, making predictions, and more.  We created bird notes as a class, and drew pictures. The story setting of Miracle For Maggie was the Pacific Ocean near Vancouver. Ask your child to tell you about the mallard duck and the oil spill. 

Today, the children will be introduced to “fish” as vertebrate classification.  They will watch the video by artist Charlotte Diamond called “Slippery Fish”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjvjI85xM0Y and Mrs. Pankewich will share some non-fiction books.

Our Writing Traits focus was:  sticking to a specific topic with clear sentences supporting the topic. See photo 15. Have your child write about a topic of his/her interest at home (Remember:  6 sentences for a paragraph in Gr. 2 and 3).  Do they stick to the topic? 

We enjoyed the playground with our Learning Buddies on Wednesday afternoon, playing tag, football, and using the awesome playground equipment (swings, climbing apparatus) on the senior side.

Thank you to Imogen and Corbin for donating cat nip for our upcoming Humane Society project.  If you and your child are interested in donating a bag, please send to school by mid –next week. 

HERE’S A SNAPSHOT OF NEXT WEEK:

Education Week:  THEME:  Supporting & Celebrating Success

Help us celebrate success during Saskatchewan Education Week!  As a school, we will be collecting gently used and washed winter coats, toques, mittens, and scarves to donate to others that are in need within our community.  Please bring your items to school during the week of Oct. 20-24^th.  We will be donating coats that we receive, to Geroy’s Coats 4 KIDS! 

Please take the time to look for any winter coats, toques, headbands, mittens, gloves, or scarves that you can donate to a great cause. Here is the website: www.coats4kids.ca   for a video that you can share with your child.

On Friday October 24^th, 2014 we will be having a school-wide “Breakfast and Books” morning at 8:30.  We invite you to join your child in his or her classroom.  Share a book and a muffin with your child!   

Trip by bus on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for show:  Voices of Nature Day.  Stay for lunch!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS due FRIDAY, 24^TH.  If you would like to surprise your child at any point with the gift of book(s) for an upcoming birthday, Christmas gift, Diwali gift, Hannukah gift, etc., simply write me a note in the book order and I will hold onto the book(s) purchased until you pick them up. 

HUNTER is  * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of OCT. 27^th.