June 15th, 2015 week with Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Students,

We enjoyed our field trip to the MacKenzie Art Gallery for David Thauberger’s Exhibit, “Road Trips and Other Diversions,” last Thursday.  The boys and girls explored the exhibits with tour guides, created 3-D paper houses in the gallery and colourful prints in the art room.

On Monday, we worked on Father’s Day footprint creations.  The kids LOVED this activity.  There were a few ticklish students as we painted their feet using a brush.  Haha!  Thank you to Imogen’s mom for helping!  Happy Father’s Day to: our dads, uncles, and grandpas.  We know you will enjoy the mini books we made!

Zeeshan was our handsome Star of the Week!  He is from Pakistan and speaks Urdu.  He has an older brother, Fozan, whom Ms. Selimos taught last year.  His favourite colour is red and loves to eat chicken legs!   He enjoys riding his bike and playing soccer.

Thursday morning was SO MUCH FUN at Golden Mile Bowling.  Thank you VERY MUCH to Sonakshi’s and Keithan’s moms, and Lukas’s dad for joining us. The children bowled, danced, drank their juice or pop and enjoyed nibbling on some candy. 

This coming Tuesday, June 23^rd, Sonakshi and her family will be providing the class with PIZZA for lunch!  I will be providing SPRITE and Keithan’s family is providing ICE CREAM. Thank you!  We will make FLOATS!  YUMMY!!!!  Please have your child stay at school for lunch.  Send snacks (fruit, veggies, cheese, etc.) to supplement his/her lunch. 

REMINDERS: 

«DYLAN & SAURAVI ARE STARS OF WEEK«

Mon. 22^nd (Day 4) PLAY DAY – DRESS FOR THE WEATHER…            

sunscreen, sunglasses, mosquito repellant, hat

Tues. 23^rd (Day 5)      Last Spelling Test of 2/3 and PIZZA PARTY / ICE CREAM FLOATS at lunch time.

Wed. 24th (Day 1)       Ice cream celebration with Learning Buddies (Mrs. Pritchard’s Gr.4 class) 

      

Thurs. 25^th (Day 2)  Last day of school for students  with 2:30 dismissal and REPORT CARDS distributed.Send your child to school with ONE BOARD GAME and a drink.  

I cannot believe the school year is coming to an end!  I CAN NOT believe I have been teaching for 25 years!!!!

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with your children! I love them all!  I hope you have enjoyed the web site, weekly agenda notes, open communication, emailed photos and the UNBELIEVABLE academic and social growth your children have experienced this year. Thank you for all your support as parents!  I could not have done it without you!

Have a wonderful summer!

Yours in teaching,

                                                Ms. Selimos

June 8th 2015 week with Ms. Selimos

    Greetings Parents and Students,

I hope everyone has been enjoying this incredible weather!

For science, we did a class experiment about gravity.  A few of the students stood on chairs, holding a grape in one hand and a marble in the other hand.  Each child predicted which would land first when dropped.  Try this GRAVITY EXPERIMENT at home with your child. NOTE:  Gravity pulls the objects down to earth at the same speed.  Interestingly, most kids predicted the marble would land first.  

On Wednesday, the children had a blast at the Teddy Bear Clinic, where they rotated through 5 stations:  vital signs, x-rays, casting, stitches and bandages, needles and I.V.s.  The interactive, hands-on stations were well run by 3rd year nursing students.  The children and the teddy bears experienced routine assessments (height, weight, temperature, listening with a stethoscope), mock x-rays and casting/bandaging, lab work/immunizations, sutures and health promotion aspects such as hand washing, nutrition, and safety.

Our adorable Star of the Week was Mackenna.  She is an only child who loves spending time with her parents and her pets.  She has a cat named Squeaks, a fish named Mr. Bones and she had a dog named, Boo.  Her favourite colour is black and her favourite food is hot dogs.  She enjoys being part of Brownies and riding on her dad’s motorcycle.   She enjoys the family trip to South Dakota each year in the summer.

This week we also learned about diabetes with the other Grade 2 class.  We will be participating in a school – wide walk on Monday, June 15th at 2:30.  Children are asked to wear green on Monday.  Please join us and send a small donation if you would like.  Here are some excellent diabetes links for you to watch with your child:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFsRaXR5dXA

https://vimeo.com/9768817

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypXyl-gY8LI

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0M4oxBtnXo

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8iFbduZF14

 

The children and I have been learning multiplication facts (0 to 5 tables).   New vocabulary this week included:  factors (the numbers you multiply).  Reviewed vocabulary included:  arrays, product, groups of, sets of.   Try some of the following multiplication games at home:

http://www.mathplayground.com/ASB_MeteorMultiplication.html 
Multiplication game - meteors
http://www.mathplayground.com/ASB_PenguinJumpMultiplication.html
  Multiplication game- penguins
http://www.mathplayground.com/ASB_TugTeamMultiplication.html
  Multiplication game –tractor tug of war


We are looking forward to the MacKenzie Art Gallery trip this afternoon. 
 Have a GREAT DAY parents.  

Remember, there is no school for students tomorrow.  

Have a TERRIFIC weekend!

Ms. Selimos    

June 4th, 2015 BROWNS COULEE ADVENTURE

Hello Parents and Students,

We had a perfect day for their PHENOMINAL Browns Coulee Day Trip on Thursday, June 4th! 

We began with a “safety” activity in the classroom, where we each created “shoe” rubbings of our runners dated with our names.  Ms. Selimos kept those, in case were lost in the forest and needed to be rescued.

Many thanks to the 9 parent volunteers and to Lori Milligan, from the Outdoor Ed. Department, who helped to make this science adventure such a success!  The boys and girls exited the bus quietly and took in the view with their eyes and noses, as we took a few group pictures with parents.  Lori showed the class various plants; blue bearded tongue, regular and irregular flowers,    the sage plant, which is a natural mosquito repellant and more.  

Various students took turns caring for the male and female “tick jars”.  The class collected about 13 ticks throughout the day, with the male tick jar in the lead!

Tomorrow morning I would like to tally and graph how many ticks parents found on their children Thursday evening.  The female ticks have a “necklace” stripe on them and the males have “suspenders” on them.

Another interesting activity involved THATCHER ANTS.  Lori carefully disturbed a hill of these thatcher ants by poking at them.  When they are threatened they release an acid scent that smells and tastes like vinegar!  The children each had a sniff!  Did you know that these ants are edible?   YES!!!!!!!!!   Imogen, Roan and Hunter were very brave and ATE SOME!

Pond dipping was a blast, as we collected tadpoles, frogs, water mites, mosquito larva, beetles, water spiders, dragon fly larva, fishing spiders, snails, minnows and more.  We looked for buffalo snot (jelly lichen) which tastes like noodles, pussy toe plants, which taste like bubble gum and violets, which are edible. 

We broke for lunch and enjoyed the creek, sunshine and chatting with parents and classmates.  We did some stone skipping along the creek.  We continued with another hike, after lunch, looking at various plants, lichen and saw many willow trees with lichen.  These are thus called, diamond willow trees.

Next, Lori read a book called: Fairy Houses.  Following the story, the children had their own opportunity to create their own “fairy houses”.  After photos were taken of their creations, we hiked to a beaver lodge and finally climbed a very steep hill, making our way back to the bus.

We had many tired boys and girls and parents too, on the bus ride home.  “Merci beaucoup”, to our bus driver, for getting us to and from Grant Road School safely. 

  Many thanks to the BROWN FAMILY for providing us with this wonderful opportunity to explore their farm land and coulee!!!  We really appreciated the amazing day! 

Ms Selimos J

June 1st 2015 week with Selimos

Greetings Parents and Students,

We began the school week on Monday with multiplication strategies (new Grade 2 mini-unit).  The children have been exposed to vocabulary including:  multiplication, product (answer when multiplying), groups of, sets, arrays,  “times”.  This week we have worked on creating sets using 0, 1, 2 and 5. 

Please continue to encourage your child to use Raz_kids for reading.  As well, see the following multiplications sites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchpGkLvTy8   multiplication song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCJug1WlYJs  10 times table rock song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igoGDE5hLjw  2s to 10s times tables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu3JSnRaaV0   multiplication tricks using your hands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzXcI49jdV0  1 to 12s songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBTGKiVgWcA  Multiplying by 9s HAND TRICK

Corbin was our awesome Star of the Week.  He is an only child who was born in Regina.  He has 2 pets; a cat named Tink, from the Humane Society and a male German shepherd named Rider.  He is a HUGE Rider fan.  He enjoys traveling and has been to Cuba, Mexico, Disneyworld, Banff and more.  His favourite colour is red and he loves to eat steak.  Thanks for the yummy cupcakes for the classroom on Tuesday!

Creative writing assignments this week included poetry responses and inventions.  The children created a SUNNY KEEP COOL MACHINE.  They drew their inventions, wrote about them and then presented to their classmates.   Writing traits focus was about naming/telling parts to plan sentences.  For this activity, the children were to think about what happens at a BAKE SALE.  They completed a chart with the following columns:  What to Buy/What to Do/ Who is There.

Our latest science theme is: Forces and Motion.  Vocabulary include:  push, pull, speed, motion, movement, force, position (over, under, behind, beside, in front of, etc.), friction.  Check out some of these short videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOcY37oGhj8  A Push or a Pull Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRNXvAbwS7M   Very short motion song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZlqas0tixo  Push and Pull song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcoYeNbyqvw  Force and Motion song based on Grinch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKmhS4qLj_s   The Motion Song

University of Regina, EYES (Educating Youth Engineering Science) students, Kelsey and Taylor visited our classroom on Wednesday afternoon.  The children were introduced to the terms “engineers” and “scientists” through drama.  Next, the children became “doctors” performing exploratory surgery on  little doll bodies, using magnets and toothpicks to find keys that Taylor “accidentally” swallowed. 

We are a good hour away from departing the school to head to BROWNS COULEE.  Pics to follow.

Wishing everyone an awesome June month!

Ms. Selimos J

May 25th, 2015 week with Ms. Selimos and Police Showcase Trip

Bonjour Parents and Students,

Where DID the month of May go?  This week, we enjoyed presenting our dialogues using the puppet theatre in small groups.  The children enjoyed practising fluency and expression, as they re-enacted the cafeteria scene with Vincenzo and his classmates, based on the story, The Sandwich.

On Monday morning, we attended a special assembly in the gym, where we listened to the Junior Band play for us.  Emaan was one of the lucky students, chosen from the audience, to help conduct one of the songs.

With this beautiful weather, we have been eating lunch outside on the front lawn.  The children have loved the green space; playing soccer, Frisbee, tag, and other games.  The new benches at the front look great!

On Thursday, we will be finished GRADE 2, Math Makes Sense and we will be doing some review work and I will be introducing multiplication.  See photos from BrainpopJuniour.com about multiplication.   The MATH BINDERS will go home on Thursday.   You may keep them.  DO NOT RETURN THEM TO SCHOOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igoGDE5hLjw  Multiplication song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BchpGkLvTy8

Alex was our adorable, outgoing STAR OF THE WEEK.  She did a SPECTACULAR job presenting about her family.  She loves spending time at the reserve with her family and her dog.  Saskatoon born, Alex, proudly showed us her first pair of baby shoes, moccasins. She enjoys swimming, being outdoors and doing things with her siblings and cousins. 

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to the Brandt Center for the Regina Police Service Showcase. We enjoyed the “mock” robbery drama, canine presentation, SWAT team, Sheldon the robot, relay race and much more.  We definitely needed more time to visit the exhibits.  Thank you to the parents of Keithan, Lukas, and Imogen for joining us and taking care of us.

Please remember to send your child to school on FRIDAY with his/her READING LOG MINUTES FOR MAY.

NEXT THURSDAY IS OUR BROWNS COULEE TRIP:

BROWN’S COULEE with Outdoor Ed. Teacher (Lori Milligan) on THURS. JUNE 4^TH.We will be leaving by bus at approximately 10:30 a.m. We will be back by 3:30. 

Healthy bagged lunch: sandwich, 2 bottles of water (partly frozen), fruit and veggies, crackers, snacks. 

Clothing requirements:  jeans (no shorts), t-shirt, hoodie or jacket, runners (NO rubber boots) and an EXTRA pair of socks, as we might get wet during pond dipping lesson.

Remember:  mosquito repellant, sun screen, sun glasses, hat, etc.

 Bathroom:  toilet paper and a plastic ziplock bag. 

Have a wonderful weekend one and all!  

May 19, 2015 week with Ms. Selimos and Weather Specialist Guest

Greetings Parents and Students,

Thank you to the SAC for the yummy ice cream treats we ate last week during 10:30 recess. We really enjoyed the cones!!!

I hope everyone had a FABULOUS long weekend!  This week we have been busy working on puppetry, dialogue and drama based on the story The Sandwich by Ian Wallace. The children will perform their dialogues on Friday using the puppet theatre.  As well, George Bothwell librarian, Marilyn, shared fractured Red Riding Hood fairy tales with us on Tuesday afternoon.  We are busy creating “thank you cards” to present her with.

Grade 2 math emphasis continues to be collecting data; using tallies and check marks, and creating lists/charts.  The children have had a blast asking friends about sports activities, ice cream treats and more and then interpreting and presenting their results to the class using the data projector.  

Our handsome STAR OF THE WEEK was Nate, who shared, with excitement, about his new family member, Tucker, an 8 week old Chocolate Lab puppy.  Nate is an only child who enjoys traveling with his parents and spending time with them at the cabin.  He likes to downhill ski and to ride his quad.  He has 2 cats and another dog.  He enjoys playing soccer and collecting Lego.  

For French we played some transportation sorting games and categorized based on water, land, and air.  We will wrap up this unit and move onto zoo animals in June.

On Thursday morning, Weather Specialist, Tiffany Lizée, of Global News,  visited our classroom, talking with the children and sharing a very informative power point presentation with the class.  Ask your child which colour NOT to wear if filming at Global News and why.  Tiffany’s wardrobe is her own.  She does her own hair and make-up.  The crew works as a TEAM and their workspace is windowless.  She talked about the editing process of writing news pieces and how editing may occur over 6 times per article.  Some of the cameras cost $20 000.00 each.   The Morning Crew is at work at 3 a.m. to deliver the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. news.  

Tiffany grew up on a farm in southern Saskatchewan and was constantly exposed to the ways and wonders of the weather.   She loved watching Saskatchewan storms and studied in Edmonton after high school, becoming a weather specialist!  She is presently studying to become a meteorologist, via correspondence through Mississippi State University.  

Tiffany did an EXCELLENT job keeping the children engaged and excited to learn about her workplace and job!  Thanks again!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

«ALEX IS STAR OF WEEK MAY 25^th «

Mon. 25^th (Day 5)             Spelling Test

Tues. 26^th (Day 1)             See Spelling List 

Wed. 27^th (Day 2)        Regina Police Service Showcase trip in p.m. by bus, at 12:30.

Thurs. 28^th (Day 3)            PIE the SAC on Thurs. 28^th at noon in bowl.

 Tickets = $0.50 each

Fri. 29^th (Day 4)          READING LOGS DUE

Library Exchange

                          

                     «CORBIN IS STAR OF WEEK JUNE 1^ST«

May 11th, 2015 week with Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Students,

In Health, Mrs. Beckel and the students have been focusing on diversity. Last Tuesday, Mrs. Beckel started the class by intentionally excluding, first one half of the class, and then the other from a game, and then led a discussion about how it felt to be excluded. She followed up by reading Dr. Seuss’ THE SNEETCHES, in which the “Sneetches” learn an important lesson about including others. They talked about terrible instances when groups have been excluded and mistreated just for being who they are (the Jews, black people, First Nations people, etc.) Please take some time to discuss this topic with your child. We are trying to establish how important every person is and how unfair it is for one person or group to mistreat another. 

On Friday morning, the children had the opportunity to explore the Agrium Seed Survivor Trailer and to plant a seed. In the afternoon, they participated in the school dance in the gym.  Great dance moves!!!!

On Monday afternoon, Outdoor Ed. Teacher, Lori Milligan, joined us for an hour to discuss our June field trip to Brown’s Coulee.  The children have been asked to wear pants, tucked into long socks to “keep away the wood ticks.”  No shorts!  We will be collecting wood ticks.  We discussed how to tell the male ticks apart from the females. Each child must be wearing a hat, sunglasses (if possible) and to be dressed in layers of light coloured clothing.  Sun screen your child before coming to school.  Please send mosquito repellant, which will be applied once we arrive to Brown’s Coulee.  A healthy, bagged lunch will be encouraged with fruit, veggies, sandwich and WATER.  Please freeze half a bottle of water and fill the remaining with cold water.  Place a sock over the bottle to keep it dry.   We will be doing a pond dipping study and a worm watch.  Check out the following link with your child:

https://www.naturewatch.ca/  Worm watch for Brown’s Coulee trip

For one math activity, Grade TWO math students created a pictograph of FAVOURITE ICE CREAM FLAVOURS.  Each child is to survey family members at home or on the phone and to return their pictograph to school before the long weekend, if possible.

Lunch hour has been a lot of fun this week.  The children are exploring globes and working on various puzzles… flags of the world, pandas, castles and more.

Try the attached SCIENCE EXPERIMENT at home with your child at the sink.  

TOPIC:  Air pressure and water.   We had a blast in class trying it!  Ask your child to explain WHY the paper stays on the cup filled with water when turned upside down.

 

Jack was our fabulous STAR OF THE WEEK.  He is the youngest of 4 children in his family.  He was born in Saskatoon. His favourite colour is orange.  He LOVES to eat long noodles and perogies.  His hobbies include:  hockey, baseball, building with Lego and computers. He is looking forward to a family trip to Disneyland this fall.

REMINDERS:  

No school this Friday and next Monday.

1.      Nate is our STAR OF THE WEEK on May 19^th. 

2.    Global News Weather Specialist, Tiffany Lizee visits our class on Thurs. a.m.

3.    Please send permission slips and $11.00 in cash or on Parent Portal for MacKenzie Art Gallery and Golden Mile bowling if you have not already done so.

    Enjoy the May long weekend!    :)

     Ms. Selimos