September 22nd - 26th

 

On Thursday September 25th, our Andrew Sibbald School community gathered together to observe Orange Shirt Day and honour the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. 

Learning Intentions: (Wellness)

- Healthy Relationships: Personal well-being is supported through positive relationships built on communication, collaboration, empathy and respect.

I Can:

- Reflect on how personal relationships are maintained and strengthened.

🧡  🧡  🧡

This week students participated in a variety of tasks, discussions, and read-alouds to gain a deeper understanding of Indigenous cultures, the importance of appreciating different perspectives, as well as some of the unfortunate consequences of Residential Schools.

After reading With Our Orange Hearts by Phyllis Webstad, we reflected on the importance of acknowledging the impact of residential schools. We also read the story Walking Together - a book written by Elder Albert Marshall and Louise Zimanyi, with illustrations by Emily Kewageshig. We talked about the meaning of the word reconciliation as well as the meaning of Two-eyed seeing - Etuaptmumk - which is the gift of multiple perspectives in the Mi'kmaw language.  

During our discussion many students shared their thoughts and feelings -

• "Orange Shirt Day is important because every child matters...just like it says on some of our shirts"
• "Everybody should be taken care of, its not very kind to not care about other people."
• "It's like in the picture with the two eyes...they are different colours and that's ok."
• "Even though we're all different we are all important."
• "We can learn lots from each other!"
• "You should still listen to other people and be nice to them even if they are different then you because we're all different...we're all unique!"

Next we discussed the word reconciliACTION and that it was important to not just talk about making a difference but to actually take action to make a difference. We brainstormed words to describe different actions that we thought would be positive and impactful towards others. We decided we can - help, show respect, be a friend, share, be honest, listen carefully, treat others with care, say sorry, appreciate differences, include others, and show gratitude.

Students made paper-doll versions of themselves and then wrote some of the action words down that they would work on.

🍁  🍁  🍁  🍁  🍁

Learning On The Land - Fall Sketching

September 15th - 19th

Learning Intention: (Math)
- Students analyze quantities to 1000
- Students explain and analyze patterns in a variety of contexts

I Can:
- Count, represent quantities, and identify place value of digits up to 1000
- Identify identify and create increasing and decreasing patterns

Understanding place value is an important part of math learning in grade 2. It helps children make sense of numbers and how they work. Place value teaches students that the position of a digit determines its value (for example, the “2” in 24 means 20, not just 2). This understanding is the foundation for adding, subtracting, regrouping, and later skills like multiplication and division.
After learning about place value, students played a fun game called Race to 100. Through this game, they are beginning to understand regrouping—trading 10 ones for a ten, and 10 tens for a hundred. The grade 2s loved playing and keep asking to play it again! This is a simple game to re-create at home! Students can make a base 10 mat on paper and they can use lego pieces: 1x1 for ones, 1x10 or 2x5 for tens, and a 10x10 base plate for 100s!

What Is an Increasing (or Growing) Pattern?

A pattern with a repeated increase is called an increasing (or growing) pattern. Here are some examples:

1, 2, 3, 4, … (each step increases by 1)

3, 8, 13, 18, 23, … (each step increases by 5)

Increasing patterns can also be based on shapes or actions instead of numbers, for example:

Clap 1 time, clap 3 times, clap 5 times, clap 7 times, …

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Describing an Increasing or Growing Pattern

When you describe a pattern like this one, you can say, “The pattern starts at 3 and goes up by 2 each time.”

3, 5, 7, 9, …

When you describe a pattern like this one, you can say, “The pattern starts at 12 and goes up by 3 each time.”

Students used manipulatives to explore growing patterns. They learned to show these patterns on a number line by “jumping” from one number to the next. For example, if the pattern was 2 blocks, 4 blocks, 6 blocks, and so on, students circled 2, 4, 6, etc. on the number line.

September 8th - 12th

 

Learning Intention: (Science)

- Energy: Understandings of the physical world are deepened by investigating matter and energy

- Students investigate the behaviours of light

I Can:

- Identify sources of light

- Conduct an investigation to determine how the path of light can be affected

- Examine how natural objects affect the path of sunlight

This week students had lots of fun investigating and exploring light energy using a variety of materials at different centres. 

We learned about the different sources and behaviours of light.

Ask your child what they discovered about light while they explored the different centres...

TW - "I noticed that when we were shining the light on the disk it made a rainbow."

BF - "When we used the flashlights we could see shadows from the diamond squares."

MS - " I noticed that we had to keep moving the flashlight and disk because sometimes the angle didn't work."

CM - "I learned that light can bounce of things, like it did with the tin foil and the mirror."

DM - "When I put the paper with the arrow on it behind the glass it changed the direction the arrow was pointing!"

HR - "I noticed that the plastic wrap and the wax paper were both see through but the card and tin foil were not see through."

HP - "I noticed that when I put the card with the arrow on it behind the glass of water, it made the arrow look bigger."

September 2nd - 5th

We are part of something bigger than ourselves, and when we 

each turn our goodness and compassion outward, we can create, learn, and love.

💗  💗  💗  💗  💗  💗

 What a great first week we had in grade two! 

It was wonderful to see our familiar friends as well as have the amazing opportunity to meet new ones! 

This year at Andrew Sibbald we are using the book I Am We - written by Susan Verde and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds as a school wide anchor text to inspire our work and learning around community. This text will guide classroom discussions, activities and projects about community. It encourages students to understand that caring for themselves enables them to care for others and help build strong and supportive communities. It highlights - compassion, kindness, connection, togetherness as well as collective action. 

Before reading this book together, I asked the students what they thought the title I Am We meant to them. Here are some student responses:

• DM - "I think it might mean that I am some of all the people."
• MS - "Maybe the girls name is We."
• HP - "Like it's about everyone...like how we are all together."

Once we read a couple of pages we understood the meaning a little better  and talked about the difference between Me times We times. 

• EJ - "Well it's just me when I am asleep in my room."
• NA - "When I have to go to my room because I'm in trouble it's just me."
• CM - "When I want to take a break from my sister then it's just me."
• BF - " We is family!"
• QW - "It's definitely we when I'm at my lessons for swimming and gymnastics because there are other kids there!"
• WD - "When you are meeting new people or talking to others it is a we time."

Next I asked the students to share what the thought was important about being part of the We. Here are the ones the class decided were the most important from the list they came up with...

• Listen and follow the directions to show respect
• Follow the group plan
• Think of others
• Be kind and help each other
• Remember your manners (please, thank you, sorry, you're welcome)
• Include others
• Leave Heartprints not Hurtprints

I would say WE are off to a great start!

 I am looking forward to sharing our I Am We journey throughout the year!

Here are some Grade 2 snapshots from the week...