Apr 25 - 29

Good evening everyone.  I hope you all had a great weekend.  It was nice to finally see some much needed rain (snow), even though it could be warmer. It's hard to believe this is already the last week of April.  Nothing too big to note this week other than a reminder that we are swimming again on Wednesday from 11:00 - 11:30am.

Language Arts

Spelling:

I just wanted to give a little refresher on adding endings to words that end with a silent "e" or a "y".  When a word ends in a silent "e", drop the e  to add endings that begin with a vowel, such as  ing, es, or ed.  have + ing = having,   bake + ed = baked.

When a word ends in a "y" after a consonant, change the "y" to an "i" before adding the endings ed, es, er, and est.

Phonics:

This week in phonics we are continuing to look at contractions.  A contraction is when two words combine to make a single word, with an apostrophe taking the place of one or more letters.

they + are = they're.  The apostrophe takes the place of the "a" in are.

you + have = you've.  The apostrophe takes the place of the "ha" in have.

Math

This week we are continuing our measurement unit.  We will discuss and collaborate ways to measure round/curved lengths, how to measure lengths using one copy of a unit (instead of multiples of a unit end to end), as well as measuring mass (and what does mass measure).

Science

We are continuing our boats and buoyancy unit.  Students will have the opportunity to build a boat this week using a material that they may not suspect would work to build a boat. It is a material that will typically sink in water.  We will be working on how shape can affect buoyancy.

Social Studies

We just began our unit "Looking at Work".  We will be learning about natural resources in the 3 communities and how people work to gather these resources, as well as how the cultures and communities use the natural resources in their daily lives. By now your child would be able to tell you what a natural resource is.

I hope everyone has a great week ahead.  Enjoy the final week of April.

Mr. Aasen

Apr 18-21

There are a couple of very important reminders for this week.

1. Wednesday morning we have our class pictures.

2. Wednesday morning after class pictures, we have our first swimming lesson.

3. Thursday morning is library.

4. Thursday afternoon is our Earth Day clean up.  Please have permission forms returned by              Wednesday, Apr 20th. 

Week of Apr 11 - 15

Good evening everyone.  I hope everyone is doing great.  2A is rolling along as usual.  Just a couple of things for this week to let you know about.  A reminder if you would like to make an order from Scholastic, the order forms must be in by Thursday, Apr 14th. Wednesday morning, Apr 13th, there will be a sub in for me. Friday Apr 15th is the final day to bring in any Lego creations for the Lego contest.


During the month of April and May, we have a HUGE math push happening in our class. We are doing math practice (basic facts) multiple times a week. The students are practicing on a few new math sites: XtraMath and 10monkeys.com. Each of the students has their own logins and passwords so I can track their progress. These sites will be used in addition to Mathletics. 
If you would like to know your child's login/password so they can access these sites at home, please let me know! (Note: 10monkeys.com is only accessible from 7am-2pm as it is a challenge among multiple Canadian schools.)


Language Arts

Writing:

In writing, we have a continued focus on our sentence structure. We are continuing with our weekly journals, writing about the past weekend.  We are now putting an emphasis on self checking our sentences (beginning capital letters, ending punctuation, who/what, and doing/describing) and correcting our mistakes.  We are also doing story writing that includes an intensive planning page to help assist in writing detailed stories that make sense.

Math

In math we are currently in our measurement unit.  We have looked at days of the week as well as months of the year so far.  We are currently using non-standard units of measurement to measure objects as well as compare different objects using words such as longer/shorter, heavier/lighter, less/more.

Science

We are beginning our unit on Buoyancy and Boats.  We will be looking at characteristics of boats and what is required to make them float.  Are there better materials to make a boat float?  Does shape matter? What about the load in the boat?  These are some of the questions we will be answering.

Social Studies

In social, we are finishing up our Looking at People unit.  We are currently talking about traditions and festivals that the different cultures celebrate in the 3 communities of Iqaluit, Meteghan, and Saskatoon. Are are comparing and contrasting the 3 cultures and finding that there are many similarities to the things different people in our country celebrate and how they celebrate.


I hope everyone has a great week.  Looks like great weather ahead.  I spend the evening in the yard fertilizing, raking, and watering.  I hope spring is here to stay.

Mr. Aasen