Good afternoon everyone. I hope you all had a great and relaxing weekend. There are a few very important things to run by you. First, I am not at school tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept 27th, and there will be a sub for the day. Second, picture day is this Wednesday, Sept 28th. A note is going home tomorrow regarding sibling pictures as well. If you would like your child dressed up for pictures, they are taking place in the morning on Wednesday. Friday we also have the Strathcona Ceremonial Mounted Troops performing. The performance will be happening regardless of weather and there is rain in the forecast. Please dress your child accordingly.
Language Arts
Phonics:
This week in phonics we will begin unit 2. Unit 2 is a number of exercises that focus on short vowels. As the phonics works with the spelling words, we are covering the short "o" and short "u" wprds in spelling this week.
Writing:
We recently began our writing program called empowering writers. It is a program where each month has a different theme and will focus on specific areas to develop writing skills. The theme of the first month is "back to school". The main focus of our writing this month is identifying the two main forms of writing, Informative/Expository writing and Narrative writing. The purpose of informative/expository writing (generally called non fiction) is to inform the reader. To give them information. The purpose of narrative writing (generally called fiction) is to tell a story and entertain. The students have been learning differences between the two forms of writing and what to look for to identify them. We will also continue with our weekly journals. If you ever want to see your child's journal you can send me a quick message in their agenda and I can send it home with them.
Math
We are working very diligently in our number sense unit to start the year. We have done lots of work on representing numbers and also looked at number words to twenty. We also started creating word problems using the number words that we were recently studying. This week we will be discussing ordinal words (1st - first, 2nd-second, 3rd-third, 10th-tenth, etc), as well as counting and numbers to 100.
Science
As you may already know in science we have discussed that magnets have two poles, north and south. The students should be using the words attract and repel when describing what same poles (N and N or S and S) will do when they come together and what opposite poles (N and S) will do when they come together. We have also been discussing types of magnets. There are electromagnets (magnets created using electricity), permanent magnets (magnets that will never lose their magnetic field), and temporary magnets (magnets that will lose their magnetic field). We will be experimenting with creating a temporary magnet this week using a magnet and scissors. The students are going to have a great time.
Social
We continue our mapping review unit and will be wrapping it up shortly. We have continued to explore different maps, such as street maps, floor plans, and outside maps. The students are using a saying that works best for them to remember the directions of the compass rose (Never Eat Soggy Waffles) with north pointing up. We have looked at map keys/legends as well as signs and symbols. The students are becoming experts and reading and labeling maps. We will be writing our mapping unit test at the end of this week or early next week.
I hope everyone has a lovely week ahead. Enjoy the sunny warm weather while you can as it looks like some cooler wet weather is in the forecast.
Mr. Aasen
Monday 26 September 2016
Monday 12 September 2016
Sept 12 - 15
Good afternoon everyone. I hope you have had a great start to the school year. We have had a wonderful start this year in 2A. We currently have 22 students and they are all settling in nicely.
This week we have a couple of important times. We have our first library class this Thursday. Students are allowed to take two books each week out of the library. One must be a reading book, and one may be a look book or another reading book. Also on Thursday, we are having the annual Terry Fox Run. The run/walk will begin at 1pm and will consist of approximately a 1km excursion for the grade 2's. It is going to be a great time in support of cancer research.
Language Arts
Spelling:
The weekly spelling words will always be posted in the spelling tab at the top of the blog.
Phonics:
Our first area of focus in phonics is in beginning and ending consonant sounds. A consonant is any letter in the alphabet that is not a vowel.
Writing:
Currently in writing, there is an emphasis on beginning capital letters and ending periods. We will be doing weekly journals as well as writing activities during work on writing sessions in Daily 5. We also have a writing program called Empowering Writers that we will be following throughout the year that focuses on different writing skills.
Math
We have begun our math unit focusing on some review and number sense. We have looked at recognizing numbers as well as comparing numbers using words like more, less, and fewer. This week we will look at number words (zero, one, two, three, etc.) and some addition review.
Science
Our first science unit is magnetism. We have done some exploring with magnets and learned of first definition. Attract- "to draw by force". We use the word attract when we talk about the magnet being attracted to something else. We are trying to not use the word "stick". The force of the magnet attracts it to things made of metal. We have learned that only metals containing the metal "iron" will be attracted to magnets. Metals containing nickel and cobalt also are attracted however we have not discussed these as they are not part of metals around the classroom typically. We will continue to learn more about magnets over the coming two month concluding with our magnets unit at the end of October.
Social Studies
In social we have began our mapping review unit. We have talked about the compass rose on a map and its purpose. We have also come up with a saying to remember the directions on it. (Never Eat Soggy Waffles) Clockwise from the top the directions are North, East, South, and West. We have also talked about a legend and what are some symbols we might fight on a map, such as an H for a hospital, or a tent, for a campground. We will continue with this unit for a few more weeks.
I hope everyone has a great week and a reminder that we have no school on Friday as it is a PD day.
Mr. Aasen
This week we have a couple of important times. We have our first library class this Thursday. Students are allowed to take two books each week out of the library. One must be a reading book, and one may be a look book or another reading book. Also on Thursday, we are having the annual Terry Fox Run. The run/walk will begin at 1pm and will consist of approximately a 1km excursion for the grade 2's. It is going to be a great time in support of cancer research.
Language Arts
Spelling:
The weekly spelling words will always be posted in the spelling tab at the top of the blog.
Phonics:
Our first area of focus in phonics is in beginning and ending consonant sounds. A consonant is any letter in the alphabet that is not a vowel.
Writing:
Currently in writing, there is an emphasis on beginning capital letters and ending periods. We will be doing weekly journals as well as writing activities during work on writing sessions in Daily 5. We also have a writing program called Empowering Writers that we will be following throughout the year that focuses on different writing skills.
Math
We have begun our math unit focusing on some review and number sense. We have looked at recognizing numbers as well as comparing numbers using words like more, less, and fewer. This week we will look at number words (zero, one, two, three, etc.) and some addition review.
Science
Our first science unit is magnetism. We have done some exploring with magnets and learned of first definition. Attract- "to draw by force". We use the word attract when we talk about the magnet being attracted to something else. We are trying to not use the word "stick". The force of the magnet attracts it to things made of metal. We have learned that only metals containing the metal "iron" will be attracted to magnets. Metals containing nickel and cobalt also are attracted however we have not discussed these as they are not part of metals around the classroom typically. We will continue to learn more about magnets over the coming two month concluding with our magnets unit at the end of October.
Social Studies
In social we have began our mapping review unit. We have talked about the compass rose on a map and its purpose. We have also come up with a saying to remember the directions on it. (Never Eat Soggy Waffles) Clockwise from the top the directions are North, East, South, and West. We have also talked about a legend and what are some symbols we might fight on a map, such as an H for a hospital, or a tent, for a campground. We will continue with this unit for a few more weeks.
I hope everyone has a great week and a reminder that we have no school on Friday as it is a PD day.
Mr. Aasen
Wednesday 7 September 2016
Meet the Teacher Night
Just a heads up that tomorrow, Thursday September 8th, is meet the teacher night at East Elementary from 6pm-7pm. Come and meet your child's teacher and other staff at East.
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