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