Terry Fox Run

This morning we continued our work with magnets. We had to predict if we could transfer magnetic properties to other objects. Mr. Fisher used a pair of scissors and showed how if you rub a magnet the same direction on the scissors, the scissors would become magnetic. We had to predict how many paperclips a magnetic pair of scissors would pick up depending on the amount of times we rubbed the magnet on them. We were surprised to find that the scissors could only pick up around 3-5 paperclips after being rubbed 50 times! We will discuss our thoughts around using different objects and the strength of the magnet and if that would effect our results.

Thank you to everyone who brought in donations for Terry Fox! We counted our money by using tally marks to show how many different coins and bills each class brought it. We talked about how when we use tally marks we are counting by groups of 5 and how when Ms. Binks recorded the amount of money, the number in front of the decimal shows the dollar amount and the number behind the decimal shows the amount of money in cents. Mr. Fisher's class brought in $33.00 and Ms. Binks's class brought in $53.45 for a grand total of $87.45!! We will continue to accept donations for Terry Fox until Friday.

Today Ms. Binks's class started a task to show their understandings about repeating patterns. They were given the problem: Ms. Binks has a repeating pattern. What might it look like?
We had to create as many different repeating patterns as we could and circle the core in our pattern, label our pattern with letters and describe what attribute(s) were changing. Lots of us created over 5 different patterns! Mr. Fisher's class will begin this task tomorrow.

This afternoon we completed the Terry Fox run as an entire school. It was great to see everyone running and walking and trying their best! We were told that one circle around the field was 500m or half of a kilometer. Try and figure out how far you ran for this afternoon and tell your teacher tomorrow!

After we came in from the run, we met up with Mrs. G's grade two class and watched some video clips from the 2 versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the movie. We had to compare and contrast the characteristics of the Oompa Loompas in both movies. We were very interested to discover that both movies were very different with how they created this character. In the older version of the movie, the Oompa Loompa's were about the size of a child, had orange skin, green hair, white eyebrows, brown shirts with white overalls that crossed over the front and were very strong. In the new version of the movie, the Oompa Loompa's were much smaller, had brown hair in a ponytail, wore red shiny jumpsuits and went swimming.

Reminders:
- Please return swimming permission and ability forms asap. Payment does not need to be submitted right away. Students without the forms will not be able to join us on October 26 (our first day of swimming)
- Ms. Binks's class has library tomorrow. Please return your books
- Practice your spelling words for your test on Friday
- Coco Brooks order forms can be returned

Terry Fox Run tomorrow...please wear orange, pink or your beluga shirt

This morning we watched a video about Terry Fox and his journey on the Marathon of Hope. We talked about how incredible he was because of how he wanted to walk across the country of Canada to raise awareness about cancer. We looked at a map of Canada and talked about how far and how long it would have taken Terry to walk across the country. We also talked about how brave he was because of how heavy his prosthetic leg was and how painful it could be for him but that he kept walking.

Today we kept reading more of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We were introduced to the Oompa Loompas. We talked about how the author, Roald Dahl, had a picture in his mind of what they looked and acted like and how he used adjectives to help the readers have the same picture. We also talked about how the way the illustrator and movie makers picture and create the Oompa Loompas could be different too. We will be completing an art project based around these new characters later in the week.

In math today we reviewed elements of repeating patterns. We had to describe repeating patterns by identifying the core (the part of the pattern that repeats over and over), attributes that are changing (shape, size, direction, color) and the pattern rule (ex. ABAB). We created our own patterns that followed a pattern rule or that showed one or more changing attributes. Tomorrow we will complete a task to show Ms. Binks and Mr. Fisher everything we know about repeating patterns.

We will be doing our Terry Fox run tomorrow afternoon. Please make sure that you are dressed appropriately to be running and walking outside. We are asking students to bring a toonie for Terry (or any other amount of money they would like to donate) to help raise money for cancer research. We are also asking that students wear orange, pink or beluga tshirts to show support for different causes. Orange is in support of aboriginal heritage to honor those who were affected by residential schooling. Pink is in support of finding a cure for cancer. Beluga shirts are to show school spirit. The class that raises the most money in the school will be able to pick the activities for their class all week next week in phys ed.

Reminders:
- Mr. Fisher's class has library tomorrow. Please return your books.
- Please fill out and return permission forms and ability forms for swimming. Students who do not have their forms will be unable to join us for swimming.

Oompa Loompa De Doo!

Good afternoon,

This morning we got our new word wall words! We talked about word families and how we can make one word out of another. We had a chance to copy our word wall words. They should be in our home folders.

This weeks words are,

1. his
2. is
3. an
4. and
5. can
6. all
7. call
8. land
9. hand
10. small

We read another chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this morning. We were introduced to the Oompa Loompas. We looked for describing words about the Oompa Loompas. Some of them were; tiny, little, funny, as big as a doll, and they are no taller than your knee.


This afternoon we tested the last candy bar wrapper which made out of iron. It was magnetic! We discovered which wrapper to use for Mr. Wonka. Our need step was to test materials to see if magnets would move something with the material in between. We found that the magnet moved a washer through a glass and wax paper. We found sometimes the magnet would stick through a material but we could not moved it around.

We had reading buddies after science. We were able to finish our pictures or do some reading. Buddies is going really well so far. Some of our favourite parts are getting to read and make some new friends.

Reminder, forms from Parent Council are coming. If you have not returned swimming forms please return them ASAP. We need them before we go. Terry Fox run is on Wednesday. Please bring a toonie for Terry.

Terry Fox Run

Our Terry Fox Run is coming up on Wednesday September 30th at 12:45. Please consider donating a Toonie for Terry to support the Terry Fox Foundation. Please send donations in by Wednesday Sept. 30th, or if it is more convenient for you donations can be made online at http://www.terryfox.org/SchoolRun/ .

Click “Give to a STUDENT” and enter Beddington Heights. 

Parent Teacher Conferences Are Tonight And Tomorrow!

This morning we had our spelling test! Lots of us got 13/13 (whoo hoo!) There still were a couple people who got tricked by the bonus words. Please make sure you are practicing word families during the week to help you with the bonus words. Our bonus words today were:

- Tap which was built off of nap

- Pig which was built off of big

- Let which was built off of pet

In science we checked off which metals we tested were magnetic and which were non-magnetic. Out of brass, copper, silver, zinc, stainless steel and aluminum NONE of the metals were magnetic! We eliminated 6 wrappers because of this discovery. There is only one wrapper left which is made out of iron. We had to predict whether this final wrapper will stick to a magnet or if we are going to have to create a brand new wrapper for Willy Wonka.

Reminders:

- Parent teacher conferences are tonight or tomorrow. If you have not booked a time please do so!

- Swimming forms need to be filled out and returned

Swimming Forms Sent Home Today

This morning we continued our work around pillars of care. Today our focus was on care for self and care for place. To start our discussion around care for self, Mr. Fisher read us a book called "The Case of the Grumblies". In the story we met a child who would get very grumpy and angry. He learned that to get rid of his "grumbles" he could shake things out. We tried shaking different parts of our body to get rid of any grumblies we had. We talked about how caring for ourselves includes eating healthy, trying our best, recognizing our feelings or emotions and making great choices. Mr. Fisher talked about 4 different colours: blue, green, yellow and red, that we could use to describe how we are feeling during the day. Blue shows emotions like sadness, green shows emotions like happiness, yellow shows emotions like excitement and red shows emotions like anger. With care for place, we talked about how the place includes the school, our classroom, the lunchroom, the library, the office, the gym, the music room, the playground and the field. We had to picture what our perfect school or classroom would look like, and write at least 10 sentences describing what this perfect place looked like, sounds like, how we feel when we are there, who is there with us and what we can do to keep it perfect. Some ideas we came up with were:

- There was 1000 chocolates everywhere!

- Everywhere there is flowers. Even your desk is made of flowers

- There was a swimming pool in the classroom

- My teacher and my friends are in my school

- My school is as big as a tree

- My school sounds like peace and quiet

Once we were done this writing we had to write 5 more sentences about what we could do to make Beddington Heights a perfect school. We came up with great ideas like:

- planting a garden

- having a buffet or cafeteria

- having a science room for experiments

- having fresh flowers around the school

- painting the school bright colors

This afternoon we read more Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was very exciting because Charlie has just entered Willy Wonka's factory with Grandpa Joe. All Charlie could smell were delicious things like chocolate, mint, violets, blueberries and other candies. The hallways that Mr. Wonka took the tour through were very narrow and kept turning left and right. Charlie was afraid he would get lost. There were lots of juicy vocabulary words in this chapter including:

- clustered

- seizing

- enraptured

- enchanted

- perish

Ask me what some of these juicy words mean or how to use them properly in a sentence!

We finished our mystery book today. First we brainstormed potential titles we thought the book might have. Our ideas were:

- Max and Wilbur

- Max and the Angel

- Max meets his Guardian Angel

- The Guardian Angel

- The thing that flies out of the shoe

The actual title of the book was Dreamflight. Mr. Fisher re-read the book but this time showed us the pictures so we could compare the pictures we visualized to the illustrations in the book. We thought it was really cool that the person who illustrated the book used clay to make the pictures.

Reminders:

- Early dismissal is tomorrow. Students are dismissed at 11:00. Please make sure you still pack a snack!!

- There is no school Friday

- Please make sure you sign up for conferences 

- Our spelling test will be tomorrow morning. Make sure you practice!!

- Swimming forms were sent home today. Please complete and return the form package ASAP

- Ms. Binks's class as library tomorrow. Please bring back your books

Pillars of Care

This morning we continued our work around the Pillars of Care. We focused on Care for Others by brainstorming the qualities a "good classmate" has. We had to think of things a good classmate says, does, is and does not/is not. Some of our ideas were:
A good classmate says:
- Can I help you with your work?
- Do you want to be my partner?
- Are you okay?
- Please
- Thank you

A good classmate is:
- Respectful
- Nice to other people
- Listening
- Marvelous

A good classmate does:
- Their work
- Follows the pillars of care
- Chooses a good spot to sit
- Not talk to people when they are working

A good classmate does not/is not:
- Chasing people
- Talking over the teacher
- Hurting somebody
- Breaking stuff

We also talked about the pillar of care for learning. We brainstormed things that we could do that showed care for learning together and then were asked to write at least 5 sentences about this pillar. Some of us talked about goals we had for our learning in grade two. Some ideas that we developed around care for learning included:
- To do better work than I did in grade one
- Paying attention
- Put your hand up when you have something to say
- Doing what you are supposed to
- Being quiet
- Don't talk when other people are talking and listen when other people are talking

Ms. Binks's class worked on word families today. We focused on word families that could be found in our word wall words from last week. We had to brainstorm words that ended in "ot" like not and hot, "at" like bat and cat and "ad" like in had and glad. Some of us used the alphabet to help replace beginning letters to create our new words.

Mr. Fisher continued to build our visualization skills by reading his mystery book. We couldn't see any of the pictures so we had to use our imaginations and draw our own. He would read small sections of the story and then send us back to our desks to sketch. Today we had to picture the part in the story when Max's guardian angel Wilber taught him how to fly. He told Max that they had to practice dream flying while Max was asleep. We also heard about how much Wilber loved to eat chocolate. Unfortunately he ate too much chocolate and couldn't fly!

Reminders:
- Mr. Fisher's class has library tomorrow. Please return your books
- There is early dismissal on Thursday and no school on Friday
- Our spelling test is on Thursday morning
- If you have not already done so, please sign up for Meet the teacher conferences either Thursday evening or Friday morning

Wrapper Elimination!!

Good afternoon,

This morning we started with morning activity. We wrote about what we did on the weekend. We had to have 8 sentences, we had to have 3 juicy words, and we had to add in details. This included talking about how things might look, sound, smell and feel.

Room 8 had music this morning, after gym. Room 7 will have music tomorrow.

This morning we got new word wall words. We copied them down and put them in our home folders. The test will be on Thursday this week because we have no school Friday.

Here are this week's words,

1. at             6. egg
2. has           7. jam
3. fox           8. pet
4. box          9. nap
5. mix        10. big

In science, we made a prediction about which wrapper will be the last one. This afternoon we eliminated several wrappers. We eliminated wrappers 1, 2, and 9 because they were not magnetic. They were not magnetic because they were not made of metal.

We finished off our afternoon by reading another chapter from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In our chapter, the big day arrived! The Golden Ticket Finders arrived at the factory for their tour.

There is a notice going home this afternoon, it is in our home folders. Room 8 had their book orders arrive. If you ordered a book, it's on it's way home. Room 7 has spelling tests coming home this afternoon. Everyone did very well!!

Have a wonderful evening!

Meet the teacher sign up starts tonight

This morning we had our spelling test. It was wonderful to see how well students did on their test! The words from this week will now be posted on our word wall in the classroom. Students will be expected to spell these words correctly in all of their writing. We will receive new spelling words on Monday.

We had another fire drill this afternoon. It went very well and everyone did a great job at listening and staying quiet.

This afternoon Mr. Fisher read a story book but the cover of the book was covered with a giant question mark. Our job was to practice our visualization skills. Visualization means when we picture what is happening in the story in our minds. Mr. Fisher read us parts of the story and then we had to go back to our sketchbooks and draw what the picture in our mind looked like. We will continue the story on Monday.

We talked about our magnet experiment from yesterday. We had to sort the materials we tested (plastic knife, plastic wrap, paperclip, screw, tinfoil pan, crayon, battery and wood) into magnetic or non-magnetic. We discovered that all of the items that were magnetic were made out of metal. Next week we will test different types of metal to see if all metals are magnetic.

Reminders:
- Casino fund break down was sent home
- Pink sheets explaining how to register for meet the teacher was sent home. Please sign up for a session on either Thursday evening or Friday morning.
- If you have not done so please return your meet the teacher form asap
- Early dismissal on Thursday
- No school Friday

Magnet Mania!

Good afternoon,

Reminder, tomorrow is our spelling test. We hope you have been practicing your spelling words all week. Your child should have brought home a small slip in their purple folder with the words on it. 

If you have not brought your meet the teacher form back, it was due today. Please return them ASAP!

This morning we started Daily 5. We talked about choosing the right book to read. We used an acronym to help us pick the book,

I- I pick the book

P-Purpose (Why are you reading it?) 

I-Interest (Are you interested in it?)

C-Comprehension (Do you understand it?)

K-Know (Do you know the words in the book?) 

Over the next little while we will be working on picking a perfect book to read.

We did some catch up for our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit this morning. The students worked on their title page, Charlie character sketch, their Golden Ticket writing or their candy invention.

Room 8 had library and music this morning. 

This afternoon we continued working on our magnet stations. Students finished testing magnetic and non-magnetic materials. Ask your child what magnetic means. 

We also finished up our math stations today. The students worked in their pattern booklets at their desks. 

Tomorrow we will be doing a "finish-up Friday." Students will have the opportunity to catch up on any work they are not finished. 

Have a wonderful evening!!

He found the golden ticket!

This morning we were asked to create a new type of candy for Willy Wonka. We wrote all about our candy and drew a picture to explain the details. Some candies that were created included:
- super sour chocolate bar
- lickable wallpaper
- candy cane shoes
- licorice pants
We are hoping that we can sell our ideas to the Wonka company and make millions!

In our novel today something very exciting happened! Charlie found a dollar bill and bought 2 delicious chocolate bars. He devoured the first chocolate bar and when he went to open the second bar something flashed before its eyes. It was the golden ticket! He found the last one. We can't wait to find out what happens when he visits Willy Wonka's factory. We were asked to write about how we would feel if we found the last golden ticket, with the challenge of using juicy descriptive words to talk about our emotions. Some words we came up with are:
- excited
- nauseous
- fantastic
- fabulous
- extraordinary
- magnificent

In science we were given numerous items to test and see if they were magnetic or non-magnetic. We talked about how if an item is magnetic, it would stick to the magnet. We had to make predictions, or best guesses, first and then test and record our observations. Ask me about items that I tested and whether they were magnetic or non-magnetic.

This afternoon we met our grade 5/6 buddies. We were given a project where we had to draw each other and then ask each other questions. Things we had in common, we wrote down in a shared thought bubble between our drawings and any differences we had we wrote down in separate thought bubbles. Some things that we had in common included:
- We both like dogs
- We both like to swim, do art and read
- We both like to play video games and watch TV
- We both have kittens, a hot tub and a pool
- We both like TV
- We both hate lemons
- We have the same eye colour
Everyone seemed very excited to spend time with their buddies.

Reminders:
- Ms. Binks's class has library tomorrow. Please make sure you return your library books
- Meet the teacher forms should be filled in and returned by tomorrow
- Digital citizenship forms need to be returned

Willy Wonka's Letter

Hi all,

We had an excellent day in grade 2!

This morning we started with our spelling words all scrambled up. It was the student's responsibilty to put the words back in order. Most students were able to finish up quite quickly. Reminder to be studying your spelling words at home, the test will be on Friday.

We had our first fire drill this morning. The students were very quick to make it outside. They did an excellent job!

This morning we started a character sketch of Charlie Bucket. The students drew a picture of what they think Charlie looks like. As a group we came up with some characteristics that Charlie possesses.

Here are some of our ideas,

- Likes chocolate

- Poor

- Only gets a chocolate

bar once a year

- He has 2 sets of 

grandparents

- Lives in a very small house

- Has 7 people in his family

- He is an only child

After gym today we finished our spelling. The students have had two days to work on this assignment. They were responsible for writing the word three times and then using it in a sentence. Most students are finished but some were unable to get it done. If your child is not finished they will need to get it done for homework. 

An example,

1. on on on

I went on a roller coaster. 

2. not not not

I do not like broccoli. 

This afternoon we got a special letter from Mr. Willy Wonka himself. He has asked the grade twos at Beddington Heights School for help. He is having trouble moving the chocolate bars in his factory around. He needs the grade twos to design a new machine to help him. We decided a magnet would make a great machine. 

We brainstormed some ideas about the type of machine we could make. 

- use a machine with a hand to pick up the bars

- lift car that construction people use

- controller with a button that says pick up workers or pick up chocolate. Oick up chocolate would be green. Pick up workers would be red

- make people do it and they are wearing gloves and can pick them up and put them in a box

- fishing rod

- conveyer belt that carries the chocolate bars into a box

- make another scoop

- a vacuum that sucks it up and spits it out

- an arm can push them into the box

- a giant cup that scoops up

- a box that dumps the bars into boxes

- magnets

Over the next little while we will be experimenting with magnets to decide which type of material Willy Wonka should use in his candy bar wrapper. At the end of our exploration students will have a chance to design and build a machine. 

We finished off our afternoon with some math stations. The students continued to learn about patterns, using a variety of materials the students constructed and explained their own patterns. 

Reminder, room 7 has library tomorrow. Please return your book if you haven't done so already. If your book is not returned you cannot get a new one. Also, book orders are due tomorrow and "Meet the Teacher" forms are due Thrusday.  

Have a wonderful evening! 

BBQ Lunch is tomorrow

This morning we were given our spelling words for the week. Starting today we will get 10 new spelling words every Monday. It is expected that students practice their spelling words all week to prepare for the spelling test on Friday. Each student wrote down their 10 words and brought them home in their purple folders. We also talked about the possibility of bonus words that will be words built off of our original words. Some examples of bonus words will be in brackets next to the spelling words below:
1) on
2) not (dot, cot, lot, got, rot)
3) but
4) at (cat, bat, mat, that)
5) had (glad, sad, bad, mad)
6) in (fin, tin, bin, thin, shin)
7) did (lid, bid, kid)
8) get (let, bet)
9) red
10) hot

This afternoon we were given all different types of magnets and asked to explore. We moved around the classroom to see what the magnets stuck to, what they didn't stick to, how strong or weak they were, what each magnet could pick up the most items and if the magnets pushed away from each other. Here are some examples of our observations:
- Magnets stick to the bottom of our chairs
- One magnet could hold onto 3 other magnets
- Some magnets pushed apart
- The u-shaped magnet was weak because I couldn't get it to pick up other magnets
- South and North connected
- My necklace stuck to the magnets
We will continue to explore magnets through stations later in the week.

Reminders:
- Free BBQ lunch is tomorrow for those students who returned their forms. Please remember to still bring a snack!
- Book orders are due back by Wednesday
- Meet the teacher forms need to filled out and returned before September 17
- Mr. Fisher's class has library on Wednesday and Ms. Binks's class has library on Thursday please make sure you read and return your library book before your day

Spelling Strategies

As of today, we will be starting our spelling words. Students will receive 10 new words every Monday and be expected to practice these words at home for the week. We will then have a spelling test every Friday on these words. Occasionally there will be bonus words that will be based off similar sounds or word families from the original spelling word.

Below are some suggested strategies that can be used when practicing spelling words. Feel free to try one, or all of them!

• Mnemonic device: This is a strategy that helps our memory. We remember information best if its connected to something funny, surprising or personal. For spelling words, choose a word for each letter in a difficult word to create a funny saying or story. For example: because = Bears Eat Chicken And Usually Swallow Enough

• Exaggerate: This is when you make something larger than it really is. It is used in spelling to highlight small words inside a larger word that is difficult to spell. For example: friEND

• Phonic Knowledge: Is using known letter and letter cluster sounds to break down a long word that has more than one syllable. Example: dif-fer-ent

• Generalizations: Is when you use a rule for many things. In spelling we make generalizations or group words based on what is similar about them. We will often use the sounds and letter blends in words to make generalizations. For example: should, would, could all have the ending "ould"

• Musical Beat: This is where you make up a beat/song/rap to help you spell a word. Clapping and making actions may help you. For example: M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e...Micky Mouse...Micky Mouse!

• Visualizing/Memorizing: This is when you study the way a word looks and the letters that are in it. Focus on their shape, length and how they look together. You may find a double set of letters (cheese) or a letter sandwich (activity). For this process, practice makes perfect. For example: Look at the word, cover the word, visualize the word, write the word and check your spelling.

• Rules: Some words are easy to spell because there is a rule to help you. For example: a silent 'e' makes a vowel say its own name like in same the a says its own name. We do not say sam

• Sayings: This is when you make up a saying to remember how to spell a word. For example:
• Piece of Pie
• The principal is your pal

A helpful website to practice spelling words is: www.spellingcity.com 

Students can type in their spelling words and play different games and even complete a spelling test

Meet the teacher forms sent home

We continued to work on alphabetical order and short vowel sounds. The short vowel sounds are:
a as in apple
e as in eggs
i as in igloo
o as in octopus
u as in umbrella
One challenge for the weekend is try to find the longest word you can for each short vowel where the vowel sound appears at the beginning of the word.

Today we had our welcome back assembly. We got to see who all of the teachers in the school were and hear something interesting about them. One of our favourite moments was when we were able to sing the "Everything is awesome" song as an entire school.

Lots of important things were sent home in our purple folders today:
- Book orders were sent home. They are due back by next Wednesday. Ms. Binks and Mr. Fisher would prefer cheques for book orders but will still accept cash
- A notice about our staggered lunch was sent home. Please make sure your child is familiar with when they are eating and when they are outside during lunch
- Meet the teacher forms were sent home. Please fill out and return the form to your child's teacher by September 17.

Reminders:
- Free BBQ lunch is this coming week for those students who returned their forms
- Please make sure you return your school information packages and digital citizenship forms if you have not already done so
- It is supposed to be rainy this week. Please make sure students are dressed appropriately for the weather

Hamburger Forms Are Due Tomorrow

This morning we practiced our skills with alphabetical order by trying to put 14 words in the right order. Some of us found that when more than one letter in the words match, like in chips and chicken, it was tricky to figure out the correct order. We talked about how a great strategy is to write out the entire alphabet first and then use it to help order the words. Here is a challenge for tonight. Order these words in alphabetical order:
- chocolate
- watermelon
- chicken
- banana
- tomato
- lettuce
- apple
- chips
- peas
- yams

We reviewed vowels and consonants today. We talked about how vowels are: a,e,i,o and u and how all the other letters in the alphabet are consonants. We then looked at the short vowel sounds by practicing the sounds and brainstorming words that have the short vowel sound in it. Some examples are:
a - apple, pack
e - eggs, leg
i - igloo, sip
o - octopus, rock
u - umbrella, cup

Ms. Binks' class had library today. We were allowed to take out one book for the week in order to prove how responsible we will be with taking care of the book and returning it on time. Please make sure you read and return your library book by next Thursday.

We continued to build our patterning skills by doing centers in math this afternoon. The activities we completed helped us practice building repeating patterns, creating and identifying pattern rules, extending patterns, finding the core of a pattern and explaining attributes and how they change within patterns. We will continue our work on repeating patterns for the next week.

This afternoon Mr. Fisher told us about his cat that had run way last Thursday. Thankfully the cat showed up on his front porch this morning, but it made us wonder...what had Mr. Fisher's cat been doing for a week? We drew pictures and wrote sentences in our sketch books about the cat's adventures. Some of our ideas we came up with were:
- He went for a walk to get 7up
- He went to the park
- He went to the lake and tried to catch fish
- He went to the pet store to get cat stuff
- He had to eat grass because he was so hungry
- He drove a truck to do tricks

Reminders:
- Free BBQ forms are due tomorrow! If you do not return your form by tomorrow you will be unable to participate in the hamburger lunch

Moon Rock Patterns

Today we learned more about Roald Dahl. Some interesting facts we learned were:
- He was a prankster
- He got kicked out of school
- He was in the air force
- He was a spy
- He was in World War 2
- He was bron in Wales

We also read two more chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Today in our story, we learned about the first two golden ticket winners! We are wondering if Charlie will win a golden ticket.

This morning Mr. Fisher's class had library. We learned about the books we are allowed to sign out and how to use our browser cards. Library books will need to come back to school next Tuesday.

This afternoon we learned about small problems. We learned about what a small problem is and we learned nine ways to solve a small problem. We created tableaus to showcase these nine strategies.

In math we did moon rock patterns. We talked about the attributes in the patterns and the core of the patterns. Here is a link to the website if you would like to play at home: http://www.abcya.com/patterns.htm

Reminders:
- Remember to bring back your form for the FREE BBQ lunch. Forms are due back by Friday
- Remember to bring back your school information packages
- Please sign and fill out your Digital Citizenship
- Please remember to bring back your Chickadee magazine forms. Even if you have checked off NO. All the forms can be used to get cool new things for the classroom

Magnificent Magnets

Today we worked with the other grade 2 classroom to complete a word work activity. We had to brainstorm something we could eat for each letter of the alphabet. This was a good way for us to get to know friends in the other class as well as work on our best try spelling skills. Lots of us had to remember letter sounds we learned in grade one to complete some writing.

We continued to read the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We just learned about how Willy Wonka has put out a contest in the newspaper inviting any 5 children who find a lucky golden ticket in one of his chocolate bars into his factory. No one has come in or out of the factory in 10 years! We brainstormed how Charlie must be feeling about his chances of winning a golden ticket. Some of our ideas were: nervous, disappointed, scared, sad and hopeful.

We continued to find juicy vocabulary words from the chapters we read. Our new words from today were:

- dotty

- deserted

- astonishing

- marvelous

- glistening

Ask me the meaning of these words

We will be starting to go to the learning commons to take out books this week. Mr. Fisher's class will have library on Wednesdays and Ms. Binks's class will have library on Thursdays. It will be each student's responsibility to take out books and return them on time. Mr. Fisher and Ms. Binks will be reviewing "perfect fit" reading materials to help students with their choices. Each student will be able to take out 2 books at a time.

In science today we started a new unit about magnets. Some wonders we have about magnets are:

- what kind of metal do magnets stick to?

- if you stick a magnet to a computer will it break?

- what is the smallest magnet?

- how do magnets stick to metal?

- how far away does a magnet have to be from something to move it?

We will hopefully answer some of these questions as we continue to explore magnets! We will be starting some experiments with magnets later in the week.

This afternoon we started to talk about problems and problem solving strategies. We learned that there are 2 types of problems: big problems and small problems. Big problems are problems that we can not solve on our own and need to tell an adult about right away. They are when something scary and dangerous is happening or could happen. Some examples of big problems are:

- if someone is hurting you

- if there is a fire

- if we are having a lockdown

- if someone threatens to hurt you

Tomorrow we will look at small problems and learn 9 problem solving strategies that we can try on our own first before asking an adult for help.

Reminders:

- Please return school information packages if you have not already done so

- Digital citizenship forms need to be signed and returned in order for students to use technology

- A yellow form was sent home today about the FREE BBQ lunch that is being provided by parent council on September 15. If you would like to participate in the lunch the forms need to be returned by Friday September 11.

- Ms. Binks's class had a form sent home today about Chickadee magazine subscriptions. Students are asked to return the forms to Ms. Binks even if the answer is NO. If every form is returned, the class can earn things like free magazines that can be added into the classroom library. 

Calendar sent home today

This morning we talked about one of the pillars of care: Care for others. We talked about how when we say others we are talking about our friends, our teachers, the people who work in the office, the librarians, all of the students in the school, the lunchroom supervisors and our custodian. We brainstormed ideas of things we could say, how we would act and things we could do that shows care for others. Some of our ideas were:
- you say please and thank you
- you could tell someone you love them
- you can compliment someone for example "I like your clothes"
- help people if they are hurt
- help someone if they are stuck on their work

Today we started a novel study of the chapter book called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. There were lots of characters in the first chapter...we met 7 characters! We think the main character will be Charlie Bucket. We learned that Charlie LOVES chocolate, he is poor, he kept a chocolate bar for almost more than a month and he lives with 4 grandparents and his parents. We learned 2 new juicy words to add to our vocabulary. They were: draft and torture. Ask me what these words mean!

In math today we started to learn about repeating patterns. We learned that patterns are things that are arranged or ordered following a set of rules. If you figure out the rule you can then figure out what comes next in the pattern. Some fancy pattern words we learned today are:
Core: the part of the pattern that is repeated over and over
Attributes: ways to describe the parts of the pattern. Some examples are direction, size, shape and colour

This afternoon Mr. Fisher read us the story The Dot. It was about a little girl who didn't think she was artistic and only drew a dot on her page so she could leave her art class. When her art teacher made her sign her picture and then framed it, the little girl decided she could do much better pictures of dots and started painting and creating all different dots. This helped motivate other students in her school to try drawing their own creations. To go along with the story we created our own dots using watercolour pencils. Some of us made large dots and tiny dots. All of our dots looked different! Once we were finished, we wrote about what type of art we would complete or things we would make art about if we were world famous artists. Some of our ideas were:
- Paint splatter
- Batman, superman, DC heroes and villians
- Cover myself in paint and jump on a piece of paper
- Lots and lots of pretty dots
- Paint Mario Brothers
Ms. Binks and Mr. Fisher can't wait to see if anyone grows up to become an artist

Reminders:
School Information Packages should be filled out and returned by tomorrow
September calendar sent home today
Digital citizenship forms were sent home today. Students need to review these forms with an adult and sign them before returning them to their teacher. Students who do not complete the forms will be unable to use technology.

Remember to return your forms package!

We had another great day in grade 2 today.

Today we did some writing about 2 things we think we are good at and one thing that we would like to work on. Lots of us chose to work on things like reading, spelling and math. Some of us would like to get better at sports like swimming and skateboarding. We worked in our table groups to create beautiful flowers. In the center of the flower we wrote something that everyone at our table had in common. We each got our own petal and had to write something that was unique about us. It was difficult to come up with ideas but it gave us a chance to ask each other lots of questions, especially about a few of our favorite things! Today we did an activity that Ms. Binks will be putting in a time capsule. We will be doing a few activities around math and writing that Ms. Binks will keep all year and then we will do the same activities at the end of grade 2 to see what changes we have made. Today we showed how well we could count by writing out numbers as high as we could by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10. We were given 3 minutes for each set of numbers. This afternoon we met our buddy classes in Ms. Grants class. We had to learn 6 names and something interesting about them. Lots of people were excited that their buddies had the same favourite colours and foods as them.

Please remember to return your forms package by Friday.
There were new forms sent home today in the purple folders.

Happy First Day of School!

We had a wonderful first day of grade 2!
It was very exciting to meet everyone and see some friendly faces.

This morning we worked on creating our own name-tags for our coat hooks, working on self portraits and talking about classroom expectations for the year. We talked a lot about respect and how we can show respect towards others, learning and items within the classroom. This afternoon we read a story by Al Yankovic about a little boy with a big imagination and how it gets him into trouble with his new teacher. We liked hearing all of his stories and deciding whether they were true or poppycock (a new word from the story).

Some of our favourite things from today were:
- Learning a lot
- Writing
- That Ms. Binks has Minecraft books
- Reading Pokemon with Seth in the tent
- Making our helping hands
- Teachers
- Sorting the books
- The classroom tour
- Making ourselves in our self portrait
- Everything!

We sent home important forms in our purple home folders today. The forms need to be signed and returned by Friday September 4. Students need to return their purple folders tomorrow (and each day) to make sure that forms can be sent home.

Many students brought similar or the same lunch kits to school today. As a result, a few students mixed up their lunch kits. Please make sure the student's name is written clearly on the outside of the lunch kit to make sure the right kit is going home with the right person.