· Fishing Fieldtrip- Along with our friends in Mrs. Saumier's class, we spent a beautiful day at the Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery. During the tour of the hatchery and presentations by the staff, we were taught about fish identification, life cycles, habitats and the importance of respecting our freshwater resources. With the help of our amazing parent volunteers, we learned about knot tying, safety, rod rigging and proper fish handling. Of course, we ended our day with catch and release fishing in the on site ponds!
Math Bee- The students set personal goals to answer as many math problems as they could in a 5 minute period over 5 days. They chose good fit goals and if they wanted to do addition/subtraction, single/double digit and use 6 or 9 sided dice. Every student showed progress and felt successful as they worked towards their goal and achieved their personal best.
Water Water Everywhere- During our visit from LEPS, we learned about the stages of the water cycle and ways to protect this natural resource. We then made bead necklaces to present the ration of fresh and salt water on Earth.
Spring activities- Students showed their creativity when making their own unique sock bunnies and then using them to inspire descriptive writing about their bunnies. We used plastic eggs full of jelly beans to make mathematical estimates, count the actual number of jelly beans and then graph our results. We also used these jelly beans to complete a STEM challenge building 3D shape structures.
RCG Pancake Breakfast- Once again, RCG students and staff were treated to a tasty pancake breakfast from our amazing PAC and many parent volunteers. We enjoyed the day in our cozy pajamas, danced with Santa and spent our afternoon making Christmas ornaments for our families.
Candycane sale- We are so grateful for our Division 10 families along with our Big Buddy families for generously donated over 900 candy canes for us to sell at our candy cane sale. Our classes enthusiastically worked together by making announcements, creating posters to place around the school and having different responsibilities to make the candy cane sale a success. We are thrilled to share that we exceeded our goal and raised $519 which will allow us to help provide clean water for many families! As teachers, we hope that our students will leave our classrooms as more caring and inspired individuals who feel empowered to make a positive difference in the lives of others. As we reflect on this event, it is evident that they have learned valuable lessons about generosity, compassion and working well with others. Thank you so much for your generosity and support!
December activities- Our class had a very busy month full of fun and festive spirit. In addition to practicing for our school production of "A Christmas Carol", we brought joy by singing Christmas carols at the seniors residence. As has been tradition for the last 11 years, Mrs. Boysen’s mother in law “Nana Carol” came to do paper bag crafts with our class. It is always wonderful to see how the student’s unique personalities and styles come across when creating their works of art. Hope they found a special spot in your home:) We also spent some quality time with our Big buddies to design and build creative and delicious gingerbread houses.
· OWL Investigations- During our visit from the OWL Society, we learned so much about the characteristics, habitat and diet of a variety of owls and got to meet two birds that have been cared for by this great organization. Our students had lots of thoughtful questions and were keen to learn more. They later worked together with a partner to dissect an owl pellet, make observations of what they saw and guess what animals may have been eaten by this owl. It sounds a bit yucky but it was very cool and a such a valuable learning experience!
· Crazy hair day- Our class showed their school spirit with some wonderfully wild hair. We earned lots of points for our House Teams for all our colourful and wacky hair!
Flashlight reading- With our flashlights and books in hand, we find cozy spots around the classroom to enjoy some special reading time on a Friday afternoon. The students are very excited about this weekly literacy event!
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Global Read Aloud- We have been very engaged taking part in the GRA and reading the novel "A Boy Called Bat" along with children across the globe. We've had meaningful conversations and made connections to the characters and events. One of the highlights so far has been participating in a Mystery Skype with a Grade 2 class that we did not know the location of their school (only the teachers knew). We used maps, critical thinking and oral language skills to ask strategic questions which could only be answered with yes or no answers. It was such an exciting experience and an outstanding demonstration of working together to solve a geography problem. We are looking forward to connecting with our new friends from Alliston Union Public School in Ontario and discuss the book we are all reading.
Pumpkin Investigations- We applied our scientific skills by making predictions about our pumpkins such as their circumference, number of lines, height and if they would sink or float in water. We then used our senses to determine how accurate our predictions were and recorded the results. We also met with our Big Buddy class to make predictions about how many seeds would be found inside our pumpkins and used skip counting strategies to count all the seeds! The students were surprised that some of the little pumpkins had over 400 seeds in them!
RCG Pumpkin Patch- We began our morning gathering in the library with all the Grade 2 classes for the sweet story "Stumpkin". We then went outside and the students chose a pumpkin they liked best and enjoyed some tasty hot chocolate. Thank you to all the parent volunteers who helped with setting up the pumpkin patch, serving hot chocolate, taking photos and cleaning up. It was such a lovely fall morning!
Apple Study- As part of our study of Fall we discussed different foods that are grown and harvested in Fall such as apples. We learned about the apple life cycle, did scientific observations, use our senses, did taste tests of different apples and graphed the results. Guess which colour most students enjoyed... green, red or yellow? We learned how to write recipes and made our own delicious apple sauce in the slow cooker...yummy!
Signs of Fall- As the season changed we began our exploration of fall by asking questions, investigating outdoors, reading books, and writing about what we saw. After observing the colours, shapes and designs of a variety of leaves, they sketched and painted their own leaves, wrote what they are thankful for on them and created special "Thankful Trees".
Identity Day- The students proudly shared their passions and interests with a variety of displays and we learned so much about our classmates. We also enjoyed visiting different classes and learning about the other students in our school. It was such a great event to build school community and make connections with one another.
Hands on Math- We are learning how patterns are found all around us and how they repeat in predictable ways. The students have been showing their understanding of pattern cores, repeating patterns and increasing patterns, using manipulatives, 100 charts, games and practice worksheets.
Building Community-We are enjoying getting to know our new classmates, developing relationships with one another and learning our Grade 2 routines. It's going to be a great school year!