NEWS
And just like that we are about to start on the last week of school for this year. How time flies. The highlight of this week was our field trip to the bird and butterfly park. Thank you to all the parents who came along and escorted our students around the various venues.
This coming week will be very busy with end of year activities. What is also going to be very interesting is how sparse our classrooms will be this week given the big clean-out that happened on Friday in preparation for the movers packing up all our materials to take them to our new Ampang Hilir campus. Also, the grade 2 team has decided on mixing things up a little with theme days each day next week. On Monday, students are welcome to bring their pyjama's to school to change into for some cozy reading (but by no means mandatory). This is what the week will look like:
Monday - Pyjama Day
Tuesday - Game Day
Wednesday - Inventor's Day
Thursday - Spirit Day
Also on Wednesday the grade 1 students will be visiting grade 2 to get some "advice" and later in the morning grade 2 will be going up to see grade 3 students and classrooms.
On Thursday we will be hosting our learning celebration from 10:00 to 10:45ish, which will also include a birthday bash celebration for May, June, and July birthdays. Right after the learning celebration we will be heading downstairs for the Farewell Assembly. All classes need to be in the studio and seated by 11:00.
Friday is a short day where we will be signing off on yearbooks, cards, etc. and closing out the year while saying goodbye to the Melawati campus and hello to the Ampang Hilir campus in August.
Finally, Mr. Alex will be absent from the classroom on Monday and Tuesday while I help our literacy committee update some curriculum for the coming school year.
Happy Weekend.
Saturday 2 June 2018
Saturday 26 May 2018
The Week of May 21
NEWS
It was a fun and full week in 2AL! We continued working on powerful poetry, measuring and estimating, and exploring more about Life Cycles. The highlight of this week was our Wet and Wild celebration on Friday! Thank you so much for all the parents who came out, got wet and muddy and had a blast!
During literacy we student continued to learn about making powerful poems. They have experimented with line breaks, powerful words, comparisons and have had fun using different kinds of punctuation to enhance meaning. Their poems are filled with emotion and some interesting interpretations of ordinary objects. They have studied the way authors use repeating lines, rhyming words and word choice during reading time to give their poems music. They are absolutely loving this unit and are excited to read and share with you during our learning celebration!
As mathematicians we were measuring machines. We had fun finding measuring monsters and objects around the classroom (including ourselves) in both centimeters and inches using a variety of tools. We have also been working out to come up with reasonable estimates and using data to make and interpret line plots. We will continue our measurement unit for the next few weeks and share with you when you come for our celebration.
As scientists we discovered some interesting facts about some unique life cycles. We also worked on creating our Scratch Junior teaching videos all made in computer code. Some very impressive videos that we look forward to sharing with you as well.
IMPORTANT
**Please note May 31st is our field trip. It is also free dress but students are to wear their SCHOOL UNIFORMS on field trips. They must also bring a hat, water bottle and a snack as we will eat on the bus. Thank you to parents who will be joining us and taking a group.
UPCOMING
Tuesday: NO SCHOOL HOLIDAY
Thursday: Day 4 FIELD TRIP: students need to bring own snack and wear school uniform
Friday: NO SCHOOL packing day for teachers
The last week of school we will be having theme days, so stay tuned!
Happy Weekend.
It was a fun and full week in 2AL! We continued working on powerful poetry, measuring and estimating, and exploring more about Life Cycles. The highlight of this week was our Wet and Wild celebration on Friday! Thank you so much for all the parents who came out, got wet and muddy and had a blast!
During literacy we student continued to learn about making powerful poems. They have experimented with line breaks, powerful words, comparisons and have had fun using different kinds of punctuation to enhance meaning. Their poems are filled with emotion and some interesting interpretations of ordinary objects. They have studied the way authors use repeating lines, rhyming words and word choice during reading time to give their poems music. They are absolutely loving this unit and are excited to read and share with you during our learning celebration!
As mathematicians we were measuring machines. We had fun finding measuring monsters and objects around the classroom (including ourselves) in both centimeters and inches using a variety of tools. We have also been working out to come up with reasonable estimates and using data to make and interpret line plots. We will continue our measurement unit for the next few weeks and share with you when you come for our celebration.
As scientists we discovered some interesting facts about some unique life cycles. We also worked on creating our Scratch Junior teaching videos all made in computer code. Some very impressive videos that we look forward to sharing with you as well.
IMPORTANT
**Please note May 31st is our field trip. It is also free dress but students are to wear their SCHOOL UNIFORMS on field trips. They must also bring a hat, water bottle and a snack as we will eat on the bus. Thank you to parents who will be joining us and taking a group.
UPCOMING
Tuesday: NO SCHOOL HOLIDAY
Thursday: Day 4 FIELD TRIP: students need to bring own snack and wear school uniform
Friday: NO SCHOOL packing day for teachers
The last week of school we will be having theme days, so stay tuned!
Happy Weekend.
Sunday 6 May 2018
The Week of May 7th
NEWS
As readers we are continuing our work in the series book clubs, with the focus this week being on sharing the passion we have for our series with others. This involves gathering evidence from our books, forming opinions, and choosing a presentation format.
As writers we are continuing our work on opinion writing, with the focus being how to write stronger opinion pieces by including evidence from the text in the form of quotations and/or dialog. Both our series clubs and opinion writing units will wrap up by next week after which we will be starting poetry.
Our science unit is well underway now learning all about life cycles of different plants and insects, and really honing our skills as observers - paying attention to all the little details. Our field trip on Friday, May 11th will be a great opportunity for us to talk about the life cycle of butterflies and plants "as scientists in real life."
Our new math unit has also started this week and it is all about data and measurement. We will be inquiring into different standard units of measurement, time, different tools and ways to measure and honing our word problems skills around distance.
UPCOMING
On May 11th the Grade 2 classes will take a field trip to visit the Butterfly and Bird Parks as part of our science unit on life cycles. Thank you to all of those who have turned in their permission forms.
IMPORTANT
No school on Wednesday, May 9th.
IMPORTANT
No school on Wednesday, May 9th.
DINNER QUESTIONS
What are some ways that you can help take care of the Earth?
What are some of the words the author used in your book to help you create a movie or picture in your mind?
Tell me about the book you’re reading. What is your opinion? What are the important parts?
What are you excited about learning during your life cycles unit?
Saturday 21 April 2018
The Week of April 16th
NEWS
This past week was a busy one in Grade 2! The students took their Math and Reading MAP tests, we celebrated Earth Week learning different ways that we can help take care of the Earth, and ended our week with an Earth Day assembly.
Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to lead our Mini Academies on Friday. The children had so much fun and came back to the classroom excited to show their friends what they made or what they did. It’s hard to believe that this was our last Mini Academies for the year. The Mini Academies have been a huge success because of your commitment and dedication. Thank you for your creativity, your time, and your willingness to volunteer for our Mini Academies throughout the year. This is an event that the kids love and and we couldn’t do it without your help. Thank you!
As readers the children are really enjoying reading and discussing their books in their Book Clubs. As a class, we’ve been reading some of Kevin Henkes’ books and learning about Lilly, one of the main characters who appears in several of his books. This week we’ll focus on looking at the language the author uses to make his or her stories so powerful. The week will start with children looking for examples of how the author uses precise words and descriptive language to help readers visualize the event and characters from the book. We’ll end the week looking at different types of literary language, such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and alliteration and how authors can use these to make simple things seem extraordinary.
As writers our focus has been sharing our opinions about the characters and books we’ve been reading in our Book Clubs. This week we’ll focus on how to make our book reviews even better by retelling the important parts of their books. We’ll practice retelling with partners and then the students will write a brief summary of their book to help strengthen their book review. Throughout the week as students are writing, we will also emphasize the importance of keeping the audience in mind. Picturing their audience will help students write stronger book reviews.
Students are excited to start our new science unit on life cycles this week! This past week we set up observation stations in our common area where students could begin to observe the life cycle of beetles and butterflies. We’ll start the week tuning in to life cycles by looking at some of the vocabulary words for this unit and getting an idea of what students already know about life cycles. Throughout the week we will talk about how scientists make and record their observations. We’ll practice drawing scientific diagrams, with details and labels, of the animals in our common area.
Our unit on Developing Multiplication is coming to a close and this week will be spent reviewing the skills and concepts that were covered in this unit. Students will complete different projects to help strengthen their understanding of rectangular arrays. We will also continue to practice making and interpreting bar and picture graphs.
UPCOMING
On May 11th the Grade 2 classes will take a field trip to visit the Butterfly and Bird Parks as part of our science unit on life cycles. A permission slip was sent home this Friday. Please return the permission slip by Friday, April 27 to help us with planning. We are looking for parent volunteers to chaperone, so if you are interested, please indicate on the permission slip.
DINNER QUESTIONS
What are some ways that you can help take care of the Earth?
What are some of the words the author used in your book to help you create a movie or picture in your mind?
Tell me about the book you’re reading. What is your opinion? What are the important parts?
What are you excited about learning during your life cycles unit?
Friday 13 April 2018
The Week of April 9th
NEWS
2AL is back in full swing after a restful spring break and we are all full of energy and vigor as we enter this final home stretch of the year.
As readers we have launched our book clubs in earnest focusing specifically on how becoming experts on the characters in our series books. We have been collecting information in our reading journals on our characters, noticing how our characters respond to problems they are facing, and how what we know about our characters can help us to predict what they might do next. We completed a checklist in Seesaw where you can see some more specifics on the teaching points. This work will continue in the coming weeks so that we can identify similarities and differences across our series.
As writers we have been crafting our opinion pieces through the lens of writing letters in response to our book club conversations. Some of us are also choosing to write letters to favorite authors, football players, etc. While the content of the letters may differ what is common is the 5 parts of a letter format (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) and how to structure our writing. The expectation is that we state an opinion, then support our opinion with multiple reasons and multiple specific examples for each reason. One of our letters to Josh Funk (author of class favorite It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk) has actually proven to be surprisingly convincing and we are hoping to arrange a Skype call with him in the coming days.
As mathematicians we are still practicing adding and subtracting multiple three digit numbers with regrouping while also starting to work on arrays as the foundation for multiplication.
In social studies we have started a mini-unit on celebrations identifying similarities and differences, with a special focus on the elements of celebration such as food, colors, music, dress, rituals, etc). The ultimate goal is for the students next week to prepare an oral presentation about a favorite celebration from their home country (or a country they strongly associate with). The purpose is to teach each other about what the elements of our chosen celebration are (how), the purpose behind the celebration (why), the date of it, and any associated props from their chosen celebration to share with the class (this could be an artifact or food). If you could take some time to speak to your child about a celebration they would like to choose and help them talk through the different aspects of it that would be fabulous.
UPCOMING
Earth Week is coming up next week (April 16-20). 2AL has been challenged by a group of 2AL students to take part in the Trash Hero challenge as part of their Genius Hour project. See attached book here. The idea is to "get caught" in the act of helping the environment by refusing plastic straws, re-using plastic bags, cleaning up some trash, etc. Basically taking positive actions to make a difference. When you catch your children being "Trash Heroes" please can you take a picture and email it to me. I have started a folder where I will be collating these pictures. On Friday ES Melawati will be having an Earth Day assembly where I would like to highlight some of the great work we are doing. Thank you!
Our last Mini-Academy is scheduled for Friday, April 20th at 1:45pm. Thank you to all who volunteered to lead an activity. This is something our students always look forward to. Last mini academies
MAP testing will be next week. Our math time is slotted for April 18th (Wednesday) and our reading time is slotted for April 20th (Friday). Both tests will be administered on iPads in our classroom in the morning. There is no special preparation necessary. The only thing we ask is that on the day prior to testing they get a good nights rest and eat a healthy breakfast.
IMPORTANT
Grade 2 will be going on a field trip on May 11th for our upcoming life cycle unit. Paper permission slips will be going home next week, however a soft copy is linked here if you would like to read it ahead of time and/or print and send to school with your child.
PE kit. Please can we remember to include the blue ISKL polo shirt to change into our after our PE days because students are often hot and sweaty and when they go back into the air conditioning from their PE classes it is healthier for them to change into their fresh polo shirts.
DINNER QUESTIONS
* What is the difference between a fact and an opinion?
* Tell me about the series you are reading?
* What celebration do you want to share with your classmates?
2AL is back in full swing after a restful spring break and we are all full of energy and vigor as we enter this final home stretch of the year.
As readers we have launched our book clubs in earnest focusing specifically on how becoming experts on the characters in our series books. We have been collecting information in our reading journals on our characters, noticing how our characters respond to problems they are facing, and how what we know about our characters can help us to predict what they might do next. We completed a checklist in Seesaw where you can see some more specifics on the teaching points. This work will continue in the coming weeks so that we can identify similarities and differences across our series.
As writers we have been crafting our opinion pieces through the lens of writing letters in response to our book club conversations. Some of us are also choosing to write letters to favorite authors, football players, etc. While the content of the letters may differ what is common is the 5 parts of a letter format (heading, greeting, body, closing, signature) and how to structure our writing. The expectation is that we state an opinion, then support our opinion with multiple reasons and multiple specific examples for each reason. One of our letters to Josh Funk (author of class favorite It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk) has actually proven to be surprisingly convincing and we are hoping to arrange a Skype call with him in the coming days.
As mathematicians we are still practicing adding and subtracting multiple three digit numbers with regrouping while also starting to work on arrays as the foundation for multiplication.
In social studies we have started a mini-unit on celebrations identifying similarities and differences, with a special focus on the elements of celebration such as food, colors, music, dress, rituals, etc). The ultimate goal is for the students next week to prepare an oral presentation about a favorite celebration from their home country (or a country they strongly associate with). The purpose is to teach each other about what the elements of our chosen celebration are (how), the purpose behind the celebration (why), the date of it, and any associated props from their chosen celebration to share with the class (this could be an artifact or food). If you could take some time to speak to your child about a celebration they would like to choose and help them talk through the different aspects of it that would be fabulous.
UPCOMING
Earth Week is coming up next week (April 16-20). 2AL has been challenged by a group of 2AL students to take part in the Trash Hero challenge as part of their Genius Hour project. See attached book here. The idea is to "get caught" in the act of helping the environment by refusing plastic straws, re-using plastic bags, cleaning up some trash, etc. Basically taking positive actions to make a difference. When you catch your children being "Trash Heroes" please can you take a picture and email it to me. I have started a folder where I will be collating these pictures. On Friday ES Melawati will be having an Earth Day assembly where I would like to highlight some of the great work we are doing. Thank you!
Our last Mini-Academy is scheduled for Friday, April 20th at 1:45pm. Thank you to all who volunteered to lead an activity. This is something our students always look forward to. Last mini academies
MAP testing will be next week. Our math time is slotted for April 18th (Wednesday) and our reading time is slotted for April 20th (Friday). Both tests will be administered on iPads in our classroom in the morning. There is no special preparation necessary. The only thing we ask is that on the day prior to testing they get a good nights rest and eat a healthy breakfast.
IMPORTANT
Grade 2 will be going on a field trip on May 11th for our upcoming life cycle unit. Paper permission slips will be going home next week, however a soft copy is linked here if you would like to read it ahead of time and/or print and send to school with your child.
PE kit. Please can we remember to include the blue ISKL polo shirt to change into our after our PE days because students are often hot and sweaty and when they go back into the air conditioning from their PE classes it is healthier for them to change into their fresh polo shirts.
DINNER QUESTIONS
* What is the difference between a fact and an opinion?
* Tell me about the series you are reading?
* What celebration do you want to share with your classmates?
Monday 19 March 2018
The Week of March 12
NEWS
Thank you to all the parents who attended their child's student led conferences and who supported our Run, Jump and Throw day. Your participation always makes these events so much more special and meaningful for your children.
Mrs. Wright during guidance has started a series of lessons on what kindness is and the distinction between what is rude, mean and bullying. We will have more conversations around these terms in the coming weeks.
In writing we completed our healthy choices book using all the craft moves that we have learned. We went through the checklist to ensure all the elements needed in non-fiction writing were included. This was done independently with the help of their peers and these books will be coming home to you shortly. I will also send a copy of the original home and it would be great if you had the opportunity to ask your dentist or doctor whether they would be willing to "showcase" the book in their waiting area. This would be a great way for our young authors to feel like they have an authentic audience that cares about the topic they are writing about. I have 3/4 dentists and doctors I have spoken to that would love a copy of our students writing for other young patients (and peers) to read while they wait for their appointment). Next, we will be shifting our writing focus to opinion writing for the next couple of weeks. More on this to follow soon.
In reading we have focused on using our note taking skills to note down important facts for our healthy choices books. Our non-fiction reading is now over and after a few assessments we will be shifting to fiction reading again, with a focus on book clubs and having rich conversations about our books.
In math students practised two and three digit addition with and without regrouping using multiple strategies such as using place value disks, base ten blocks, number lines, and decomposing into parts. This week we will focus on subtraction of three digit numbers.
UPCOMING
Tuesday, March 20th is back to Day 2!
Friday 23rd March: Terry Fox run at 8:15
Spring Break is from Saturday 24th March - Sunday 1st April
DINNER QUESTIONS
1 - Which part of the healthy choices do you think you need to work on? Why?
2 - Can you tell some details that you learned from a non-fiction book that you have read?
3 - What is the difference between rude, mean and bullying?
Thank you to all the parents who attended their child's student led conferences and who supported our Run, Jump and Throw day. Your participation always makes these events so much more special and meaningful for your children.
Mrs. Wright during guidance has started a series of lessons on what kindness is and the distinction between what is rude, mean and bullying. We will have more conversations around these terms in the coming weeks.
In writing we completed our healthy choices book using all the craft moves that we have learned. We went through the checklist to ensure all the elements needed in non-fiction writing were included. This was done independently with the help of their peers and these books will be coming home to you shortly. I will also send a copy of the original home and it would be great if you had the opportunity to ask your dentist or doctor whether they would be willing to "showcase" the book in their waiting area. This would be a great way for our young authors to feel like they have an authentic audience that cares about the topic they are writing about. I have 3/4 dentists and doctors I have spoken to that would love a copy of our students writing for other young patients (and peers) to read while they wait for their appointment). Next, we will be shifting our writing focus to opinion writing for the next couple of weeks. More on this to follow soon.
In reading we have focused on using our note taking skills to note down important facts for our healthy choices books. Our non-fiction reading is now over and after a few assessments we will be shifting to fiction reading again, with a focus on book clubs and having rich conversations about our books.
In math students practised two and three digit addition with and without regrouping using multiple strategies such as using place value disks, base ten blocks, number lines, and decomposing into parts. This week we will focus on subtraction of three digit numbers.
UPCOMING
Tuesday, March 20th is back to Day 2!
Friday 23rd March: Terry Fox run at 8:15
Spring Break is from Saturday 24th March - Sunday 1st April
DINNER QUESTIONS
1 - Which part of the healthy choices do you think you need to work on? Why?
2 - Can you tell some details that you learned from a non-fiction book that you have read?
3 - What is the difference between rude, mean and bullying?
Sunday 4 March 2018
The Week of March 5
NEWS
We had a super week celebrating book week with visiting author, Tad Hills,
visiting singer, Courtney Campbell, book swap and book character dress-up
day. We also had mini academy on Tuesday. Thank you to all the parents
who volunteered to make this a successful event. We are also moving through
our March Madness book bracket by reading and voting on some quality
read-aloud favorites.
As readers and writers we have been busy preparing for their student led conferences.
A lot of time was spent on reflecting on their glow (what they are good at) and grow
(what they want to better at). Students got to do some fun activities for book
week including reading BINGO, bringing in favorite books to share, nonfiction
wonderings and research about germs and some fun partner reading tasks.
As mathematicians we refreshed their memories on place values and base ten blocks.
This week, we also reviewed strategies to add two addends. Then they added 4
addends using transition words strategy such as first I added .....then I added
....after that I added....finally I got.....Students also looked at the most efficient
way to add multiple addends by making 10 and adding doubles. They then learned
to add and subtract multiples of 100.
As scientists we have just started learning about germs and the importance of good hygiene, both dental and personal. We will continue learning about different kinds of germs, and how our body protects itself and what we can do to stay healthy.
UPCOMING
Wednesday 7 and 8 March - No School-Student Led Conferences. Please bring
your child to school at the scheduled time you will have 45 minutes to conference
and the last 15 minutes to visit specialist teachers.
IMPORTANT
Some students (and Mr. Alex) have decided to take part in the Slice of Life challenge. This entails writing something every day for 31 days (basically every day in March). This is something the students are working on at home and the idea is to foster a love of writing by sharing a "slice of our life" or in other words a small personal narrative moment. This is the original site if you would like more information. This is what we have published so far in 2AL - it would be great if you could read a piece and comment (it would mean a lot to the writers and will spur them to keep going for the rest of the month). Mr. Alex's slices of life can be found here.
Dinner Questions
1 - What did you learn about dental hygiene?
2 - What was your favorite thing about book week?
3 - What did you learn from the visiting author or song writer?
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