End of Year Learning Celebration

A big thank you to everyone who attended our End of Year Learning Celebration! Our children had an AMAZING time sharing their poems and portfolios with their parents! 

Congratulations to our Grade 1 & 2 students on their commitment, effort, and fabulous progress. It was wonderful to have an event to celebrate their success!

Please click on the link below to see photos from the event.

Learning Celebration Photos

Writer's Workshop: Poetry

In writer’s workshop, we have been writing a variety of poems! We began our unit with our students identifying the different characteristics we noticed in poetry. 

After learning about the characteristics of poems, we began to write some ourselves. So far we have written poems with our senses, cinquain poems, shape poems, and free verse poems. You will see some of your child’s poems posted on Easy Blog and others presented during the End of Year Learning  Celebration! 

Please remember that the End of Year Learning Celebration is being held on May 31 at 8:10AM. 

Below you can hear one of our student’s senses poems. 

Reader's Workshop: Series Book Club

Recently we began our Series Book Club reading unit. This unit will support students in learning to effectively read series books. Students will develop their comprehension skills by identifying and reflecting on patterns in characters, events, and structure as they read consecutive books within a series. We will have the opportunity to read two different series during this unit. 

Our students will also benefit from discussions with their book club members as they share their understandings, predictions, questions, and connections. Watch the video below to hear one of our students reflecting on her book club experiences. 

Character Day!

Social Studies: Going Global

We are now in the midst of our final social studies unit for the year. This unit is called Going Global. This unit will have a geography focus. During this unit, we will learn about the concept of location and how to use maps, graphs, tables, and diagrams to read and display geographical information. We will also learn about landforms and bodies of water and how geographic features influence our lives. 

Last week, our students brainstormed their “I Wonders” for the unit. These have been posted on Easy Blog. You can listen to one of our students curious questions in the video below. 

Writer's Workshop: Sentence Fluency

Recently, in writing, we finished revising and editing our fairy tale adaptation. During this unit, our students have been working on their sentence fluency. Sentence fluency is one of the six traits of writing. During our lessons on sentence fluency, we have learned about including both simple and compound sentences, using varied connecting words in our compound sentences, using different beginning words for our sentences, and ensuring our words flow together when read aloud. 

We are now publishing our fairy tales. You can look forward to seeing you child’s fairy tale adaptation on Easy Blog in about a week! 

Listen to the video below to hear one of our students reflecting on her sentence fluency. 

Saying Goodbye!

Writer's Workshop: Expert Nonfiction

Our first and second graders recently finished publishing their expert nonfiction pieces. During this unit, our students wrote about topics which they already knew a lot about, rather than using research. This unit emphasized creating a foundation for developing the skills needed for nonfiction writing.  We learned the writing style which is used in informational nonfiction books, the purpose and importance of various nonfiction text features, and the style of writing that is typically used in informational nonfiction writing.

Please visit your child's blog to see a digital copy of their published book. 

Reader's Workshop: Fairy Tales and Fables

Recently, we have been learning about fairy tales and fables in reader’s workshop. The students have been learning about the typical story elements of the genre. We have focused on learning about the characters, setting, events, and lessons in the tales. 

We are also in the process of writing fairy tale and fable adaptations. Please watch the video below to see one of our student’s understand of fairytales and the adaptations she plans on making to her own version of a traditional tale. 

Science: Air & Weather

During our current science unit, Air and Weather, our students have been learning about patterns in weather conditions and how we can use these patterns to forecast the weather. One element of weather patterns which we have researched is seasons. Our students have learned how seasons are created and why seasons are different in various parts of the Earth. You can watch the video below to one of our student's learning. Please visit your child's blog to see their Air & Weather posts.

Reading: Nonfiction Books

In reading, we have been studying nonfiction texts. Out students have been learning about the characteristics of the non-fiction genre and strategies which good nonfiction readers use. Our students have been reading about a variety of topics and learning a great deal of new, interesting information! Ask your child to share some of the amazingg facts they have learned. 

Watch the video to below to hear some of the strategies a good non-fiction reader uses. 

Science: Air & Weather

We have recently began our latest since unit, Air & Weather. In this unit, our students will explore how weather conditions impact our lives, how we can use weather patterns to make predictions, and how air interacts with different objects. 

We began this unit with our students posing their “I Wonders”. During this stage, each student brainstorms different questions which they have about the upcoming unit. They will seek the answers to these questions through our hands-on investigations or research. 

Everyone is very excited to get started! Watch the video below to hear one of our curious student’s “I Wonders”. 

Valentine's Day

Today, our first and second graders hosted a school-wide Valentine's Day celebration at recess. The celebration was a great success! Everyone wore pink, red, or white. As well, we provided cookies and had a love song dance-a-thon! Everyone's dance moves were so great that I couldn't get any photos that weren't a little blurry! You can click on the link below to see some of the photos from the event. 

Valentine's Day Celebration Photos

Superheroes Unite! We're ready for the PE performance!

100th Day of School!

Everyone had a fabulous time at our 100th Day of School celebration! Throughout the day, we participated in 100 exercises, viewed our 100 item collections, read 100th Day stories, created 100th Day wish lists, wrote 100 words, built towers with 100 cups, and completed a 100th day mystery puzzle to name but a few. Click on the link below to see some of the activities which we participated in today. Thank you to all of the parents for helping your child create their 100th Day collections! 

100th Day of School Album

Another Great Friday!

Social Studies: Learning About Our Cultures

For the culminating activity of our social studies unit, Cultural Diversity, we have been researching our home countries and recoding our learning in a digital book. Our students have had a great time deepening their knowledge of their culture!  

Once all of the books have been completed we will have a class share and learn a little more about each other. Next week, we will post your child's book on Easy Blog. You can see one of our student's books featured in the video below. 

Writer's Workshop: How to Books

Our first and second graders have recently finished publishing their How to Books. The How to Book is our first experience with writing procedural writing pieces. The purpose of procedural writing is to explain to your reader how to do or make something. Some examples of procedural writing include recipes, science experiments, manual instructions, and of course How to Books!

During this unit our students focused on writing clear steps, using transition words, and writing fantastic introductions and conclusions to hook their reader! You can hear one of our student's published How to Books below.

Reader's Workshop: Identifying Author's Message

In reading, we have been learning to identify the author's message, or lesson,  in personal narratives and fiction texts. Identifying the author's message is a challenging task, which often relies on our students' drawing inferences. Inferential thinking is a higher order thinking skills which requires our students to read between the lines. When our students determine the author's message, when it is not explicitly stated, they must look for clues in the text, reflect on their personal experiences, and draw conclusions.  We have been making excellent strides in this area.

You can watch a video below to see one of our student's reflecting on the author's message from the text The Invisible Boy and how we can apply this lesson to our own lives. Watch your child's Easyblog to see their reflection coming soon!