Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t give only your care, but give your heart as well –Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Friday 7 February 2014

Week 20!
You may have heard some stories about the moose that was on the loose over the last few weeks.  As a class, the 2H students took the opportunity to create a moose story.   Here is the story the students created.


On Monday the students celebrated Groundhog Day.

 They read lots of Groundhog Day stories.
Then they identified the beginning, middle and end of story.
 The students then presented their work to their classmates.
They did a little groundhog research.
 On Tuesday we worked on making clay lighthouses with the Clay Works program.  Dara brought her dad to help out.
 Cameron brought his mom to help out.
 McKenna brought her Nana to help out.
 Kalysta brought her mom to help out.
 We are very grateful to all our parent volunteers!

You are going to have to wait to see our finished products when they come back from being fired in the kiln.  

After we built our lighthouses we did a little research on lighthouses.  We visited Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society to discover more about lighthouses in Canada. We learned about the most famous Canadian lighthouse in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.
We read a lovely this story.  Ask you child how the cats were the heroes of the story.
Wednesday was Backwards Day!
 It was also Reward Day so I had to think of creative ways to grow our brains so that we didn't do any "work".
 We used the Chromebooks for the first time this year.  Normally we use the laptops so this was a very exciting adventure for us.
  The students got to visit a website that helps them practice their math basic facts called Mathmagician.   Here is the link so you can access it at home Mathmagician.  Any certificates earned can be brought to school and the students to share and celebrate.
 Speed stacking was the next adventure for Reward Day.  
 The students loved the challenge!
 Speed Stacking is great for coordination.
 Speed Stacking is also great for right and left brain activation. 
 If you'd like to learn more about the benefits of this activity you can click here Speed Stacks.

As Reward Day drew to a close the students got to decide how they wanted to grow their brains for the last 25 minutes of the day.  It was very interesting to see their choices.  
Some students made Minecraft people,
 trees,
cars and
many other creations.

 Some decided to explore the continents of the World.

Other students decided to create by building objects and communities with a variety of shapes.
 Others decided to work on puzzles of opposite words (antonyms).
A group of students chose to try Speed Stacking on their own.
Some students found other ways to build and create with the Speed Stacker cups.

As interesting as their choices for Reward Day, were their choices for what they want to learn more about.  We discovered that most students in our class want to learn more about dogs but nobody wants to learn about maps and globes.  
This week we did not earn our chocolate scoop, however I am confident we'll earn it on Monday if we keep practicing those basic facts! 

A few reminders:

-Random Acts of Kindness starts on Monday
-clean, dry, plastic 4L milk jugs are being accepted for our igloo project
-Friend O'Gram starts on Monday so please remind the students to bring $0.25 for their donation to The Stollery
-report cards will be sent home on Wednesday
-a class list was emailed to everyone for Valentines Day celebrations on Friday