Week 26!

We started this week off with a terrific visit to the Alberta Provincial Museum.   We participated in the Bug World program.

In one of the centres we learned about the White Spotted Beetle.

We sorted bugs into insects, spiders and other creatures like real entomologists. 

We explored bug camouflage at the next centre.

We examined food webs.

We created habitats for bugs.

We learned about insect body parts.

We discussed insect senses.

We also got a chance to see samples of live bugs with our adult volunteers.

We examined a beautiful collection of butterflies.

We also explored the other galleries in the museum.  We explored the rocks and minerals found in Alberta.

 We discovered the dinosaurs that roamed Alberta long ago.

 We learned about a variety of birds found in Alberta.

 We learned about the different animals found in Alberta.

We learned about how some creatures survive our harsh Alberta winters.

 We saw the different types of vegetation found in Alberta.

We learned about the Aboriginal First Nations people of Alberta.

After a busy day at the Royal Alberta Museum we returned to the classroom to continue to work on adding numbers to 100 throughout the remainder of the week.

Our graph this week helped us demonstrate the power of democracy as we determined if we would continue on with our class book or change the book and start a new book.  

In the end the democratic decision was to continue to finish reading "James and the Giant Peach".

We did some research on St. Patrick as one of our literacy centres this week.

In religion we continued on our Lenten journey by considering how we can forgive people to prepare our hearts for Easter.

We finished our igloo research and shared it with the school by displaying it at the front of the school beside our igloo.

We took some literacy centre time to read in our igloo.

In art this week we started painting our clay lighthouses.   We made the lighthouses at the start of February then they were taken to be fired and returned to the school for us to paint.  Check out the concentration the students demonstrated!

Please remember to return Evidence of Learning portfolios on Monday in preparation for our three way conferences this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Week 25!

This week we celebrated Theo as our last star student of the year!

We began to prepare our hearts as we journey toward Easter together.

We discussed healthy eating then identified the four food groups and named the kinds of foods found in each group.

We planned a day of healthy eating, making sure that all four food groups were represented.

We celebrated our hard work learning our Banana Split math facts with a delicious banana split party this week.  

Yum!!!  The students ate their banana splits so fast that by the time I'd finished serving everyone, most of these students had finished their treat!  I was exceptionally impressed by one student who made her Lenten promise to give up sweets and is saving her banana split for after Lent.  Having such resolve at such a young age is impressive!

We continue to work on efficient and effective strategies for solving addition problems with big numbers up to 100.

We discovered this week that most students in our class have a black backpack but pink backpacks were a close second.

One of our literacy centres this week focused compound words.

Recently we read the creation story from the bible.  We made these hangings to demonstrate what happened on each of the seven days of creation.  They are hanging from the ceiling in our classroom.  

We finished the igloo and it looks amazing!  A huge thank you must be given to Sara Chappel for taking the lead on this project. We are truly blessed to have such a dedicated and creative member of our grade two family.  We are looking forward to using the igloo in the coming week.

On Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 Master Corporal Sean Ellis and Cadet Riley Bottirel-Brown joined us at the flag pole as we honoured the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan with a beautiful gathering at the flag pole at the front of the school.  We were witnesses to history unfolding as the Canadian flag in Afghanistan was lowered.

We discussed the Holy Trinity this week as St. Patrick's Day is coming up next week.  We read the book "3 in 1 a Picture of God" and used an apple to explain the Holy Trinity.

Here is a great link to the story to enjoy at home.
3 in 1 A Picture of God. We also made a craft that demonstrate the Holy Trinity.

We displayed them on our bulletin board in the hallway.

We have our field trip on Monday to the Alberta Provincial Museum.  Students need to bring their disposable lunch but not their ski pants, backpack, kanga, or agenda.  We intend on leaving right at the bell so we can arrive on time for our program at the museum.