Groundhog Day Fun

With Groundhog Day popping up this week, we worked on conducting our very own surveys. We asked 10 of our friends a survey question about Groundhog's Day; 'Do you want the groundhog to see his shadow?' Once we collected our data with tallies, we graphed our results. They really enjoyed being able to socialize and organize! After review the results, the data says that most do NOT want the groundhog to see his shadow to bring on some spring type weather (although we already know the calendar doesn't start the Spring season for six weeks regardless)! We found out that most of the Canadian Spring predictors (even the lobster) said yes to an early spring. However the west coast critters said they are having more winter! Who knows! But we do know that groundhogs, nor people, can control the weather so we just are going with the flow!    

January Estimate Jar

 

We were so excited to get to do our Estimate Jar from January for our last school day of January! Christopher, the Elf, happened to leave us the treats before he left for the North Pole as a surprise for when we got back in January. 

Each student wrote down their estimate on their white board of how many little packaged treats were in the jar. 

We discussed our rules for counting objects. We decided that counting one item at a time would take us a long time so we did groups of 5! This was so super speedy! 

Then for the big moment...we all took a turn going around the class and sharing our estimate. We compared numbers and how far away our estimate was from the actual total we had of the candies.

Claire was our lucky winner!!! She was only 1 away from the 37 treats we had in total! She knew our tradition is to share the treats with everyone in class and students may have brought home their treats (if they didn't eat them out of their lunch today)! Claire also got to take over the leftovers! Score!

The students are excited for what treats land in the jar for February!

Phonics Lesson 68 Open/Closed Syllable Words: Jan 26 - 29 (Reading Practice Book)

Phonics Lessons - Jan 26-29

With all these bus cancellation days, we have slowly managed to get this lesson completed and practiced! We hope to be back on track with two lessons a week to keep up with our phonics work for Grade 1/2!

Lesson 68: Open/Closed Two Syllable Words

A syllable is a word or part of a word with one vowel sound. A syllable can be pushed out in one breath. Your chin usually drops slightly as you say the syllable as vowel sounds have that open sound. Another way to know syllables is if you hum a word. The hums are the vowel sounds in a word. 

There are two kinds of syllables:

Open Syllables: have only one vowel and the vowel is the last letter in that syllable. In an open syllable, the vowel sound is long. Hi, go and she are examples of open syllables. They have one vowel sound at the end and the vowel makes a long sound. 

Closed Syllables: have only one vowel and the vowel is followed by one or more consonants. In a closed syllable, the vowel sound is short. Hop, kick, and fast are all closed syllables. They have one vowel followed by at least one consonant and the vowel makes a short vowel sound. 

We can combine two syllables to make longer words. We have learned about using two closed syllables already in the previous two lessons. We are learning this week that we can combine open and closed syllables to make longer words as well.  

When reading larger words, we want to break apart the syllables to make it easier. For example, beyond 

Step 1. b - e = be (open syllable)

Step 2. y - o - n - d =yond (closed syllable)

Step 3. be+yond = beyond

We have also learned that in many two-syllable words, one syllable is stressed or emphasized more than the other. This means that we say it a little bit louder or hold it a little bit longer, like -bout in about. 

We also have learned that in some two syllable words, a vowel sound can be pronounced as a schwa. The a in about sounds more like a short u sound in some dialects. The schwa can be spelled by any vowel letter: a, e, i, o, u and even y. So we have to use our vowel owl strategy to see if it our vowels need to make another sound to make it sound right! 

In this week's text called, Music Class, students are looking for open and closed syllable words (two syllables put together to make one larger word where we recognize the first is open and the second is a closed syllable) to highlight. They are looking to highlight the whole word. Students are also looking to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week

Heart words are words that do not decode or follow the spelling rules that we have been learning. We have to know them by 'heart'. However, once we learn more spelling rules, they may be only temporary heart words and the rules will come along later! In the meantime, we have been focusing on reviewing and learning the words below with focused in class practice. These will eventually (if not already) be on spelling word lists or word rings. 

This week we are reviewing:

• many
• any
• been
• into
• friend
• because

Fluency Grids
With each lesson, there is a fluency grid with the lesson focus that is intended to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. At home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. This acts as a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words.

Homework Reminders
Students have been working on the story in their Reading Practice book that will come home each weekend. At school, they work with a partner to complete their fluency grid, read with someone their story and highlight the focus words. Following, they are illustrating a picture for the text to show their understanding. At home, students are to finish the above tasks and read to an expert the week's lesson(s). After completing, parents are to initial at the indicated spot at the top. This week, we are have completed one lesson so there will be one story to complete in their white Reading Practice booklet. Please see the information letter in the front of the book for more, detailed information about this weekend practice book coming home. Please return on Monday (or Tuesday if there is a no school day on Monday).

Happy reading!

February Reading Room

This month we are exploring fiction and non fiction books relating to Valentine's Day, families and perseverance. Here are some read aloud books that we have read in class for students to enjoy and some additional books for students to enjoy about the topics. Click on a book to listen/watch the story! 

Happy reading!

February Newsletter & Calendar

February Newsletter

Another super detailed newsletter for reference for the month of February! Please take some time to read when you get a chance (as we know families are extremely busy) and access if there are any questions that should arise along the way.  

February Calendar
This is our February calendar of events for Grade 1/2! Although we can send home a paper copy, this blog has the most up to date information! Check out the blog calendar regularly for upcoming dates and information &/or the Homework & Reminders page for any questions.

Cheers to the second term of Grade 1/2 and continued success!

**A printed copy will come home for those that requested a paper version of the above documents.**

Storybook Character Dress Up Day

What a bunch of amazing little characters we have in the Grade 1/2 Busy Bee class! We are certainly happy to celebrate anything to do with reading! Tuesday, January 27 was Family Literacy Day! Although it was a bus cancellation day, we enjoyed the chance to check in with a storybook theme and chat about characters from various stories! Can you guess who Mrs. Herbert was? Not all the students had heard of that character but may very well have introduced them to the search and find style of books that also bring out a love of opening a book! 

Happy Family Literacy Day!

Grade 2 River Safety Presentation

On Monday, January 26th, Grade 2 students participated in the ‘River Safety Program’. The program was held here at the school by an educational staff member of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. This presentation was all about river safety and the Thames River watershed (how creeks and small streams are part of the Thames River Watershed, water pollution and animal habitats). This hands-on, interactive presentation allowed students to be engaged in different activities including given a wooden puzzle piece to add to a collaborative puzzle, have played water safety bingo, and looked for fictional characters ‘Splish and Splash’ in a river safety read-aloud to identify safe water activities (always with an adult) and dangerous water activities (getting too close to open water). We were given the challenge to remember two new interesting facts they learned to share with family and friends. Hint hint: There may be some ideas in the river safety activity book they brought home! See what your Grade 2 can recall! 

Special thanks to the Optimist Club for sponsoring this event each year for our presenters to come and provide this wealth of information to our Grade 2 students! We appreciate the community support to make education happen!