A reminder that there is no school tomorrow, Friday, December 7th as it is a PD Day for teachers.
We started off our week with a community walk to Nickle School. We had beautiful weather, and the sidewalks weren't as bad as anticipated, so we made it to and from in really good time.
While at Nickle, our grade 8 buddies shared with us a rough draft of a story they are writing for each of us, based on our interests. We offered them feedback about their story so that they can improve their work and tailor it specifically to their audience, us! Afterwards, we got to go on a school tour, and see all the different classrooms and spaces.
We used our observations from the day to compare and contrast Nickle School with Lake Bonavista School, first with Ms Brown's class as a large group activity.
We continued with our exploration of counting by introducing/revisiting subitizing. Grade 2 students were able to summarize their understanding from last year by explaining that subitizing is when you can count a group of "things" without having to actually count because your brain just recognizes how many. Perfectly said! They also shared that subitizing becomes more challenging as the numbers of "things" gets bigger, or depending on how they're organized/arranged.
We watched two videos to reinforce those ideas. Try watching them at home with your child (they're short, I promise!)and have them explain what they understand about their Subitizing Superpower!
Experiencing Subitizing: http://www.stevewyborney.com/?p=430
The Boundary of Subitizing: https://www.stevewyborney.com/?p=436
As a task to apply our understanding of subitizing, students designed their own 11/12/13 cards to replace the Jack/Queen/King cards in a deck. As we have been playing Shut the Box quite a bit, having cards with dot patterns on them would support our visualization of different strategies for calculating total points.
Erin Novak, our school Occupational Therapist, came in to teach us about Social Stories in connection with our learning on big, medium and small problems. Between now and Christmas we will start developing our own Social Stories using specific structure and language.
Finally, we were able to start painting our community!
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| Students decided different colour blues would represent fresh and saltwater. |
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| Magnets and magnetism. |
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| Loose parts snowflake construction |
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| Landforms and bodies of water |
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| Fine motor and practical life |
Ask your child what their new favourite shelf choice is.
Mrs. Podgurny was sick this week, so we did not have our regular library exchange.
In your child's mail folder this week, you should have found their November letter home to you. Please take some time to read it together, celebrate the growth between October and November, and also discuss their current goal (what it is and how to get there). Last, take a moment to write a little note back to them for encouragement - their faces light up when they see it!
Finally, in preparation for some upcoming activities, please send in with your child:
- a glass jar that has a wide mouth for growing crystals.
- a container for repotting corn and pumpkin seedling. Something out of the recycling bin is fine!
- any milk jugs or other jugs with a handle for art.
Please ensure all these materials are clean and ready for use.
Thank you families! Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Thomas
