September 9, 2010

Thanks to all of you who were able to attend the family dinner! It was a good chance to see each other once again. I also enjoyed seeing the new families who've joined our school family this year!

We've been working on Reading Assessments this week, but I'm not quite finished. These assessments will help me know the abilities your children have - and I can work with their levels at their pace. Sometimes students will move up levels during the year- not at any particular time, but when they are ready. I will be working at implementing the Daily Five this year. So far, we've learned how to choose "Good Fit" Books. The way they do this is to use "I PICK" which is I choose, what's my PURPOSE for reading this book, why am I reading it- am I INTERESTED in it? C is for COMPREHEND. Can I understand it? K is for KNOW. Do I know most of the words? These are questions students ask themselves when choosing books to read. The next thing we will learn about and practice will be "READ TO SELF".

In Science, we are reading about Inquiry skills -observing, comparing, hypothesizing, communicating,...

In Religion, we have been talking about creation. We learned a little more about Mary, the Mother of God, on her birthday, September 8th. The kids wrote in their journals what they know about Mary. Then I read the book Mary, Mother of God while they were working on a picture of Mary. After that, we went to Liturgy which was the Mass of the Holy Spirit. It's always nice to be able to share in the mass with our entire school family!

We read the Weekly Reader today and learned how apples get from the trees to our stores. There was a diagram of an apple for the kids to read. Being able to read diagrams is an important skill for kids to learn.

We are working on addition in Math. Today we did doubles and doubles plus one. The addition table was very difficult for most of the children. After much practice, there was that "AHA" moment when they "got it"! Some of them were able to see the pattern of doubles and doubles plus one - for a while I wasn't sure if they were going to understand it. Those AHA moments are what make teaching fun!

Sunday is our Open House from 9-12.
REMEMBER- Monday Night is Grade two Parent Night! We'll meet from 5:30-6:00 so it won't take too much of anyone's time. See you then!
Have a good weekend!