Mrs. Stringers Blog

In literacy this week, we worked on expanding boring sentences.  While reading a book about Polar Bears, we expanded kernel sentences by adding because, why and how.  In Word work, we finished looking at long e by exploring the last vowel team (ie and ei).  We also completed a word sort, listening for the long e sounds. In math this week, we looked at transformations.  We explored how shapes turn, slide and flip without changing shape or size.  We worked through different stations, exploring each transformation, translation, rotation and reflection.  On Monday, we looked at Winter counts to celebrate the New Year and record 3 important events that happened to us in 2024.  In gym and art class this week, we began our unit on floor hockey.  This week, we learned how to hold a hockey stick, how to stick handle, shoot and pass with a partner.  In Art, we looked at Tessellations, combining our math knowledge on transformations into an art piece....

 This week in literacy, we created a story plan for our gingerbread story.  We planned our characters and then wrote our beginning, including our setting and introducing our characters. We also worked on alphabetizing words using the first and second letters.  To go with our stories, the students designed and created gingerbread man traps, using only marshmallows and toothpicks.  Check out our traps. In math this week, we continued looking at 3D shapes and identifying their characteristics.  We also explored Tangram puzzles to see how flipping or rotating shapes help us to solve the puzzle. Important Reminders & Upcoming Events: 1. Please,  NO Toys  at school!  2. Library Exchange on  Thursdays 3. Winter Break , NO school from Dec 20–Jan 6th 4. Looking for Volunteers for our February 6th Field Trip to Studio Bell, please email Mrs. Stringer

 This week in literacy, we continued reading and exploring Gingerbread stories.  This week we read The Gingerbread Cowboy and identified the different story elements using complete sentences.  Then we compared the 2 stories, using a Venn diagram, to see what was the same and different between the two stories. In Word Work this week, we focused on vowel teams that produce the long e sounds, /ea/, /ee/, and /ey/.  We spelled words with those patterns, built words, sorted words, and 'coded' them in text. In math this week, we began looking at 2D and 3D shapes.  We looked at how you can tell them apart by looking at their attributes, faces, sides, and vertices.  We also did a scavenger hunt around the room to find different shapes in real life and some math talks about various shapes. In Science, we continued learning about Energy.  This week, we learned that Energy is the ability to do work we also talked about different ways objects and people can move....

 In literacy this week, we 'popped' our sentences again by adding the where. Grades 2 and 3 did a great job putting all the kernel sentences together, wrote 3 complete sentences independently, and identified the different parts.  We also read a story called, Gingerbread Baby.  This was the first story in our Gingerbread story unit, where we will review story elements, compare and contrast different gingerbread stories and then write our own story.  In word work this week, we worked with alternative long [a]vowel sounds, like [ei], [ey], and [eigh].  We also talked about homophones, words like weigh and wait, that sound the same but are spelt differently and different meanings. In our math groups, we continued studying addition strategies. We used a beaded number line to solve addition questions from 1 to 20. We also continue with our number routines and solving various math puzzles in the mornings. This week, in science, we completed our matter unit, looking at ...

 This week in literacy, we made our sentences 'Pop', by adding in the when?  We build sentences with our paper strips and then used picture prompts to write our own sentences in our journals.  We also looked at a sample of writing and identified the who? the what? and the when? in each sentence.  In word work, we began looking at vowel teams that make the long vowel sounds. We learned about the ay and the ai spelling pattern, also make the long A sound.   In our math groups, we focused on making 10, which will help with our addition and subtraction skills. In Science, this week, we worked on looking at natural materials and how Indigenous people used natural materials to make different objects with certain purposes. Looking Ahead to Next Week: 1. In Literacy, we will look at the where in sentences and add more punctuation. We will also read some fiction stories about Gingerbread houses. We will continue looking at vowel teams and working on our reading flue...