This week we have been exploring words and how special words help to make our sentences more interesting. First, we learned about the two types of words that are in every sentence: nouns and verbs. Ask your child to tell you what a noun is and what a verb is, they should know! We practiced writing sentences with just nouns and verbs. For example: The dog runs. The teacher talks. We decided these were pretty boring, so next we learned about adjectives and adverbs, which describe nouns and verbs, and make our writing more exciting and more interesting. We brainstormed lots of juicy descriptive words, and added them into our sentences. For example: The black dog runs quickly. The tall teacher talks loudly. For the next few weeks we will be working on some exciting projects that will help us practice our descriptive writing, making our writing more interesting and detailed.
In Math this week we have been talking more about our hundreds chart, and exploring how we can use it to help us count, add and subtract. To use a hundreds chart effectively, it is helpful to know exactly where different numbers are on it. To help us we made hundreds chart puzzles, which your child brought home on Wednesday. Next, we started to look at patterns in the hundreds chart. We are starting by looking at how the hundreds chart is organized into groups of 10. Across the hundreds chart their are rows of 10, and going down the hundreds chat each column counts by 10. An important skill in grade 2 is skip counting, and for the rest of the year students will be working on building up their understanding and comfort with skip counting by 2, 5 and 10, all the way to 100. By the end of the year they should also be able to do this backwards as well! To help encourage students to practice their skip counting, they have each been given the task of completing "missions". When a child feels that they are able to complete a mission, they perform the skill for me, and then move on to another. Their goal is to try their best, and complete as many as possible by the end of the year. Here are the missions we will work on throughout the year: - skip count by 10: from 0 to 100 and from 100 to 0 - skip count by 5: from 0 to 100 and from 100 to 0 - skip count by 2: from 0 to 100 and from 100 to 0 - use flexibility: skip count by 2, 5, 10 from any given number between 1-9. For example, count by 10 from starting at 3 Some of these are tricky! They take patience and practice, but we have lots of time and we will have lots of opportunities to practice in class throughout the year. Ask your child what they are working on, and feel free to help them practice at home by writing them out, counting in the car or quizzing them when they think they are ready. As skip counting gets stronger and students become more flexible in their ability to skip count from different numbers, they will be able to use skip counting to help them add and subtract. This week we focused a lot on how Calgary came to be and exploring what it looked like in the past. Did you know this area used to have very few trees? Check out this website for some cool pictures that show how Calgary has changed over time. When we visit the Glenbow next week we will be able to check out some artifacts and learn more about how life here has changed over time. As we reach the end of our liquids unit we are beginning to discuss how we can help make sure we take care of the water in our world. This week we learned about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Here is a link to a video that explains more about it. We brainstormed some ways that we can help protect the ocean, the animals in it and the water that we need to survive. Even though we live in Cranston, where there is no ocean, we can do lots to help here. Ask your child to share some ways they can help. Have a great weekend! Ms.Brett
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