A friendly reminder to parents: Grade 2’s Celebrate Independence!
Dear Parents, our new Grade 2’s are trying very hard to be independent and responsible students. With your help they will succeed! Therefore, students must enter the Grade 2 hallway by themselves and follow the arrival routines set out by their teachers. If it is necessary for you to speak to a teacher in the morning please go through reception to set an appointment or convey a message.
Thank you for trusting us to guide your child in being a responsible, independent student!
Temperature Unit: Our grade 2's are learning to understand temperature in relative terms, comparing things that are hotter and colder than one another. We have been studying the parts that make up a thermometer and are becoming experts at reading the scale to see what the temperature is in degrees Celcius. It is tricky trying to imagine temperatures below zero when we are always in this glorious heat!!!
We have been using our mapping skills to follow a school floor plan to set up research centres where we are conducting a study on how temperature can vary in different parts of a building. We will be comparing our observations by graphing the results.
Help your child develop more awareness of the temperature by including them in conversations about the weather, watching the weather reports and by talking about how they can take the outside temperature into account when they are getting ready and planning their activities!
Dear Parents,
Fall Festival is approaching on Wednesday, October 30th. It will be held at school from 5:00pm – 7:00pm. There are many exciting events planned!! All children may come to school in their favorite costumes! There will be a variety of games that the children can play. These games will be running from 5:00pm – 6:30pm. At 6:30 there is a Magic Show! All games are free and the children will be receiving candy at each one for participating. Please make sure you have a small bag with you to collect all the candy the children will be collecting! Siblings are welcome to participate in the games as well J Additionally there will be a large inflatable slide and a smaller obstacle course inflatable for the younger children.
The teachers will also be participating in the Dunk Tank! Children can pay AED 5 for a chance to dunk a teacher!
Refreshments will be provided by the Organics Café. Please see the menu below.
BBQ Beef Burgers AED 25 Chicken Hot Dogs AED 20 Pumpkin Curry and Brown Rice AED 20 Chicken Kebabs (2 pieces) AED 25 Variety of Drinks AED 5
There will be popcorn and cotton candy booths available and these are free of cost. The ice cream van will also be available at their regular prices.
A few reminders……
· Please keep the candy donations coming in!!! Remember you may either send them directly to your classroom teacher or drop them off with Ms. Maria at reception.
· All after school activities on Wednesday, October 30th will be cancelled. Please note that at 3:15pm, set-up for Fall Festival will be beginning and there will be trucks coming in and out of the entrances so for safety reasons ALL STUDENTS MUST BE PICKED BY 3:15PM.
· When you arrive at 5:00pm please use the regular drop off/ pick up entrance to the school. The main school entrance is restricted for use by school staff. The bus entrance will also be closed.
· No families or children will be allowed in the school except for the use of the bathrooms near the teachers’ lounge. The bathrooms in the gym will also be available.
· Please remember that this is a family event and as such all children need to be accompanied by an adult.
Come out and join the fun!!!
Thank you for all your support.
CIS VIPS
Grade 2 Core Word Spelling Tests:
As the spelling tests have become a major source of stress to the students and parents, we would like to alleviate that by assuring you that they are NOT being counted on the report card. They are simply a tool to show progress.
The core words that were given to all of the students at the beginning of the year are a list of words that all of the students should know by THE END of grade two. We want the students to be working on a few of them each night in order to get familiar and improve their reading and spelling of the words. Many of these will be covered in the spelling lessons, however some are not.
As we are doing the core word spelling tests before each reporting period, you and your child can see the jumps of improvement at each point and celebrate their progress! This is a tool for reflection and to illustrate the learning process. I have assured the students that they must do their best and their best is good enough! They will see their marks get higher with every test that they do!
Please continue to work with your child and encourage them to practice these words as much as they can! I am confident that they will notice an improvement in their reading and writing as they come to understand the words better. We have taken on board your comments and concerns regarding this list of Core Words and will discuss whether or not there is a better way to manage this process. In the meantime however, please do not place undue pressure on your child to know all of these words at this stage of the year. Focus on the fact that this is all a beautiful part of your child’s growth as a learner throughout their grade 2 year!
Kind regards,
The Grade Two Teaching Team
Sports Week!
Great work to the grade 2 students who showed school pride by sporting their house league colours for Sports Day today! The event was a success and we had a lot of fun! PE is cancelled for the week but will resume next Sunday. *Swimming IS still scheduled! :) Please send your child to school in their house team colours on Wednesday November 13th as well as we will be taking a school photo!
Science: Magnets
Throughout the next months, students will be exploring magnets and how they shape the world around us. We have brainstormed ideas about what magnets are and where they can be found and used at home and in school. We have been using magnets to "fish" for things to see whether they are magnetic or not and are learning which things are magnetic (materials composed of iron, steel, cobalt, nickel, neodymium and certain alloys containing one or more of these substances). Magnets have a force that can push or pull (repel and attract)! The grade 2's are learning about poles on a magnet. If the North and South poles are close together, they will pull and stick. If the North and North or South and South poles are close together, they will push away from one another. We will be building boats and other toys that work with the force of the magnet. To wrap up the unit, students will be building a magnet project at home for the science fair!
Science
Find some magnets at home and explore which ones are more powerful than others. Can you think of why?
Discuss which metals are attracted to magnets.
What happens if you put the North poles together? The South poles together? The North pole with the South pole?
We have begun to look at numbers and their relationships to one another by studying number lines and 100 charts. We are looking at numbers that come before and after any given number between 0 and 100 and are using language like "more than" or "less than" to describe their position. Students can find patterns in 100's charts by skip counting and colouring in the blocks. They should be able to skip count by 2's starting from 0 or from 1, 5's and 10's. Figuring out which numbers are odd and even is easy when you have a 10-frame to check!
Students will be looking at equal and unequal sets, compare and order numbers, estimate and count to 100 and use patterns in counting sequences to describe the world and solve problems.
Check on the homework page for some links to math websites and games for your child can practice their skills!
We also will be doing data analysis as a yearlong theme. Please help us out by participating in the weekly survey on this page. Our class will come up with a weekly question and we will compare and discuss the results in class!
Social Studies: Communities in Canada We have begun the next unit in Social Studies and we will be focusing on the land, places and people of three Canadian communities; Iqaluit, Saskatoon and Meteghan.
Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how geography, culture, language, heritage, economics, and resources shape and change the Canadian communities of Iqaluit, Meteghan and Saskatoon.
Students will investigate the physical geography of an Inuit, an Acadian, and a Prairie community in Canada by exploring and reflecting upon specific inquiry questions.
Students will appreciate the physical and human geography of the communities studied.
Take some time out to look through photos of family trips around the world. Are any of the places you have been to:
Cold like the Northwest Territories
On the ocean like the Maritime of Canada
Wide-open like the prairies of Saskatchewan?
With your child, discuss some of the ways that industry has changed communities over time. For example, the Iqaluit people hunted caribou and fished to provide food. They used the animal hides and blocks of snow to create shelters, rebuilding as they moved with the seasons. When the airport came, the Inuit people got jobs. How did this change their way of life?
Can you make a connection to life in the U.A.E.? Can you make a connection to your country of origin, if it is different?
We are beginning an exciting new take-home writing project on Sunday March 16th which will be ongoing until mid-June. Mr. Allistair, our badger in a fancy jacket, will be visiting each and every one of your households to spend some time inspiring your little writers! Click this link to view the letter to parents
Grade 5C created an awesome video about awesomeness and invited us, their reading buddies from 2J, to take part in the dance party! Click here to link to the video!
Our take-home project writing about our fancy times with Mr. Allister was a ton of fun and a big success! Thank you all for supporting your child and taking the CUTEST photos! Click here to view the book!