Dear families,

It’s hard to believe we already spent 20% of our school year together! It is a pure joy to spend every day with your children. They make me feel so happy and well loved!

We are a community.

We meet as a community every single morning during our Community Circle time. This is one of my favourite times of our day after Heart Time because we get to share our stories. We always share how we are feeling and often something we feel grateful for. The more we learn about each other, the better we can understand each other. Biologically, we are over 99% the same but it is our history, culture and families, upbringing and environment, experiences and individuality that make us so unique.

Did you know that being in a positive state, our brain is 31% more productive than when it is at negative, neutral, or stressed? Happiness researchers have also found that gratitude leads to higher baseline levels of happiness. We learn better when we are feeling positive and have filled our hearts with spending time with people who bring us joy right from the beginning of our day!

So when we meet to connect during Heart Time (soft start) and in our Community Circle, it sets us up for an optimal level of learning together.

How to support at home: Talk about your understanding of community. What is a community? What does it mean to be a part of a community? How do you contribute to the communities you are in? How can they contribute to being a part of the communities they are in (e.g., school, sports teams, clubs, outside of school activities, families, etc.)

In Social Studies, we started learning about what makes a community by brainstorming. This was a starting point with some of our ideas shared. Click on the following links if you’d like to learn more about the curricular competencies and content learning standards for Social Studies for grade 2 and grade 3.

We are mathematicians.

We started learning about number concepts and place value. We learned the difference between a digit and a number. Digits are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Digits become a number when we give the digit a value. We created our own place value charts and using a deck of cards, worked with partners to compare who had the larger number.

How to support at home:

• Gr 2 – Quantities to 100 practice: Flip over 2 cards to make a number. Flip over 2 more cards for a second number.
  • Compare. Which number is bigger/smaller?
  • How many tens? How many ones?
  • Flip over two more cards for a 3rd number. Put these 3 numbers in order from smallest to biggest.
• Gr 3 – Quantities to 1 000 practice: Flip over 3 cards to make a number. Flip over 3 more cards for a second number. Flip over 3 more cards for a third number. Then ask the following:
  • Compare and order the numbers – Which number is the largest? Smallest?
  • How many hundreds, tens, ones in the first number, second number, and third number?
  • What is the value of the hundreds, tens or ones in each number?

Please check out our We Are Mathematicians page to see the differences in learning outcomes for grade 2 and 3.

We are readers.

On Wednesday, it was pajama day! 

In the afternoon, we built forts to read under. We had so much fun!

How to support at home: Continue to model and foster a love for reading. At this age, children still enjoy reading and sharing books with their parents. Visit the public library regularly. We are blessed that the McGill Library is nearby.

We are artists.

    

Thanks to Ms. Kapusta, we finished our zentangle pumpkins and cats and it is up in the hallway for everyone to enjoy since last week! On Hallowe’en, we also made jack o’ lantern bookmarks practicing following directions and folding.

Hallowe’en Experiences

Thank you to everyone for your generous contribution to our Hallowe’en party! We had so much fun on Tuesday! Ms. Santorelli, Ms. Kapusta, and I were very proud of their Dem Bones dance! If you haven’t checked it out already, I uploaded the video (thanks to Ms. Kapusta for taking it) on SpacesEDU. All parents should have access now.

After Hallowe’en, we worked on reflecting on our day by writing in our journals. We are learning to brainstorm ideas first and then write paragraphs with more details including more thoughts and feelings. I am proud that so many have shown improvement in their writing already! We will be uploading a sample of our writing in SpacesEDU, reflecting on our writing progress, and setting  personal goals. This practice will help us develop our core competencies of communication and reflective thinking.

How to support at home: When you do something as a family, have conversations about what your child thought and how they felt about it. This way, when it comes to their journal writing or talking about the books they read (especially when we get into our Reading Groups), they will have practice thinking and sharing about their thoughts and feelings.

• What did you think about _____? It was fun/awesome/great because _____.
• How did it make you feel and why?
• What are you grateful for?
• Share something specific that made you laugh or brought you joy.

ADST: We are technology wizards!

Almost everyone has memorized their login usernames and passwords, thank you! Please help them memorize it so they can login as soon as possible. This week, we practiced becoming more proficient at using the tools in Word to make our names bigger, bolder, italicized, highlighted, etc. We now know how to rename a file. We also learned how to add an image and resize it so that it keeps its proportion. Next, we will be learning how to add text boxes. All of these skills will prepare them for when I teach them how to use PowerPoint so they can create powerful slides to present their Passion Projects.

Since your child has an O365 account, they can use it at home. Please feel free to sit with your child and get them to show you what they have learned so far. Any extra time at home will help them become even more proficient! I love this time because I get to see so many kids step up as experts to help others. They have opportunities to support classmates and develop their leadership skills! They also feel good when they can help.

Soon, we will be starting to talk about Passion Projects. This is one of my other favourite things to offer. Last year, all but one student said this was their favourite thing to do in school! If you wish, you can start brainstorming and talking to your child about what they may be interested to research and learn more about.

Bowling on Friday, November 17

We apologize for the inconvenience of bowling not being added to School Cash Online until recently. If you can help drive, we would greatly appreciate your support! We are looking forward to our first field trip!

Hip Hop

You may have read that Hip Hop will resume this week. Unfortunately, it will be delayed. Once we have final dates, we will let you know. Thank you for your patience. We know your children are looking forward to dancing again!

Gratitude

Thank you for your continued support at home. The more you can bring in what we are learning about in school, the more it solidifies their learning. I appreciate you so much!

Gratefully, Ms. Chan