Ms K Shellard and Ms A Clouston - Grade 2/3 Class
Anita and I wanted to thank you so much for your generosity this week! We feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to work with your amazing children during their Grade two and three years. It is very bittersweet for us to say goodbye to them and we are thankful that we will get to spend the first week back in September together. We hope all of you have a fabulous and fun summer!
Warmly,
Kelly Shellard and Anita Clouston
For the past three months we have been learning about the 10 provinces and 3 territories in Canada. We have also been learning about what makes each province unique, interesting facts about the Maritimes, the Prairies, Canada’s province that speaks French and the North. We’ve been learning about the animals that inhabit Canada, the names of the Oceans that surround our country and the names of the Great Lakes.
Each week, we have spent an hour in the Library with Ms Papapanagiotou, “travelling” across Canada by plane. We have been reading stories that introduce the students to unique aspects of each province. In addition, we have been learning how to label each province and territory on our “suitcase” map and add its capital city. Then we have learned how to neatly colour our maps. Once back in class, we have been choosing our favourite books from each province and filling in our “Canadian Passport” with a picture that shows the uniqueness of each province and territory. Ask your child which province or territory they would like to visit after our trip across Canada.
Big Ideas:
Curricular Competencies:
Social Studies:
Language Arts:
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors
Friday’s Field Trip
Tuesday’s Field Trip
We had two fantastic trips to the Queen’s Park Sportsplex for our gymnastics field trip. All of the students made huge strides in their gymnastics skills and had an amazing time hanging out with their friends. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to drive so that this field trip could be a success.
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Content:
Core Competencies:
Last week, Division 13 had an amazing time at their swim lessons at Kensington Pool in the gorgeous sunshine! The students were so excited to be taking lessons together, learning new skills, jumping off the diving board, and travelling on the bus. What a successful and fun week to bring everyone together. A good jumping off point for some students to start taking lessons over the summer!
During Pride week, we learned about The Story of Ferdinand. This timeless story is 90 years old and has never been out of print. It is the story about a bull whose favourite thing to do was to sit under his cork tree and smell the flowers. He chose what he loved, rather than follow what all of the other bulls and humans wanted him to do, which was fight. Ask your child what their favourite part of their stunning art is!!
Story (enjoy it together!)
Big Idea: Inquiry through the arts creates opportunities for risk taking
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Curricular Competencies:
Content:
Core Competency: Creative Thinking
Learning involved:
We had to say goodbye to our ducks. We were all a little sad, but are also happy that they will have a larger space to run around now at the farm. Here are three galleries of photos from when they were here. Please share them with your children.
Dear Families of Div. 13:
The farmer delivered duck eggs to our classroom on March 31st and for three weeks we watched the embryos develop through the scope on our incubator (ask your child about what they saw). In our Egg Cycle booklet we have been watching how ducks develop over time inside their egg. We have been talking about what we notice in the scope and have been writing and drawing about our observations.
The first duck arrived at my house on the night of April 20th. The second duck arrived at some point in the early morning and was out of its shell when I woke up. The students were so excited to meet our 2 ducks when they got to school that morning. We then watched in anticipation for the third duck to arrive at school that day. It tried hard to break through it’s hard shell with its beak while the students were here, but it did not end up coming out until 4:00 that afternoon.
The next day we brainstormed ideas for what we should name the ducks. There were so many names! Once we narrowed it down to the 5 most voted for names for each duck, we then put each of those 5 names into a spinning wheel on the computer and the computer picked each winning name. Jelly is our yellow Welsh Harlequin, Coffee and Pepper are our two Khaki Campbells. Ask your child if they have a favourite duck.
Every couple of days we get to sit in a circle on the floor with our ducks in the middle. We observe them playing in water, eating, pooping and we get to pet them when they approach us. We are watching as they quickly grow and develop. We are comparing the two different types of ducks and observing them as they grow and change.
We have really enjoyed spending time with our ducks. We have also given the ducks their own little “pool” to swim in and did they ever have fun! They love to preen after they dunk their heads into the water. There is always quite the splash zone around the bucket once they are done! The ducks continue to grow and change a little each day. Your children are really enjoying learning about the ducks. Ask them their favourite part of getting to know the ducks.
Big Ideas:
Curriculum Competencies:
Content:
Core Competency: Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking
First Peoples Principles of Learning: Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational.
Last week Gilmore Community School learned about Pink Shirt Day. Here is a picture of Division 13 in our sea of pink!
We read a book that focused on the concepts of love, being our true selves, tolerance and kindness. It was called They Are So Flamboyant by Michael Genhart. I am attaching the link of the story (read by him!) if you would like to share it at home with your child.
On Wednesday afternoon, Gilmore came together to celebrate Pink Shirt Day at our assembly. It was a very moving and heart felt assembly that showed what a loving and caring community Gilmore is! Ask your child what part of the assembly they enjoyed most.
I am also including the link for the true story about how Pink Shirt Day started in Nova Scotia. Please feel free to share it as a family to increase understanding of what we have been learning about here at school.
Big Ideas:
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Curricular Competencies:
Content:
Core Competency: Social Awareness and Responsibility
On February 11th, Div. 13 celebrated our 100th day of school, along with many other Primary classes. We all enjoyed looking old for the day and doing a variety of Math related activities that had to do with the number 100! We had a fabulous day!
Jump Rope for Heart took place in the gym for the whole school on February 10th. The students from Ms. Longeau’s class ran 10 different stations that all involved jumping, skipping, hopping and a variety of other exercises. Division 13 had so much fun skipping and supporting Jump Rope for Heart!
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