Ms K Shellard and Ms A Clouston - Grade 2/3 Class
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
Three weeks ago we started our class Encouragement Books. Each child will have a week where we will be celebrating them! I am including a photo of Asahi’s brainstorm, An’s front cover of her Encouragement Book and our sentence starters.
As a class, we consistently talk about our feelings and emotions during Community Circle and also include them in our writing. In this Encouragement Book activity, students are learning to write an encouragement letter to each of their classmates. These letters will include specific details about how each child feels about this student, what types of things they like to do with them and things that they notice about the person. Ms Clouston and I are very proud of all of the students’ growth in the area of writing. The students are writing beautiful and thoughtful letters to their classmates with specific details. Encourage your child to share their encouragement book with you when they bring it home in the coming months!
Big Idea: Everyone has a unique story to share
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Curricular Competencies:
Content:
Core Competency: Personal and Social – Positive Personal and Cultural Identity
Core Competency: Personal and Social – Social Awareness and Responsibility
As a class community, Division 13 has engaged in a daily Calendar routine for 57 days. Each child is responsible for being the leader of this learning activity after watching me, Myla and Sara lead the routine first for a few weeks. There are many Math concepts and life skills that are included as part of the daily calendar routine. These activities help students practice every day and build their number sense. They apply the date and the daily number of days in school into different formats and math applications. We have also been learning to count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s to lead us to our 100th day of school, which will occur in February. In addition, we have been learning about the number of the day (today it is 57), place value – 55 = 5 tens and 7 ones, odd and even numbers, graphing using a weather, tooth and days in school graph, greater than/less than, learning numbers divisible by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s, learning addition, subtraction and multiplication. We also use the number of the day to focus on that number and learn other math concepts about it. Also, the calendar routine provides opportunities for students to practice important skills such as self-regulation, oral language, presenting to their peers and leadership skills.
Big Idea:
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Learning Involved:
Every morning, we engage in “Community Circle” by coming together on our carpet in a circle. The purpose of this activity is; to enhance home-school connection on Mondays (weekend news), encourage story-telling, give opportunity for each member of our classroom community to share their feelings throughout the week, to make connections with each other and to share our weekend plans on Fridays.
The students use the Zones of Regulation when sharing their feelings. They also talk about things they are looking forward to during the day or after school. The person whose turn it is has the right to speak and all others listen actively, quietly and respectfully. Sharing these details help students to build their oral language skills, build their confidence to speak in a way that can be heard by others, share details about their lives and build connections with their peers and teachers. Ask your child what zone(s) they were in today.
Big Ideas (Career Education):
Language Arts:
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Curricular Competencies:
Content:
Core Competencies – Communication:
Core Competencies – Personal and Social:
As a continuation of our learning about Orange Shirt Day, the students of Division 13 have been learning about what they are all grateful for with Ms Paulich during Indigenous Education lessons. She shared the story The Grateful Book by Angela Kohler and the students had a discussion about all of the things that they are personally grateful for. After brainstorming their huge list together, students then chose the words that meant the most to them. This lesson took place over many days, with the leaves being drawn, the “grateful” words being placed in the leaves, the leaves being painted with watercolour paint, the words being outlined and then the leaves hung on their sticks using pipe cleaners. Ask your child which mobile is theirs and talk to them about all of the things you are grateful for. In addition, I am including the story that was shared, so that you can share it as a family.
Curricular Competencies:
Big Ideas:
Social Studies:
Arts Education:
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
Families: Posting photos has not been working for two weeks, so I am just now able to send you this post.
Our first art lesson involved learning how to draw our faces anatomically. We talked about different shapes of faces, eyes, noses and mouths. We did lots of practice and learning on white boards first. This allowed the students to have a growth mindset, to erase as much as they wanted and to try again. When they were finally given their large piece of paper to complete their final project, the students were much more prepared. Many of the students even fooled their parents with which one was theirs! Well done Division 13! Your self portraits look so realistic!
Big Idea: Inquiry through the arts creates opportunities for risk taking
First Peoples Principles of Learning:
Curricular Competencies:
Content:
Core Competency: Creative Thinking
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