Today we had our second fire drill practice.  Students did a good job exiting the school a quickly as possible.  We will most likely have one more this fall.  Stay tuned!
In math, we continue to work on our graphing skills.  Students will begin using math stations tomorrow in order to reinforce math concepts that have been covered within our data management unit.  In reading, we continue to work on reviewing our decoding strategies. In writing, we have been discussing super sentences.  Our focus has been on using adjectives and adverbs to enhance the quality of our sentences. 
A few housekeeping schedules...
1.  Homework calendars will begin October 1. 
2.  Students were asked today to put their pencil cases and other various materials in their school bags.  They have been very distracted while working at their desks so we have had to eliminate some of these distractions.  Students will be able to go to their cubbies when their materials are needed.  I hope this concern does not remain for an extended period of time. 

It is hard to believe that we are already on day 12 at school.  We continue to work on establish routines/expectations in class and around the school. 
We also started focusing on word wall words this week. Every Monday, students will write a set of  words into their agenda.  Please practice these words with your child at home.  The goal is for students to know these words by heart before the school year is over.
Tomorrow is our turn to visit JungleSport set up in the gym.  Please note that this is not our usual gym time.  Our weekly scheduled gym time is on Mondays and Wednesdays.  We will also be heading outside for outdoor gym on Fridays.
Today we visited the library for the first time.  Students took out one English and one french book.  They are due back to school next Wednesday. 

It was wonderful to see many of you during our Welcome Back BBQ.  I hope everyone enjoyed their tour of our classroom.  Were you able to guess where your child sat?  From what I could tell, alot of students were so excited to show you their hard work that limited guessing was needed.  If you did not get the magnet that was placed on your child's desk, please send a note in the agenda.  We hope that placing this on your fridge will help you to keep track of all of the ways we will be recording our learning journey this year. 
This week we focused on continuing to establish classroom rules and routines.  Please encourage your child to use our class generated anchor charts to make good choices in the classroom.  In math, we explored different ways to conduct a survey without using a paper and pencil.  We learnt that when conducting a survey, we are not looking for a winner but rather which choice received the most responses.  In language, we completed two pieces of baseline assessment so I could see what skills students have coming into grade 2. 
Every week in science, our class will be joined by Mrs.St.Louis's grade 2s.  This week we watched an introductory Science Max video on Simple Machines.  In groups we discussed what we thought we knew about our upcoming focus.  We tracked this understanding on sheets of paper and will continuously refer back to them as we make our way through the unit.
Students were excited to get to the gym this week.  Our gym time is shared with Mrs. Walker's grade 2's.  We discussed safety rules and played some cooperative games.  Next week we are very lucky to have jungle sport in our gym. Talk a look at the following link to learn more about this exciting opportunity that our students will get to enjoy. http://www.junglesport.ca/  Please remember to sign and return the consent form on Monday. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend despite the rainy weather!
Today, we shared all the entries we did on how we got our names.  The students marveled at just how cute they all were as babies.  We are going to make these pages into a class book and will place this book in the reading corner.
In Math, we started discussing our current unit on data management.  We were curious about how to collect data from survey questions we have generated. 
A reminder that this Wednesday is our welcome back bbq from 5:00-7:00pm.  I look forward to seeing everyone and watching as students give you a tour of our wonderful classroom.

What a busy week we have been having!  So much on the go!  Students have been working hard on fine tuning our classroom routines/expectations.  We had an assembly in the gym on Wednesday afternoon to welcome us all back to a new school year as well as to review some important school rules.  In anticipation of a possible fire drill practice, students also practiced what to do.  We are working on not talking when making our way outside into the school yard.
I hope everyone has a restful and recharging weekend!  Parents, please remember to do your homework this weekend and tell us all about how you chose your child's name.  And yes, I will lessen the amount of homework you have! :)

It was very nice to meet most of you this morning. It looks like we have a terrific class of Grade 2's this year!!! 
We spent our day becoming familiar with classroom/school routines and even managed to complete a classroom scavenger hunt.  Ask your child about their group challenge (making a creation using only pipe cleaners and aluminium foil).  We are going to present our masterpieces to the class tomorrow and create a success criteria checklist to use when working in groups.  Stay tuned for pictures.
Communication bags went home today.  Please take some time look over/complete the items that accompanied the agenda.  As I joked with the class today, parents are the ones with homework tonight.   You are your child's first teacher and I am hoping to gain a glimpse into who each of my students are through the questionnaire I sent home.
Looking forward to another fun filled day tomorrow!