Here is a website we looked at and some videos we watched in class:
Inuit Art link
Inuit sculpture video
Sculpting a polar bear by Inuit artist Alec Lawson Tuckatuck
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Inuit Art
This week the students have been studying different forms of Inuit art. Inspired by the stone sculptures, I will give the students a bar of soap this week to etch a design, arctic landscape, animal, inuksuk, pretty much anything they would like inspired by the arctic. They will pre-plan their design, sketch some ideas out and when they are done etching the soap we will paint it so the design stands out. I'm excited about this project and the students seem to be too!
Here is a website we looked at and some videos we watched in class:
Inuit Art link
Inuit sculpture video
Sculpting a polar bear by Inuit artist Alec Lawson Tuckatuck
Here is a website we looked at and some videos we watched in class:
Inuit Art link
Inuit sculpture video
Sculpting a polar bear by Inuit artist Alec Lawson Tuckatuck
Weekly Update
Hello parents and students!
The students have been working very hard on their Arctic inquiry work. We read the story 'Three Snow Bears' in class which is based on 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' except the story takes place in the arctic and the characters/setting/situations were changed to fit the arctic theme. The students chose a fairytale they are familiar with and will rewrite the tale so it takes place in the arctic.
The students have been discussing what life is like up North. We have watch a variety of videos and looked at many websites and the students have been discovering the differences between the life of a child who lives up North compared to themselves. They also have been realizing that their way of life is not that different from ours, they just have some cultural differences.
Ah culture, what a tricky word that can be! I posed to the students to tell me what culture is, as there is no 'exact' definition. To make it easier, I had them think about Calgary, and living here and how we would share our culture with others who were unfamiliar with it. Here are some quotes from the students:
"I would show people visiting the best places to eat, food is a part of our culture and they may eat different food than us"
"I would bring someone to a Calgary Flames game, hockey is a big deal to a lot of people here!"
"I would explain to people which holidays most people celebrate here"
"School is important to many people here, I would explain why we go to school and what we do"
"I would show someone what games I play and what else I do for fun!"
Those were just a few examples of many the students gave. They are on the right track but I believe we will keep discussing what culture is all year, as it is an important word in our grade two vocabulary.
This week we have been learning about the inukshuk (or inuksuit when talking about more than one) and the importance they have in Inuit culture. The students learned the value the Inuit placed in the inukshuk and how different ones meant different things. Here is a great website with more information:
Inukshuk site
In Math we have been continuing to work on our data collecting unit. The students are learning how you can show information in multiple ways. Not only are they learning the importance of showing information clearly, but also explaining what they see and discover is very important to. The students have been working on their problem solving skills, everyday I have posed to them a problem to solve and it have been very interesting some of the strategies the students come up with to solve some of the problems. We usually do the problem first thing in the morning to warm those sleepy brains up and get ready for the day.
Ms. Q
The students have been working very hard on their Arctic inquiry work. We read the story 'Three Snow Bears' in class which is based on 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' except the story takes place in the arctic and the characters/setting/situations were changed to fit the arctic theme. The students chose a fairytale they are familiar with and will rewrite the tale so it takes place in the arctic.
The students have been discussing what life is like up North. We have watch a variety of videos and looked at many websites and the students have been discovering the differences between the life of a child who lives up North compared to themselves. They also have been realizing that their way of life is not that different from ours, they just have some cultural differences.
Ah culture, what a tricky word that can be! I posed to the students to tell me what culture is, as there is no 'exact' definition. To make it easier, I had them think about Calgary, and living here and how we would share our culture with others who were unfamiliar with it. Here are some quotes from the students:
"I would show people visiting the best places to eat, food is a part of our culture and they may eat different food than us"
"I would bring someone to a Calgary Flames game, hockey is a big deal to a lot of people here!"
"I would explain to people which holidays most people celebrate here"
"School is important to many people here, I would explain why we go to school and what we do"
"I would show someone what games I play and what else I do for fun!"
Those were just a few examples of many the students gave. They are on the right track but I believe we will keep discussing what culture is all year, as it is an important word in our grade two vocabulary.
This week we have been learning about the inukshuk (or inuksuit when talking about more than one) and the importance they have in Inuit culture. The students learned the value the Inuit placed in the inukshuk and how different ones meant different things. Here is a great website with more information:
Inukshuk site
In Math we have been continuing to work on our data collecting unit. The students are learning how you can show information in multiple ways. Not only are they learning the importance of showing information clearly, but also explaining what they see and discover is very important to. The students have been working on their problem solving skills, everyday I have posed to them a problem to solve and it have been very interesting some of the strategies the students come up with to solve some of the problems. We usually do the problem first thing in the morning to warm those sleepy brains up and get ready for the day.
Ms. Q
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Weekly Update
Hello parents and students!
The students have been hard at work with their Arctic inquiry work. We have been watching videos, reading books, doing research on the computers and studying maps. This week we met with our kindergarten buddies and together the grade 2 class and the kindergarten class made models of the animals we have been studying. The students work will be displayed in the kindergarten ABC museum with write ups about the animals they studied. I'll be sure to post pictures once that is completed!
In our Arctic inquiry work are focus is now on the communities, way of life, the people and experiences of living there. This week the students discussed the similarities and differences of Calgary vs. Iqaluit and I encouraged them to keep thinking over the weekend and we will continue our discussion on Monday. This week we will be taking a look at Inuit art and the meaning behind the pieces and what they do. The students will soon get a chance to create their own art inspired by Inuit creations. (more to come on that soon!)
Ms. Theobald our music teacher at Chaparral mentioned that some of the students would love their own copy of the song they have been working on, unfortunately she does not have enough paper for the 500+ students at the school to have their own copy. So here is a document with the music and words to the song Land of the Silver Birch if your child is interested in their own copy.
Ms. Q
The students have been hard at work with their Arctic inquiry work. We have been watching videos, reading books, doing research on the computers and studying maps. This week we met with our kindergarten buddies and together the grade 2 class and the kindergarten class made models of the animals we have been studying. The students work will be displayed in the kindergarten ABC museum with write ups about the animals they studied. I'll be sure to post pictures once that is completed!
In our Arctic inquiry work are focus is now on the communities, way of life, the people and experiences of living there. This week the students discussed the similarities and differences of Calgary vs. Iqaluit and I encouraged them to keep thinking over the weekend and we will continue our discussion on Monday. This week we will be taking a look at Inuit art and the meaning behind the pieces and what they do. The students will soon get a chance to create their own art inspired by Inuit creations. (more to come on that soon!)
Ms. Theobald our music teacher at Chaparral mentioned that some of the students would love their own copy of the song they have been working on, unfortunately she does not have enough paper for the 500+ students at the school to have their own copy. So here is a document with the music and words to the song Land of the Silver Birch if your child is interested in their own copy.
Ms. Q
Monday, October 11, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hello parents and students!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend. Just a quick update on what we're working on this week. The students will continue with their graphing unit in math and showing the various way they can explain their findings. I'm going to encourage them to start thinking of questions they can ask for a final project. We will be starting a mathematics dictionary in our class that all students can access when needed, I'm going to try and find a way to link it online so students (and of course parents) can access it from home. What I mean by a mathematics dictionary is that I want all students to start using the proper mathematics language in class and their work. For example, instead of saying 'plus' and 'take away' we will say 'addition' and 'subtraction'. The more we use the language the more it will stick!
Also our buddy class this year is Mrs. Smith's kindergarten class. The students are so excited to be mentors to them and we just had our first meeting last week where our class explained and showed them to how log on and navigate the web using our computers. The students showed the kindergarten class some of the Arctic research they have been working on the past few weeks. For our next meeting our class is going to choose an Arctic animal from this website:
They will spend the week asking questions about the animal and searching for the information to answer their questions. By our next meeting the students in our class will have enough information to share with our buddies in Mrs. Smith's class and will work on an art project together. If students are interested in doing some work on their chosen animal at home I encourage them to do so! They are more then welcome to share their findings with the class.
For the last few weeks students have had 5 new words of the week. We have been working on understanding the words and how they can be used in different sentences. At the beginning of every week the students write down the 5 new words in their agendas. Some students have even been writing sentences and paragraphs at home, then sharing with the class the next day.
It will be a short week but a busy one! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in class tomorrow.
Ms. Q
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Weekly Update
Hello parents and students!
The week has gone off to a busy start, since last week we have taken a short break from the Arctic and now focused on what is going on in our own backyard. We discussed the idea of the season 'Fall' in relation to our senses. The students came up with great ideas and descriptions about fall so our free writing time has been focused on that the last few days. The work the students are producing is great! Lots of stories, poetry, even some song lyrics! With the writing the students have been so hard at work producing we have also focused on movement. In one activity in small groups the students created a poem together and while reciting it to the class, they created movements to go with their main idea. We have been working on the concept of 'fluid motion' ask them what it is ;)
In math we have been working continuously on different ways we can collect, sort and explain data. The last two days the students have been hard at work creating their pictographs. They each thought about a question they wanted to learn about the class, than after collecting the information they needed, each one of them had to created pictures to create a graph. On a side note, those of you who have read the October newsletter (posted on the school website) may have seen an explanation of the new school wide math problems. From the newsletter:
Teachers are engaged in professional development around the topic of problem based
math where students work to solve rich math tasks that can be sustained over a long period
of time. Parents ask often what they can do to support students at home. In addition to working on basic math facts at home with your child on a regular basis, we have included a series of family challenges for the month of October. Each challenge is designed to be worked on for a week. Your child is encouraged to bring their thinking/work around the challenge to school.
Family Math Challenge link
I encourage you all to explore the problems posted on the above link with your children, and encourage them to bring their solutions to class to share.
A special thank you to all who donated to 'Toonies for Terry'. The school raised quite a bit of money and the Terry Fox run was a great success!
The week has gone off to a busy start, since last week we have taken a short break from the Arctic and now focused on what is going on in our own backyard. We discussed the idea of the season 'Fall' in relation to our senses. The students came up with great ideas and descriptions about fall so our free writing time has been focused on that the last few days. The work the students are producing is great! Lots of stories, poetry, even some song lyrics! With the writing the students have been so hard at work producing we have also focused on movement. In one activity in small groups the students created a poem together and while reciting it to the class, they created movements to go with their main idea. We have been working on the concept of 'fluid motion' ask them what it is ;)
In math we have been working continuously on different ways we can collect, sort and explain data. The last two days the students have been hard at work creating their pictographs. They each thought about a question they wanted to learn about the class, than after collecting the information they needed, each one of them had to created pictures to create a graph. On a side note, those of you who have read the October newsletter (posted on the school website) may have seen an explanation of the new school wide math problems. From the newsletter:
Teachers are engaged in professional development around the topic of problem based
math where students work to solve rich math tasks that can be sustained over a long period
of time. Parents ask often what they can do to support students at home. In addition to working on basic math facts at home with your child on a regular basis, we have included a series of family challenges for the month of October. Each challenge is designed to be worked on for a week. Your child is encouraged to bring their thinking/work around the challenge to school.
Family Math Challenge link
I encourage you all to explore the problems posted on the above link with your children, and encourage them to bring their solutions to class to share.
A special thank you to all who donated to 'Toonies for Terry'. The school raised quite a bit of money and the Terry Fox run was a great success!
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