As part of our math curriculum as have been learning about 2 dimensional shapes (2D) and 3 dimensional objects (3D), and ways in which they are connected to shape and space. In grade two we focus on 2D shapes including circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles; 3D objects include cube, sphere, cone, cylinder, and pyramid. This year we extended our learning and included rectangular prisms and triangular prisms as students demonstrated such enthusiasm for shapes and objects. As we continued learning about Canada and the different ways in which people live across our country, we decided to create an Acadian village using the fine motor skills we had developed through our shape and space work. We learned about 3D nets and proportion as we selected the correct size of object to be combined to make the buildings one would find in a traditional Acadian Village. We used research tools such as websites, books, Youtube, and shared knowledge to learn more about a time period very different from our own. Then using these tools to learn about a life in the 17th and 18th centuries, a time that was very different from the life we lead. The most challenging ideas we had included people making and growing what they needed to survive, living with a trade based economy, and a life without electronics. Students often wondered what did the Acadian people do for fun without electronics? As a class we decided each person would plan, make, and contribute a specific building to our town. We chose our 3D nets, built and combined them, discussed how to differentiate buildings, then added additional art based pieces to our town in order to ensure it looked like an Acadian village art installation. We are excited to share our Acadian Village with you during parent conferences next week as we play the part of art installation curator with our parents and families. Great work grade two students! The grade two ELL teams have been focusing on developing descriptive language through looking at the features and special characteristics of the prairie. We are learning new more specific, and powerful words to talk about things like the sun, cold, wind and trees. As well, we are trying to experiment with language to paint pictures in people's minds and create different moods with use of simile and personification.
- Mrs. Shim Thank you Mrs. Shim for all you hard work with our students! They are always excited to work with you as they deepen their understanding of our social studies curricular content. - Ms. Bates As part of our exploration of liquids in science we performed an experiment using water, cooking oil, and salt. We combined water and cooking oil in the same container, observed how they settled, then talked about the weight of liquids. We then took turns dropping salt into the settled mixture, observed, and wrote about what we saw. Students noticed:
These observations led us to talk about the salt being coated in oil as it passed through this layer. As the salt passed through the water then settled on the bottom of the container, we noticed the air bubbles often contained oil that was rising above the water as cooking oil is lighter than water.
We were able to use this experiment to practice documenting our work as scientists. We wrote about materials we used, created a hypothesis, wrote down observations, and completed a conclusion after comparing our results to our hypothesis. Students demonstrated their skills and really enjoyed learning more about one of our most important materials, water. - Ms. Bates' Class |
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June 2017
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