We are busy learning about three places in Canada as part of the Alberta Program of Studies: Alberta, Nunavut, and Nova Scotia. Our class learning began with an activity in which we did our best to identify and organize unique objects that could be found in each province. We are now completing research through books and the internet that is helping us gather information in order to compare the similarities and differences between the three Canadian provinces. Our learning adventure took us into Alberta as we began talking about the hoodoos and badlands, as well as the Burgess Shale. These places make Alberta unique because fossils are found all over these regions. Fossils are the remains of a prehistoric animals saved in rocks or rock sediment. ![]() After sharing what we had learned our conversation lead to a desire to create our own fossils based on the prehistoris ones we would find in our own province, Alberta. As student found a fossil making project in an art book, so Ms. Bates made salt dough and we begin representing our learning through this artisitc medium. ![]() We used websites to find actual Alberta fossils, learn their names, and understand interesting facts about them. Each student then chose a fossil to create. We began learning how to manipulate the salt dough. Using several different tools we poked, carved, cut, and shaped the inside of our lumps of dough, each student creating the fossil chosen. ![]() Several of us had to work with the salt dough for some time to learn how to etch and carve a fossil in a realistic way. We used patience and shared tips as we created our individual fossils. ![]() When the fossils were complete, we shared them with our parents as part of our November parent and teacher conferences. We have had many compliments from teachers, students, and parents on our scientific and creative work. In understanding the land formations of our province (Burgess Shale and the hoodoos), and the unique contents of these places (prehistoric fossils) we see how our history influences our present. As we move forward in our learning, we will make connections between people and our first ancestors in Alberta, how scientific research and tourism in these areas support our communities, and ways in which fossils connect us to other Canadian communities. Students were very involved and excited about this work, took the creation of their fossil seriously, and generated some well made fossils based in our art and science skills. Excellent work making fossils to represent Alberta grade two's! - Ms. Bates Thank you to all the parents, families, and children who came to parent-teacher conferences over the past two days. I really enjoyed talking with you about the progress we all have been making in grade two. As well, it was interesting for me to find out what you were enjoying about our learning, and what you feel could improve about our classroom.
Your parents were impressed with the reading and writing skills you have developed over the past few months. They were positively surprised with our art infused science as we have developed our researcher skills, and learned how to communicate our learning through words, pictures, art objects, and conversation. Take some time this weekend to heal if you have been sick. Remember to help you body heal with sleep, fresh water, as well as eating fruits and vegetable, which we know protect the body. We will gather again on Monday to continue our learning journey this year. - Ms. Bates Our grade two ELL team has been working on learning how to read nonfiction texts and acquiring vocabulary about some of the geographical features of three communities in different regions of Canada. When approaching nonfiction texts, we found out that it is important to read titles, headings, captions, and text boxes and to look at the photos and images. Another important step is to stop ourselves after a few sentences to check our understanding by trying to put it in our own words. In our conversations about our learning, we have continued on our grammar focus of paying attention to plurals and making sure our subjects and verbs match when using the present tense.
Thank you for your hard work students and teachers! - ELL Team Today we learned about the coins we use in Canada as money. We learned about the penny (1 cent), nickel (5 cents), dime (10 cents), and quarter (25 cents). We are also learning about the loonie (100 cents, 1 dollar) and toonie (200 cents, 2 dollars) but these are not as important to learn about in grade two. We listened to and sang along with our new class song: Canada In My Pocket. Feel free to play this at home and sing along with your child. Enjoy! Edgemont school wanted to collect six large boxes of food for the Veteran's Food Bank. Room 5 students did an excellent job of bringing in food, along with many other students at our school.
We were able to fill nine large boxes with food to give to the Veteran's Food Bank. When we brought in food we felt proud, helpful, we were sharing happiness, and we knew that the veterans were important. We also noticed that helping the veterans also made us think of our three pillars of care: Care for yourself. Care for others. Care for this place. We will keep looking for chances to help people in our school, in Edgemont, and in Calgary as we continue to learn about caring and kindness. - The best grade two students, and one amazing teacher ;) We have been learning about earthworms as part of our Small Flying and Crawling Creatures science focus. Earthworms are stewards of the environment and represent a small thing that can make a big difference. To begin the process of understanding the earthworm, we used books and internet websites to collect information. As a group, we shared what we had learned, teaching each other about our new knowledge. We collected this knowledge into a larger list, but we realized it was hard to understand the information on the list. As a class, we decided to create six categories to help us organize and use the worm information. The categories include: body and attributes, habitat, food and drink, homes, defense against predators, and homes. We then divided into groups and each group received 10-13 notes that we had collected on our class list. Group members then organized the information they had into the appropriate category in order to better understand the earthworm as its importance in our environment. We will continue to use our organized information to learn about the earthworm and its significance for people, plants, soil, and the environment.
"It’s empty, bare," he said "In my six years on this job I have never seen them so empty." said Joey Blevis, Manager of the Calgary Poppy Fund, Veteran’s Food Bank. Hello Edgemont School, As a part of their study of Current Events in Social Studies, the Grade 3’s of Mrs. Shukin's room and the Grade 6’s of Mr. Thomas’ room read the article that contained the quote above and the news hit them! They knew right away that something needed to be done before it was too late. So the Grade 3’s asked their Grade 6 Buddies to help them with this project. What Project? Helping to re-stock the shelves at the Calgary Veteran’s Food Bank! Why? This article is all about how in these tough times, many brave Calgarian veterans / ex-military and their families need help getting the food necessary to take care of themselves. The students realized that they wanted to help the people who gave so much in the past to help keep Canada safe. Food donations are being collected in the big boxes in the main hallway of the school until November 10, 2016! Please help us to help them by donating food to the Veteran’s Food Bank. Remember, to please only donate non-perishable food (tinned, boxed or preserved foods) Thank you for any support you can provide, - Grade 3’s and 6’s ![]() Last week when Calgary was experiencing fog, we decided to capture he beauty with cameras. The pictures in this blog post were taken by students of Room 5. We have discussed finding an object, framing it in the viewfinder, and using the correct buttons on the camera to capture the object in focus. We talked about colours, shapes, and the composition of a picture. In particular, in the fog we tried to capture objects in the background, middle ground, and foreground of each picture. This provides the observer with the sense of dense fog that we experienced as we took the pictures. These photos will become images from which we will write fiction stories, visually experiment in fine arts, and discuss tone and value within find arts. We are excited to use our own images to improve our learning and look forward to sharing this learning with our parents, guardians, and family members. - Students and Teachers of Room 5 |
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June 2017
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