TWAS September 15
Hello Everyone,
I hope you have all had a good week and that your little ones are settling in to their new fall routines. The children have certainly been trying very hard to put in their best efforts from 8:00am right through until 2:30, and are showing great perseverance as they take on their grade 2 tasks!
We were very fortunate to have Ms. Watson come to our class twice this week and guide us in some important mental health lessons. First we learned about our feeling and thinking brains, and learned how to recognize when our feeling brains might be starting to take over from our thinking brains, causing us to "flip our lids." Next, students from our class worked with Ms. Watson to create four movies that demonstrated some stressful situations we may be faced with. We learned a POP strategy to help us through stressful times such as these. POP is an acronym for "Problem, Options, Plan." I have attached the videos; it may be a fun challenge to see if your child can teach you how to use POP in your own life, when faced with challenges like falling behind in a morning schedule . . . loosing car keys, or forgetting lunch at home.
This week in science we began our inquiry into flying and crawling creatures. We started by looking at the specific characteristics of bees, wasps and hornets, sharing what we see when we look at them, what we know and what we wonder. The children created some stunning realistic pictures of bees and are almost ready to pursue their own fun inquiry projects on an insect of their choice.
We began to work with math problems, exploring different ways that we can look at and work with math in our world. It was great to see the students using a variety of strategies that they learned last year: 100's charts, number lines, anchor numbers and manipulatives.
In Language Arts, we went on word hunts, wrote reflections, performed drama, and practiced our visualization skills while listening to poetry and short stories. We also enjoyed some longer stories that connected to problem solving, "ish art" (I'll let them explain that one), and the beauty within 'unique.'
We blended our social studies with our Language arts this week, celebrating both independence and support of one another through circle and written reflections.
Ms. Thomas introduced us to our first Cranston Peace song of the year: "All You Need is Love," by the Beetles and we LOVE it :) It fits so well with our loving community and goal for everyone to feel safe and cared for here at Cranston. It is easy to see that this sharing of love comes very easily for our 73 team, as I was deeply impressed with the kindness and support I witnessed in our gym-class games today.
Rounding off our creative week was a super fun art project: straws, water colour, acrylic paint and sponges . . . what more do you need to make for a perfect Thursday afternoon. Their beautiful creations will be ready for viewing at "Meet the Teacher night" this Thursday/Friday.
We also managed to squeeze in some computer time, refreshing our memories with all of the sign in procedures, and getting ready to create our first passion projects.
It has been a wonderful week; thank you parents who joined us for our indoor picnic. We will try for the outdoor picnic Wednesday at lunch (11:25 - 12:10) and would also like to fit in a nature walk Thursday from1:20 -2:00 (any available volunteers would be very much appreciated).
Please enjoy the attached videos, see if you can guess what the "problem" is in each, and have a wonderful weekend,
Sincerely,
Mrs. McArthur
I hope you have all had a good week and that your little ones are settling in to their new fall routines. The children have certainly been trying very hard to put in their best efforts from 8:00am right through until 2:30, and are showing great perseverance as they take on their grade 2 tasks!
We were very fortunate to have Ms. Watson come to our class twice this week and guide us in some important mental health lessons. First we learned about our feeling and thinking brains, and learned how to recognize when our feeling brains might be starting to take over from our thinking brains, causing us to "flip our lids." Next, students from our class worked with Ms. Watson to create four movies that demonstrated some stressful situations we may be faced with. We learned a POP strategy to help us through stressful times such as these. POP is an acronym for "Problem, Options, Plan." I have attached the videos; it may be a fun challenge to see if your child can teach you how to use POP in your own life, when faced with challenges like falling behind in a morning schedule . . . loosing car keys, or forgetting lunch at home.
This week in science we began our inquiry into flying and crawling creatures. We started by looking at the specific characteristics of bees, wasps and hornets, sharing what we see when we look at them, what we know and what we wonder. The children created some stunning realistic pictures of bees and are almost ready to pursue their own fun inquiry projects on an insect of their choice.
We began to work with math problems, exploring different ways that we can look at and work with math in our world. It was great to see the students using a variety of strategies that they learned last year: 100's charts, number lines, anchor numbers and manipulatives.
In Language Arts, we went on word hunts, wrote reflections, performed drama, and practiced our visualization skills while listening to poetry and short stories. We also enjoyed some longer stories that connected to problem solving, "ish art" (I'll let them explain that one), and the beauty within 'unique.'
We blended our social studies with our Language arts this week, celebrating both independence and support of one another through circle and written reflections.
Ms. Thomas introduced us to our first Cranston Peace song of the year: "All You Need is Love," by the Beetles and we LOVE it :) It fits so well with our loving community and goal for everyone to feel safe and cared for here at Cranston. It is easy to see that this sharing of love comes very easily for our 73 team, as I was deeply impressed with the kindness and support I witnessed in our gym-class games today.
Rounding off our creative week was a super fun art project: straws, water colour, acrylic paint and sponges . . . what more do you need to make for a perfect Thursday afternoon. Their beautiful creations will be ready for viewing at "Meet the Teacher night" this Thursday/Friday.
We also managed to squeeze in some computer time, refreshing our memories with all of the sign in procedures, and getting ready to create our first passion projects.
It has been a wonderful week; thank you parents who joined us for our indoor picnic. We will try for the outdoor picnic Wednesday at lunch (11:25 - 12:10) and would also like to fit in a nature walk Thursday from1:20 -2:00 (any available volunteers would be very much appreciated).
Please enjoy the attached videos, see if you can guess what the "problem" is in each, and have a wonderful weekend,
Sincerely,
Mrs. McArthur
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