RamsayRowland

September 25 - 28th  We began this week together reflecting on our changing seasons by discussing our connections and memories to the season of Fall. We discussed how the autumn equinox is a balance between day and night and that the season is a time to gather and collect but also a time to let things go (as our trees teach us) and prepare for what comes ahead. We used the anchor text, This Is How I Know ,  by By Brittany Luby, a dual language book as a provocation to help us connect how we know Autumn has arrived. We then headed out on the land to observe, find  and collect evidence of Fall. Students then chose a medium to represent their collections and the results are stunning! Here are some photos from our experience -  This week we also examined the Truths around Orange Shirt Day & National Day for Truth and Reconciliation through books, videos and through circle sharing. As a group we deepened our understanding of the truths and need for learning and a...

September 18-21 This past week we focussed on representing our understanding of our identities through representation on the Medicine Wheel. We used anchor texts and songs to develop a deeper understanding of the 4 components of ourselves - mind, spirit, heart and body. Our next step was to create a project (along with Ms Arnone's grade 2 class) that would showcase all our learning and teach others about the  4 important parts of the Medicine Wheel. Here is a look at our project-  This week we also spent time learning about a Canadian hero - Terry Fox and his legacy - The Marathon of Hope. We were very inspired by his story and the impact that he continues to have today. We spent time sharing stories of others who are heroes to us in our own lives and documented these inspirations in our journals. After that we were ready to participate in our school wide Terry Fox run and continue Terry's dream.   

  September 11 - 15th We had an amazing first full week together continuing to build on community, friendship, identity and belonging. As a group we have been discovering our identities through the lens of the Medicine wheel as well as establishing our understandings of expectations of us as learners using this framework. We will continue to dive deeper into this work throughout the year.  Here is a snippet at what we have been focusing on over the week - (my apologies I did not take many photos this week). Literacy: Foundational literacy is supported by phonics which includes learning about letters and sounds and their correspondence as knowing the relationship between letters and sounds supports reading print messages.  We have started the year off by reviewing the following grapheme-phoneme (letter sound) correspondence: short vowels: /a/- ant  /e/- end  /i/ - itch, /o/-octopus, /u/- up  FLSZ rule - the letters f, l, s, z are doubled after a short vowel ...

  September 8th  Welcome to our grade 2 blog!  We have had an awesome week getting to know one another, building community, establishing routines and expectations, learning from one another and having fun.  We will continue to build on all of these things as we navigate through these first weeks back at school. Here is a look at some activities from our first 6 days together.  A look at our classroom - room 9 Literacy Activities - We used the book , Our Class is a Family,  by Shannon Olsen as an anchor text to build on our discussion topic about families and what they might look like and what families we belong to. Students then created a self portrait to add to our family portrait wall.  We also began looking at our own identity and what makes us who we are. This included books on celebrating our looks and how our features give us our unique characteristics. The book, I like Myself, by Karen Beaumont provided inspiration for a writing activity - "I li...