January 26th - January 30th, 2020

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

Writing

In Writing Workshop, students will try their hand at writing a letter to convey their opinions and try to persuade their reader to agree to their point of view.

Reading
In Reading Workshop, we will be continuing with our unit Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading. This means we are reading fiction books that take longer to finish. We are focusing on: Chapter books that have one central plot line, readers must carry the story from chapter to chapter. The focus of this unit is literary language.
There are 4 parts to this genre. They are:

• Reading with Fluency
• Understanding Literacy Language
• Meeting the challenges of longer books
• Tackling goals in the company of others

Students have been exposed to different figurative language like alliteration, rhymes, simile and unusual phrases.
Math

In Math, students will be learning different strategies for subtraction. They will also be working on arrays and finding multiples of equal groups.

STEM

In STEM, our current unit is “Pebbles, Sand and Silt”, We have learnt about the properties of rocks. We will be learning about the slow changes that result due to weathering and erosion.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, Grade 2 is learning about reasons and requirements for making and developing tools and techniques. We will focus on the following questions:

• Definition of tools
• Why are tools developed
• Name a few tools

Happy learning!

Welcome Back! January 19th - January 23rd

“Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey

WELCOME BACK my beautiful stars! I am so excited to see you all this week and looking forward to having a fun and successful second semester!

I hope you all had a restful winter break. Now that we are back, we are diving right in and getting to work!

Here is what we are doing this week:

Writing
In writing workshop, students will be introduced to an opinion graphic organizer called OREO which stands for:

• O: State your opinion
• R: Give your reason
• E: Provide your evidence or example 
• O: Restate your opinion

This will allow students to organize their thoughts as they write their opinion writing piece. 

Reading
In reading workshop, we will be continuing with our unit Bigger Books Mean Amping Up Reading. This week, our focus will be on noticing and identifying special or figurative language used by authors in the books they are reading. 

Math
In math, students will be dicing right into our 6th unit. We will be working on the following skills:

• Addition of three of more numbers
• Comparison stories
• Mixed addition and subtraction number stories

And that's all folks! Looking forward to seeing you all bright and early on Sunday, January 19th, 2020.

Happy learning!

December 22nd - December 26th, 2019

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." — Albert Einstein

Upcoming Events:

• STEM Fair on Dec 26^th, 2019

In Writing Workshop this week, Grade 2 will be tackling introduction to letter writing. In the letter they will be giving their opinion about a book that they have read and supporting their opinion with reasons.

In Reading Workshop, Grade 2 is working on becoming more fluent readers. We are revising:

• Rereading aloud and in our heads
• Talking like characters
• Making our voices match the mood
• Reading with a 'just right' pace. 

In Math, Grade 2 is practicing and reinforcing the skills that they have learned so far.

We are working hard for STEM Fair!

   Reminders:

• Last day of school before winter break is Dec 26^th, 2019
• Please read books on razkids and do the quiz at the end.
• Back at school on Sunday, January 19^th  (Day 4), 2020! 
• Have a safe and happy winter break! 

December 15th - December 19th

“Teachers can open the door, but you must enter it yourself.” — Chinese proverb

Landform Picture Gallery

Upcoming Event:

• MAP testing on December 16th, 2019
• STEM Fair on December 26th, 2019

In Writing Workshop, we are starting a new genre of writing. It is called writing about reading. This unit is about writing opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g. because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons and provide a concluding statement or section.

Before we start this unit, it is important for students to understand the difference between fact and opinion. Therefore, next week students will work on understanding the difference between fact and opinion.

In Reading Workshop, we have starting a new genre of reading - Bigger books mean amping up reading power. This means we are reading fiction books that take longer to finish. We are focusing on:
Chapter books that have one central plot-line, readers must carry the story from chapter to chapter. The focus of this unit is literary language

There are 4 parts to this genre. They are:
1. Reading with Fluency
2. Understanding Literacy Language
3. Meeting the challenges of longer books
4. Tackling goals in the company of others

Students have been exposed to different figurative language like alliteration, rhymes, simile and unusual phrases.
Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. For example:

• She sells seashells on the seashore
• Sandy Shaw’s soft swede shoes

Simile: a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion).
Similes are used as a method of comparison. As cold as ice. Tall like tree.

Unusual phrases: ‘piece of cake’ – very easy; ‘hit the nail on the head’ – accurate

Rhymes: A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounding words. For example –
Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are

In Math, students will continue to explore polygons

In STEM, students will plan and prep for the upcoming STEM fair.

In Social Studies, students will utilize this time preparing for the STEM fair.

Reminders

• Reading on razkids and completing the quiz at the end.
• Bring a dictionary to school.
• Last day of school before winter break is December 26th, 2019.

Week of December 8th - December 12th

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”- Malcolm X

Upcoming Event:

• MAP testing on December 16th, 2019
• STEM Fair on December 26th, 2019

This Week in Class...

In Writing Workshop, students will work on their grammar skills to prepare for the upcoming MAP test. The following topics will be covered:

1. Nouns and pronouns
2. Verbs
3. Verb tense
4. Adjectives and Adverbs
5. Prepositions

In Reading Workshop, all through the week, students will have summative assessment of the nonfiction unit.

 

In Math, students will learn about three dimensional shapes and identify line of symmetry for that shape.

In STEM, students will plan for the upcoming STEM fair.

In Social Studies, students will start building landforms.

Reminders

• Reading on razkids and completing the quiz at the end.
• Bring a dictionary to school.
• Last day of school before winter break is December 26th, 2019.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” – Thomas A. Edison

Upcoming Event:

•   MAP testing on December 16^th, 2019
•   STEM Fair

In Writing Workshop, students will work on their grammar skills to prepare for the upcoming MAP test.

In Reading Workshop, students will learn to 

• Read their non-fiction book and check for understanding by retelling in their own words
• Understand better, by identifying a key detail by using a text feature
• Understanding how to use a dictionary

In Math, students will start Unit 5. Students will learn about 

point segments

parallel lines

In STEM, students will plan for the upcoming STEM fair.

In Social Studies, students will start building landforms.

Reminders

• Reading on razkids and completing the quiz at the end.
• Bring a dictionary to school.
• Last day of school before winter break is December 26^th, 2019. 

November 24th - November 28th

“Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential.” – John Maxwell

Upcoming Event:

• Grade 2B Class photo on Monday 25th November, 2019
• MLS celebrating Al Hilal Club’s advancement to AFC Champions League Cup
• Lab Report Assessment on Wednesday

This week in class....

In writing workshop, students will complete any unfinished work and prepare for the upcoming assessment of the unit on Wednesday 27th November, 2019.

In reading workshop, students will continue to read non-fiction books. 

• They will look for the topic sentence in the paragraph to identify the main idea.
• They will infer by asking themselves the 'wh' questions and finding the answers in the book.
• Students will use the glossary, caption and other text features to understand their book better.

In math, students will explore measurement. length, area and attributes of measuring.

In STEM, students will learn and understand the properties of rocks, including texture, color, size, streak.

In Social Studies, students will continue to explore different landforms and their definitions.