D'Arcy's A.R.C

A few weeks ago Darcy from D'Arcy's A.R.C came to our school. He brought a dog and a kitten. One of the ears of the dog was hurt.  He told our class that about 50,000 homeless animals roam the streets of Winnipeg. When we heard this, we wanted to help. We asked the students in our school to help us help D'Arcy's A.R.C. We asked them to bring in cat or dog toys, food bowls, blankets, leashes, collars, dish soap, newspaper, garbage bags, and cat or dog beds.  On Thursday, Nov. 20th we made a speech about D'arcy's A.R.C and we told the classes about how they can help them.  We want to make the animals be safe and we want to protect them from people who hurt animals. D'Arcy's A.R.C is a no-kill animal shelter.  There are over 100 sick animals in the shelter.  If you see a poster of a missing animal you should look for them. Our donation drive is over and we wanted to say thank you to all the students at Athlone School for bringing in donations and helping us!
Talia and Julia

World Kindness Day

Today is World Kindness Day! We visited http://www.randomactsofkindness.org  and agreed that "No matter where you are, this is the day to change the world with one simple act of kindness." Our class decided to pay it forward to another class in our school. We made "monsters" (found at the above link) and left brownies for our grade 5 reading buddies and hope they pass it on! Kids remember kindness. Mrs. Pollock

When has someone been kind to you?
My dad gave me a chocolate bar and I felt happy. -Mahad
My mom gave me a present. -Lennon
Jared played wolf tag with me. -Savannah
When I was at school and my mom was in my room she gave me a chocolate bar. I said thanks. -Gabby
My dad was kind to get me a very good and cute dog. Her name is Willow. She's cute. -Blaine
When I was two and I fell down my brother ran so fast to see if I was hurt. He was worried. He gave me a kiss and an ice pac and let me sleep with him. -Julia
My friend helped me build a snow hill. -Jared
When I was five I was sick. My sister put me in bed and gave me some books to read. Then, she gave me a cup of ice. After that, I fell asleep while she was cuddling with me. -Talia
One day Mia gave me a treat. -Brooklyn
My mom helped me with my homework and gave me a hug. -Rayan
When Lennon helped me when I was gushing with blood. -Thomas

Remembrance Day

When you close your eyes and think of peace what do you see? 

Making new friends. -Talia
The world being safe. -Julia
Being alone. -Blaine
Spending time with pets. -Phoenix
Playing with others. -Savannah
Newborn babies. -Brooklyn
Keeping the world clean. -Jared
Having time with family. -Lily
Having peace and quiet. -Rayan
Being happy. -Caydence
Reading books. -Precious
Being with friends. -Braxton
Making new friends. -Mia
Thinking about loved ones. -Hunter
Helping others. -Gabby
People keeping the world clean. -Kaitlyn
Listening to my music. -Biasha

                       

Our Community Mosaic

We have spent the last three weeks working with our artist Dimitri. In our first session, we talked about our community and how it can be represented in our mosaic. Students used the ideas we had brainstormed and sketched how they wanted the mosaic to look. During our second session, Dimitri had looked at every sketch and had created the mosaic for our school. We practised placing tiles and he showed us how tiles are cut. In our third session, we placed the tiles on the images of our mosaic. As each section was completed, Dimitri taped the tiles down. Every class in our school was part of the same process just like our class. Next week, Dimitri will put the mosaic together and we will watch him grout. We can't wait for this project to be completed and be up in our school for everyone to enjoy! -Mrs. Pollock
We are making a mosaic. A mosaic is made up of small tiles. Everyone in the school is working together to make a giant mosaic that will be in our school. -Julia
When the mastic is finished, it will be in our school for a long, long time. We worked hard and slow to add each piece. -Lennon
When we were doing the actual mosaic it was super, duper hard! We had to concentrate and think about where this goes and that goes. -Thomas
We had to use lots of different tiles like green, red and blue. We had to put the tiles on top of the picture. I did the hand. -Gabby
We were making a picture to create a part of the community. -Talia
It took a lot of days to make it. -Blaine
We were making a part of the circle. I was working on the wheel. -Biasha
We still have to put it together. It is really hard to make. When our parents see the hard work that we've done, they'll be super proud of the mosaic. -Brooklyn
It was really hard to keep the right amount of space between the tiles and not to shake the table because the tiles would move all around. -Hunter
A part of the whole school is helping make the mosaic. -Rayan
It was hard because it took a long time. -Kaitlyn
When Mrs. Pollock told us what we were going to be doing everyone was really excited. We could hardly wait! -Lily

Visiting Lower Fort Garry

I liked to touch all the furs and pull the ox cart. -Lauren
I didn't like when we went into the Governor's House because the boys had to put their hands behind their backs and take their hats off. Other than that I really liked the trip. -Ethan
We went back in tome to the 1850's. If we wanted to turn back to 2014 we had to turn on the bridge. -Brooklyn
I liked when we went into the room with all the animal furs. My favourite fur was the fox fur. -Jeremy
My favourite part was when we went into the Governor's House. I liked how it was so big and the girls got to keep their hats on. -Tynysha
My favourite part was when we went into the Blacksmith because it was so cool that he pulled down this lever and it kept the fire going. He warmed and sharpened metal into a nail and gave it to our class. -Daniel
When we got off the bus it was neat to see everyone working there dressed up like they lived in the 1800's. I liked how their was this bridge and it separated our time (2014) to the 1800's. -Claudia
It was cooler than I thought it would be. -Gracie
I liked how they had holes in the rock walls so they could shoot out. If they put wood up to cover the holes, other people couldn't shoot in. -Theo
I liked it when my group pulled the giant ox cart. -Julia

More Stories!

Here are the last three grade two books! Sorry for the delay! After clicking on the link, you will need to click "download" to be able to read the stories. Enjoy!

Lauren

Jeremy

Daniel

-Miss. McCullough

The Integrated Arts with David Perrett

Our class had the pleasure participating in another Integrated Arts session with artist David Perrett. He worked with our class and taught us how to make a bust using plasticine. We mixed plasticine to make our own skin colour, talked about proportions and made details in our hair.  -Mrs. Pollock

Here's what the students had to say:
I love learning new stuff. My favourite thing I learned is how to make the eyes. -unknown :)
It is cool to learn new things. -unknown :)
I love how we learned that we could make a bust out of clay. -unknown :)
He taught us something new and cool. -Gracie
My favourite part was doing the head. -Yan
My favourite part of t.I.A was making the busts. -Blaine
My favourite part was when we made the eyes. -Adison
I liked making the eye and the mouth. -Domenic
I liked that we made hair and how we made lines in the hair. -Michael
We made them out of plasticine. I was happy making these. David was awesome. -Brooklyn
David taught us that it can never be perfect. It looks sort of like a human. It was fun! -Hunter
I liked when we made the hair. David taught us to make our skin colour. -Braxton
We made ourselves out of clay. -Savannah
He taught us something really cool and awesome! -Lennon
My favourite part was when I made the hair. -Ethan
My experience with making a plasticine bust was a bit hard, but it was really fun! I would do it again! -Lauren
It took a long time. -Tynysha
David helped us learn how to make ourselves with clay. He is kind. -Caydence
Sculpting looks fun to do when you're an adult. -Daniel
I like when we made the noses. -Jared
I learned that nothing is perfect. -Theo
I learned to always listen to the instructions so you know what to do. It was really fun! The hardest part was when we did the head shape. My favourite part was when we made the eyes. -Jeremy

Story Writing

For the past couple of weeks, the students of Room 24 have been hard at work being authors by writing their own narrative stories!

First, we planned our stories using outlines by deciding on the story setting, characters, problem, and solution. We then thought about how we could "hook" readers in and make them interested in reading our stories by using a Super Starter Sentence.

Once the rough copies were written and edited, the grade two students had the opportunity to publish their stories in a new, exciting way: the Book Creator app on the iPads. They loved being able to type out their stories and even do their illustrations on the iPad!

We are very excited to be able to share our finished stories with you! Please click on the student's names below to read their Book Creator stories. We are having some technical difficulties with the last few books, so those will be up shortly.

-Miss. McCullough

Claudia

Tynysha

Michael 

Ethan

Green Our City

We Can Make A Difference!

Earth day is celebrated on April 22. We can build more wind mills to clean our cities. -Ethan

We recycle so we can make new things out of old things. We can recycle pop cans, paper and plastic. - Jeremy

I ride my bike to the park so I won't put all that exhaust in the world- Domenic  

DON'T  LITTER. It could hurt other animals.  Like if you have those plastic can holders an animal could get it's head stuck. - Jeremy

Try to keep the world clean by picking up garbage. -Michael

I will throw my garbage in the garbage can. -Brooklyn

Don't litter because it's wrong! -Julia

Plant more trees and flowers. -Jeremy

I told my mom and dad to use more cloth bags when they go shopping. -Claudia 

Recycle things like milk cartons, juice boxes, paper and cans. -Lauren

Spirit Week at Athlone

Our class enjoyed participating in the Athlone School Spirit Week put on by our Parent Council!

Crazy Hat & Hair Day

Pink Day in support of anti-bullying

Beach Day!

Mr. Popper's Penguins.

We enjoyed listening to Mrs. Pollock read Mr. Popper's Penguins to us. It was a great read aloud! We really liked listening and learning about the penguins. After the book was finished we got to watch the movie. The movie was really funny. The book and the movie had some things that were the same and some things that were different.
What we liked about the book and the movie:

-I liked when the penguins were performing and they were sliding on their bellies and knocked over the other penguins that were on the ladder. I also liked the part when Jamie kicked the soccer ball at Mr. Popper's face and he got a bloody nose. -Jeremy

I liked when they went to the wrong theatre by accident and they were arrested. -Hunter

When the penguins flooded the bathroom. -Lennon

I liked it when Captain Cook was flying in the movie. -Tynysha

I liked the part when the penguins would say "Gok". -Michael

At the end, when they penguins all got home and Captain Cook layed an egg. -Gracie

When they made the track in the apartment with snowmen and real snow. -Lauren

When Stinky was in the bathtub and he farted in it. -Julia

I liked when the penguins sat on the snow globe instead of the egg. -Claudia

My favourite part was when he was holding the penguin and it started pooping on him. -Brooklyn

When Mr. Pooper was squeezing them and trying to make them poop in the human toilet. -Kaitlyn

I liked it when the penguins were coming out of the box and Mr. Pooper was getting confused because he didn't know they were real penguins. -Tynysha

I liked it when the penguins were swimming in the bathtub and Mr. Popper opened the door and the water flooded everything. -Riley

At the auction when the penguins chose Mr. Popper instead of the fish. -Gracie

100th Day of School

Wow. I can't believe it's the 100th day of school already! A lot has happened in Room 24 in the last 100 days. We've made new friends, learned how to skip count, learned about objects and materials, written stories, baked cookies and so much more! We still have a lot more to learn until June, but we thought we'd celebrate the first 100 days with some fun activities. Take a look below to see how we spent our morning last Friday. 

I adapted from Cara Carroll's (First Grade Parade)  punch card idea for students to keep track of the centres the had completed.

M. seeing how many times he can clap his hands in 100 seconds.

K. and J. playing Roll to 100!

B. making 10 groups of 10 on her bubble gum machine.

Writing a poem about "100".

Bananagrams Game - Pink Group

Every Wednesday we have spelling centres  so we can sort and practice our spelling words for that week. One of the centers is usually Bananagrams. Most of us started playing Bananagrams when we were in grade one.
We started with the word "Februaury" and with 9 tiles each. We went around the circle and added words to the first word. We played until their were no more tiles in the center. -Daniel                      
We played until we had no tiles in the extra pile. -Jeremy  
We had a lot of fun! -Claudia
There were 6 players. We had fun! -Lauren
At the end of game,  we made 34 words. My friend made the word of a person in our favourite book (Moshi Monsters) -Ethan
It took us the whole period to play. -Daniel
We started during spelling and we went into reading. -Jeremy
At the end we mixed up the words. -Claudia              
At the end we got to use the extra letters to make any word at any time. -Ethan
We put our tiles in the middle to make more words. -Daniel
There were a few words that were the same. We played for 30 minutes. -Lauren
It took a long time to play the game. -Claudia
It was the best game I ever played. It was so fun! I made long words. -Ethan

Maps and Globes

Our class has spent the last couple of weeks looking at globes and maps. We have talked about how they are same and how they are different. Each student had a chance to make their own globe. We used a balloon to give us the shape of the earth. We then took strips of newspaper and dipped them into a flour and water mixture and covered the balloon with them. Once the paper hardened, we painted it blue to represent water. Each student had also coloured a map with the continents on it. We cut those out and glued them on our balloons to create our globes! Students also worked hard creating a map of our classroom.

This is what the students had to say . . .
We have been learning about maps and globes. A map is 2D and a globe is 3D. -Lauren
A globe is round and a map is flat. -Daniel
A globe shows the countries and the oceans and a map shows more details. A map also has a legend. -Daniel
We blew up balloons and dipped pieces of newspaper into flour and water (paper mache) and stuck them on the balloon. When they dried we painted the globe blue. When the paint was dry, we cut out our coloured maps and glued them on the globe. -Claudia
We made these maps that showed part of the world and we did not paint the water because we painted the globes blue for present water. -Jeremy
We read a book about maps and it showed the city. I learned that maps are flat. -Michael
Maps have landmarks and you can find your way around the city by using one. -Brooklyn
We made a map for our classroom. We drew what's inside our classroom. -Julia
Maps have legends that show us little things that we can find on the map. It tells us what they mean. -Theo

T. & B enjoying paper mache!

A., B., & S. with their finished globes!

A map of our classroom.