Last Day of School!

It has been a jam-packed, fun-filled last week of school and our last day was the busiest of all!  We played an 'end of the year' bingo game to find out what we would all be up to this summer.  We cleaned up the classroom by sorting our books, throwing out broken or worn out items and wiping out all buckets and bins!  Thanks for all your help Grade 2/3!  We also took a few minutes to reflect on our whole year together and everyone made a contribution to our final blog post!  We really have had a ball this year!

Noah- I liked when we made gingerbread houses.
Will- I liked when we made the board games.
Javi- I liked when we did the 3 little pigs play with our friends.
Peyton- I liked watching Fairie Tale theatre.
Tristan- I liked when Discovery Western came to our classroom.
Chloe-I liked that we were so busy every day that the time went fast and when our schedule got flopped.
James- I liked when we went tubing at River Valley.
Jorja- I liked when we helped mrs. Stacey clean up the entire classroom for the summer.
Owen- I liked when we went to the Public Library for stories and a craft.
Gavin- I liked the 'Think outside the Box' game.
Mac- I liked when we went to Wildwood and we made land art.
Vaughn- I liked when we went to Wildwood and we did the Monarch Migration orienteering game.
Savannah- I liked when we learned about butterflies and when we had caterpillars in the classroom.
Daniel- I liked when we went to Hearns Dairy and when we got to watch grade 5s do their play.
Brody- I liked when we went skating at the PRC.
Travis- I liked when we went to the splashpad.
Hannah- I liked when we went to Swim to Survive and we got to jump off the blocks and have races!
Jordan- I liked being at school and just hanging out with my friends.

Mrs. Stacey- I LOVED getting to know all these amazing students! They have impressed me so much with their growth in all areas!

We all loved the many Spirit days that we participated in this year like Twin Day, Career Day, Wacky Day, PJ Day, Pancake Day, Water Play Day, Jump Rope for Heart, Movie Day in the Gym etc.

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Have a wonderful summer!

Summer Reading!

Your child has worked very hard this year! According to research, students who do not read over the summer can lose as much as 22% of their reading level. 
You can help prevent this summer reading loss by encouraging your child to read over the summer. Try to read something everyday, whether it’s a book, recipe, or a menu. Every word counts.

Summer Reading Ideas
*Visit the public library   (They have a great summer reading program...see pics below)
*Visit the bookstore
*Listen to books while driving
 *Take turns reading
*Find fun places to read
*Try a new book series
 *Re-read an old favorite 
*Swap books with a friend 
*Find books at a thrift store
 *Read books about places you hope to visit one day 
*Have a family poetry reading night with a microphone
 *Have a reading picnic on a blanket outside
*Read books, then watch the movie version and compare. 

You could also read books online.  Here are some great websites to try:

Storyline Online—celebrities read aloud favorite children’s books
http://www.storylineonline.net

International Children’s Library—a large collection of stories from around the world
http://en.childrenslibrary.org

Storynory—a variety of fun and colorful stories to read online
http://www.storynory.com

PBS Kids—fun, animated stories perfect for reading along http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/ 

Here’s to making this a summer of reading! 

The Three Little Pigs

During our last few days of school, we worked in groups to put on a short "Reader's Theatre" of "The Three Little Pigs".  Students had to assign roles, practice lines and make simple props to tell the story.  It was a lot of fun to watch them working together one final time!  They did such an amazing job that we performed for Mrs. Rae's class and Mrs. Douglas's class also!  What a fantastic way to end the year!

Happy Birthday Canada!

In honour of Canada's 150th birthday, we spent some time researching this great country of ours! We recorded as many interesting facts as we could find.  Our research skills have really improved! We are able to locate key information using a variety of familiar, kid-friendly sites with greater independence and efficiency! We also watched a short video about the 10 most  popular places to visit in Canada! It was fun to take a trip from coast to coast without even leaving our classroom! Happy Birthday Canada!

Friday Fun!

We sure are lucky to be so close to the splashpad! What a fun way to end our week...splashing around with our friends!  Only 4 fun-filled days to go before summer holidays begin!

Public Library and Hearns Dairy

Somehow, we managed to get to the Library before that rain storm came down.  We didn't even get hit by a single drop!   It was nice to see Karen at the Library. We heard some fabulous stories, did a fun craft with Tina (the summer program co-ordination) and enjoyed our lunch upstairs picnic style.  We stayed at the library a little longer than we originally planned and played a fun game called 'Thinking Outside the Box'.  When the rain finally stopped, the sun started to shine and we went up the hill to Hearns Dairy! At Hearn's we relaxed with a cool treat which gave us just enough energy to make it back to the school. It was a fantastic way to spend the morning! 

Soil Science!

Students in Grade 2/3 are still working hard to achieve science expectations related to the 'Soils in the Environment' strand.  We have had the opportunity to observe different soil samples from various locations. We noted the living and non-living things in each sample. We learned about the nutrients contained in soil(N,P,K) and how these can be replaced to make sure plants have what they need to survive and grow healthy and strong ( fertilizers, composting). We closely examined  the 3 main types of soil (sand, clay, loam) and learned how the particle sizes in these types of soils determine their ability to hold water.  We are still hard at work!

Favourite Memories

Today we used our classroom blog to help us reflect on our entire school year.  We had a lot of fun looking at the pictures that have been posted and being reminded of interesting, informative  things we did each month and fun places we visited. It was personally gratifying for me to hear students say things like "oh....I remember when we did that...it was so fun". They encouraged each other to visit certain months on our blog to revisit memories of our year together and even asked if there was time to do certain things again!  If you would like to have this same experience with your child, ask them to take you on a trip down memory lane by visiting our blog at: gradetwothreeatlittlefalls.blogspot.com.

It really has been a fantastic year.

Swim to Survive -Day 3

Today was our final day in the swim to survive program.  I would like to congratulate these students for working so hard to build strength and endurance while practicing their swimming skills. I am so proud of each of you! Please stay safe around the water this summer!

June Art Projects

We were truly inspired by the work of Georgia O'Keefe when we looked at the amazing paintings produced by this very talented painter. 

Georgia O'Keeffe was famous for her large format flower paintings.  She died at the age of 98 but her beautiful paintings continue to be admired world-wide.  

After looking at several examples of her paintings, our class noticed some things that are specific to her style of painting.
* "There isn't very much background....it's all flower"
* "She doesn't usually have white showing on her paper...unless the flowers are white".
* "The outline and details of the flower are easy to see" 
* "The flower is HUGE....like it's a close up".

Armed with this new inspiration, we set out to create our own flowers.  I think ours are just as beautiful. 
We also used some of our art time to review kinds of lines when creating our 'Flip Flop Line Art'.
'Crumple Art' allowed us to revisit the idea of balanced colour in art pieces! 
Art is a favourite subject for many students in this classroom and you can certainly see from the pictures below that these students show a lot of skill and effort when producing their masterpieces! Bravo!

Swim to Survive- Day 2

Today, we enjoyed our second lesson in the 'Swim to Survive' program.  Students are working to build strength and stamina so they can tread water longer and swim farther without tiring.  Students also practice rolling, jumping and diving into deeper water and getting back to the side safely.  Special thanks to our lifeguards, Emily and Amelia!  In class, we also reviewed water safety rules.  Students watched a video about this and then used pictures as cues to record as many safety rules as they could recall!  Great job everyone.  I will worry a little bit less about my students when I know they are armed with the knowledge they need to be safe around water this summer!   Whew!

I-farm - June 13, 2017

On Tuesday, June 13th, our class (along with the other Grade 3 classes from Little Falls) travelled to the Burns Agriplex Fieldhouse (located directly behind the Stratford Rotary Complex).  We participated in a morning, educational session which lasted from 10am – 12pm.  Over the course of our 2 hour session,  our class participated in several 15 minute learning stations that offered a hands on look at the dairy, egg, pork and grain industries, farm safety, butter making, and the Gaylea Heritage Museum .   The students really enjoyed this experience and were able to discuss many things that they saw, did and learned during our excursion.  They wrote about the things they learned and their favourite parts of the morning. We also did some additional research on pigs, chickens and cows....just to learn a bit more about these useful farm animals.  Please use these photographs to inspire conversation with your child about our amazing excursion.  Enjoy!

Let the Games Begin!

* As part of our Media Literacy studies, we discussed features of 'Board Games' and things that game designers do when designing a game to make it appeal to children.  (Conventions and techniques used in this kind of media).
* Students had the opportunity to look at and play with a variety of commercially made games first.  * We listed things that some of these games had in common and some things that were unique to the games. (Boards, dice or spinner, rules, challenge cards etc.)
* We looked at samples of game instructions to see how games are explained to other. Key features of written instructions were noted (contents, set up, what to do on a turn etc.)
* Afterwards, students were asked to create their own game.
* Students also had to write the instructions so that anyone could play their game easily.  It has been interesting to see which game features they incorporated into their own games.  Cards, dice, spinners, skip a turn, go to jail, pop ups, go back to start.....
* We have some very creative 'game creators' in our midst! 
*Some of the rules are still evolving!
* We tested each other's games and completed a peer review for each designer! 
  It was a big process! !  It was a lot of fun!

Swim to Survive

We had a great time at our first 'Swim to Survivie' session today.

WHAT'S THE SWIM TO SURVIVE SCHOOLS PROGRAM?
The Lifesaving Society aims to have every Grade 3 student in Ontario achieve the 'Swim to Survive Standard' in an effort to prevent accidental drownings.  The Society has a Swim to Survive school grant program to help make this happen and so our class (Grade 2 and 3 students) will have the opportunity to participate in this program along with all the other Grade 3 classes from Little Falls.
The Society defines the minimum skills needed to survive an unexpected fall into deep water. These are expressed in a skill sequence in the Canadian Swim to Survive standard:
Students will learn how to:
ROLL into deep water
TREAD water for one minute
SWIM 50 metres

Swim to Survive is aimed primarily at children, but people of all ages should be able to perform the Society's Swim to Survive standard. Please ask your child about what they did in the pool today and enjoy the pictures which prove we were having fun while learning to be safe in the water!

Wonderful Worms

While learning about 'SOIL' in Science, we started to think about all the living things that need soil.  Naturally, we talked about how worms need soil.  We soon discovered that the soil needs the worms too!  The worms loosen the soil by tunnelling in it and this allows air and water to reach roots of plants.  They eat the decaying plants in the soil and their waste (worm poop) adds nutrients back into the soil. We also learned a lot of other interesting information about worms!  We recorded all the interesting facts we could find about worms.  We read a book together to learn information and found more facts from a learning site called 'Pebblego' which the students looked at on their ipads.  We also had the opportunity to closely observe worms in action and we recorded our observations in pictures and words.

Thank you, worms, for all you do to make the soil better for our plants to grow in.