Holidays and Winter Traditions from Around the World

December has been a very busy month. Can you believe tomorrow is the last day before winter break? The kids are PUMPED up about Santa. So I took the opportunity to talk about holidays and winter traditions.

First we of course had to talk about Christmas. We took a little "trip" around the world to talk about the traditions we get from other cultures. For instance the children learnt that we get the tradition of using an advent calendar and decorating a Christmas  from Germany. We get the tradition of eating seafood on Christmas eve from Italy. We get the poinsettia from Mexico-we even read a cool legend about it. Check it out below!

After our talk about Christmas we decided to explore other winter holidays. We talked about Diwali, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. The kids were particularly interested in Hanukkah so I taught them how to play dreidel. Here are a few pictures below of the kiddos playing the game-they beg to play it now!

We finished up this fun unit today with another round of dreidel, a few presentations and a visit from Saint Nick.

Have a safe and happy holiday season! Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year too!

Rekenreks with Mrs. Wallace

Today Mrs. Wallace was invited to join our math class and teach the children how to use a cool math tool called a rekenrek. The rekenrek, or arithmetic rack, was designed by Adrian Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland, to support the natural development of number sense in children.
Smaller versions consist of two rows of 10 beads. Larger versions with ten rows of ten beads are also available. Each row is made of five red beads and five white beads. This allows students to make mental images of numbers. Using 5 and 10 as anchors for counting, adding and subtracting is obviously more efficient than one-by-one counting. This tool provides learners with the visual models they need to discover number relationships and develop a variety of addition and subtraction strategies, including doubles plus or minus one, making tens, and compensation, thereby leading to automaticity of basic facts (K-5 Math Teaching Resources Website).

The kids used the rekenreks to make numbers, to show one more, two more, one less, two less and to practice their make ten facts. It was a cool tool to use and we will continue to use this tool over the school year.

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Hour of Code

Yesterday our class participated in the "Hour of Code". The 'Hour of Code' is a nationwide initiative by CSEdWeek and code.org to introduce computer programming to 10 million students and encourage them to learn programming. Our fantastic technology mentor, Mr. Robichaud, graciously agreed to come into our class and try coding with our kiddos.

Here are some pictures of Mr. Robichaud working with the kids below. If anyone is interested in seeing the website the kids used feel free to visit code.org-we played the angry bird coding game!

Goodbye Mrs. Costello!

We did it! Our kiddos kept the surprise party a secret for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! The day of the party a few kiddos stayed in with me to make decorations, set up food and collect presents. We had to get Mrs. Costello out of the room while we did this so Mrs. Dobbin and Mrs. Hierlihy, knowing that Mrs. Costello is a talented artist, arranged for her to do some painting.

So we were all ready to go. Everything was set up and Howie and Ewan were sent down to get her while the class hid for the surprise party. Well, Howie and Ewan returned without Mrs. Costello. Apparently Mrs. Costello thought she wasn't allowed to leave her painting station! I sent the two boys down there again. I had told the boys not to return without her. So they told her I was having a smart board emergency and to come quick. She came the next time around and we all yelled SURPRISE! She was completely surprised and the kiddos thought her reaction was hilarious!

I must say she held it together pretty good during the party. That is of course until she read our class book and we gave her a group hug. We had so much fun with Mrs. Costello and we hope that she visits us really soon!

S.J. The Elf

You can tell Christmas is in the air because our classroom is just buzzing. I'm sure you all feel it at home. Luckily we have our classroom elf to help remind us to behave and follow rules during this very exciting time.

Meet S.J.-short for Santa Junior. He is a little trickster that likes to pull pranks on the class.The little trickster likes to hang from ceiling tiles, make a bed in our kleenex box and eat our pizza on pizza day! I think I may need to make a call to the North Pole to tell Santa about our naughty little guy's poor choices! I should probably make a call home to talk to Santa about S.J.'S spelling and capitals too...

The little guy is cute...but it looks like he needs to work on his 5 star sentences-especially his spelling and capitals!

We Won the Pumpkin Contest!!!!

So the last week of October we entered into a pumpkin decorating contest where Quinn and Luke had the awesome idea of making our pumpkin into Pikachu.

 

Well...........WE WON! The good people at Jungle Jim's in Quispamsis have gifted one free kids meal to each of our happy decorators. Good job class!

 

 

 

 



Skating

Well it certainly has been a long time since we last posted. Let's blame report cards for the delay in a posting then shall we?

The kids have been having a blast skating. Last week one of our kiddos forgot their skates so I put her in charge of being the class photographer. Enjoy the pictures below-our class photographer got some cute shots!

Halloween Party 2014

I must say we had a blast at our Halloween party. Of course we put first things first and made sure we had all of our important work done for the day (reading, spelling test, math) before we partied the afternoon away.

The kiddos played at four different minute to win it stations. Please see the video below for a description of each game and to view our kiddos in action.

The kiddos were pretty well behaved during our party. We also had a special performance by musician Art Richard and the kiddos got to dance off all of the sugar they ingested at the party.

Happy Halloween everyone! Be safe and have fun!

Halloween-Our GoNoodle Class Champ

 

 

Our GoNoodle class champ surprised us today by dressing up for Halloween. Flo Yo is dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein! The kiddos thought this was hilarious!

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Jungle Jim's Pumpkin Contest

Behold our creation for the Jungle Jim's Quispamsis Pumpkin Decorating Contest! Swing on in and vote for the best pumpkin at the Jungle Jim's location in Quispamsis before Halloween. Our class could win a great prize with your help!

Thank you Quinn and Luke for the fantastic idea to make Pikachu and to all of the boys and girls who painted. A big thank you to those children that made the ears and tail-I had no idea Pikachu was so detailed!

Mario the Turtle and Senior Buddies

 We had a very busy day in 2 Creamer! This month we have been learning about life cycles with Mrs. Costello. We have read many books about frog, butterfly and shark life cycles. We will continue to read about many other animal's life cycles. The kiddos have been particularly interested in turtle and frog life cycles. Mrs. Costello just happens to know someone with a pet turtle so today we studied all about turtle life cycles with our special guest Mario the turtle! The kids loved holding him, making observations about him and learning cool facts. And don't worry about germs-we did a whole lot of hand washing today!

In the afternoon we had more special visitors-our senior buddies. Today the kids read their books to their buddies and played a board game. The seniors were so impressed with their reading-they can't wait to come back again and hear our children read more stories!

Pattern Palooza

Oh my goodness-what a day! The kids had a very busy Pattern Palooza Day and all enjoyed our fun patterning activities.

In the morning the kiddos went through pattern stations. We made pattern robots, we ate food patterns, we made cool pattern art and created awesome pattern bracelets. Also check out the video announcements featuring some of our kiddos talking about their patterns!


http://web1.nbed.nb.ca/sites/ASD-S/1930/SiteAssets/Pages/default/OCT%2014%20ANNOUNCEMENTS.wmv




We also had a little fashion show-the kids looked awesome! The teachers-well we looked a little crazy. I can only imagine what the community thought as we walked down to Rothesay Baptist Church to practise our off site evacuation in the afternoon.



Before the kids went home we took a group photo of all the Gr.2's wearing their crazy patterns. We had just enough time to use chalk and make some amazing patterns when...it started to rain...hard. The kiddos got a little soggy but they sure had fun!

Oops!

In our Family Connections information that went out today it states that our class has our senior buddy visit on October 14th. We are actually not seeing our lovely friends until October 20th.

Responding to Art

Today for Art class we taught the kiddos how to respond to the work of others. We talked about how different art pieces make us feel different things, what we may see/hear/feel/smell/taste if we were to actually enter the artwork, and we spoke about the different lines that can be used in art. We set up a gallery in the teacher conference room and had the kids go around with post its and write how the piece of art made them feel. It was a fun learning experience which all of the children enjoyed.

I also just need to brag here for a second.....

So did you like that piece of art? Well our very own Mrs.Costello is a very talented artist. If you can believe it... this piece is made entirely out of plasticine! What will I do when she leaves?! :)

GoNoodle

You may have heard your kiddo talk about our brain breaks, GoNoodle or our monster Squatchy. Well let me clear up all of those terms for you. A brain break is like an energising time out. As you know most kids of any age have a hard time sitting still.I don't know about you but I still have a hard time sitting still! When the kiddos are getting too antsy and need some movement to refocus we do a brain break. A brain break could be doing a dance, stretching, deep breathing or doing yoga-it all depends on the mood of our kids.
GoNoodle is a brain break website that gives you access to free and appropriate movement videos. Each time our class completes a brain break from the GoNoodle website we get points. We trade those points in to raise our class champ.

You get to pick your classroom Champ character and of course we picked Squatchy Berger:

As you pick new brain breaks for your class, you earn points and can earn more class Champs!

So there you have it. I'll leave you with a video of our kiddos groovin' to "Awesome Rainbows".

 

Silly Spooky Skeletons

The pictures for the project are coming I swear! We are just waiting until..October. In the meantime I found a few pictures and a video I took of the kids working on their art projects. Notice how quiet it is-honestly you can only hear our "artist music" and cutting scissors. Check it out below.

I had to add this picture too-they were not working on their skeletons but Mrs. Costello taught the kids how to use leaves as stamps. It was pretty cool!

Goal Setting...as promised 3 posts ago (oops!)

We are slowly finishing up our goals. Mrs. Costello and I have been talking to the kiddos about what they want to accomplish this year. We will revisit these goals regularly to see if they have reached their goals and  make adjustments to the goals. Way to "begin with the end in mind" boys and girls!

I want to make a book. I want to whistle (you and me both Erica!)

I want to be "a" artist. I want to learn to braid.

Guess what? We are learning how to count money this year! :) Money is easily one of the Gr.2's favorite things to learn because who doesn't like money?

Howie made it to the wall of fame for his goals!

Our October Bulletin Board Art Project

 Our class is in charge of creating something spooky for the bulletin board in the main hall for the month of October...

...stay tuned to see what creepy artwork Mrs.Costello is creating with our kiddos!

Our "Ish" Art Portfolio's

 

Our class is so lucky to have our wonderful intern Mrs. Costello. Mrs. Costello is so comfortable teaching Art each Wednesday afternoon and the kiddos really enjoy her lessons. She introduced our class to a sweet book called "Ish". It has a wonderful message where a creative spirit learns that thinking "ish-ly" is far more wonderful than "getting it right". So we made Art Portfolio's that describe us and we didn't worry about being perfect-we explored our creativity.

 

 

Luke is "angry bird-ish"

Caroline can be "friend-ish"

Erica is "dance-ish"

Jayden likes all things "Mario-ish"

Goal Setting

Something I enjoy doing with each one of my students is goal setting. I sat down with each of the kiddos last week and we discussed things they would like to get better at this year. I had each student set two goals for the year. Many students wanted to learn how to add and subtract two digit numbers, many of my boys wanted to learn how to count money, some students wanted to learn how to use watercolour paint,  others wanted to learn how to tie their shoes.

We are still working on goal setting but once they are complete I will post a few pictures. Ask your child what their goal is for the school year!

Picture Day

Hello families!

Please be aware that Tuesday September 16th is picture day!

What a Week!

What a great first week! The kids are settling in nicely. They are a great group of workers and seem very eager to learn. This week  Mrs. Costello and I have been conducting learning style surveys and Math surveys in an attempt to get to know our little learners. All week we have been reviewing outcomes from last year. We have also been doing some pretesting on the kiddos so as we may differentiate their learning this month and all year.

Something I am very proud about is our class mission statement. The kids made it with very little help from their teachers. First our kiddos were put into groups of four. In their group they had to discuss the following question-Why do you think you are in school?

The kids had a lot of interesting conversations. Some kids think we are in school to have fun, to be better readers, to make new friends, and to learn all about Math. I then had the kids draw or write some of the reasons why they think we are in school on their group brainstorm sheet.

We then came together as a class and picked the top 3 reasons why we are in school. Our top three reasons why we are in school are...
1. To be smarter
2. To make friends
3. To be better readers


The kiddos then had to decide how we would do those things...we had to make a plan. What do we need to do to accomplish these three things?

Here is the final result of our hard work. Normally I would post more pictures of the kids working but I am still waiting to get all my student info sheets back-I need photo permission first!

Welcome to Grade Two!

Welcome to Mrs. Daley-Creamer’s Grade 2 class blog!  I am so excited to meet my new students and to welcome back some familiar faces! Actually quite a few familiar faces. I have two kiddos from my Gr. 1 class from last year coming along for the ride with me this year!  And let me just say I am very excited that I get to keep them for another year! We are going to have an excellent year together and I am looking forward to working with my students and their families.

I would like to take this time to introduce myself.  My name is Mrs. Ashley Daley-Creamer and I will be your child’s grade 2 teacher for the 2014-2015 school year. I have been teaching in the district for quite a few years now and I am very familiar with the grade 2 curriculum as the majority of my teaching experience has been at the primary level. I graduated with degrees in Arts and Education from the University of New Brunswick Saint John. This year we will be hosting a student teacher from UNBSJ. I am very excited to show her the ropes! :)

I am from Quispamsis and I love living in the Kennebecasis Valley. I live with my husband Matthew and our naughty dog Dingo. He is a basenji and has more energy than a room full of second graders! I love telling stories about Dingo's shenanigans to my class.

My learning philosophy is that each child is unique, and each child learns in a different way. I believe in hands-on experiences, learning creatively and learning though play. My two favorite things to teach are Math and Writing. I hope my students like those two things because we will be doing A LOT of both!

 I am a firm believer in open communication between home and school as it is necessary for maximum school success.  During my time with your child, I will communicate with you as much as possible.  Students will have a homework folder in which I will put any notes or reminders.  This folder is to be returned each day and you may also use it to send me any notes as well.  If there are ever any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to email me ashley.daley@nbed.nb.ca. I can also be reached through the school at (506)847-6206 or you can send me a note in your child's homework folder.I am really looking forward to getting to know you and your child!

I update this blog weekly so please be sure to check in often. Please be sure to check out the site links at the top of the page. These sites are all very fun and geared towards children in grade 2.

I hope to see you all at Fairvale's Annual Back to School BBQ taking place on August 27th at 5:45pm. Please drop by the classroom, say hello, leave any school supplies, and grab a bite to eat!

Ashley Daley-Creamer

Arf the Musical

See you all tomorrow June 11th at 6:30 for our show. The Grade 1 students need to be here by 6 in order to get ready. Cost for the show is $2 per person with all proceeds going to the Animal Rescue League.

Synergize

Last month we spoke about the 6th habit-synergize. Since we were doing acrostic poetry we found a lovely acrostic poem using the word team that perfectly explains this habit.
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

As most of you are aware we had a few indoor days so we spent one indoor noon hour synergizing with puzzles. Here are a few pictures below!

Acrostic Name Poems

April was poetry month. We like to read and write poems all year long but I do enjoy focusing on purely poetry for the month of April. The kids wrote many different types of poems, learnt how to make similes to enhance their poems, we talked about rhyming words, tied in our sense and science with poetry and spent a large amount of time working with descriptive words.

Probably the favourite activity of the class was when we were brainstorming for our acrostic name poems. We read some books were people were described, we practised describing by using Mrs. Grant as an example and then I sent them off to work on brainstorming posters for each child in our class. Each student had a poster at their desk with their name. The task was for every student to write a word on the poster that described their classmate. The kids were BEAMING when we were finished. Here are a few snapshots of the posters we made below.



I love what one of the students wrote on this little guys page..."sniky" (sneaky). My little buddy here likes to trick me every so often!

Mrs. Ashley Daley-Creamer