It's that time of year when children get excited about passing on to the next year level. It's also time for packing up our classroom and wishing everyone a great holiday ! As we head into our last week of school, I would like to thank all parents for supporting their children this year as well as entrusting me with your child! For me teaching year 2 was a great opportunity to follow some of the children I had taught in year 1 and to watch them grow for a second year. I equally enjoyed getting to know newer members of our year 2C class and observed their growth as well. Different challenges and experiences is what made my year in 2C an exciting one! It was a dynamic year watching the children develop their academic skills as well as their social skills. I remember that at this time last year the children were perplexed as to why they couldn't jump rope and do'tricks' with the skipping rope the way the Year 2 children could! I told them that year 2 would be a special year because it was magical and in Year 2 things children can do things you couldn't do the previous year. Not only can they now hop, skip and jump over the rope but they have become more skilled in reading, language and math!! No matter how many years I have been teaching, I always marvel at how children develop and progress over the year. That's the wonderful aspect of teaching children! Watching them blossom!
I would like to wish you an enjoyable summer and wish you and your children the best in the next academic year. I have enjoyed Portugal. It's a beautiful country with an interesting history and wonderful places to visit. I would love to hear from the children next year, please feel free to approach me for my email. If you are in Japan, drop me a line!




Here is an update for the week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is free dress day.
Mr Thompson has informed us that children may borrow books from the library over the summer.Parents and children may come to the library and check them out. Please be aware that if your children take books out , they need to return them when school resumes in September. Check on costs of lost books!
School ends at 12.00 (noon) on Friday. There is no after school supervision that day!

So on this note, I end the year 2C news blog! I take with me fond memories of my years at St.Dominics, my classes and the children that made my stay special......Thank you...Muito Obrigada!!!!!!!!!!

I would like to apologize for updating my blog a little later than usual. It seems each time I go towards the computer to edit my blog, I am distracted with end of year events and responsibilities as well as moving distractions.
Sports Day was a great hit and the children thoroughly enjoyed the event! The weather was cooler than anticipated so it was perfect! My camera was not working so I could not take pictures.If you have pictures please send them to me so I can put them on our blog.
It's the end of the year and we are spending time reviewing concepts in maths, reading and language. We are writing alot of creative stories, reviewing all vowels and working on comprehension! We are going to be playing more games as part of our review and the children will enjoy ending the year in a fun way! In maths, we investigated area last week and will also play games to review numbers!
The children have enjoyed our unit of inquiry 'Prove it". Our investigations have centered around air, color and now the children have shown an interest in the stars, sun and planets! We explored shadows and this led us to a discussion on heat !We will continue doing simple experiments this week.
This will be the last week for at home reading and sending home readers. Please return all reading books on Monday June 28, 2010 at the latest. Encourage your child to read throughout the holidays.

Sports Day takes place on Tuesday June 8, 2010. Please put sun screen on your child before coming to school. Don't forget the hats and an extra bottle of water!

Our new unit 'Prove It' is off to a great start. The central idea is :Science explains why or how natural events occur. The chidren brainstormed the meaning of science and matter. We discovered that matter is composed of liquids, gases and solids and set out to explore 'air'. We made kites and windsticks and explored air and its properties. The chidren discovered that air takes up space and explored/discussed the direction and movement of the wind as well the strength,weight and pressure of the wind. We then recorded our observations and drew conclusions about air. Next week we are going on a mini-field trip to the science labs in the senior school. The mystery question is 'What will we see?'

The children enjoyed the unit 'Listen Up' and some children asked if we could continue working on the unit. The children enjoyed learning about folktales around the world and valued our performance assessment immensely. Unfortunately my camera was not working properly and I wasn't able to take pictures. If you have pictures of the assessment, please send them to me so I can add them to the blog slideshow. The children did a great job with their performances! It's not always easy to remember the words and act on a stage!

The children keep extending their knowledge of long vowels and are exploring /th/wh/sh/ch as well as r controlled words /ir/er/ur/ar/ when reading short text and writing creative stories. We have some budding authors in class who will surely be writing books in the future! After our unit 'Listen up', the children are motivated to read and write. Some have extended their knowledge from our last unit, to ask me if they can write stories with embedded lessons and morals!

This week in maths the children reviewed time and reading time on the hour, half hour and quarter past. We reviewed counting by 5's to 100 and reading time at 5 minute intervals up to 30 minutes past the hour. Asking your child for the time will help them practice telling time. Practice using an analog clock and then a digital clock. The children are grasping the concept of place value and partitioning and becoming confident with their skills.

Portfolio Day was a successful time for the children to share their learning with their parents. The children were quite proud of their growth throughout the year and had alot to show in terms of progress and interests developed this year. Take a look at the pictures taken on Portfolio Day!!

Portfolio Day
Date:Wednesday May 26th, 2010
Date:Thursday May 27th, 2010
Time: 8.30-9.00
Place: Yr 2C classroom
Please check your child's diary for your scheduled date and time

Please take note that the time for our performance assessment has been changed to 8.45 on Wednesday May 19th, 2010. Some parents who drop their children off at 8.30 will be unable to return at 2.00 pm due to their work schedules. I have therefore changed the time for the children's performances to 8.45. I apologize for any confusion and hope this will accomodate everyone. See you there!

The children have enjoyed our unit 'Listen Up' immensely and even asked if we could continue learning about folktales to the end of the year. This week our travels took us to Ireland and Greece. We read different versions of 'How the turtle lost its shell' and each story elicited new perspectives on the story and its characters. We have been exploring the meaning of the word entertaining and that gestures, facial expressions, voice, and props can make a story entertaining. The children have been busy planning and practising for their performances !

This week we continued with our investigations into beginning/r/blends and the /squ/ blend. Children are using phonetic spelling and as they write unknown words are exploring r controlled words with sounds /ar/ir/or/ur/ and sounds such as /th/ch/sh/and /wh/. Discuss new vocabulary that your child may come across while reading and discussing the sounds, letter patterns, syllables, word families and rhymes found in words. We have been very busy summarizing text and writing about the events in stories. Come in and take a look at the simple books they have made! When reading with your child, you may want to ask about the meaning of words. Ask them questions related to content, predictions, style, actions, images, events , inferences and the author's purpose in writing. By doing this you will enhance their reading and writing skills!

This week in math, we reviewed place value and repeated addition. We also reviewed counting on from any number to 100 and we explored counting to 1000 by jumps of 100. We began our investigations into division. We discussed the symbol used in division and used manipulatives to understand the concept of division. The children were able to make connections to multiplication as well! We will continue with division and also explore numbers and the symbols used for greater than and less than.

You are cordially invited to Yr 2c Folktale performances! We are busy planning for our authentic end of unit assessment! Please come and join the audience! Keep your calendar free for Wednesday May 19th at 2.00. See you there!

Year 2c would like to invite you to Portfolio Day which will occur on Thursday, May 27, 2010. It will take place in the morning between 8.30-9.30. An invitation specifying your time will be sent to you in the coming week. Meet you there!

Field Trip- Tuesday, May 4, 2010. Please don't forget that we are going on a field trip on Tuesday. We will eat lunch at the park. Please make sure your child brings a small backpack (which they can carry on their backs)to store their lunch and a bottle of water. They should come dressed in their P.E. uniforms and bring along their hats.Apply sunscreen at home!

In our unit 'Listen Up', we have been exploring the world of fables. We discussed the morals of the stories and how these can be applied to our everyday lives. The children enjoyed such fables as 'The Fox and the Crow', 'The Hare and the Tortoise' and the 'The Heron and the Fish'. We read folktales from Timor, Cape Verde and Italy. We illustrated and wrote about 'The Hare and the Tortoise' and are busy completing our own creative stories.The children chose their favorite folktales to perform. They will be busy planning for their performances. We will be inviting parents to our show. Be on the lookout for this special day next week!

This week , the children spent time reviewing sight words and writing sentences using these words. We continued reading 'Brag,Brag', 'Here Comes the Bride' and'Scat Cat' and exploring blends /br/and/sc/. In handwriting we focused on writing the letter 'I'. We spent time reviewing the beginning , middle and end of stories in our unit of inquiry and worked on a plan which would help us write our own creative stories. The children explored sequencing events in stories and answering comprehension questions when reading text.

This week in math we explored multiplication as repeated addition. We investigated the 1x's and 2 x's tables and looked for patterns. The children were very observant and made discoveries. Did you know that the 2x's tables end in even numbers? We reviewed the number chart, counted in 5's and subtracted 5 from any number ending in 0 and 5.

The weather is getting warmer! Please make sure your children wear their P.E. shorts and Tshirts for P.E. and bring a water bottle! Also hats! Please put their hats in their backpacks!

This week in our unit ' Listen Up'we have explored values, feelings and beliefs found in folktales on different continents and countries. We learned about legends from Lake Michigan in the US, and took a look at La Fontaine's Fables. Our travels around the world took us to Australia, Japan, Ghana and Venezuela. Come in and take a look at our map! The children have been busy exploring different types of folktales and working on mini books about legends and fables.

This week the story 'Here comes the bride' was introduced and the focus was on /r/blends. In our Unit of Inquiry we have been reading folktales and discussing not only morals but the beginning, middle and ending of stories. The children are picking up speed and fluency as they read and have grown confident with their knowledge of long vowels, sight words, strategies used when decoding unknown words. They are writing with ease and applying their knowledge when writing sentences. Please ensure that they read and write regularly at home.

This week in maths, we explored subtraction in story problems. We also reviewed strategies and partitioning. Understanding story problems took time and reviewof 3D shapes will take place next week alongside multiplication as repeated addition.

I accidently removed the links on my page when I tried to add a new link. It will take me some days until I list them again. Update from the Library : Check out this website for younger children http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com/

username:Cher Czyzewski password: trial

Our new Unit of Inquiry is entitled "Listen up". We have been exploring the central idea " Folktales teach us values, feelings and or beliefs in an entertaining way". The children are quite enthusisastic about this unit. We brainstormed the meaning of folktales and the children came up with interesting 'I wonder' questions! "Why are there animal characters in folktales and why do animal characters talk?" are a few of the questions the children constructed. We started the week exploring folktales from different cultures. Thus far, we have travelled to China, Finland, Ukraine, Liberia and Mexico! We discussed and explored the characters, setting, as well as the beginning, middle and end of stories. We also investigated the morals/lessons found in the stories. Come by and take a look at our illustrations of 'The Dragon Painter', a folktale from China and our book of 'The Mitten', a folktale from the Ukraine. Next week, we will begin taking a look at legends and fables ! If you would like to come in and read a folktale to the class, please let me know!

This week the story 'Brag.Brag' was introduced and targeted /r/blends; gr/cr/kr/pr/dr/fr/and /tr/. Some children are confusing /dr/ and /br/. Blends are difficult for English and non-English speakers just as /d and /b/ are still mis-spelled by many children learning English. Some children are reading 'Glub,Glub' and reviewing /l/ blends. We are reviewing, reading and writing words with the long/a/e/i/o/u/ vowel sounds. Application of our knowledge of long vowels and newly acquired blends occur daily when writing sentences and creative stories. Please ensure you consistently and regularly review the long vowels when reading with your children. Ask them about the vowel sounds in words; are they short or long vowels? Ask you child to explain his/her understanding. The children should be able to differentiate between short vowel /a/ and long vowels/ai/,/a-e/ as well as give an explanation. Understanding how words are formed, having a knowledge of sight words, make for strong reading skills which translate into stronger writing skills!

In mental maths we reviewed missing numbers on a number chart and number bonds. We explored strategies used when adding ( 8+1+3+9) and strategies used in solving story problems! We investigated the vocabulary, clues and numbers presented in each problem. The focus was on addition problems and explanations of how they solved their problems. When working at home with your child on math skills, ensure they explain the processes involved in math concepts and not only the rote answer. Next week we will focus on strategies used in story problems involving subtraction as well as review 3D shapes.

I hope that everyone had a peaceful and relaxing spring break. We completed our Unit of Inquiry 'Toys n'Time' and the children were able to visit the chidlren in Yr 1A and yr 3L to do a presentation on their toy creations. They thoroughly enjoyed this activity! Take a look at the slideshow and view our creations! In math we ended the week reviewing partitioning and in reading we read the book 'Glug, Glug' focusing on l blends in the initial positio of words. The 3-Way conferences went smoothly and the children were very proud to share their progress with their parents! Thank you for attending the conferences.

This week in our Unit of Inquiry 'Toys n' Time' ,we explored time lines and toys/ games that have changed throughout time. We reviewed changes since the Stone Age and discussed the reasons behind play and why changes occured over time. We explored how events and techonology have changed toys and games. We created time lines and ended the week designing a toy. The children were able to choose their partners and plan together;making choices about the type of toy, the function of the toy and the materials to be used to create the toy. Next week, the children will share their knowledge about our unit and present their toy designs to Year 1 A.

This week the children continued their word search for 'l' blends in the stories ' Glen Wit' and 'Glub, Glub'. The long 'e' sound; /ee/ and /ea/ are often confused and are being regularly reviewed along with other long vowel sounds. The children are more attuned to long vowels now and are writing long vowel words with confidence. The children are focusing more on punctuation, verb tenses and descriptive words and are beginning to reflect more on these concepts when writing simple stories. Our Eggbert activities keep the children focused on punctuation and sentence structure. This week in handwriting we had fun writing silly sentences beginning with the letter 'G/g'.

This week in maths we explored adding and subtracting 20's, 30's and 40's from any given number on a number chart. We reviewed place value using tens and units. The children continued exploring the concept of partitioning using 2 digit numbers (11-19) and they began looking at different strategies used when adding 2 digit numbers and single digit numbers (16+3). At the end of the week we took a break from numbers and looked at symmetry. We had fun finding the line of symmetry on letters of the alphabet and shapes. In our unit of inquiry we focused on time.

Three Way Conferences take place on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010. There is no school on this day but parents/guardians should come to school with their child at the assigned time. Your child is excited about sharing and celebrating his/her learning and progress with you. Please help your child engage in conversations about school work and activities. See you then!

Our trip last week to the Sintra Toy Museum was very educational. The children were able to see traditional and modern toys on display. Our field trip, this week, to the Puppet Museum was truly engaging. We learned about traditional rod puppets, string puppets and glove puppets. We learned about changes over time and viewed shadow puppets from countries such Indonesia, Turkey, and China. Did you know that these puppets were originally made out of buffalo, camel and donkey skins? The children were also able to learn about the connections between puppetry, modern cartoon designs and film making. ( Unfortunately, on this day we were not able to take pictures of the puppets inside the museum.)The day ended with each child making a shadow puppet!! Next week, the children will be paired to create a toy! Materials will be given to them but they may also bring in materials which will enhance their creations! You may help your child by discussing changes in toys and games over time, materials used and the function of toys/games over time. Each child will need to work cooperatively with a partner and make decisions together.

The children enjoyed the story 'Wombat Stew' and were able to write exciting recounts about the 'dingo who wanted to cook a wombat in his stew.' They are beginning to understand that using descriptive words and their imagination counts when writing creative stories. In reading we are regularly reviewing long vowels, sight words,and playing word games to reinforce language and reading skills. We are beginning to explore blends but blends can be tricky for some children; 'l' blends have 2 sounds blended together; cl, bl, gl, pl, fl, and sl.
Please make sure you sign the reading logs each week. I am able to change books rapidly when the books children have read are listed. To help you, the children can also write the titles of the books on the log themselves. Don't forget to write comments, if need be, to let me know the level of ease or difficulty the children are experiencing when reading. Books can be read over again multiple times. This helps the children gain fluency when reading and use strategies over again when encountering unknown words. When your child is reading check for comprehension of text by asking questions which will require thought and dicussions about the story.

In maths we have been investigating fractions; halves, quarters and thirds. We have also explored jumping by 10's on a number line as well as additing and subtracting 10's and 20's to a given number (i.e. 10+ 20) We spent time this week looking at number sequences involving 2 digit numbers to 100 (i.e. 27, 25, 23, ___, ___ .) We explored patterns and strategies used when solving similar problems.

Our new unit 'Toys n' Time' focuses on changes that have occured with toys and games over time. We began the unit looking at our own families over time. The children made a family tree looking at relationships to their parents and grandparents. The concept of time is more difficult for some children than others. We had a wonderful field trip to the doll hospital in Lisbon. We saw antique dolls and other toys. Upon our return to class,we concluded that plastic, batteries and now chips are an essential part of modern day dolls and toys! We are off to Sintra on Tuesday to visit the toy museum.

We wrote creative stories and stories about animals this week. We continued with our investigations into long vowels and explored beginning blends. The children have grown confident with their reading skills and are beginning to explore different types of text skillfully.

In maths this week we explored place value and discovered the value of ones, tens and hundreds in numbers such as 6, 33, 99 and 100. We explored time and reviewed days, months and seasons in a year.

Our Carnival Celebrations were a success! Take a look at our slideshow! The children had a wonderful time at the parade!

Our Unit of Inquiry, 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' has come to an end! The children enjoyed the unit immensely, especially creating new art/items out of recycled materials! They came away with a clear understanding of the central idea and will easily be able to apply what they learned to their everyday lives. The theme of recycling is all around us in Portugal!

This week we continued working on the long /e/ sound. Some of the children reviewed the story 'Pete and his beans', others read 'Zeke'. In handwriting we worked on writing the letter 'F' and writing sentences with words beginning with 'F'.
We worked on student whiteboards and practiced breaking words into syllables, investigating rhyming words and unscrambling words that were out of order in a sentence. All the children particularly enjoyed this activity!

This week we had fun with measurement and quick recall of number facts to 20. We explored length and measured our feet using clips then compared the length of our feet using a ruler. We discovered centimeters and learned that there were 30 centimeters on our rulers.We explored measurement using cubes, clips, plastic frogs and weights of 10, 20 and 50 grams. We even used salt! We also investigated,capacity, mass, and estimation. We worked with partners and recorded our findings.

The children have really enjoyed our Unit of Inquiry 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle'. We completed our homemade plant hangers! We used used cut up plastic bottles and glued on bits of colored tissue paper. Last week the children had a wonderful experience learning about the process of paper making with Ms. Newton in 2N. We decorated the newly created paper and attached acrostic poems with the words 'reuse' and 'reduce' unto them. The children were able to reduce the amount of trash on our bulletin board landfill by moving the trash( paper, plastics, glass) over to the appropriate recycling bins on the opposite side of the board. We did. however,run into a dilemna! In the landfill we found wood, batteries, and peels. We decided we couldn't allow these items to stay in the landfill and we needed a solution. We sent organic materials into the compost bin, the batteries to the store bin and we decided the wooden items could be reused,repaired or recycled into firewood! The children learned how to make a train track out of recycled paper!Take a look at the slideshow and Nuno's 'Show and Tell'.

This week the children were involved in a variety of activities reviewing all long vowel sounds and reinforcing the long /e/ sounds. We read the long /e/ story 'Pete and the Bean' over again and the story 'Zeke' was introduced in class. The children have been tuning up their listening and comprehension skills! Each morning they are excited to discover more about Eggbert and they have been writing their own adventures about him. If he hasn't visited your home yet, he will do so!

In maths we reviewed number bonds to 10 and began to explore number bonds to 20. We investigated the concept of partitioning and began by partitioning numbers any number between 10 and 20. We continued with addition and subraction sentences to 20 but instead of investigating sums/totals of addition and subraction facts we looked at strategies used to find a missing number within an addition or subtraction sentence. ( 8+ _ = 12) and ( 15 -_ = 13)

Congratulations to the children for doing such a wonderful job at Friday's assembly! They enjoyed singing songs related to our unit 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle !' and have a better understanding of the 3 R's. We read a story and discovered that there is actually a 4th R; we can also repair items before throwing them away! This week we have discovered what happens to the trash once it gets to the landfill and next week we will go and find out what happened to the trash we buried a few months back. This week we were busy making cards from recycled paper and from old cards. The children made beautiful cards and wrote a summary on how they had saved the environment by making homemade cards! Can you guess how they helped save the environment??

The long/e/ vowel has been our focus again this week in reading. We have been writing up a storm! Eggbert keeps us focused on his adventures in the toy store! We are becoming more aware of full stops and capital letters as we edit the sentences in his story. We have been busy writing short summaries about the projects we are creating in our Unit of Inquiry. The children continue reading decodable books and books related to our Unit.

In maths, we keep working on number sense and the number system. This week we played addition games and continued writing addition sentences to 20. We looked at strategies and ways of adding more than 2 numbers to make 10 and 20. We are exploring the relationship between addition and subtraction and enjoyed playing a game with number cards.We added 2 cards and used these numbers and their sum to construct subtraction sentences. We explored the number chart to 100 and looked at the concepts less/more, greater than. We counted on in 3's, counted backwards from any number to 100 and reviewed counted by 5's and 10's from any given number.

Our Unit of Inquiry' Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' is off to a great start! This week we have been discussing the central idea 'Our Personal Choices Affect our Environment' and reading non-fiction books about the 3'Rs and how our choices do indeed impact our environment. We explored the concept of 'Reuse" and created beautiful art out of reusable materials. Take a look! The pictures will be on display in our classroom and the PYP board located at the front of the school. This Friday we will do a presentation at assembly! Check your child's diary; I will send home the words to the songs. Please help your child practice at home. We will be in need of plastic bottles for our next project. Let your child bring in an empty plastic bottle (preferably larger 1000ml water bottles).Thank you!