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.