Here is a link to the website we are making as a class to help protect monarch butterflies:

http://savemonarchbutterflies.weebly.com/

We made a special art project for Valentine's day. After we read the book "The Lorax" and talked about the important message it teaches us about the environment and protecting trees, we decided to try recycling paper and turning it into something new. Watch the slideshow below to see how some old pieces of newspaper transformed into beautiful works of art!

Term 1 report cards will be going home on Friday, February 17, 2012. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Your child's monthly update for January will not be going home until Tuesday, February 21st, sorry for the delay.

Also, just a reminder that Monday, February 20th is Family Day. Enjoy the long weekend!

Monday, February 13th, 2012 was our 100th day of Grade 2! We did many fun activities to celebrate this special day and to explore the number 100! Watch the slide show above to see some of the activities we did on Hundreds Day.

Here are some of the activities we did on the SMART Board on Hundreds Day:

1. 100 Snowballs!

2. Give the Dog a Bone Game

3. People in Order (1-100) Video

4. Skip Counting on a Hundreds Chart

Our class has quickly become fans of the Magic Tree House series. We finished the first book, Dinosaurs Before Dark, last week and as soon as I closed the book students were asking me to start the next one! We also cleared most of the books from the series off the shelves in the library! Seeing you all get this excited about books makes me so happy!

As promised students, here is a link to the Magic Tree House website where you can learn more about the books and explore some fun online games and activities:

http://www.magictreehouse.com/#intro

If you want to create an account, please check with your parents first. You can still access most of the material without creating an account.

Have fun!

We have been learning about visualizing. This means making a mental image of the text as you read it, including what you see, hear, smell, taste and feel. Students have been doing a great job drawing and describing what they visualize as we read together in the class.

One of our students pointed out that "the more descrptive the writing is, the easier it is to visualize." When we read Dinosaurs Before Dark we are able to picture what is going on even though the book doesn't have very many pictures because the author uses so many interesting words and describes things very clearly.

Students, now it is your turn to write some descriptive sentences! Please take one of the sentences below and rewrite it so that it is more descriptive and easier for the reader to visualize. You may need to write more than one sentence to really help your reader to create a clear mental image! You can post your new sentences as a comment.

I look forward to reading your descriptive sentences!

I read a book and it was nice.

I ate a cookie and it tasted good.

The dog is cute.

The boy walked down the hill.

I was happy.

The chair was comfortable.

Congratulations to ML and AR for their awards today! You have shown excellent character and work skills!

 I also wanted to congratulate the entire class on their wonderful behaviour during the assembly today. Several teachers commented on how well everyone in our class was listening and showing respect to the speakers!
 
Ms. Ferguson :)

Today we started reading the chapter book Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne. It is the first book in the Magic Tree House series. Strangely enough, all of the other books that we have of that series in the classroom went immediately off the shelves and into students' book boxes...I think we have some new fans!

There are very few pictures in the book, but this is perfect because we are learning to visualize and create our own mental images!

When we are in the computer lab tomorrow, please post a comment sharing some of your thoughts on the book so far. You can talk about one of the characters, something that you visualized, a prediction you have about what would happen next, what you like about the book, or anything else that you are thinking about as we read it!

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Ms. Ferguson :)