March Break has arrived! I wish everyone a fun, relaxing and safe holiday! See you March 19th!

Ms. Ferguson :)

This is just a reminder that primary electives are scheduled for tomorrow (March 8th) from 9:00-3:30. Students will come to our class first thing in the morning and then head to their electives from there. All students should bring extra snacks and drinks as I am sure they will be very hungry after all of their exciting activities. Please keep in mind that if you are leaving the school (for swimming or bowling), the hot lunches/milk will not be available so you will still need to bring a lunch.

Here are a few important reminders for specific electives:

Swimming - Don't forget to bring a bathing suit and towel!

Bowling - The snack bar will not be open at the bowling alley, so please bring your own snacks and lunch.

Scrapbooking - Remember to bring your pictures and a glue stick.

Outdoor Games - Bring an extra pair of clothes in case you get wet and some board games in case it is raining.

Have a wonderful elective day everyone! 

I forgot to mention that tomorrow is Hawaiian day! Students are encouraged to wear Hawaiian shirts, flowers, etc. House points will be awarded to students who participate in this spirit day.

Sorry for the late notice!

Unfortunately we had to cancel electives last week due to the weather, but we are happy to announce that the primary electives have all be rescheduled for Thursday, March 8th, 2012! This will be a great day for students to explore some fun activities that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Please make sure your child comes prepared for his/her elective this Thursday!

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.