Dear Parents,
We have another very busy week at GWA!
This Tuesday from 8:30-10:30, Grade 2 will be having our Music Concert in the auditorium. We would love to have as many parents as possible attend and celebrate our musical achievement for the year. As a result of rehearsal and our actual concert, Swimming on Day 2 will be cancelled. We will also be missing P.E. on Day 3. We have managed to squeeze in a make-up session in the pool with Mr. Olly in the afternoon of Day 4. Please make sure your children are dressed in their regular school uniform for the Music Concert on Day 3. They should wear their P.E. kit for for our regular P.E. lesson on day 4 and bring along their swim kit for a swimming lesson in the afternoon.
Unit of Inquiry/Language - we are looking at different ancient civilizations to find out information about them. We have been reading texts about the Ice Age, Ancient Rome, and Ancient China so far, understanding some elements of their lives and lifestyle while also making not of their inventions/contributions. This week we will continue to build on that knowledge by exploring the lives of the Mayan Civilization and Ancient Egypt. Part of finding out information about cultures and how they lived long ago is to find out what has continued until today and what might past societies had or done, that has existed until now and continued to today. Developing a basic understanding of some civilizations will also provide us with a foundation for a research project later in the unit.
Last week students were also asked to tune-in to the differences between wants and needs. You will see from their seesaw uploads this week that some elements of Maslow's hierarchy of needs might be captured, but that discerning between a want and need for survival is still something many students have never thought about in much detail. We will be inquiring into Maslow's hierarchy of needs to understand the differences between and importance of physical, emotional, and mental needs and how they might be supported.
Literacy - For this unit we are looking at fiction writing - narratives.We are looking at traditional tales and how modification can be made to them to make other stories. We will also look at fables, legends, myths, and folk tales as part of stories that have passed on down through the ages. The focus of a narrative is on the characters, the setting, the problem and the resolution. This is in reading and writing. Ms. Betty was in at the end of last week to share a few classic of Aesop's fables, focusing on the moral of the stories. This week we will look at a few more stories to develop a framework for writing our own narratives later in the unit.
Short stories with a moral, fables are great for children to reflect on. Some of the morals even have tie in to our own PYP Learner Attributes. Here are a few more stories you can access at home: http://www.loyalbooks.com/book/aesops-fables-volume-1-fables-1-25
Maths - Last week we revisited addition/subtraction with regrouping and also looked at rounding to the nearest 10s and 100s value. This week we shift our focus to repeated addition and arrays - leading to multiplication. At this stage it is about using materials to demonstrate the concept of multiplication - that for example 5 x 6 is 5 groups of 6 objects in each group. It is also about problem solving, not just the rote learning of times tables. By the end of Grade 2 the expectation is that the students should know their 2,5 and 10 time tables automatically. Understanding the concept of what multiplication is, is the important aspect at this stage. Knowing their skip counts for 2s, 5s, and 10s to automaticity will help immensely.
Next week we have a session in the Makers Space with Mr. Big C. He is setting up 4 stations and in one of the stations will be a jewelry making centre. We are after any beads etc. for making jewelry and artifacts- if you have any or know of a place I can get some (cheaply) please let me know. We are looking at making accessories from the Mayan civilization as part of our Unit of Inquiry.
Reminders/Announcements:
As always, thank you for your continued support at home.
Warm regards,
Bhavna
We have another very busy week at GWA!
This Tuesday from 8:30-10:30, Grade 2 will be having our Music Concert in the auditorium. We would love to have as many parents as possible attend and celebrate our musical achievement for the year. As a result of rehearsal and our actual concert, Swimming on Day 2 will be cancelled. We will also be missing P.E. on Day 3. We have managed to squeeze in a make-up session in the pool with Mr. Olly in the afternoon of Day 4. Please make sure your children are dressed in their regular school uniform for the Music Concert on Day 3. They should wear their P.E. kit for for our regular P.E. lesson on day 4 and bring along their swim kit for a swimming lesson in the afternoon.
Unit of Inquiry/Language - we are looking at different ancient civilizations to find out information about them. We have been reading texts about the Ice Age, Ancient Rome, and Ancient China so far, understanding some elements of their lives and lifestyle while also making not of their inventions/contributions. This week we will continue to build on that knowledge by exploring the lives of the Mayan Civilization and Ancient Egypt. Part of finding out information about cultures and how they lived long ago is to find out what has continued until today and what might past societies had or done, that has existed until now and continued to today. Developing a basic understanding of some civilizations will also provide us with a foundation for a research project later in the unit.
Last week students were also asked to tune-in to the differences between wants and needs. You will see from their seesaw uploads this week that some elements of Maslow's hierarchy of needs might be captured, but that discerning between a want and need for survival is still something many students have never thought about in much detail. We will be inquiring into Maslow's hierarchy of needs to understand the differences between and importance of physical, emotional, and mental needs and how they might be supported.
Literacy - For this unit we are looking at fiction writing - narratives.We are looking at traditional tales and how modification can be made to them to make other stories. We will also look at fables, legends, myths, and folk tales as part of stories that have passed on down through the ages. The focus of a narrative is on the characters, the setting, the problem and the resolution. This is in reading and writing. Ms. Betty was in at the end of last week to share a few classic of Aesop's fables, focusing on the moral of the stories. This week we will look at a few more stories to develop a framework for writing our own narratives later in the unit.
Short stories with a moral, fables are great for children to reflect on. Some of the morals even have tie in to our own PYP Learner Attributes. Here are a few more stories you can access at home: http://www.loyalbooks.com/book/aesops-fables-volume-1-fables-1-25
Maths - Last week we revisited addition/subtraction with regrouping and also looked at rounding to the nearest 10s and 100s value. This week we shift our focus to repeated addition and arrays - leading to multiplication. At this stage it is about using materials to demonstrate the concept of multiplication - that for example 5 x 6 is 5 groups of 6 objects in each group. It is also about problem solving, not just the rote learning of times tables. By the end of Grade 2 the expectation is that the students should know their 2,5 and 10 time tables automatically. Understanding the concept of what multiplication is, is the important aspect at this stage. Knowing their skip counts for 2s, 5s, and 10s to automaticity will help immensely.
Next week we have a session in the Makers Space with Mr. Big C. He is setting up 4 stations and in one of the stations will be a jewelry making centre. We are after any beads etc. for making jewelry and artifacts- if you have any or know of a place I can get some (cheaply) please let me know. We are looking at making accessories from the Mayan civilization as part of our Unit of Inquiry.
Reminders/Announcements:
- MUSIC CONCERT this week which begins at 8.30 am on Tuesday 18th April.
- REMEMBER - We have a field trip coming up on the 25th. I will send out field trip forms via email today.
- PYP Dance - to be held in the school cafeteria this Thursday from 4-6 p.m.
- Gems Wild Wadi day - this Friday Wild Wadi will be open only to Gems students.
- The 23rd has been declared a public holiday.
- Make-up swim session this Tuesday. Please send a swim kit with your child.
As always, thank you for your continued support at home.
Warm regards,
Bhavna