For our UOI, the students chose to build either a complex or simple machine and we had the opportunity at the beginning of the week to enjoy a gallery walk of what had been built. During this process of building, the students need to use their social, self-management and communication skills in order to collaborate on a building project. There were material and structure decisions to be made, as well as, problem solving on how to make their machines work properly. Some of you may have seen these complex or simple machines in real life if your child brought one home with them.
At the beginning of the week, we finished up or fixed our fraction work and then we began our unit on time. We are reviewing and learning to use hour and half-hour and will move on to the 5 minutes around the clock. Most students demonstrated to me that they understood there are 24 hours in a day and that we see the same time represented twice throughout this period. They also understood or had some understanding that 24 hours could be divided into am or pm.
We also had an end-of-year basic maths skills assessment to see how the students have progressed throughout Grade 2 in their numeracy understanding.
In literacy this week, we have been able to enjoy a guided reading session and practise our handwriting. There have been some speaking and listening opportunities throughout the week during our morning greeting sessions or when discussing our work in class.
I have been meeting with all the students individually to assess their reading skills and how they have gained knowledge throughout Grade 2. Many students have made significant progress using their phonic knowledge and reading skills. As we are all aware, daily reading is essential in growing our fluency and comprehension in reading. As the students think about moving up to Grade 3, this becomes even more apparent as they will need their higher level reading skills for all curriculum areas in the future.
Next week, the students will begin their summative assessment for this unit: How the world works, where they will collaborate on designing and building a complex machine which uses at least two simple machines to solve a problem. The students have been learning that simple machines can be used to make people’s lives easier; this is an essential understanding for this unit.
In maths, we will continue developing our concepts of time and applying this understanding in real life situations. At home, you can support your child’s learning by having them identify different times throughout the day, especially using analogue rather than digital clocks. You can talk about the laps of time between one activity and another and use time words in your conversations, such as: early, late, afternoon, evening, during, etc.
Please see information about this unit here.
Our literacy will continue with guided reading sessions and building our reading strategies and skills, handwriting practise, phonics and developing our procedural writing skills.
We hope you enjoyed the Grade 2 assembly…the students worked very hard on their performances and presentation.
Please see photos here.