Feathers and Fools

Our class, along with Mrs. Taggart’s grade 2 class, recently explored a learning sequence on the book Feathers and Fools.

 

Throughout this sequence, we focused on powerful questioning and predicting. The final task involved writing in role as the baby swan or peacock to show what life was like for them on the first day they were born. Mrs. Taggart and I were so impressed with our students’ participation in these activities. Here are a few samples of some of the activities we did:

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“I hatched out of my egg and felt the breeze of the soft wind coming to my wet feathers and I tried to make my way to the peacock…”
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       “I pecked my way out. It was a hot day on the day I was born. It was quiet, a little too quiet. I was curious why there wasn’t any more of me. And then I saw it. There was something over there. Could it be? Another swan? I waddled over there as fast as my little legs could carry me…”
(Eden) 

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Why did Mrs. Taggart and I pick this story to read to you?

What is the important message in this story?

‘Tis the Season to Give

This past week our class, along with Mrs. Sharpe’s class and Mrs. Taggart’s class, put together 60 shoeboxes to send to less fortunate children in other countries around the world. Each shoebox was filled with school supplies, toys, candy and hygiene items. This year, shoeboxes will be sent to children in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Uruguay, and Venezuela – wow!

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Why is it important to give to others?

How do you think someone would feel when they opened up a shoebox that we filled?

Penguins!

As many of you have heard by now, we are going to be penguins at our Christmas Concert this year! Our song is “Penguin, James Penguin”, sung by Brad Paisley.


We will be singing along to Ms. Trish on the piano. I will be putting up a link soon of the piano music, but for now, you can find the lyrics here or under the Learning Links tab.

For our costumes, we are looking for:

Black pants
Black long sleeved shirt
White (long) button up shirt (we would cut these into vests)
Black balaclava
Black mittens
Orange toe socks
Sunglasses

Here are some neat penguins that our grade 2’s created with Mrs. Taggart last week:

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Fair Trade

This week we have been talking about fair trade. Check out this slideshow to learn more about fair trade.

On the weekend, our school is hosting a Ten Thousand Villages sale. Check it out this Saturday from 10-4.

On Thursday, we made cookies to serve at our pre-sale tea.

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On Friday, we invited seniors from our community to have tea so that we could tell them about fair trade and show them why we were hosting the event.

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Building Structures

To wrap up our science unit, we have been building structures in our classroom over the last couple of weeks. Here are some structures we built with newspaper and masking tape to hold up our friend “Barnabee the Bee”

IMG_2678 IMG_2681This week we have been creating bridges with popsicle sticks and tape to see whose bridge can hold the most weight:

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What have you learned about structures?

 

Hello from Ontario

Hi class, today was long.  We have already driven almost 3500 km.  The 1st picture is the GIANT moose in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  The  2nd picture is the Tugboat in Kenora, Ontario.  The 3rd picture is Terry Fox statue in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We will be done tomorrow.   I really miss you all:(
Lucius

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