Today, we did some hands-on activities with fractions: parts of a whole! We did some cutting and pasting with 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 of a circle, square, and rectangle! Some students even did an extension using even smaller fractions. 

We also started our introduction to Poetry today! We looked at different kinds of poems to show the kids that there are many kinds of poems and that they don't have to rhyme! Then we discussed Found poetry and did some Found poetry of our own. I had them go through magazines and newspapers to find words to create their poem. 

Here's what some of them came up with:

We started our fractions unit off with a KWL chart in groups, so I could see what the class already knew or if they knew anything about fractions at all! This was good for me because I also got to see how they worked in groups. All in all it was a pretty successful activity that they enjoyed! 

Today was my first official Pro D Day (kinda)! The morning began with some Jump Math seminar and then the afternoon was spent outside, learning about the Gary Oak Ecosystem. I learned lots of great activities and ideas to use with the kids. I'm really excited to use some of them!

During the morning we went to Hartland Landfill. We did many environmental activities while we were there. They were mostly on the three R's: reduce, reuse, recycle. After during some activities in the reused* building, we took a bus tour of the landfill and got some information about the entire process.

Here are some photos from our day!

Today, we also the beginning of our Dance unit! After our class watched the dance performances that the grade 4s and 5s did in the assembly last week, they were all so excited. Many of them kept asking when they were going to get to do dance and because our class is grades 2 and 3, they won't get to for another couple years. After that, I decided I had to do some dance with them! For the next couple weeks I will be teaching them a little routine to The Lazy Song (Kidz Bop version). So far, they are loving it!

After our introduction to Community, we discussed rights and responsibilities in the community. The kids did a sorting and matching activity with rights and responsibility cards for the classroom, after we created a couple rights and responsibilities for the community in general.  
To tie in to our responsibility to the community, we brainstormed some ideas of ways we could help out in the community. The kids thought of ideas that were both big and small, such as recycling and simply smiling at someone.  

During our first week together, I started with a Community unit. We began by discussing what a community was and what it wasn't. We went through various scenarios and I had the class tell me if it was a community or not. They really enjoyed this and they were spot on on their answers!

We finished the lesson with a discussion on how our classroom is a community as well! Then each student completed an individual quilt square to share a little bit about themselves. These squares included characteristics around the border and a spot for likes, hobbies, family, and a self portrait. After putting them all together it was great to see all the different squares coming together as one quilt.