Realistic 2-D Pumpkins- Day One

These photos are from our first lesson painting 2-D pumpkins.  The focus was on holding a paintbrush properly in order to get the effect you want and color blending using watercolors.  Students were also encouraged to be creative in the shapes and bumps for sketches. The results are absolutely stunning and we've created a pumpkin patch in our classroom.  You'd never believe these were done by 6 and 7 year olds.  They can show you how at home.;)

Math- Counting Large Numbers

Div. 7 students worked in partners to figure out the best way to count large numbers of materials.  They had a few problems along the way (losing count when counting by ones, organization of materials) and they  had to work together in order to come up with a solution.




At first, Maya and Alyssa organize their materials into groups of two.

Shane and Olivia started by creating one big length of unifix cubes and then counting by ones.  They later went on to split the length into groups of ten.

Karis and Elise organized their materials into groups of tens and ones.

Vienna and Dia also made groups of tens and ones.

Sequoia and Mason built groups of tens and ones.

Maya and Alyssa had so many groups of two that they lost count so they came up with a new plan.

Aylin and Victoria created groups of twos as well but then joined them into groups of tens for easier counting.

Gavino and Gabriel created many, many groups of fives.

Lots of hands on learning and problem solving today in Div. 7.  They all worked together to share ideas and COUNT in many different ways.  More counting tomorrow.

You can support your child's learning at home by having them count collections of objects up to 100.  Let them take the lead, organizing materials before they count.  They may try counting by ones at first and eventually they may group objects into 2s, 5s, and 10s, for easier counting.  

Grade 2s are expected to count up and down, to and from 100, by 2s, 5s, and 10s.  Practice with actual materials (buttons, pasta, acorns) always works best.  Of course, we also go over 100 and many of our students enjoy the challenge!

Dia de los Muertos with Royal Bay Big Buddies

We spent a wonderful afternoon celebrating, "Dia de los Muertos," with Ms. Haddon-Repp's grade Spanish 11 students from Royal Bay High School.  International exchange students from Columbia also joined us and impressed us all with their Spanish.

First, our big buddies read stories (in English and Spanish) that they created about the Mexican holiday and taught our grade 2 students Spanish vocabulary related to the celebration.  Next, our class worked with the high school students to decorate a sugar skull.  

We enjoyed outside time at the park to finish off our first session together and we are already looking forward to our time together in December.

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