Culture Week and Farewell to a Friend

 Has only one week gone by since spring break!?! With all of the events and activities for Culture Week it feels like it’s been much longer than that as we have done so much in only five days!

To kick things off, on Monday we had a couple guest teachers join us to make some Poi! In New Zealand, Poi are used for traditional Māori dances and Stacey and her friend Jo came to class to make some with grade two and we also did a little dancing! It was so much fun! Thank you Stacey and Jo.

We also started our fifth unit of the year, under the transdisciplinary theme of Sharing the Planet, we are inquiring into extinction and our central idea is: Learning about extinction helps prevent the loss of things we value.

The students began by discussing some images of animals and learnt that the 10 animals on the wall have all recently gone extinct.

Our project for the start of the unit was to read about and research one of the ten animals together with a partner and do make either a non-fiction book or an informative video about the animal. Most students worked with a partner, and we will finish the projects next week.

On Tuesday, we enjoyed playing and learning about some games from different cultures. Thank you to all the parents who volunteered to prepare and run the games. It was a lot fun! The students also wore their silly hats and socks!

On Wednesday, we dressed up as art or artists! The students continued with their research on their animals and we began practicing for the upcoming Sports Day on April 19th! 

Thursday was hero, or notable person day and everyone came dressed as their favourite characters! We also had a lot of fun learning three types of cultural dances from Ms J, Ms R and Ms H (also known as Ms Harris!)

And finally, today! With everyone in their amazing national costumes (or if you’re Canadian like me - my everyday clothes!) and we had a wonderful Hanami-less hanami picnic! It was nice seeing so many families there! Thank you for the delicious culinary treats as well!

We also celebrated a birthday but sadly had to say farewell to a friend…and with his one last request we played a fun game of Kahoot together during the fun Friday time!

Space, the Final…Countdown?

 This week was all about wrapping up our unit on Space with our big grade 2 assembly today!

The students worked hard to memorize their lines, perfect their dances and rehearsed to the moon and back! All that work paid off with a performance that really was out of this world! Thank you all for supporting them at home with their lines and in preparing their outfits (my apologies for not taking off the star stickers off of their clothes before sending them home! If you haven’t already done so, please make sure you do before putting them through the washing machine!) Thank you to all of you who were able to attend today, I’m sure it meant the world to your children to have you here for their moments to shine in the spotlight black light!

Our story was an original take on Goldilocks and the 3 Bears as we learnt that the Earth is in what is referred to as the Goldilocks Zone - a place that is not too hot, nor too cold, but just right for liquid water and for life! All students contributed some lines for the story based on facts they learnt about the planets and they also came up with their own dances. Some song options were provided for them, and most groups had at the chance to choose between two or more songs related to their planet. The students painted the planets, and also helped decorate the MPR curtains with stars to form seasonal constellations - on center stage there were winter and spring constellation,  as the seasons are changing now. On the right side were fall/ autumn constellations decorated by children with birthdays in autumn, and on the left were more spring constellations. For any who were not able to attend, or for those who would love to watch the performance again and again, here is a video that Mr. Sam put together for us (if you don’t want to listen to my intro speech, skip the first 2 minutes and 10 seconds).

Goldie-Rockets and the 9 Planets:

In addition to the performance, the students were also able to complete their posters about each of the planets.

We also learnt about how Galileo and Copernicus discovered that the Earth orbits the by studying the stars and noticing that they change each season. To see how it works, the students made a model of the universe … in a box! They also have a small homework assignment on Seesaw, where they need to show what they know about the Earth orbits the sun (hint: it will be easier if they have the universe in a box with them! They should have it as they were asked to bring it home. But  if they don't they can download it here. 

They also have one final space related bit of homework to do and that is to find out an answer or two to a couple of questions that they still have about space. To help with this, they have their space questions from our Wondwall with their homework. They can present their findings on Seesaw. 

Swimming

This past week was the final swimming lesson for Grade 2, so you no longer need to send their swim things on Mondays. A big thank you to Ms Miho and Chinatsu, as well as all of the parent volunteers who helped make the swimming lessons such a success! 

Culture Week March 26 - 29

Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered for Culture Week or provided items for the six themed tables. 

If you would still like to bring items in for the themed tables, it's not too late. As a reminder, the themes are: animals, landmarks, famous people, clothes, games and sports. 

For the Hanami picnic on Friday 29th March, homeroom teachers will be in touch to coordinate food for their classes. Parents are very welcome to join the Hanami picnic with their child's class. 

Here is a reminder of the schedule for the week:

Have a wonderful holiday.

Best wishes,

The Culture Week Team