Invention Timelines, Robots and Ornaments

Another busy week in Grade Two is over. Thank you to all of the parents (and grandparents) who came in to observe during our Open Day. It was great to see so many parents taking an interest in their children’s school life. In language we have been focusing on non-fiction texts and information writing and the students have been putting those research and writing skills to use during unit time as they create timelines of how inventions have changed over time. The timeline slideshows included important details of who and when things were created as well as details about how they changed over time. They also included details about how it had a positive or negative impact.

In math we have been focusing on addition and subtraction skills but also took some time to start reviewing 2D and 3D shapes that we studied earlier in the unit for our upcoming math test. Using cards with images, names and descriptors of 2D shapes the students played a modified game of dominoes.

During ICT time, Mr Huber joined us and helped us get started with the Lego Education and Apitor robot kits! The students were really interested in putting them together and cooperated with the other members of their groups. Once built, they will do some programming to get them up and running!

With the Christmas holidays only 3 weeks away, and the Christmas tree lighting ceremony coming up this Monday we took some time to create and hang ornaments on the tree in the entrance area. Using paper play dough the students crafted snowmen, presents and other festive things to brighten up the tree.

Finally here are some action shots of Grade 2 in action during this week’s PE karate lessons.

Posters about Inventors

 After completing a few final presentations on topics of interests, our focus this week was on learning about different inventors to find out the reasons they created and came up with ideas for different inventions. The students chose an inventor or an invention to research and needed to answer questions such as Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? After gathering the relevant information they were asked to summarize it into a poster for others to learn from. 

The students uploaded photos of their posters to Seesaw and also summarized some information from other students’ posters in a separate Seesaw activity.

During language time, we finished up our unit on writing letters and have moved on to information writing. We read about some holiday destinations and answered some comprehension. The students also wrote about a past holiday or about a destination that they would like to visit and a few read their’s to the whole class!

In PE, we continued to work on our punches and kicks!

And today we celebrated a birthday in class!

Field Trip - November 28th

We will be visiting Kobe Maritime Museum/ Kawasaki World as part of our inquiry into why people create things. We are looking for a few volunteers to come, if you’re free then please let me know!

Presenting Interests Projects and Researching Inventors

 Grade 2 continued researching topics that interest them and then they learned how to create a slideshow using Google Slides to share their new knowledge with the rest of the class. The presentations are going really well and we will continue them next week.

Along with presenting, the students began working on their next projects to find out about inventions and inventors and to learn about the reasons behind the inventions.

In math we finished up our geometry unit by making some models of 3D shapes using toothpicks and play dough to create some prisms and pyramids.

We also started a short unit on addition and subtraction. We began with the students thinking of the different ways that they know how to solve and represent addition problems. Working in pairs they tried to think of at least 4 different ways to show addition and then the groups presented their ideas to the rest of the class.

In PE, we continued to develop karate skills as we learned a new stance, Zenkutsudachi. We also practiced  some punches and learnt our first kick - Maegeri (front kick).

On Wednesday, we visited the library to read together with out reading buddies from grade 4.

Today we celebrated St. Martin’s with a short play by the German students in the morning, followed by some songs and a short parade around the island after school. Despite the weather it was nice seeing so many families out and the student didn’t seem to mind the rain as they were happy to walk with their lanterns!