Letter to Ava

Here is a copy of the letter that we wrote to Ava.  She is a 9 year old girl who lost her home due to an explosion that occurred on Apple Lane.  


October 13,

Dear Ava,

We are so sorry for what happened to your house.  We understand that you must feel sad so we are giving you a gift card to Toys R Us. J We wanted you to be able to pick out anything you wanted to buy for yourself.  Maybe you will get to have a new home soon.

From Team 25 at Strathmillan School

The Big Taste-Test

The most exciting thing we did at school this week was a "taste-test" experiment for Science.  We were examining the properties of various liquids with our eyes and tongues!  There were 6 mystery liquids for students to taste with popsicle sticks.  They later discovered that these were syrup, Coke, pizza sauce, Five-Alive, chocolate sauce and honey.  The expressions on their faces were priceless when they tasted the honey!  Everyone watched as I also poured each mystery liquid into a cup so we could evaluate it's "viscosity"…..new word!

We examined maps and learned about legends and compass roses in S.S./Workshop.  Then we designed maps for Scaredy Squirrel to find his way to a new BFF.  It was lots of fun!

Everyone got to show off their artist talents by painting fall trees.  The art work turned out beautifully and we didn't even make too much of a mess!  Way to go guys.

The Terry Fox Run

We have 2 weeks of grade 2 behind us.  This week we wrote about being "Master Team Builders".  Each student described what they do to make our team run smoothly such as, showing good listening, sitting "ten, fold and hold", having "fish lips" (ask your kids about this!), cooperating, etc.  We also started our Scaredy Squirrel Community Study.  Scaredy Squirrel is quite a worry-wart and has a lot of fears about leaving the comfort of his nut tree.

During math this week we did an activity called "Spill the Beads".  It helped to teach us how to count in a more efficient way using a ten frame.  On Thursday, we figured out place value number puzzles and then got to make some puzzles of our very own.

We started watching a video on Solids, Liquids and Gases during Science but we haven't finished it yet.  We are looking forward to all the upcoming experiments related to matter!

It is also important to mention that we had library on Tuesday and that our books are due back to school on Wed., Sept. 24th, day 5.

It was another great week at school!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Shabaga

The First Week of School

This week at school we made Lego Avatars.  We liked designing our own faces.  We also wrote about our Avatars.  As a class we made a chart of our Classroom Beliefs.  Something funny we did for a body break was dancing to videos because we had been working so hard.  Taylor T. said she liked the "Gummy Bear" song.  Ethan, Ryan and Declan said they liked the "Kung Foo Fighting" song.  Max pointed out that we got a cheat sheet for our new French unit.  During art class we made placemats with our GIANT names on them. We poked balloons for science class.  One had water in it, one had ice and the other had air in it.  We screamed when the water went everywhere!  Some splashed in Jai's face!  This was our introduction to Solids, Liquids and Gases. Throughout the week we did photo shoots where we dressed in a hard hat and a big construction vest because we are working on a Lego movie theme. This week was an awesome week!

From,
Team 25

GRADE 2!

We've discovered that in Grade 2……"Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you're part of Team 25"!  We can't wait to share all of our learning experiences with you this year!

Farewell Grade 3s!

I was hoping to post our Year End Video on our blog but I've been having problems with my YouTube account.  Once the problem is resolved, the link to our 2013-2014 video will appear on this post.  Good bye grade 3s!  I will miss you.  Good luck in grade 4 and don't forget to come visit!

The Luchadors

Mexican wrestlers (AKA Luchadors) take over room 25!!!

Fiesta Time!

On Cinqo de Mayo our class finally celebrated the end of our Mexico unit with a much anticipated FIESTA!  Our pot-luck lunch was a huge success with thanks to all of the generous parents who brought in Mexican meals, food and supplies.  After our feast, we broke a piñata in the mini-gym.  This certainly was a day we will never forget!

This Week at School

This week at school was awesome!  We went swimming on Thursday and it was fun.  Billy Joe actually had a good time! 

This week we also made replicas of the Nile out of cardboard, sand, glitter, construction paper, blue tissue paper and we used skinny black Sharpies to write the names of cities on little signs.  It was a fantastic activity! 

We learned that the Ancient Egyptians buried their pharaohs in pyramids or in tombs inside of caves.  They are really big, so big that you can see the Great Pyramid of Giza from the moon!  There are lots of trap doors and corridors inside of the pyramids.  You could find, gold, jewels, a mummy, dead pets, and even a toilet for the pharaoh to use in the after-life.  Then Mrs. Shabaga taught us how to make 3-D pyramids.

Yesterday we met a guest artist named, Tiber.  We played imagination games to take a journey to Egypt and we watched him juggle.  Also he played one of the oldest instruments in the world called a jaw-harp.  In French it is called a “ruin-babine”.  They had those types of instruments in Ancient Egyptian times.

This week was amazing!

Sincerely,

Team 25

Our 1st Day of Swimming-Thursday April 24

Our first day of swimming lessons was fun (for most of us)! We got to swim for 45 minutes in the warm, salty water at the St. James Civic Centre.  We learned some pool rules and saw that they were posted on the wall there too.  Some of the pool rules include, no running on the pool deck, no diving in the shallow end, no jumping in the water at the same time as someone else, etc.

Thomas liked doing the "pencil dive" in the deep-end.  Cyrus loved trying to get his feet on the ground in the deep-end. Marisa had fun floating in the deep-end!  Jessy had a stomachache :(.  Eddie liked being in the water.  Duncan had fun holding his breath and going to the very bottom of the pool.  Skyla had so much fun swimming that she was laughing every second. Julia had a great time treading water and Alex said the slide was "fast"! Gaby liked EVERYTHING! (of course)

The girls were the first ones onto the pool deck but Ben says, "That's not fair!  Mr. G. told the boys to line up inside the change room instead.  Plus, there are 16 boys who needed to get ready."

 But…… those 16 boys were faster than all the girls coming OUT of the change room.  Billy insists that you know that there were only 6 girls.

Swimming was awesome and we can't wait to go again next week!  (Well, all of us except for Billy who says he didn't like it.)

Sincerely,
Team 25

The Aztec Calendar

We learned that the original Aztec calendar (the Cuauhxicalli) was carved in 1479.  It was made in honour of the Sun God.  It is also called the "Sun Stone".  This calendar was made out of a stone called "basalt" which comes from dried lava. We were surprised to hear that the calendar is 3 feet thick and 12 feet wide!  It got lost under the ground for 300 years until it was discovered in the central square of Mexico City.  This ginormous creation is now on display in a museum in Mexico City.  We made our own Sun Stones in class using our own unique and creative designs.  Check them out below.
Sincerely,
Team 25

The Horrible Aztecs

This week at school we learned about the HORRIBLE Aztecs.  They lived in the 1500s. The capital city that the Aztecs created was called Tenochtitlan which was a man-made island in the middle of a lake.  We were horrified to find out that the Aztecs thought it was a privilege to get your heart cut out as a sacrifice to the Gods!  The Aztecs made sacrifices to the Gods because they thought it would keep the sun moving. They even played games with heads (but we shouldn't go into detail!)  We think this is CRAZY!!!!! Moctezuma was the ruler of the Aztecs until he was captured by Hernan Cortez who came over from Spain.  Cortez turned the Aztecs into slaves and some people believe that Moctezuma will have his revenge!

This history report was brought to you by Team 25.

Beautiful Structures

Not only have the students learned to identify many of the famous structures of the world, they have also done a beautiful job sketching them!  I'm so proud of their art work!

Oh, no! Not the Biebs!

Before the winter break, I decided it would be nice to let the kids listen to Christmas carols while they did their work.  At one point there was a full-blown "Lip-synching" contest between myself, Ms. Kaleigh and Mr. Bychuk, who couldn't resist singing to Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas"!  It turned into pure Shinanigans.  However, nothing could prepare us for the caos that erupted when 17 of my boys heard Justin Bieber singing "Drummer Boy"!  They were running to grab their toques to cover their ears!  I secretly knew that they would lose their minds but the girls and I enjoyed it. ;) 

There goes my idea of having the students write a Mexican song entitled, "If I Was Your Hombre", to the tune of Justin Bieber's, "If I Was Your Girlfriend".  :(

December Activities

December is pretty much a blur now.  It went by so quickly as we filled it up with fun holiday activities, the Winter Concert and plenty of indoor recesses.  Here are some pictures to recap the month: