We now have enough drivers for Tuesday's field trip to the Arts Alive exhibit at the SAAG! Thanks to those who signed up!


-Anna Tsentouros

Hello Readers! 

I hope everyone is enjoying a fantastic May Long weekend! I just wanted to start off by saying thank you to those parents who were able to come and volunteer for our last two field trips for Aggie Days and Feel the Beat! I know that last weeks will be CRAZY, as we go on most of our field trips at this time, and often require LOTS of parent volunteers and drivers.  Students had a wonderful time at Aggie Days which was a great kick off for our next Social Studies unit as we learn about farming communities.  

In Math, we are finishing up our unit on Measurement, and will spend the remainder of the year with 2 weeks of Geometry, and then continuing with our addition and subtraction of double digit numbers.  With Language Arts, we will spend some time with reading different myths and legends, and then Language Arts will be paired with our last science unit of studying Small Flying and Crawling Creatures.  Hopefully your student has mentioned their final project for their Boats and Buoyancy unit, which is Building the Optimum Boat!  Students took home a pink information sheet explaining details of the project, and we've talked about it lots in class. If you have ANY questions about this project, please email me as soon as possible!!  I will be sending home their Boats and Buoyancy duo tangs this week, so you can see the kinds of experiments we've done in class to prepare them for this project.  

On Wednesday May 23rd, the Grade 2s will be performing their Justin Beiber Dance at the Spirit Assembly! Note that the time for this assembly has CHANGED from 8:30 to 12:30!! The switch was made to accommodate a presentation from Nicholas Sheran choir, as well as a presentation from a group of Japanese exchange students who are coming to visit MMH.  Please remind students to dress in their be achy attire for Wednesday as it is "Beach Day".  If you're only planning on attending the Grade 2 performance part of the assembly, the tentative agenda is as follows:  Citizen of Tomorrow award presentations, Nicholas Sheran Choir performance, Japanese Exchange Student presentation, and THEN the Grade 2 dance. We hope to see some parents there as we've been practising our dance for the past few weeks!

Please update your calendars with the following events AND changes for the months of May and June!

On Tuesday May 22nd from 10-11:30 we need ONE MORE driver (only 2 students) for our Arts Alive field trip! Thank you to those parents who have already signed up!  We will be leaving the school at 9:45, and will be at the SAAG until 11:30, to return to the school by 11:45 lunch.  

Please read on about our new field trip!:

Meerkerk Stonework and Get Recycled have arranged for all grade 2s to have a free viewing of the Disney movie "Chimpanzee" at the Movie Mill.  this movie was released in celebration of Earth Day last month.  We will be heading to the Movie Mill on Monday May 28th.    If you have any questions or concerns about the film feel free to contact me.  The movie starts at 10:00 am and ends at approximately 11:30.  If you would be willing to drive and/or supervise for this trip we would love to have you! I will send home a reminder note on Tuesday when the students return back to school, but you can also email me if you're able to help out!  

Our field trip to the BIOHOME in June has been CANCELLED due to the large number of trips we already have planned, and for how many times we need to ask YOUR help for driving.  The Biohome is now open, and would be a GREAT place to visit as a summer activity with your family!   

I think that's it for now! Enjoy the rest of your May Long Weekend!

-Anna Tsentouros

May

Tuesday May 22nd- Arts Alive Field Trip at the SAAG 10-11:30

Wednesday May 23rd- Beach Themed Spirit Assembly at 12:30 &Grade 2s perform!

Monday May 28th- MMH Clothing Exchange and Movie Mill Field Trip @10

Wednesday May 30th-Lakie Band Performance 12:30-1:30

June

Tuesday June 5th- Pancake Breakfast 7-8:15am

Wednesday June 6th- School Council AGM Meeting @6:30

Tuesday June 12th- Boats due at School!

Thursday June 14th- Boat Launch at Nicolas Sheran Lake!

Tuesday June 19th- Grade 2 Sports Day!

Monday June 25th- Farewell Assembly 

Tuesday June 26th- MMH School Swim at Henderson (details to come)

Thursday June 28th- Year End Assembly, Students dismissed at 12

Hello Readers! 

I hope you've been enjoying the wonderful weekend!  Thanks to the parents who were able to come out and help with our post-Easter Batik art, as well as those who were able to help out with the SAAG field trip! I thought our students did an awesome job at the SAAG and were great ambassadors for our school- Good job Grade 2s!  

It seems like these next 2 months are going to FLY by! Thanks for checking in on the blog, as we've got lots going on! Here's some information on what we're working towards this week:

Please keep an eye out for the Patterning Math unit that your student will be coming home with on Monday.  Students will have their Pattening test on Tuesday, and the test format will be VERY SIMILAR to the Patterning Review that is coming home. We've been working with patterns for quite some time, and I'm certain that the students will do well with this.  If you'd like to help your student study, read over their review with them, and get them to practice on a scrap piece of paper-  drawing repeating and increasing patterns, where the changing attributes are size, shape, colour, or direction.  Get them to show you where the CORE is.   

As we wrap up our discussions with Meteghan and the East Coast, we will be moving into learning about a farming community, where we'll compare what we've learned about the North and East Coast, to places like Saskatoon and Lethbridge!  

In Science, we've kicked off our unit on Boats and Buoyancy!  This unit will have a BIG culminating project where students will need your help! For right now, we'll be focusing on sinking and floating, and what makes things buoyant.  Please stay posted for details about what's coming up in Science!

Our Education Week Committee has some awesome activities planned for Education Week which begins on Monday!  Please check the calendar that I have posted below, as well as your child's agenda.  

With the other Grade 2 classes, we've also been practising our Justin Beiber Dance! The Grade 2 classes will be performing this awesome number at our May Spirit Assembly which is on May 23rd at 8:30 am.  Hope you'll be able to catch our quick performance!  Grade 2's got some serious moves!

I also wanted to let you know about 5 different field trips we have booked for the end of the year.  There may be 1 or 2 more added onto the list, but as of right now these are booked in!  ALL of these trips will require parent drivers and volunteers.  Because there are so many, I will also be sending home a written note about dates and times, and if you're able to help out you can either A) send me an email stating which trip you can drive for, and how many students you can take or B) fill out the forms and send them back with your student.  Remember, for each field trip we need approx.  6-7 drivers!! Thanks for your help with this!!  It's always so much fun when we get a chance to take our kids out in the community to learn something new!  

Field Trips:

Wednesday May 9th- Aggie Days @Exhibition Grounds

Depart Mmh at 12:45, return around 2:45

Tuesday May 15th- Feel the Beat Concert @Southminister United Church

Depart Mmh at 11:40, return around 1:15

Tuesday May 22nd- Arts Alive @ the SAAG

Depart Mmh at 9:45, return at 11:45

Wednesday June 6th- Biohome Tour in Sunridge Community

Depart Mmh at 11:45, return at 1:15

Tuesday June 26th - MMH School Swim at Henderson Lake

Depart MMH -TBA

Please note that this calendar is for May and June, and that I will add activities and events once they are finalized:

May

Wednesday May 2nd- Dress Like Your Future Career Day!

Wednesday May 9th- Aggie Days Field Trip 1-2:30

Thursday May 10th-  Grade 1's host Character Ed. Assembly

Friday May 11th- Staff Learning Day- No School for Students

Tuesday May 15th- Feel the Beat Concert 12-1:00

Wednesday May 16th- Last Hot Lunch!

Monday May 21st- Victoria Day- No school

Tuesday May 22nd- Arts Alive Field Trip at the SAAG

Wednesday May 23rd- Beach Themed Spirit Assembly &Grade 2s perform!

June

Tuesday June 5th- Pancake Breakfast 7-8:15am

Wednesday June 6th- Biohome Field Trip 12-1:00

Monday June 25th- Farewell Assembly 

Tuesday June 26th- MMH School Swim at Henderson

Thursday June 28th- Year End Assembly, Students dismissed at 12

Happy Easter!!

This will be a quick post! Check out our Insulation Challenge participants on Monday and Tuesday! Thanks for all your hard work and a great job to the class as we wrapped up our unit on Hot and Cold Temperatures for Science! Next we will begin our unit on Boats and Buoyancy!

Thank you to Zane, Brooke R, Ainsley, Kasia, Sasha and Brooke T for bringing things for our Easter party!  I hope the eggs made it home okay!! We had a few rolling around, but everyone got to dip and dye and overall we had a great day!

2 Events that Require Volunteers!

On April 18th from12:30 – 1:30, our students need help with a special art project.  We are making Easter Batiks and the children will be using hot wax to block out their designs.  Parents are needed to ensure student safety by monitoring the electric pans holding the hot wax.  If you can help out with this wonderful project, please email me ASAP.  I am in need of 4 parents to help with this.

A reminder to parents that we are rescheduled for the MORNING of April 26^th, 2012 from 10:00 to 11:30 for our SAAG field trip.  The bus will come at 9:45 to pick up the students from MMH.  If you’d like to help out please email me back and let me know if you’re catching the bus or meeting us at the SAAG. 

Have a safe and wonderful holiday! Happy Easter!

From Miss Tsentouros

Almost April!

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking in at our classroom blog!

A quick reminder that was on the annoucements today: Students are asked to wear BLUE in support of Autisum on Monday! You could even just wear a MMH T shirt if you have one! 
You may have noticed the giant pile of Owl things sent home today. We have finished up our owl unit and our Owl Moon book study.  Please go through your child’s work and talk to them about some topics we covered such as similes, verbs, and adjectives.  We also did some neat owl art projects!  Our “Owl Toilet Paper Tubes” will be sent home just before Easter break.

Speaking of Easter break, I can’t believe we’re almost there!  One unit we will be tying up before we move along is our Hot and Cold Temperature unit.  Students also took home their science duotangs, and we will have a Hot and Cold unit test on Monday when they return. 

PLEASE go through your students Science duotang with them! They should be familiar with the activities we did together.  They need to be comfortable with:

-          Describing temperature by using terms like “hotter than, colder than”

-          Measuring and reading temperature in degrees Celsius

-          Describe how heating and cooling things can change them(melting, freezing, cooking)

-Identify ways in which the temperature in homes and buildings can be adjusted

(by turning up a thermostat, by opening or closing a window, by using a heater in a cold room)

-          Describe, in general terms, how local buildings are heated.

-          Understanding the role of insulation in keeping things hot or cold!

-          Identify a safety rule whne dealing with hot and cold temperatures!

I know it seems like a lot, but we’ve covered all of these topics in class and through the discussions, books, videos and experiments, I’m confident that our students know this!

For those students who wish to participate, we are holding an INSULATION CHALLENGE called "Hold on to that Ice Cube!"
We did an experiment in class to see what kids of materials work best as insluators.  I've challenged the class this weekend to make their own, by combining different kids of materials.  The goal is to keep an ice cube cold as long as possible.    This is completely voluntary!!

Some students chose to participate and brought home a baby food jar and an experiment sheet.  If the project gets completed this weekend, have them bring in the container they've constructed on Monday morning and we'll put them to the test! 

“LOONIE MATH!!!”

To help us practice adding our big numbers, we’ve started Loonie Math!  Loonie math is where every letter is associated with a number (A= 1, B = 2, C =3 , etc).  We’ve been figuring out how much words are “equal to” by adding their value together.  For example, the word GRADE is like adding

7 + 18 + 1 + 4 + 5 = ___

There are many ways to do this!  It is up to the students to figure out what they want to add first! Some can easily see that 1 + 4 + 5 = 10   and that    18 + 10 = 28   so finally they have to add   7 + 28.  By using “Make Ten”,  they should see that 7 + 28   is just like 5 + 30 = 35. 

Of course, there are many different ways to add the numbers together. I’ve challenged the students to find out what family members names are, favourite words, colour words etc.  We are TRYING to find LOONIE WORDS! Words that are exactly 100, no more no less!  Give it a try with your student!!

Our kids took the news of the SAAG field trip being cancelled very well! We are rescheduled for the MORNING of April 26^th, 2012 from 10:00 to 11:30.  The bus will come at 9:45 to pick up the students from MMH.

With Spring break just around the corner, one of our activities (which will tie in nicely with our social studies unit on cultural traditions) is to dye Easter eggs.  We will be learning about how the Ukrainian people traditionally dye their eggs and then each child will have the chance to dye or decorate some of their own eggs. 

Each child will need 4 hardboiled eggs on Thursday April 5th.   

In order to assist with transporting the eggs back and forth from school, I will be sending home cut up EGG CARTONS on Wednesday April 4^th.  Have your child carry their eggs instead of placing them in their backpack.   Please do not send them before that date as we do not have fridge space. 

On April 18th from12:30 – 1:30, our students need help with a special art project.  We are making Easter Batiks and the children will be using hot wax to block out their designs.  Parents are needed to ensure student safety, monitoring the electric pans holding the hot wax.  If you can help out with this wonderful project, please email me asap.  I am in need of 4 parents to help with this.

SHOUT OUT to the Parent Council for putting on such an awesome SPRING DANCE!! Thanks to all those families who were able to come out and support!  Grade 2B...WAY TO REPRESENT!! SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Don't forget that the Friends of Mike Mountain Horse Society is putting on a Hawaiian Auction Adult Night! 
Date: Friday April 27th 2012
Time:  7-11:30
Location: At the U of L
Cost: 15.00 / person
Dress: Hawaiian! 
Food and drinks will be available, as well as a silent and live auction.  If you have any prizes you are willing to donate, please contact Jodi Meerkerk at meerkerkmj@shaw.ca.

Tickets can be purchased at MMH on April 18th from 6:30 -7:30. 

All money raised will go to parent countil projects in 2012 & 2013...so in other words, all money raised will go back to awesome projects/ events for YOUR KIDS!! Please show your support!

Check out the dates for April to mark your calendars!

I will let you know when I've added new dates!

Thank you!
-Anna Tsentouros

Monday April 2nd- Insulation Challenge! /Wear Blue for Autisim!
Wednesday April 4^th- Choir performances in the am
Thursday April 5^th- Spirit Assembly at 8:30am,  Crazy Hat/ Hair Day, Grade 2s Egg Decorating!
Friday April 6^th – 13^th- Easter Break No School
Monday April 16^th- Classes Resume
Wednesday April 18^th- Grade 2s Batik project at 12:30
Monday April 23^rd- MS Read A Thon Kick Off
Thursday April 26^th- SAAG Art School Field Trip at 10:00
Friday April 27^th- Professional Learning Day No School for Students
Friday April 27th-  Hawaiian Auction Night at the U of L!
Monday April 30^th- Education week begins!



Miss Tsentouros found her camera cord!!

Hi readers!


Just a few things to remember about the upcoming week:


1) If you haven't yet, please sign up for a time slot for our Celebrations of Learning! The students are pumped to have their parents come in and to show off what they've been working on!


2) Both Thursday evening and Friday are available for sit-down Parent/ Teacher interviews. If you feel after reading the report card and the celebration of learning, you'd still like to meet to discuss your child's progress, please email me asap and we can arrange a time for Thursday evening, Friday morning, ...or anytime that works best with your schedule! 


3)  On Wednesday March 14th we have a Spirit Assembly at 12:45, where the Grade 2 students are asked to wear Green as they will be performing their St. Patrick's Day Rap!  If you are able to stop by the gym at 12:45 to see the Grade 2s in action, PLEASE DO! They have been LOVING their time with Ms. Nevels and practising this song and should be a great mini performance!


4) I have enough parent volunteers for the SAAG field trip to Art School near the end of the month! Thank you to April, Deanna, Tony and Mary for signing up!

Have a wonderful weekend! Don't blow away in the wind!

Also, I found my camera cord so I thought I'd update the blog with some photos of the past few events!  Enjoy!

100th Day

  Winter Walk 2012

 Valentine's Day

 Jordin's Magic Show

 Art Class

March News

Hi Readers!

Thanks for checking in- I’ve got lots to update you on for the month of March! Please make sure you update your calendars at home.  Report cards are written and ready to go home on Friday. Please read through the report card with your child! It’s helpful for the office staff if you send back the report card envelope on Monday when you’re done- you do NOT need to send back the report card.  Thank you to those parents who have already signed up for a time for our Celebrations of Learning on Tuesday March 13^th.  If you’d still like to meet for a more formal interview, please email me as soon as possible, and we can find a time next week for discussion. 

The celebration of learning will be a casual time for you to come in, and CELEBRATE what your child has done. It’s supposed to be a time for you to come and see what life is like in the day of your Grade 2 student!  Please be mindful of the time you sign up for, as the room can get quite crowded with many adults.  I’ve already had some parents note that the evening of the 13^th does not work for them, and we’re able to find another time/ morning.  Let me know immediately if it doesn’t work for you.

If you HAVEN’T signed up for a time via Conference Manager, PLEASE visit https://mikemountain.schoolsoft.ca/login.jsf to create a log in and sign up for a time slot. 

Information regarding a couple of the dates listed below in March:
We are going to Art School at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery on Thursday March 29^th! We require 4 parent volunteers who can either catch the bus from MMH or meet us at the SAAG. We are there from 12:45-2:15. Please email me back ASAP if you’d like to join us to volunteer for this trip. Because of the nature of the trip and the program regulations, we’re asking that younger siblings do not join. 

PARENTS WE NEED YOUR HELP WITH A FEW THINGS!

Next week, I’m asking EACH STUDENT at some point in the week to bring 1 toilet paper roll tube (just the cardboard part, not the TP!) as we will use them for an art project. If you have more than one to bring, please send more with your students!  If you have the tube from a paper towel roll this will work as well! 

Last but not least, I’m asking for your help in promoting our Home Reading Program within your homes.  I have noticed a serious decline in the number of students who regularly bring their home reading book back (read and signed) and who are ready for a switch.  If your child has LOST their home reading back, PLEASE let me know so I can send home a new one. I can’t stress how important daily reading, at THEIR level is.  This is the best way to prepare our students for the home work expectations and reading level expectations of Grade 3.  Every day there is a different parent who has volunteered their time to come and switch these books, read with your child, and make sure that our program runs efficiently.  If there aren’t enough books, it is not worthwhile for them to come.  I’ve had a chat with our students today, explaining that it is their responsibility to do this, and not their parents! Thank you for your efforts here. 

Important Dates in March:

Thursday March 8^th- Healthy Schools Expo 5:30-8:30 at MMH
Friday March 9^th- Report Cards Sent home!
Tuesday March 13^th- Celebrations of Learning!
Wednesday March 14^th- Spirit Assembly at 12:45- Dress in Green
Thursday March 15^th-PD Day-No School for Students
Friday March 16^th-PD Day-No school for Students
Wednesday March 21^st- Hot Lunch
Monday March 26^th- Character Ed Assembly hosted by the Grade 3
Thursday March 29^th-  SAAG Field Trip
Thursday March 29^th- School Dance 6:30-8:30