Welcome back to our on-line learning community.

It has been nice connecting with our Queen Mary families. 

In the last week we have been helping people gain access to Prodigy, Read Live and RAZ Kids.

Microsoft Teams

In the coming week we would like to get our students online in MS Teams. Watch for an email from your classroom teacher that will help facilitate this process.

Once you have gained access to your Division Team, (Division 11, 12, or 13) go into the “General” Channel and leave a message from the bottom of the page for everyone to read or reply to another person’s message.

Go to the box where you see this instruction: [Start a new conversation. Type @ to mention someone.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will be using Teams to create social connections that have been impacted by Covid-19. We will be choosing a time/times for a virtual class meeting in the next week. Look for a Poll on Teams to vote for a day of the week that may work for your student.

One of our QM Grade 5 teachers, Miss Jasmine Sidhu, has created an awesome video – how to log in to Teams – check it out to learn how to login to Teams.

If you are looking for more online learning, go to our Links page of our QME2 website.

Literacy – English Language Arts

READING

We continue to encourage our students to read 20-30 minutes a day. Read a book or use RAZ Kids or Read Live.

If you are having issues setting up and accessing RAZ Kids or Read Live please contact your classroom teacher for support. 

WRITING

As part of the Daily 5 Literacy Program we would like to recommend that our grade 2 students work on their own writing a few times a week. Some guidelines: ask students to write DOUBLE SPACED leaving some room

Some students have started keeping a journal. Some students are working on their writing through Read Live during the Retell step of their story.

If you are looking for a creative writing idea you can check out this website: Writing Spark 

An example from this website is:  Your Spark is…. you have discovered a magic carpet! What adventure are you going to take it on?

Math

A common conversation that has come up this week about Math is about Addition with Regrouping. It is important when learning to do this type of Math that we ensure the students understand conceptually how to Regroup numbers when they are added together. 

Check our this Brain POP Junior double digit video link- guide to help remind us how to do thisHere is a Teacher article about this concept

Encourage your child to be flexible in their thinking about numbers. Instead of stacking the numbers and “carrying the 1” to add them together, work on re-grouping them and solidifying their conceptual understanding of making a new group of 10 to be added to the tens column. According to our BC Curriculum for Grade 2, a Big Idea is: development of computational fluency in addition and subtraction with numbers to 100 requires an understanding of place value.

To help a student who is struggling – check out these Brain Pop Junior videos. The two sections to start exploring are Math – Addition and Subtraction and Math Strategies. Both of these will assist our Grade 2 Mathematicians in building their flexible thinking about numbers. User name: qmgrade2 and password: same as parent password for Read Live – contact your classroom teacher for this 8 digit number.

Art

This week the Artists for Kids Program (Part of School District 44) is providing weekly video tutorials. Click here to access a lesson from Amelia Epp, a District Visual Arts teacher, as she leads a virtual lesson featuring the artwork: Song of Spring by Kenojauak Ashevak (2006).

 

 

Physical Literacy

 

GoNoodle is a great resource to use for mindful moments or an active movement break.

 

Cosmic Kids – This is a great yoga on YouTube and available as an app.

 

Offline activities: Go for a walk,  do jumping jacks,  bounce a basketball or find a skipping rope.

Use movement breaks to transition between learning engagements.

Daily “Shape of the Day”

Primary aged students, kindergarten – grade 3, benefit from approximately one hour of work at home a day. Most students benefit from the visual display of a  Shape of the Day in our classroom; often we incorporate their requests when building our routines. Many families have told us how they are creating their own Shapes of the Day at home with their children. Remember that creating a plan doesn’t mean things cannot change – being flexible and open-minded are great attributes for all learners. Below you will find a sample Shape of the Day for learning at home.

Students benefit from working on any one activity for 20-30minutes. If they are reading a book and choose to stay with it for a whole hour so be it. This is learning from home; we are not trying to re-create our classroom experience.

In our experience grade 2 students will participate more actively if they feel their voice and choices have been taken into consideration.

Here is a SAMPLE SHAPE OF THE DAY AT HOME:

Math 20-30 minutes

workout break 20 minutes

reading 20-30 minutes

Snack break 10 minutes

writing 15 – 20 minutes

Lunch and play break 1 hour

Math or Math games 20-30 minutes