Last Day of Term 1

Today was a lovely last day of the term.  We began the day with a whole school Easter Liturgy.  The Year 2 children sang Share This Meal With Me beautifully and remembered all the actions.






  After this we had our Munch and Crunch break and watched a DVD called The Easter Story.  We then broke for lunch and returned to do a combination of fun activities.  The children chose from the following;

• playing on the Macs on our class blog links
• finger puppets
• a new pirate game which was lots of fun (even though I didn't win!)
• making an I Spy Easter Book from our I Spy Easter Tub
• two brain teaser puzzle games which required a lot of trial and error 
• 3D I Spy card game

Most children made a comment on our blog about what animal they would like to be for a day.  They had some interesting reasons.  You need to click on the comments to view them all.

We tidied our classroom for the holidays and watched the end of the DVD.  Lastly, we had time for a few games of Hullaballoo which is a fun listening game.

I have added some new links under the Sight Words Tab and the Spelling Tab to help you learn your words for Term 2.  Have a great holiday.  Ms Taylor

Question of the Week

Every week I will post a question for you to think about and comment on.  We will do the first one during class tomorrow. Ms Taylor

Poetry

This term we have been studying poetry.  We began by looking at rhyming words through a variety of games and activities and examples in Dr Suess' books.  We recited simple poems and cut up the sentences and reconstructed them on many occasions. We learn a poem called Four Little Fishes and studied the rhyming patterns and the amount of syllables on each line.  The class were asked to insert another suitable sea creature into each verse with the same amount of syllables.  Some examples were; sea snakes, blue whale, dolphin, mermaids, black eel and clown fish.  The children did well on this assessment on the whole.  Our last culminating activity was to attempt to alter the poem to make a new text.  They had to be very careful to keep the rhyme and the syllables the same.  Most children successfully rewrote the first verse.  Several budding poets rewrote the whole poem.  Here are some example of their work.

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  I am very proud of all the student's efforts in their poetry work.  Ms Taylor

Surveys

Surveys are an interesting way to gather information from people instead of just asking them.  Reading Callum's comments gave me the idea of putting 2 surveys about Easter eggs on our blog.  Over on the right hand side there are two surveys for you to be involved in if you would like.  It closes in a week so don't miss out.  I have voted first.  I LOVE Cadbury milk chocolate the best of all.  There are three main categories of chocolate.  Milk chocolate is the most common and is the brown one.  White chocolate is liked by many people and it is white (I don't like this)  and dark chocolate is very dark brown almost black.  I think it tastes bitter and many children don't like it either.  Give polling a go!  Just like Mum and Dad who have voted today for a politician they like.

Look How Easter Eggs Are Made

Mmmmmm!  The smell at this factory must be delicious.
What do you think about Easter Eggs?
Do you like bunnies or chicks or eggs?
Do you like solid ones or hollow eggs?
Do you make a basket or a nest for the Easter Bunny?
Do you leave anything out for the Easter Bunny at your house?
Do you go to Church at Easter?
Do you like Hot Cross Buns?
Do you know why they have a cross on them?
Do you eat all your eggs on Easter morning or do you make them last?
Do you like flattening out your silver wrapper?
What do you like best about Easter?

We have been very busy in the last few days writing poetry.  We have some budding poets in our class.  Look out for some of their great work over the weekend. Ethan is especially proud of his work and can't wait to share it on our blog.   Ms Taylor

Our First Global Project!

Great and exciting news! We will be participating in our first global project. Lots of other schools around the world will be also participating. It is a maths activity called The Great Easter Egg Roll 2012. Parents are welcome to check out the link athttp://projectsbyjen.com/Projects/GER2012/ger2012_information.html

This links to our Australian curriculum in the following areas - Measurement Compare and order several shapes and objects based on length, area, volume and capacity using appropriate uniform informal units (ACMMG037) Statistics and Probability Create displays of data using lists, table and picture graphs and interpret them (ACMSP050)

Chicken Pox

I have been away from school with Chicken Pox.  Luckily I have a very mild dose and hope to return to school very quickly.  Unfortunately, it is contagious and I hope I have not passed it on to any of the children in my class.  This is the second time I have had it, so it is true you can get it again.  Please check your children for pox and keep them home if they break out in mysterious spots.

New Games

I have been adding some new games into the Maths and Literacy Links pages for your learning and fun.  I have also begun an IPad and IPod Apps page that may be useful for some of you.  I will add more over the next few days. It is OK to take your Truffula Trees home on Friday.  I am sure the relief teacher will help you organise this.  Don't leave them in Drive Through.  Roberto is not the Lorax and he might throw them away if he finds them left behind.  Miss you all, Ms Taylor

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

More Dr Suess

The class made Truffula Trees from the Lorax out of pipe cleaners, fuzzy balls and beads and mounted them in Play Doh.  They chose either the Lorax, the Once-ler of Dr Suess and made an appropriate comment.  The children worked really hard on this project.

 On Friday we summed up what we know about The Lorax under the headings; title, author, setting, author's purpose, complication and resoulution.  We presented it on a giant Truffula Tree which is on our front door if you would like to see it.  Inside the room we also have a display of Cat in the Hat hats which record our favourite Dr Suess books.  I will post a photo of this after we graph the results next week.