Today we watched the Christmas movie The Polar Express. Wearing pajamas and having hot chocolate and popcorn helped to make it a fun way to end our Celebrations Unit.
May your holiday break be relaxing and enjoyable and you spend time celebrating families!
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| Polar Express |
We have been on an amazing adventure the past three weeks. We have traveled across the globe and learned about the celebrations of Hanukkah, Finnish New Year, Diwali, Sinterklaas, St. Lucia, Christmas Trees, the Nativity Creche and Kwanzaa. This week we will learnt about Filipino Parol Lanterns, Ramadan and Korean New Year. Without the help of our fantastic parent volunteers and fellow students Around the World unit of study would not have been possible. THANK YOU to all of our volunteers!
As part of this Celebrations Around the World Unit students wrote about a family celebration. They interviewed their parents about how they celebrated this event or holiday when they were a child. This activity helps students understand how traditions and customs are passed down from generation to generation, as well as how traditions and celebrations can change over time.
Great fun was had by all with our grade 2 winter holiday party on Wednesday. Thanks again to all the volunteers. We had mums, aunts, and grandparents who took time to help us celebrate together. Check out our photos! Wherever you spend your Winter Break I wish you all wonderful and restful two weeks, and best wishes for the New Year!
Carlos’ parents from 2JS came today to explain about the Filipino Christmas lantern called the Parol. we made some beautiful ones for our classroom.
Then we were off to Mexico to learn about La Posada. This is a religious procession that reenacts the search for shelter by Joeseph and Mary befoer the birth of Jesus. Lighted laterns line the way to church.Mrs Bissmeyer showed us how to make them as she lived in Mexico for many years.
What a fun filled week we’re had. We have had more presentations on the Christian celebration of Christmas and grade 2 got to preform the Nativity scene.
All grade 2 did a wonderful job in the Christmas concert on Thursday! Well done 
2JD had a week of craft and running around in the great weather. See the photos to see some of the things we got up to! We have also worked had to get ready for our Unit 6 Maths test. All of us are looking forward to the winter holiday break coming up soon.
Today we had another presentation. This time we learnt about Divali.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/religion/diwali.htm
Above is a cool link this gives some great background about this “Festival of lights”. We had fun making candle holder.
People light hundreds of small oil lamps (called diyas) They place them around the home, in courtyards and in gardens, as well as on roof-tops and outer walls. This is to commemorate the part of the story that describes oil lamps being placed outside people’s homes to light the way for Rama and Sitas triumphant homecoming to Ayodhya.
The more lamps they light, the more likely it is that Lakshmi will be tempted to visit them. Hindus believe that the goddess brings wealth with her when she visits.
I have angels in my class! They were wonderful in white and paraded around the school in their Santa Lucia Day outfits.
This week were off to Sweden to celebrate Santa Lucia Day. We will be participating in a Santa Lucia parade on Tuesday, December 9th at 8:30. Boys should wear white shirts to school on Tuesday, while girls will be provided with white robes to wear.
On Wednesday we are traveling to India to celebrate Diwali, and will be making candle holders to celebrate the festival of lights. On Thursday and Friday we will be learning about different parts of the Christmas celebrations. We will learn about the nativity creche and Christmas trees. This week is going to be so much fun!
This week we used book and tapes in our reading groups as a listening station. One student looking at the “old” technology said “What’s this?”, as he was looking at the cassette player. We have continued working hard on our Realistic Fiction stories and we are finding ways to make our stories more exciting.
This week we started our Social Studies unit Celebrations around the World. Grade 2 participated in an excellent presentation by Jane and her mother on how they celebrate Hannukah. Take a look at the photos of the kids enjoying the Dreidl game. Johannes mother Mrs V also came in and explained how their family celebrates New Year in Finland. Making tin creations to “see” what the new year may bring sounded like so much fun. Many of us thought we’d like to start it in our family as well! In Holland Sinter Klaas comes on Friday the 5th of December. 2JD wrote a letter to Sinter Klaas explaining how they have worked hard at being good and deserved a treat this year. They put it inside their clog they made and we wonder if we will find treats in our clogs on Monday?? Please use the photos to ask your child what they have learnt about other celebrations.
WE have read great Realist Fiction books we found in our library and made a display of our favorite books looking at the characters inside and how they had to solve problems. This led onto our wonderful Seasons Reading Christmas tree display. 2JD selected their all time favourite books and made the reading recommendations into ornaments. Very sparkly!
Please take time to go to Ms Valentis’ Art Room blog and check out the “Here come the elves” slideshow of 2JD at work making holiday elves. You will find the link under school blogs. Try also the translator button. I would love to know if really does translate my blog into another language that is readable.
During science and technology class we have been learning more about balance and motion. By building our own roller coasters in technology class, we have been able to discover more about what friction, balance, speed and rotation mean. We hope you enjoy a video from last week’s technology class that shows what we learned from the roller coaster game. A special THANK YOU to Mr. Romard and Ms. Shirely for all their help!
Our second graders have been working hard and learning a lot! It is hard to believe that December has arrived! We have a busy three weeks left until winter vacation rolls around. Here’s whats’ new in grade two!
1. December 4th - It’s our turn to BAKE for Treat Day. Send your yummy treats to school on Thursday.
2. December 4th - Family Celebration Projects are due back to school on Thursday.
3. December 4th - Winter Bazaar - Holiday shopping for teachers and parents.
4. December 9th - 2nd Grade Santa Lucia Parade at 8:30 a.m.
5. December 11th - Winter Concert 10:30 for grades kindergarten through second.
6. December 9th through 12th - Santa’s Workshop.
7. December 17th - Our 2nd grade Winter Party, the fun starts at 12:40!
8. December 19th - School will end at 11:30. Happy Holidays!
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