mrsbarker.ca - Millgrove 2B

Our Very, Very, Very Cold Week

1/17/2020

We had a very atypical week at Millgrove this week as temperatures were below -40°C with windchill (which provided some excellent conversations surrounding our Hot and Cold Temperature learning in Science). The students researched Arctic animals, learned tried out some new games in Math, performed some Reader's Theatre, and got to do some special activities like coding and soccer with the other grade two classes at Millgrove. It was a fun week, but by the end of a week without outside recess, I think we will all welcome the normal temperatures due to arrive this week!

Snow Globe Art

1/13/2020

Today we made illustrations of snow globes in Art class. The students had fun making creative choices about what to fill their snow globes with, and they turned out great! They had to be extra careful because they drew their outlines in sharpie, and you can see their excellent focus in the photos below. You can see your child's snow globe art on Seesaw.

Basketball Skills

1/10/2020

This week we've been practicing a variety of basketball skills, and the class has really enjoyed passing, dribbling, and shooting in PE. The students have been working hard to be in control of the ball like an NBA player, and have been extra careful to keep the ball in their own space. You can watch the video above to see some of the basketball form we've been trying out in PE class!

People and Culture Across Canada

1/9/2020

In our first unit in Social Studies, we learned about the land in the communities of Iqaluit in Nunavut, Meteghan in Nova Scotia, and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. We will now revisit the communities and focus on people and culture in those communities—the Inuit, the Acadians, and the Ukrainians. Through stories, activities and research, we will:

Learn about individuals who have contributed to the development of the communities
Learn some cultural characteristics that members of each community share
Learn how traditions are shared and passed on

Your child will be better able to make connections with material presented in class if he or she has experiences and knowledge to draw on. Here is how you can help:

Discuss your cultural background and find specific places on a map
Discuss any specific traditions in your home
See if you can learn more about the cultural background in your own home and/or that of Inuit, Acadians, or Ukrainians (museums, art galleries, libraries, television specials, and the Internet are excellent sources of information)

We invite you to share your cultural background with us. Would you be willing to come to class and share some information? Do you have any materials you could lend us?
Here are some specifics of what we are looking for:
Traditions—Are there any traditions, celebrations, special foods or recipes, special games or objects you could show or talk about?
Language—Is there another language spoken in your home? Perhaps you and your child could share some simple words or books in that language with the class.
Music or Art—Do you have any music or art that reflects your culture? Can you show us any traditional clothing?

You can watch the video above to see a glimpse of the lovely people in Iqaluit!

Christmas Stories

12/28/2019

2B had been working hard the past couple of weeks of school on Christmas stories for their families. We focused on crafting interesting plots and making our ideas clear to our audience (who were the students’ families). They made the wrapping paper, cards, and everything, and were very proud of their creations. We hope you enjoyed their lovingly authored Christmas stories

Carol Sing

12/20/2019

Our class loved having the traditional Millgrove Carol Sing three mornings this week, and it was so special as always to join together in familiar songs. Many songs were from this year's Christmas concert, along with many Christmas classics, and the school came together as always. There are few places more Christmasy than Millgrove during the week before winter break, and we were lucky to have some visitors join us for the carol sings as well.

2B wishes you a very Merry Christmas! 🎄

Christmas Party

12/20/2019

The last day at school before winter break was a fun one in 2B with some coding, games, a movie, and lots of delicious treats sent by generous families. We have a caring and friendly group of students in our class, and it's always a treat to celebrate together!

The most bittersweet part was that we had to say goodbye to Miss Rebecca, which certainly brought some tears and sadness. She promises to come back and visit in the New Year, though!

Ukrainian Christmas

12/18/2019

On Tuesday this week we celebrated Ukrainian Christmas in 2B! We pretended to wait to eat lunch until we saw the first star outside (as some Ukrainians would do to remember the wise men following the star), and learned how to say Merry Christmas in Ukrainian (Veseloho Rizvda or Веселого Різдва). We decorated our classroom with a Didukh that symbolises the large wheat fields in Ukraine and means 'grandfather spirit' to signify people's ancestors being with them in their memories. The students went caroling like many Ukrainians do (singing “'Koliadky”), and we listened to the famous Ukrainian carol “Schedryk” (it has the same melody as “Carol of the Bells”).

We set up our own class nativity scene like Ukrainian families would often do, and made our own paper snowflake decorations like Ukrainian children sometimes make to decorate their houses at Christmas. We read the beautiful book The Christmas Spider’s Miracle to learn about why spiders are so important to some Ukrainian people at Christmas and why there are often spider decorations on their Christmas trees. Finally, we drank some warm uzvar which is a national Ukrainian beverage, cooked with dried fruits and berries.

Breakout Edu

12/17/2019

We really enjoyed playing our first Breakout Edu game today to review our learning in Math so far this year. The Breakout box is a student-friendly version of breakout or escape rooms where people have to solve puzzles to escape the room. In our Breakout game, the students had to use their knowledge to solve a variety of clues that unlocked the locks on the Breakout boxes (which contained small prizes). All the groups this week beat the timer on all our Breakout Edu game, which is no doubt a testament to both their knowledge of not only these subject areas, but also their problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking!

Acadian Christmas

12/16/2019

This week we’ve been learning about traditional Christmas celebrations from communities around Canada. We kicked off the week with an Acadian Christmas today. We ate lunch in the dark by firelight as though it was Réveillon, which is a special Christmas meal late at night, often after Midnight Mass. We watched a bit of a real Midnight Mass, and learned how to chair dance like true Acadians (you can see the video below to try it for yourself!).

The students even learned a couple of Christmas carols in French that would be commonly sung in Atlantic Canada. Our class learned about the Christmas tradition of godparents giving their godchildren a large biscuit shaped like a little person called a “naulet” that we decorated our own paper versions of. The most popular tradition of all though was when we got to eat our Bûche de Noël!