The staff and parents at Millgrove's Remembrance Day Ceremony yesterday were so proud of the students' respectful behaviour. They truly brought pride to Millgrove School! We were privileged to have many special guests at our school yesterday, and the students learned a lot and reflected thoughtfully on the sacrifices of Canadian soldiers and veterans, and the value of peace. We read books about veterans and peace in class this week, and the students wrote their own pieces of writing about peace which you can see below and on Seesaw!
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Our classmate Aiden is one of our Saskatoon experts in 2B as we learn about prairie communities in Canada this year. Last weekend he was in Saskatoon, and his family very thoughtfully brought back some Saskatoon jam for us! The students loved learning more about the berry that Saskatoon gets its name from, and even moreso loved the tasty treat from Aiden's family! We have begun a new unit in Social Studies in 2B about life in three communities in Canada. One purpose of this unit is to help your child appreciate the diversity and vastness of Canada’s land and peoples. The specific communities we will study are:
Students will learn about the weather, geography, language, history, daily life, and economy of these three Canadian communities. There will also be opportunities to make connections to Alberta and Spruce Grove. You are invited to be part of our unit in a variety of ways, for example:
The students already have a sense of the geographic and weather differences between the communities, and are becoming experts at the communities where Zenia (Saskatoon), Kenojouak (Iqaluit), and Jean-Louis (Meteghan) hail from. We’re looking forward to an exciting unit! What a great first day! It was a pleasure to meet all the lovely new students of 2B, and to get to know them today. I can tell it's going to be a great year with this group of children (in my very favourite grade, grade two)! Millgrove kicked of the year with the privilege of watching some very special First Nations dancing and storytelling in our first assembly, and it was a great beginning of the year for 2B since we will be learning more about Aboriginal people in Canada and their importance in our nation's culture and history over the course of the year. I can't wait to see what Day 2 of our school year has in store!
As we are wrapping up our learning about communities and cultures in Canada, the students made board games to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday! Much like Edmontonopoly, these board games were designed to reflect the culture, land, and unique characteristics of Canada. The students included all sorts of important and interesting facts about our country. We had a board game party where we got to play each other’s games, and the class had a blast admiring each other’s creativity and celebrating their learning in Social Studies this year. We’ve really been enjoying playing Breakout Edu games this past week to review our learning in grade two 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 games, the students had to use their knowledge from math, science, and social studies to solve a variety of clues that unlocked the locks on the Breakout boxes (which contained small prizes). So far the students have beat the timer on all our Breakout Edu games, 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!
The students' Canadian Career Fair was a great success! They've put so much thought and effort into their businesses, and it was neat to see that work pay off as they pitched their companies to prospective employees from 2A. There were many big hires made, and it was great to see 2B share their learning and creativity with their peers. You can watch the video below to get a sense of our exciting afternoon! We had our big Flat Stanley day on Thursday, and the students have loved learning about the journeys that each others’ Stanleys made. The recipients of the Flat Stanleys across Canada did an amazing job of showcasing their regions of Canada, and the class was so excited to see all the effort they put into the booklets that we received in the mail. We've learned about many different provinces in Canada, and it's been amazing to see the diversity of landscapes, culture, and communities in our country. Thanks again for all your help in making this project a big success
We're busy preparing for our career fair next week here in 2B! Students are practicing their presentations, creating props, and putting the final touches on their presentations. You can view their business presentations by checking out the students' blogs using the links on the left, or preview a few that are included below. They will undoubtedly have many interested employees in a few days!
We were lucky to borrow a collection of historical artifacts from the Edmonton area from the Royal Alberta Museum, and we learned a great deal about the past. Many of the artifacts were more than one hundred years old, and provided a great snapshot of how life in the past was the same as and different from our lives today. 2B's favourite item was the stereoscope, which reminded us of today's 3D movies except that you viewed photos instead of video!
We were lucky to borrow a collection of Ukrainian artifacts from the Royal Alberta Museum, and we learned a great deal about Ukrainian culture. We learned about the traditions that distinguish their weddings, funerals, and religious celebrations, and enjoyed seeing some of their games and currency up close. The students each created their own virtual museum with a Ukrainian artifact exhibit which you can enjoy on their individual blogs using the links to the right (you can see a few of them below as well if you'd like). In our recent Social Studies look at work across Canada, we’ve been learning about the variety of natural resources in our countries different regions and what goods are made using those natural resources. The students used their recent learning this week to imagine pretend businesses and with a natural resource and good that they pretended to make out of that resource. You can check out the videos on this post and in the students’ individual blogs to learn more about goods and natural resources! The variety of cultures in communities across Canada has been a recent focus in our class, and this week we celebrated Easter Ukrainian style by decorating eggs (or “pysanky”). The students used kitskas and beeswax to create designs on their eggs, and we used real Ukrainian dyes. It was very exciting to see how they turned out after we’d melted all the wax off! ![]() Flat Stanley is a character who has been flattened by a falling bulletin board. We've been reading about him in our class, and the students have each created their own Flat Stanley that they have sent to a special location in Canada. Your Canadian contact will receive a package containing everything they need to complete their Flat Stanley booklet, but they can also check this page or use the link at the top of this website if they need some ideas. We are hoping to have the Flat Stanleys and booklets mailed back by mid-May so that the students can present to the rest of the class on the Canadian destination, but you can email me if your chosen recipient needs more time for some reason. Steps for Your Canadian Contact
Our focus in Social Studies continues to be on life in three communities within Canada: an Inuit, an Acadian, and a Prairie community. We are about to start a unit that focuses specifically on the economic characteristics of these communities. Children will learn about:
Children will be better able to understand the concepts in this unit if they can make connections with familiar content through you. Here are some ways you can be involved:
Also, you can:
This past week the students in our class each chose a culture in Canada to research and report on. They then illustrated those facts using an iPad app, and you can read their important facts in their blogs using the class blog list in the right sidebar. We hope you enjoy them! We’ve been busy in January researching and writing about Arctic animals in 2B. To tie in our learning about Arctic Canada in Social Studies and our research skills in Language Arts, each student chose an Arctic animal to research and report on. We learned about avoiding plagiarism and putting facts in our own words, and also about how to make sure that we had evidence for all of the facts in our reports that we had found in reliable sources. Students looked for information in the categories of habitat, diet, adaptations, and interesting facts. They also learned how to craft an introduction that would hook their readers and a conclusion that would provide a satisfying wrap up to the report. You can read the students’ reports below!
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Mrs. BarkerMrs. Barker is a grade three and literacy teacher at Millgrove School. She loves science and reading, and lives in a little brick house with Mr. Barker and her kids Jack and Ellie. Archive
June 2024
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