Dear parents and students,
Welcome to our class blog! Since we will not be seeing you for the next week or so, we decided to post some fun activities for you to do while you are away from school.
Please go through the list, have an adult help you read, and choose the activities you will be doing each day.
We are sure you will be having lots of fun!
OH… Be sure to click on the link to the right that writes “Single Subjects”!
Enjoy… We’ll see you in no-time!
23 November 2009
Home Learning Grade 2
READING
Daily reading is required. Read at least for 40 minutes a day. Here are some websites to access some free books on the Internet:
http://www.biguniverse.com/readkidsbooks/browse/98 (Excellent website that is organized by grade, theme, and reading level)
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ (There is also a Spanish, Japanese, and German section.)
http://www.tumblebooks.com (You can read the books yourself or listen to the narrator read them aloud while you read the words. Great for EAL students.) The log in and password is in the e-mail.
CURRENT EVENTS and WRITING
FIND AN ARTICLE IN THE NEWS THAT IS INTERESTING TO YOU AND WRITE ABOUT IT. You can use any resource in any language so long as the news is current and interesting to you.
Please share any of the following:
- Why it is interesting to you
- What you learned from you it
- How the news makes you feel
- How you can connect or relate to the news article
- Ways you or people can help, if it is a problem based article
- Anything else that comes to your mind
With an adult, be an information seeker and learn about current events. Your Social Studies/Writing task is research the news, find and choose a news article that you find interesting, and write about it. Here are some suggestions for news resources. But, of course, you are not limited to this list. Feel free to access current events from any printed source, which may be found in print or on the Internet. We will share all these interesting articles in class when you come back. If you can bring in or print the article that would be great.
Ghanaian local newspapers
Junior Graphic Newspaper (It’s a newspaper published in Ghana for kids that writes about all things that pertain to children.)
http://www.graphicghana.com/juniors/list.php?section=Junior%20News
Online news websites from your home country/home language
Kids’ Post from The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/kidspost/orbit/kidspost.html
Time Magazine for Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/ (A great website!!)
www.kidsclick.org www.yahooligans.com www.askkids.com
WRITER’S WORKSHOP
In Writer’s Workshop we have been working on the new unit called Small Moments. It’s unique because you don’t write about many events that happen you simply write about one little moment and you stretch that moment out with as many details as you can such as:
- Sensory details (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, emotion)
- The 5 Ws and the H (who? what? where? when? why? how?)
In this writing task you will write about a recent small moment that we all shared:
THE MOMENT WHEN YOU FOUND OUT THAT THERE WOULD BE NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY, 19 November, 2009
Using this recent event as your writing focus of a small moment write about just that. Stay focused on just that particular moment of when you found out.
For example, Ms. Monfort-Torres was at the movies. (Really!) I received a text message on my mobile phone. The phone vibrated making me jump and rock in my seat. I remember saying, “Ooooo!” My entire piece of writing will just be about being in the theatre showing what I was doing, how I felt, what my body did, etc.
Remember to stretch out your small moment as much as you can. You can do it!
Good writers show not tell.
FUN STUFF YOU CAN DO TO BUILD SKILLS AND THINKING
- Learn to play or get better at chess (Research shows that chess improves thinking, problem-solving, and can help with math skills.)
- Play the CATEGORY Hot Potato game with an adult: Choose an item at home that you will pretend is a burning “hot potato”. You take turns passing the hot potato while naming a country, world city, adjective, type of vegetable, type of sport, words that start with a certain letter, etc. You can come up with any category! It is a fun interactive game of memory and thinking that you can do anywhere. You can play this game with many people by just passing the hot potato around. You play until you can’t come up with anything else in that category.
- We have been in school 56 days as of today. On the 100th day of school your home learning task will be to bring in 100 of something. It doesn’t have to be 100 of the same thing. It can be anything from pesewas, cotton balls, seashells, rubberbands, leaves, etc. Why not start getting your collection going now?
- Make an art project with recycled materials at home. Use the left over toilet paper rolls, old food boxes and containers. You are being creative, resourceful, and making a gift.
- Practice your typing skills at http://www.freetypinggame.net/ Remember to always position your fingers on the bumps of home keys F and J.
- Visit www.brainpopjr.com The log in and password are in the e-mail.
- Practice oral math drills with someone taking turns.
- Practice oral spelling of sight words with someone. Spell the words backwards, spell them in your home country alphabet…be creative and have fun! Access a sight word list here http://www.usu.edu/teachall/text/reading/Frylist.pdf
UNIT OF INQUIRY- ME ON THE MAP!
After studying maps and geography we will be exploring culture. Since we live in Ghana we are going to learn about Ghanaian culture. This week your job is to be a global explorer. Get to know more of Ghana by exploring the following with an adult:
- Learn one word or phrase in a Ghanaian language everyday. It can be in Ga, Twi, Ewe, Hausa, or any other language spoken in Ghana that is not English. Make sure it is new to you so that you are learning something.
- Try a new food each day. If you can’t then at least learn about the different foods in Ghana.
- Customs and special holidays
- Behaviors and taboos
- Location: Physical features (lakes, forests, etc.), what the land gives to the people (cocoa, gold, minerals, etc.)
- Music and arts and crafts
- Dress and clothing
- Anything else that is cultural that you discover
Present what you learned in any fashion! Be as creative and imaginative as you can! You will be making a brief 5 minute presentation to the class about what you discovered about Ghanaian culture!
MATH
Measurement- More than, Less than, Exactly!
For this activity, you will need a ruler (or any other way to measure centimeters and or inches)!
Walk around your house, the beach, your mom’s office, or wherever you are… and measure stuff!
On a separate sheet of paper DRAW AND LABEL different items:
• Objects that are exactly 1 CM (centimeter) long.
• Objects that are more than 1 CM (centimeter) long.
• Objects that are less than 1 CM (centimeter) long.
• Objects that are exactly 5 CM (centimeter) long.
• Objects that are more than 30 CM (centimeter) long.
CHALLENGE:
• Objects that are exactly 37 CM (centimeter) long.
• Objects that are exactly 78 CM (centimeter) long.
If you have an inch ruler (or you are creative enough to create one…) do the same activities (above), this time for inches!
Example: Exactly 5 CM:
A seashell top of my picture
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Practicing addition and subtraction facts (and much more…)
Go on the website http://www.math-drills.com/ and choose a category you would like to explore and practice (addition, subtraction, number sense, base-10 blocks, etc).
For example, if you would like to practice your addition skills, click on: < + Addition >. Scroll down and you will find 100s of different exercises. Depending on your child’s level, choose an appropriate category and level. Open the file and print it (several times).
At home, have your child do the test daily. Time him/her to check how long it takes to finish the sheet. Alternatively, you could decide that your child should finish the test in 2:30 minutes or less. Once you know your child has finished all the equations successfully and within the allotted time, feel free to print out a higher-level sheet, or a different category. I promise you that if you do it right, your child would love it!
Also, be sure to challenge your child with some word problems! On the same math-drills page, enter the words “Word Problems” in the search box. You will find links to excellent websites with printable word problems for each grade!
As a challenge, you and your child could make up story problems and solve each other’s story! If you do so, please bring it back to school once we return!
HAVE FUN AND SEE YOU SOON!
Take good care,
Mr. Ronen and Ms. Monfort-Torres
