Museum Trip, Tug-o-War, a great day indeed!!

Thursday June 14 was an absolute wonderful day! It started off by a great tour of our local museum where students were taken back into the past to the early days of the Swan Valley settlement. So many things to see, do, and wonder about, so much learning going on, and yes , even some yummy treats!! In the afternoon , we held our annual Taylor Top Dog Tug-o-War, lots of tugging and smiling !!!

Bowling, what a great day !!!

Tuesday June 3rd saw the Grade 2B class head on down to the local bowling alley to try their luck at knocking down pins!! What a great physical education activity, and boy did we have fun!!

Just for you Mom !!

Happy Mother's Day to all our wonderful Mom's, we love you!!!

Technology as a learning tool in 2B...

Screens play an important part in the everyday learning in our classroom. Our school division realizes the importance of technology and is very supportive in every way possible.  We are very fortunate to have three laptops, three desktops, and six iPads to use as assistive technology tools in our room. It's really a way of using the appropriate technology when it's necessary, but not for everything and not for every day. So yes, we will be  working with manipulatives in math class, we still work on writing with paper and pencils, and we know the only way to become a better reader is by reading, but when we need the technology, it's there. Students maybe working on posting to their blogs on the desktops /laptops, researching a project, or collaborating on an iPad to create a digital story or animated comic strip.  

With tablets and mobile learning devices becoming increasingly popular not only at school, but at home, I thought I would try to give parents some guidance when choosing apps to download. We have some really good sites linked on our classroom wiki that give reviews and suggestions by grade level or by subject, of the best educational apps on the market. The apple App store has over 500,000 apps and counting, so yes it can be an extremely daunting task to sift through to find the gems. Click here.. to link to our wiki. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions .

Pink Day and a Wonderful Breakfast....

Wear the Shirt. Be the Difference

On April 11, 2012 people province wide will be wearing pink shirts to bring awareness to bullying issues and what we can do to create a safe and respectful environment in our communities. 

Why Pink? Pink Shirt Day is an engaging way to get students thinking about bullying and about what they can do to create a safe and respectful environment in their school. This initiative started in 2007 when two high school students in Nova Scotia took a stand against bullying. By asking all of their peers to wear pink to school in support of a male classmate who had been bullied for wearing a pink shirt, they created a grassroots campaign that has attracted worldwide attention.  All students at Taylor School were encouraged to wear Pink and take an active stand against bullying. 

We were also lucky enough to have a very healthy and nutritious breakfast of fruit, yogurt, granola bars, and muffins, all supplied by Gord and the staff from Extra Foods . Thanks so much for the  breakfast!

Easter....

What a great way to celebrate Easter, "The decorating of the eggs"...

Spirit Week...

Once again the students at Taylor, celebrated the right of passage into spring break with the annual "Spirit Week." A week filled with crazy activities, estimating games,and of course finished off with the infamous "Staff vs Student" relay. A wonderful week was had by all.

Lucky Charms 2012

Our third on line project was once again hosted by Jennifer Wagner. As a GROUP -- we will be trying to prove that there are more GREEN CLOVERS (you might call them hats) than any other shape in a box of Lucky Charms. Students were each given a baggie of Lucky Charms. Their job was to sort the marshmallow charm shapes into the following categories: Pots of Gold, Clovers (hats), Horseshoes, Stars, Moons, Rainbows, Hearts, and balloons. Once sorted, students were asked to count their shapes using tallies. This data was then displayed in two different types of graphs. Students created a bar graph using paper and pencil crayons, then using this same data, they created  a bar graph electronically on the website "Create a Graph". We also tabulated all of the students data into a classroom data bank. The classroom totals were submitted to Jennifer. Wow, not only did the students have fun, but we sure did a lot of math too. Check out our slide show. Thank you to our Grade Five helpers, Jackson, Erica, Brianna, Emily, and Jalen. Just a note to parents, the gold is fake, the leprechaun pipe was cleaned between pictures, and all pictures were taken in good fun!!

Busy Month....

The activities continued as 'I Love to Read" month wound down. We enjoyed milk and cookies with our librarian Mrs. Perchuk, who also ran another very successful Scholastic Book Fair! We also had a special guest reader via a Skype conference call. Miss Leah Dewhurst, Reading Specialist with the Prairie Valley School Division in Regina Saskatchewan, read to us the book "The Cheese" by Margie Palatini. To finish "I Love To Read Month, we partnered up with Mrs. Potten's Grade four class for a session of "Read to Someone." All in all the month was full of fun and exciting reading activities.

These are two videos of our Skype call with Miss Dewhurst. Video was shot with my iPhone 4s in our rather dark classroom. Thanks so much Miss Dewhurst for Skyping in as our guest reader!!!

"We Love Our Librarian...."

The activities continue for February as "I Love to Read" month hits full stride. The library is such an important part of any school, and what makes our library even more special is our librarian Mrs. Perchuk. She is absolutely awesome according to Grade 2B, she reads us fantastic stories, and shows us how to find and sign out books, we love Mrs. Perchuk.   She even took a picture of us with our favourite book, and put us on display  for the whole school community to see! Mrs. Perchuk is so nice, she even invited our former librarian, Mrs. Bredin, to come back  and share a story with us. Thanks Mrs. Perchuk for all you do for us, remember Grade 2B Loves you!!!

Mrs. Perchuk

February " I Love to Read Month ! "...

February is "I Love to Read" month, and once again Taylor School will be host to many exciting activities. Tuesday the entire student body enjoyed the Prairie Theatre's Exchange  production Robert Munsch's " The Three Munschketeers." Special guests invited to enjoy the presentation were the Bowsman school K-6  classes. What a fantastic production!

Snow Shoeing, Sliding, and Skating..

Last week we took full advantage of the unusual warm weather, and got active by doing the Big Three "S's"... Snow shoeing, Sliding, and Skating! Thank you to all parents who found the time to come and tie skates for us!!!!

Skating...

As part  of our Physical Education Program, we are lucky enough to go skating on Fridays during the month of January. Our first session was a blast, and thank you to all the parents who came and helped tie skates! Hope to see you the next Three Fridays!!

Happy Holidays !!!

"Made in Manitoba" breakfast...

Students at Taylor School were treated to a "Made in Manitoba" breakfast last Friday morning. The Made in Manitoba Breakfast program (MIMB) travels across Manitoba feeding breakfast to students and connecting them to where their food comes from. The entire student body enjoyed a Made in Manitoba Breakfast cooked by teachers and volunteers, and served by Manitoba Producers from various sectors. What was on the menu you ask? Flax pancakes, canola margarine and oil, hard boiled eggs, pork sausage, honey, and of course, all were washed down with wholesome chocolate milk.

Before breakfast, students took part in an educational presentation where they explored the agricultural industry. They discovered where their food comes from, and that agriculture produces a lot of non-food products that they use everyday. Students were also introduced to local producers and industry representatives, and had a chance to interact with these producers as they went through the food line.  It was truly an agricultural  event from beginning to end.

Wow, what a day!!

Many students commented on what a great day it was yesterday! With unseasonably warm temperatures, the Grade 2's took full advantage and headed over to Jack Brown ball diamond to create some snowmen. The temperature was just right , making the snow nice and sticky. Check out some of our creations!!!!

We Remember...

On Thursday November 10, students from Taylor School assembled in the gym to pay tribute and remember all who have given their lives in conflicts around the world. A big thank you to Mr. Cliff Gussie and the members of the Royal Canadian Legion who came and participated in our service.

Halloween Poems and Pies 2011

On Monday morning, parents, grandparents, and friends got into the Halloween spirit by enjoying a wonderful "Poems and Pie" assembly performed by the Grade Two classes. At the completion of the program, parents were invited to stay for lunch and for dessert, yes you guessed it , yummy pie. A big thank you to the pie makers, and of course all the parents who came and enjoyed. A job well done Grade Two !!! We hope those who could not make it, enjoy the this post....

Poems and Pies Videos

All about Patterns...

In math class we have been learning about patterns. Repeating patterns, increasing patterns, all kinds of patterns. Check out some of the interesting pattern pictures and patterns we have created!