Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Art Museum Recount Writing

What better way to develop our writing skills than writing some fantastic recounts about our excursion to the Art Museum, our weekends, and memorable memories? 

My second graders have recently been learning to write recounts of past events in interesting and engaging ways. We've also learned to write an introduction/orientation, a sequence of events, and then finishing our recounts with a feeling sentence or personal comment.

As the students write, they have been using their own personal writing chart, which helps them to see the criteria they need to show in their writing to become more proficient. During conferencing, students are asked to refer to a particular area in their writing as they describe their achievements and future goals for improvement!

organizing recount writing using visual color cues
We are working on including sequencing words, using attention-grabbing adjectives and details to give more information. We are also becoming more confident at correctly structuring a recount. We began with fact-filled introductions answering the when, who, what, where, and why questions. 

After some solid introductions, the students recalled a few of the minor events that were most important to them. Each minor event is explained in detail in its own paragraph using an appropriate transition word. Finally, our recounts conclude with a feeling sentence, recommendation, or personal comment. 


Sunday, September 14, 2014

Visiting the Art Museum

The field trip to the art museum allowed students to gain an important opportunity to add depth to their Unit of Inquiry study on cultures. Students were asked to recount and reflect on what they experienced. What was impressive was the empathy shown by second graders with statements like:  
  • “I can imagine what life was like for people a long time ago, it looks more difficult than how we live today" - A
  • “When I looked at the similarities and differences of my culture and the culture in the painting, I tried to imagine what those people were thinking," - P
  • “I think people from different cultures can have different thoughts about the same thing," - T
We try and integrate across subjects and have specialists involved in the unit of inquiry. The art teacher joined us on the field trip. Prior to the trip, our team planned with the art teacher and she did a pre-visit to the museum and chose several art pieces that would tie into our unit. 

School to home connections are important for families to further the discussions in class. Here were the questions that I sent to my families to ask their children: Which was your favourite painting and why? What information did the paintings give you about Vietnamese culture? What is the SAME as your culture? What is DIFFERENT to your culture?


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Monday, September 8, 2014

Moon Festival

Once a year on a full moon, according to the lunar calendar, Moon Festival is celebrated. Families can celebrate on the day by watching the moon, eating moon cakes, and eating special new year home made foods.

Performances at the school's festival included singing and dancing by the Vietnamese language students.