Have a great summer Grade 2s and 3s!

   

Dear Students,

Thank you for sharing your awesome talent with Mr. D and the class. Thank you as well for making it a great last day together! By the way, you can still send Mrs. Hicks and Mrs. White your well-wishes until Wednesday using the link below to Padlet:

Mrs. Hicks

https://padlet.com/john_dacosta/4142o74o4xl2do9b

Mrs. White

https://padlet.com/john_dacosta/1gzbllnld5kt3izk

I have really enjoyed being your teacher this year. I was a different year but we made the most of it. I have great memories of our Terry Fox Run, our St. Paddy's Day Party, our Jingle Bell Rock hum-a-long, our Winter Carnival, playing Iron Man for you, our Jeopardy and Kahoot Games, Peace is Flowing Like a River, Hey Hey Get Out of my Way, Kyle's Wild World....and I could go on and on and on!

Thank you for making this such a special year for Mr. D. I will never forget this year or any of you. Have a wonderful year, and make sure you stop to say hello to your "old" Grade 2/3 DA teacher. 

Have a great summer and God bless!

Mr. D

   

PS. Mango says to have a great summer too!:)

Things to Remember this Week!

Dear Students, 

I hope that you enjoyed doing some of the Probability situations we did today. (Some of them were quite funny!)

Here are few things that you will want to remember this week:

1) Rock: Remember to have a rock ready for Friday's activity. (See Monday's post.) 

2) Talent Show: If you are sharing a talent for the Talent Show, please make sure that you open the Talent show slideshow on Hapara Workspace for details. (It is now at the top.) Here is the link you can use to record your Flipgrid Video:

https://flipgrid.com/934caf9a

Please share it by this Friday, and we will do the Talent Show on Monday morning. Mr. D is really excited about our show!

3) Christmas in June!

Our theme day this Friday will be Christmas in June! Wear your Santa Hats, reindeer antlers, Christmas sweaters and shirts to make it feel like Christmas has come early. If your Christmas items are all packed away, you can always wear Red and Green. (Notice the colours I chose for this post.) Get ready for some Christmas music and games:)

4) Slideshows: 

For our Liquids/Solids (Gr. 2) and Plants (Gr. 3)  slideshows, you will continue to get time to work on them on Thursday and Friday. The idea was to give you experience with Google Slideshows, learn about Science concepts and practise some reading and writing... all at the same time. As I mentioned today, students are not expected to present them to the class so don't worry about that. While you will have time to finish them, with less time than we expected it would not be fair to expect all of our students to be ready and prepared for presentations. Presenting them to the class is optional;  you are welcome to present them Friday if you are ready and would like to. Just let Mr. D know:)

Have a great night!

Mr. D:)

             

                     

Happy Monday! (and something you need for Friday)

Dear Class,

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Can you believe that this is our last full day of school?

For Friday, we will be doing a special activity with a rock. (not for the Dads' eyes or ears:) Here's the type of rock you need:

•  a rock a little bigger than your hand. 

• light colour

• clean it/soak it (the more time the better; it needs to be dry for Friday though)

• the flatter the better

Some other things you need:

• markers (a permanent sharpie-type marker good for writing will work best)

• light coloured non-toxic paint and brush (if possible; you can use just the markers)

• sparkles (optional)

• strong stickers (optional)

It should be fun! Here is an example of a good rock for the activity:

          

• 
  

A Great Day Today, Talent Show Changes

 

Dear Students,

I hope you enjoyed your day learning about slide shows, Motown music, elephants and Eur 2020 (some great soccer 

begins today!) 

Our Talent Show will now be held on Monday, June 21st in the morning. (That's two Mondays from now.) That means that I will need your videos submitted next Friday, June 18th. I can't wait to see all of your talent!

Enjoy your weekend!

Mr. D:)

Happy Monday Grade 2s and 3s!

 Dear Students, 

I hope that you are trying to stay cool during this heat wave. (Maybe you need to persuade Mr. D that this is the best type of weather:)

Start to think about what talent you are going to show for our Virtual Talent Show on Wed. June 23rd.  

Have a great evening!

Mr. D:)

Enjoy your Friday and Weekend!

 Dear Students,

Mr. D is still in shock after you beat him 2600 to 0 in Superhero Jeopardy. I couldn't get Superhero Art to work, but the Jeopardy was fun and now we can look forward to doing the Art next week!

I hope you enjoyed the Super-Hero themed week. I know Mr. D had fun. Enjoy your well-deserved time off and I'll see you all on Monday. 

Regards, 

Captain D:)

PS. I wonder what our Theme will be next week?!

Superhero Day

   

Dear Grade 2s and 3s, 

Can you believe that tomorrow is already the end of our school week? Thank you to the Grade 2s and 3s who continue to stay on camera during our meetings and have been earning participation points!. Mr. D enjoys having all of our students able to join fully in our learning activities. (It’s also helping that you are getting your parents’ and Mr. D’s permission ahead of time to be off camera when needed) Thanks as well to Grade 3s and 2s who join our Meets right at the beginning of class and let Mr. D know if they need to be late or leave early. (When you do that it makes it so much easier for you and your classmates to learn well!)

Remember that tomorrow is a Superhero-themed day! Dress as your favourite hero using items from home. Don’t go out and buy anything for it; you don’t need to. You can make your own outfit (You can even use a sheet to make your own cape with your parents' help.) We will do some Superhero games and trivia, and get ready for another virtual field trip. Remember that we saved the Math exercise from today for tomorrow. Instead of starting with a Language activity during 1st block as we usually do, we will do the Math lesson and exercise during 1st block  in order to get to the Superhero activities and field trip 2nd Block. 

Have a great evening:)

Mr. D:)

Happy Monday and Superhero Week!

 Dear Students,

I hope that you are continuing to enjoy the weather! It's Superhero week! I hope that you enjoyed the video today from the famous Science Superhero Bill Nye this afternoon on Water Pollution and other types of Pollution. Tomorrow, we will get to view the Superhero Bill Nye video which relates to our Grade 3 unit on Stable Structures. It should be yet another fun and educational video which will help to extend our learning in Science. 

Don't forget that we will have a Superhero dress-up theme on Thursday. Feel free to dress up as your favourite Superhero. Please do not ask your parents to buy anything for a superhero outfit. Tomorrow, I will give you some ideas on what you can do to look like a superhero without doing that! We will also do a couple of special Superhero activities on Thursday. It should be fun!

Have a great evening:)

Mr. D:)

PS. Our new Words of the Week list has now been posted. Don't forget to learn and practise them:)

Friday Already? Virtual Field Trip Tomorrow!

Howdy Grade 3s and 2s,

It's hard to believe but we have almost arrived at the weekend, and this is our last full week in May!

Please remember to bring to bring your Water Investigation (Grade 2) or Experiment (Grade 3) to our Meeting tomorrow so that we can share our results and go over them. 

Tomorrow we will try our first virtual class Field Trip. It should be lots of fun. Stay tuned! 

Enjoy your evening:)

Mr. D

It's Wednesday!

 Dear Grade 2s and 3s,

Thank you for making Ms. Caminiti feel so welcome today! She really enjoyed being your Supply Teacher:)

WORDS OF THE WEEK: You will notice I haven’t put in the new Words of the Week for this week. That’s because we have two short weeks in a row. Next week is a PD Day on Friday, but I will give a new list to you on Monday

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS AND INVESTIGATIONS: We will be reviewing the results of our Science Experiments (Gr. 3) and Science Investigations (Gr. 2) next week. You have been asked to send me a completed copy but please hold to your sheets. We will be discussing and reviewing our results this Friday.

Have a great evening!

Mr. D:)

PS. Below is a copy of the humorous story we developed together in our new and fun  “Piece a Story Together” activity this afternoon as promised. I’m so glad that you would like to try it again!

THE DRAGON WHO DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO (BUT MARRY A PRINCESS) by Mr. Ds 2/3D Dinos

Once upon a time there was a dragon who was named Emerald. He was ten years old. He was lost and in a forest with a cute cat. “I forget” he said and he didn’t know what to do. His cat didn’t know either and forgot too. His wing was broken and he met a princess who rode on his back and he had something to say. “I just got here and didn’t know what had happened and went “BOO!”. She fell off his back and hurt her back and he hurt his back. Ten years later they are both married and in the hospital!

Good work, Students!

 Dear Students,

 I know the weather is really beautiful and so it it can be more challenging to get your work done. Thank you for continuing to try to and to work hard!

Here is our fun quiz for the week!

1. What band's music did we listen to this morning? 

A. The Rolling Stones

B. The Beatles

C. Van Halen

D.The Doodle Bops

2. In what school do the photos actually move? 

A. St. Leonard's

B. Manotick Public School

C. School of Hogwarts

3. In our Math Word problem where did Suzie shop for her mom's party?

A. Tim Hortons

B. Dollarama

C. Walmart

4. Which kind of activity did we try for the first time in Drama today?

A. Tableaux

B. The Irish Jig

C. Reader's Theatre

5. What was Elsa's show-and-tell video about today?

A. Her dog.

B. Her home gym

C. Curling

See if you can get all the answers correct! We'll review them tomorrow. Have a grrrrrreat evening!

Mr. D:)

I hope you enjoyed Peardeck!

Last week it was Pixton, this week it was Peardeck. Thank you for helping Mr. D test Peardeck for the first time. With you help , this type of interactive learning went well and most of you seemed to enjoy the change! We'll try it again soon. 

Don't forget that tomorrow is Red and Black Den day. Enjoy the lovely evening:)

Mr. D:)

Happy Monday Students!

 Dear Grade 2s and 3s,

I hope that you enjoyed the beautiful weekend. Hopefully you were able to get some fresh air today too! 

Thanks to the students who submitted their pick for our NHL Playoff challenge. If you haven't, let me know who you predict will win the Stanley Cup this year. We are doing it for fun, and you should find it enjoyable to participate in the challgenge.

More students are now completing the Zorbits Adventure Time assignment. When you are done your seat work in 2nd Block and 4th Block you are asked to work on it. It's a great way to improve your Mathematical skills and thinking.

Words of the Week have been posted. Enjoy the rest of your evening:)

Regards,

Mr. D

New York, New York!

Mr. D hopes that you enjoyed the Frank Sinatra song "New York, New York" that we began the day with. Stay tuned for another Sinatra song tomorrow. Don't forget to wear your Red and Black colours for Spirit Wednesdays. 

Here is some other news:

COUNTING QUARTERS HELP SHEET

I will be putting up a "Help Sheet" on the second column of Workspace. It will focus on counting by 25s to help us with adding up quarters - it has been a while since we practised counting by 25s and you will find it helpful.

HOODIE FRIDAY

Let's do another Theme Day for Friday. It will be Hoodie Friday. You will be invited to wear a Hoodie of your choice, and Mr. D will even allow you to put the hood on your head during Virtual Class - and not ask you to take it off. He'll be wearing one too!

Have a grrrrreat night!

Regards, 

Mr. D:)

PS. Don't forget to send me any jokes that you would like me to share with Mrs. Lyonnais and Mrs. Hicks. They may get put on Friday Announcements!

  

 

  

A Great Start to the Week!

 Dear Grade 2s and 3s, 

I hope that you enjoyed celebrating Mother's Day with your moms! Today was a fantastic beginning to our week. You worked very hard and followed our routines closely. 

Money: I have now posted a document with links from which you can print coins and bills in the second column of our Workspace. These manipulatives are useful to have to help you when working through our money exercises. There is also a great practice activity you can do with them. You can also get the document by clicking the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qc79PRWELPn--rnoBKg8mGBecqUqi_jEDTHANZtrPBo/edit?usp=sharing

Zorbits: The easiest way to access Zorbits Adventure is through the link on this blog. You will not be required to enter a password. I have put a "Time" assignment on Zorbits which you are asked to do. It's a great way to practise, review and apply some of the Time concepts and skills we learned in our Time Unit.

Words of the Week: They are now up on our blog and focus on suffixes.

Have a great evening!

Mr. D:)

Have a great weekend!

 Dear Students,

I hope that you all enjoyed Catholic Education Week! Thank you for all of your positive participation. Congratulations to Arianna, Maisie and Lola for successfully reading your stories to the whole school at the Literacy Cafe. We were proud of you! 

See you soon:)

Mr. D

PS. Here is the beautiful collage of gardens that was sent to Mr. D by students:)

The Sun is Out!

 Dear Students, 

Isn't it lovely to have the sun shining again?! I hope that you enjoyed Rock, Paper Scissors Phys. Ed, and the very special activities we did together this morning! Remember to keep working on the activities:)

Tomorrow is our final day of Education Week. Here is what our day will look like tomorrow:

Block 1 and 2 we will be doing the Literacy Cafe where we listen to students reading stories they have written. We will be there to support Arianna, Lola and Maisie who are representing our class. Good Luck to our students!

Block 3 will be our next MASC concert entitled "Sultans of Swing." It should be a lot of fun. We will show it in the same way we did on Tuesday where I will share the screen. 

Block 4 we will do some special activities to "wrap up" Education Week!

Mr. D is still accepting photos of the garden you designed until 12 noon tomorrow to create our Nurturing Hope collage. I have am now posting the collage for the beautiful posters you did for Earth Week, which also fits nicely with our "Nurturing Hope" message. 

Don't forget that our Scholastic Book Fair will end tomorrow. You still have time to order!

Have a great night.

Regards,

Mr. D:)

Good afternoon Grade 2s and 3s: Tomorrow and Fun Quiz

 Dear Students,

I wanted to remind you to submit your Garden Picture from Monday's "Nurturing Hope" assignment so that I can create a class collage of your beautiful work! Mr. D hopes that you are enjoying our Catholic Education Week so far. Tomorrow morning we will be working on a special surprise activity. In the afternoon, you get to see the next MASC concert with Mme. Blok (go to Mme. Blok's Workspace tomorrow, and click the yellow/blue space that  says "Concert.") 

See our FUNQUIZ below. (We haven't done one for a while!)  

Have a great evening:)

Regards,

Mr. D

FUNQUIZ 

1. What is our theme for Catholic Education Week?

A.  Nurturing Love

B.  Showing Hope

C.  Nurturing Hope

2. Who was NOT a character in today's Reader's Theatre story?

A. The Fox

B. The Wolf

C. The Hare

3. What was the name of the beautiful Church our Education Week Mass took place in?

A. St. Patrick's Basilica

B. St. Michael's Cathedral

C. Notre Dame Basilica

4. What instrument did Chris McKool (the man who performed yesterday's concert) learn  to play first?

A. The Flute

B. The Violin

C. The Electric Guitar

5. Who wanted to bring a sewing machine with them on their search for Edmund in Narnia?

A. Mrs. Groundhog

B. Susan

C. Mrs. Beaver

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR ANSWERS!

May the 4th Be With You!

Dear Fellow Jedi's,

I hope that you enjoyed our May the 4th together, including themed activities like our Star Wars drawing, the Star Wars musical theme and our Would You Rather physical activity. 

The MASC concert seemed to be a hit for most students. We have two more sessions left this week, which gives you something to really look forward to. Remember that tomorrow we will be watching our School Board Catholic Education Mass 2nd block at 11:00. 

Mr. D hopes that you enjoyed something a little different with our 2nd Block Independent learning. The Thank You cards I have seen so far look fantastic! I know that our First Responders and Essential Workers will really appreciate the cards and the gratitude you are showing. Mr.D wanted to offer you and your families an apology for the problem logging in for virtual learning with Mrs. C at 11:30. Mrs. C was trying to help our class by filling in, and it was Mr. D's responsibility to set it up correctly. He'll make sure it works next time!

Have a grrrreat evening and I will see you tomorrow!

Mr. D

PS. Don't forget to wear your Red or Black for Den day tomorrow.

PSS. May the 4th Be With You!

    

Catholic Education Week Events

SOME CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK HIGHLIGHTS

-Class liturgy

-Online Scholastic Book Fair (all week)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gq1W22nyGZSgHHEEGAJyTS0ohnUYGLJZ/view

- Concerts: 1)Tuesday May 4th, 2nd Block

Earth, Seas & Air (sing-a-long style with Chris McKhool)

Friday May

2)Friday May7th, 3rd Block

Sultans of String (instrumental show of music around the world

-Literacy Cafe: Friday Morning 1st and 2nd Block (We will be listening to stories from students around our school, including our 3 classmates:)

-Twitter Challenge: During Education Week, we invite you to share messages, photos, videos or drawings of hope related to the daily themes listed in the link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fzfqPuzWnVQp5WgFkvssCINU3hR8T3DAQ6sOcIey0/edit

See you in May!

 Dear Cowgirls and Cowboys, 

This was an AMAZING learning day. We followed our Meet rules much more closely today. Mr. H was pleased. I hope y'all enjoyed our Cowboy/Cowgirl theme! We can do some more theme days in the coming weeks. Have  grrrrrrreat weekend:)

Mr. H

Howdy Class!

Dear Students, 

I hope you enjoyed hearing some awesone "Old Country" music by Johnny Cash. We learned about some Canadian History and Geography this afternoon. We now know that there are Canadian Cowboys and Cowgirls in our history. They live in the Province of Alberta, home of the Calgary Stampede. It was also a lot of fun to find out what our Cowgirl and Cowboy names were!

Here are the new Cowboy/Cowgirl nicknames students we were randomly given:

OLA “COYOTE" STEIN

CALLIE "NO-HORSE" BOOTH

STEPHEN "SLY" KENNEDY

ROSS "RIDER" BLANCHARD

MADELINE "SUNRISE" FOREMAN

NELLIE "THE CHISELER" FISHER

FREDA "SUNRISE" MELLON

RIVER "LASSO" GIBBS

JAMIE "POKER FACE" HENDERSON

MATT "THE JESTER" SAXTON

DAISY "THE TRACKER" JACOB

JANICE "SMILEY" JEFFERSON  

HUNTER "LASSO" JAMES

EMMERSON "THE HUNTER" HANEY

On Friday, we will have a Cowboy/Cowgirl theme to celebrate the end of the week and the month. Students can wear Cowboy/Cowgirl themed clothing or gear. I have an easy way to help you look like a Cowboy/Cowgirl if you don't have anything at home. It should be fun.

FABLE AND LEGENDS:

I know you worked hard on planning your Fables and Legends today. Tomorrow, you will get a chance to actually write them! There will not be another assignment for Language given tomorrow. You will click on the same Fables/Legends activity you did today.

Have a great evening!

Mr. D:)

Hope you enjoyed our Detective Game!

 Dear Students, 

 You seemed to really enjoy our "Detective Game" this afternoon. I know some of the Time games I posted had difficulties after the first level. Mr. D will post some new ones you can enjoy practising Time with them. Please keep practising your W.W. Words which were posted on this Blog.

Tomorrow I will starting our morning session with a type of music we have not listened to yet. Some of you may be big fans. Do you want to guess what type it is?

....join us tomorrow to find out:)

Mr.D

PS. Don't forget that tomorrow is Red and Black Day tomorrow:)

A Great Start to the Week Students! (W.W.Words)

 Dear Students,

Today was a positive start to our last week of April! I hope you enjoyed our new "Jamboard" activity. It was our first try at it and despite some challenges, most of your seemed to like the interactive part of it. I'm glad you laughed at most of the "chicken" jokes, and you are getting better at our chicken dance!

Your new Words of the Week are now on the blog. Please don't forget to learn and practise them.

Have a good evening class!

Mr. D:)

A WInter Wednesday!

 *** Remember to wear green for Earth Day tomorrow!

Dear Grade 2s and 3s,

I hope that you enjoyed our “Christmas in April `` song by Frank Sinatra in the morning. Thank you for being so patient with our Workspace troubles. We skipped the Measuring Time exercise that was meant to go along with the lesson, and we will do it tomorrow instead.

Great job on doing “This and That'' and Billy Goats Gruff Readers Theatre this afternoon. You did a great job! Remember to try and wear something green for Earth Day tomorrow. 

Have a greeeeat night!

Regards,

Mr. D:)

PS. Time Question: About how much time do you think it tool Mr. D to type out this post?

Share the answer tomorrow!

It's so great to see all of you again!

Dear Grade 2s and 3s,

I hope that you enjoyed your Spring Break. It was wonderful to get sunshine and some warmer weather for part of the break. We are back to online learning, but you are all becoming "old pros." I am looking to add some new and exciting features to our on-line school, including creating slideshows, doing  some virtual field trips and a few new apps/programs/ Stay tuned! 

Here are some other things to remember:

• Words of the Week: I will continue to post Words of the Week on the Blog. Please learn them and practise them, and you can do some of the recommended W.W. Activities which are posted below. While we won’t do a W.W. Quiz, you can always get someone at home to give you the quiz and then let me know how you do!

• Monthly Calendar homework will be on hold until we are back in school; you can use "homework time" to catch up on Hapara Workspace assignments, do RazKids or Zorbits activities, and to read lots of books!

• In case the technology is not working properly,(example: if Hapara gets slow) have a notebook or some paper ready to do the activity. You can then always email me a photo of your work.

• Remember that for today’s Time activity, you don’t need to redo the questions on the photos; we did it together. All you need to do is fill the last box which asks for a couple of examples of where you use “Time” in your life. 

• Please remember that you need to stay on camera during our lessons unless your parents need you to turn it off; it makes us feel more like we are at school and a community!

• Please remember to submit your exercises when you are done whether submitting a Google Doc or sending a picture of your written work. You are responsible for completing them and handing them in just like in class! Remember to submit your poster from yesterday so that I can make an Earth Day collage. If you hand it in by tomorrow afternoon I can include your poster!

Regards,

Mr. D

PS. Don't forget that it's Red and Black Day tomorrow:)