Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Aryan shared with us an article titled Costa Passengers Describe Panic As Cruise Ship Crashed Into Pier from USAToday online.

Aryan stated that, “On the 7th of May in Egypt, a cruise ship crashed into a pier. There were holes on one side of the ship so the captain turned the ship so it would not sink.”

Aryan continued by stating, “I think this article is important because three people died and three other people got hurt.” He also shared with the class, “I wouldn’t want to go on a cruise ship because it might crash.”

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Faris shared with the class an article titled, Earth-Friendly Fabrics from Science News For Kids online.

Faris told the class, “This article is about companies that make fabric out of bamboo and corn. People began to understand the need to protect the environment. They started new ways of making fabric using natural products that are easily replaced.”

Faris shared the following facts, “Bamboo fabric is made in the USA, Canada, China, India, Taiwan and Turkey. Corn fabric is made in the USA and China.” Faris continued by saying, “I think this article is important because we need to save our planet Earth and to keep the environment clean and healthy.” He concluded his presentation by saying, “I was surprised to learn that fabric is made this way and I think this is good for the environment.”

Faris used the following slide presentation to share information about his article.

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Thank you Aryan and Faris for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Reader’s Chair

Each Wednesday one student has the opportunity to share a book of his/her choice with the class. This week, Noah had the opportunity to share one of his favorite books.

Students are given one week to choose a “just right book” to share. Students are expected to practice reading their book aloud to family and friends at home. Students present the book to their class, reading the book aloud, engaging the audience by making eye contact, showing illustrations and asking questions to check for their understanding.

Noah has been working hard this year to become a fluent reader. Noah chose this book for many reasons. He said he likes the many different stories but he also likes the fantastic illustrations in this book. While reading aloud, Noah made sure to involve his audience by showing the pictures on each page and stopping to ask questions. He was well prepared for his reading. He obviously practiced reading at home with his parents and he made lots of notes for himself to remember what to ask and where to stop in the book while reading.

This Week’s IST Grade 2 Reading Recommendation:

When the World Began: Stories Collected in Ethiopia (Oxford Myths & Legends)
Written by Elizabeth Laird
Illustrated by Joseph Kebede and Lydia Monks
Publisher: Oxford University Press; New Ed edition (5 April 2001)
Language: English
Recommended Age: 3-5

This work contains stories about animals and hunters, wise stories, funny stories, stories about cunning and trickery, and love and goodness. These stories are written down here for the first time ever. The author has travelled around Ethiopia collecting stories from this incredibly diverse country. There are stories like those of Aesop, the Bible and Grimm. They are retold by a prize-winning children’s author who loves the country. Elizabeth Laird has won the Reader’s Choice award for the Smarties, the children’s Book award and has been shortlisted for the Carnegie. She has previously published with Egmont, Macmillan, Collins and Hodder. She has spent two years travelling to gather these stories. – from amazon.com

Reader’s Chair

Each Wednesday one student has the opportunity to share a book of his/her choice with the class. This week, Aidan had the opportunity to share one of his favorite books.

Students are given one week to choose a “just right book” to share. Students are expected to practice reading their book aloud to family and friends at home. Students present the book to their class, reading the book aloud, engaging the audience by making eye contact, showing illustrations and asking questions to check for their understanding.

Aidan is a voracious reader. (That means he likes to read a lot!) Aidan chose a challenging book about King Arthur to read to the class. This being a large chapter book, Aidan was able to read only a small portion of his book but he read with confidence and he spoke loud enough for everyone to hear him. At the end of his reading, Aidan was met with a number of questions as to how the book continues. Aidan did his best to answer questions and suggested that this book would make a good addition to anyone’s library.

This Week’s IST Grade 2 Reading Recommendation:

Arthur of Albion
Written by John Matthews
Illustrated by Pavel Tatarnikov
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 96 pages
Publisher: Barefoot Books (September 1, 2008)
Language: English

“The ultimate book on King Arthur! Combining the best-known stories about Arthur and his court with fascinating research on who Arthur really was and where Camelot was built, and the relationships between the main characters in the legends, the magnificent edition has been designed and illustrated to the highest standards.” – Amazon.com

Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Koby shared with us an article titled Boy, 7, Saves Family by Dialing 911 from Social Studies for Kids online.

Koby explained to the class that, “A seven year old boy named Carlos made an emergency phone call by dialing 911 to save his parents from armed robbers.”

Koby felt that this article was important because, “It shows how emergency numbers such as 911 are useful.” Koby finished his presentation by stating, “If people are being robbed, we should help them by also calling 911.”

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Diya shared with the class an interesting and a bit scary article titled, Girl Survives Sting by World’s Deadliest Jellyfish from the Telegraph online.

Diya stated that, “Rachel Shardlow, a 10 year old Australian girl, survived after being stung extensively by Box Jellyfish. She was swimming in the Calliope River in Queensland, Australia when the Box Jellyfish stung her. Her brother pulled her to the shore where she became unconscious for half an hour.” Diya continued by saying, “She was treated for six weeks. She suffered short term memory loss and she developed scars of the tentacles on her limbs.”

Diya explained to the class that this article is important because, “People stung by Box Jellyfish can die within three minutes! Rachel’s survival will give scientists clues as to how they can help other people who are stung by the Box Jellyfish.” Diya finished her presentation stating, “I think it is a miracle the Rachel is still alive even though she was badly stung by the deadly Box Jellyfish.”

Diya used the following slides to share information about her article and teach us more about the Box Jellyfish.

For more information about Box Jellyfish:

National Geographic – Box Jellyfish
ThinkQuest – Poisonous Plants and Animals

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Thank you Koby and Diya for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Reader’s Chair

Each Wednesday individual students have the opportunity to share a book of their choice with the class.

Students are given one week to choose a “just right book” to share. Students are expected to practice reading their book aloud to family and friends at home. Students present the book to their class, reading the book aloud, engaging the audience by making eye contact, showing illustrations and asking questions to check for their understanding.

This week in Ms. Tima’s class, Nyan read Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. He read with confidence and enthusiasm. He stopped every once in awhile to ask the students to make a prediction on how Amelia Bedelia would interpret the instructions she was given. Amelia does exactly what she is asked to do. “Draw the drapes when the sun comes in” is exactly what Amelia does. She grabs a sketchbook and draws the drapes. The children all loved to see how she would “dress the turkey”.

Also in Ms. Tima’s class, Naaba chose a story from the Curious George Treasury. Naaba loves Curious George, and chose to read Curious George Goes Camping. It was evident that Naaba has read this story many times, as he read with a smile on his face, and would often laugh before we learnt what was funny. Naaba felt this was the perfect story to share with the class, as he thought they would appreciate the trouble Curious George gets into. And just to make sure we didn’t miss anything, Naaba would point to small details in the illustrations to help his audience visualise the story even more.

In Mr. McKillip’s class Daniel chose to read the classic tale The King, The Mice And The Cheese. It was obvious that Daniel enjoyed reading this book aloud as he read with expression and made sure to heed punctuation. He also made sure his audience was engaged by showing them not only his face but also the pictures on each page. Daniel was well received with many questions and comments at the end of his book. Well done Daniel!

This Week’s IST Grade 2 Reading Recommendations:

Amelia Bedelia
Written by Peggy Parish and Illustrated by Fritz Siebel
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st Printing edition (August 30, 1992)
Language: English

Curious George Treasury
Written by H. A. Rey
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: HMH Books (October 25, 2004)
Language: English

The King, The Mice And The Cheese
Written by Nancy and Eric Gurney
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 63 pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (August 12, 1965)
Language: English

Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Said shared with us an article titled Portsmouth Into FA Cup Final from CBBC – Newsround online.

Said explained to the class that he LOVES football. We as a class discovered the following about the FA Cup from Wikipedia.com:

“The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The name “FA Cup” usually refers to the English men’s tournament, although a women’s tournament is also held. The FA Cup was first held in 1871–72, and is the oldest association football competition in the world.“

Said reported, “Portsmouth is a football team in England. This football team sometimes loses when playing against other teams. However, they have made it to the finals even though the Portsmouth club is losing money.” Said continued by stating, “My opinion is that Portsmouth should not give up because of money when they are in a match.”

__________

Aliyah shared with the class a popular article titled, Volcano Eruption in South Iceland from BBC News online.

Aliyah started her presentation by explaining, “A volcano in Iceland erupted causing a lot of different effects to the environment and people of Iceland and the whole world!”

Aliyah created posters and a slide presentation to explain her news article and to teach us more about volcanoes; how and why they erupt.

She concluded her presentation by saying, “About 500 people were moved away from their homes, to keep protected. All flights were stopped and roads were closed. Ash from the volcano has reached as far as all over Europe, which is why flights are canceled. People are stranded in different countries and can not fly home! Volcanic ash has endangered animals and farmers too because the smoke and dust from the ash can be poisonous and affect plants and food.”

For more information about Volcanoes:
Weather Wiz Kids – Lots of interesting information about volcanoes
Discovery Kids Volcano Explorer – Learn about volcanoes and what happened in Pompeii
National Geographic: Quiz Your Noodle – See what you know about volcanoes
Scholastic Volcano Lab – Test your volcano knowledge
Natural History Museum – Answer questions to build a volcano

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Thank you Said and Aliyah for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Reader’s Chair

Each Wednesday individual students have the opportunity to share a book of his/her choice with the class. This week, Talin (G2M), Aryan, Ilsa and Vansh (G2N) had the opportunity to share one of their favorite books.

Students are given one week to choose a “just right book” to share. Students are expected to practice reading their book aloud to family and friends at home. Students present the book to their class, reading the book aloud, engaging the audience by making eye contact, showing illustrations and asking questions to check for their understanding.

Talin chose a Step-Into-Reading book to share with the class. Talin obviously practiced reading her book at home as she read aloud with lots of expression. Her audience was thoroughly engaged listening as she changed her voice from narrator to the gruff gravelly voice of the dragon. Talin also made sure to stop from time to time to ask her audience questions to check for understanding.

At the conclusion of her reading, Talin presented the class with a scale she made at home. She used the scale to illustrate the weight and measure concepts from the story. Talin asked her audience to help her reenact the weighing contest from the story demonstrating that two items don’t necessarily weigh more than one.

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Aryan read Fun With Friends, a Bobbie Kalman Book. It is a book full of delightful poems about friendship. Aryan read with lots of rhythm and energy. It was a book he enjoyed reading and got the rest of the class thrilled about poetry and talking about the things they like to do with their friends. The poem Being a Good Friend got the children to talk about their feelings, and opened the class to a lot of discussion. Thanks Aryan!

Other students to have a turn at the Reader’s Chair were Kizito who shared an Enid Blyton short story, The Goblin Hat, Ilsa who read Rose and Flo by Judy Nayer, a funny book filled with rhyming words, and Vansh who read The Sheppard and the Lion.

This Week’s IST Grade 2 Reading Recommendations:

The Dragon’s Scales
Written by Sarah Albee
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 48 pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (May 19, 1998)
Language: English

“When a hot-tempered dragon seizes the local bridge, the people of Berryville are cut off from their supply of beloved strawberries until they can correctly answer three questions related to weight. The grownups of the town are stumped, but one very smart little girl saves the day with some facts she learned in school.” – from Amazon.com

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Fun With My Friends (In My World)
Written by Bobbie Kalman
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Crabtree Pub Co (September 1985)
Language: English

Reader’s Chair 2N

Each Thursday one student has the opportunity to share a book of his/her choice with the class. This week, Nikhil had the opportunity to share one of his favorite books.

Students are given one week to choose a “just right book” to share. Students are expected to practice reading their book aloud to family and friends at home. Students present the book to their class, reading the book aloud, engaging the audience by making eye contact, showing illustrations and asking questions to check for their understanding.

Nik chose the book Parts by Tedd Arnold. He read with confidence and humour. At the end of the book, Nik asked the students questions to check for their understanding. He even closed the book, and asked if anyone could remember the name of the author.

Tedd Arnold says: The idea for this book came from my son, Walter, when he was five years old and experienced his first loose tooth. I made a little note about it in my journal. Then 10 years later, I found the note and had an idea of how to expand that memory into a book. That’s why I say it took me 10 years to write this book. I like to tell kids this is precisely the reason to keep a journal or an idea file. We are all very busy people. You can’t remember every idea you get or every little thing that happens, whether it’s something funny or sad or scary. But if you write things down when they happen, you will always have those memories. Go back years later, read through what you wrote and you will find yourself thinking, “Oh, yeah! I forgot all about that!” So don’t forget–write it down!

What great advice!

Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Edward shared with us an article titled Swarms of Locusts Hit Australia from CBBC – Newsround online.

Edward reported, “About two weeks ago, locusts (an insect that looks like a big grasshopper) landed in Longreach Australia and they ate all the plants and crops!” Edward continued by stating, “People lost their food and even other insects can’t find food! I think this article was fascinating and interesting. I didn’t know locusts could eat so much.”

Here are a few places where you can learn more about locusts:
National Geographic – Animals/Bugs/Locusts
Pitara Kid’s Network – Why do locust swarm?

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Bertha shared with the class an article titled, Schoolboy to Climb Mount Everest from CBBC – Newsround online.

Bertha started her presentation by explaining, “A 13 year old boy is planning to make history by becoming the youngest person ever to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.” Bertha continued by saying, “This article is important because it’s the first time a child has ever climbed this high. I think that this boy, Jordan, is very courageous to attempt to climb Mount Everest.”

Bertha concluded her presentation with the following slide presentation quiz for the class.

For more information about Mount Everest:
Scholastic – Learn about Sir Edmund Hillary
National Geographic Kids – Quiz Your Noodle about Mt. Everest
Panoramas.dk – 360 degree photo of Mount Everest

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Thank you Edward and Bertha for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Reader’s Chair

Each Wednesday one student has the opportunity to share a book of his/her choice with the class. This week, Yusra had the opportunity to share one of her favorite books.

Students are given one week to choose a “just right book” to share. Students are expected to practice reading their book aloud to family and friends at home. Students present the book to their class, reading the book aloud, engaging the audience by making eye contact, showing illustrations and asking questions to check for their understanding.

Yusra chose a popular Disney/Pixar movie (A Bug’s Life) book to share with the class. Yusra read her book with confidence. She obviously practiced reading her book at home with her family members. While reading aloud, she stopped at certain points to ask her audience questions to check for understanding.

Many (if not all) Grade 2 students have seen the movie, A Bug’s Life and were familiar with the story and its characters. Everyone enjoyed listening to Yusra read this enjoyable book.

This Week’s IST Grade 2 Reading Recommendation:

Flik the Inventor (A Bug’s Life, Book 1)
by Disney Enterprises Inc
Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 44 pages
Publisher: Advance Publishing, Inc; First Edition edition (November 1998)
Language: English