Everybody Needs a ROCK

We've been having a a rockin' time learning about rocks!
Above you can see the flip books we made defining and illustrating different types of rocks.
During reading centers the students listened to a treasured book called Everybody Needs a Rock by  Byrd Baylor.

 
Then they hunted for their own special rocks and conducted a few scientific observations and investigations.  They measured, weighed, evaluated its appearance, checked for hardness, found out if it  would sink or float, and saw if it reacted with vinegar. 

Next we read another fantastic story titled, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig.  We spent a good amount of time with this book and the children really got into the story as they read and responded to the text with a partner.   They are becoming such good little readers there was a few moments when I was able to pause and take it all in.  Each and EVERY one of them was working away happily...and no one needed me!   Say WHAT???!!!

Next, you probably guessed it, we wrote our own stories about finding a magic pebble!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We were so fortunate to have a special guest teacher come in and do this sweet leprechaun art with the kiddos on St. Patrick's Day.  I love how bright and cheerful they turned out!  Later we did a little rainbow writing to go with them.  Rainbow writing incorporates nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases, capitals, and punctuation in an engaging kid-friendly way.  I will write more on it soon.  :)

Art

We are so fortunate to have a fantastic and talented art teacher at MATES.  Here is a project the kiddos have just finished up in the art room.  It was a lesson on drawing human figures in different positions  First they cut apart the shapes and placed them in an interesting position.  Then they used the shape figure as a guide and drew a person.   Aren't they just so creative?!  What a group of artists!  I just love each one's unique personality. :)

Erosion, Weathering, and Deposition, OH MY!

Today we had a fun filled morning with science!  To learn about erosion, weathering, and deposition we did a few hands on experiments and activities.  First the students built landforms with unifix cubes.  (Legos I suppose would be better, however I just used what I had on hand.)  :)  Next they pulled apart a piece of the landform (weathering), brought it to a different location (erosion), then started building a new landform (deposition)!  Such a simple and concrete way to understand three big science words.

Then it was time for experiments!  I wish I snapped photos to share but I was wrist deep in sand and water, it totally slipped my mind!  Anyhow, click here to see the video where I got all the great ideas and you can take a look at the experiments we did today.  I was so glad they all turned out just like the examples. Success!  My little geologists are such deep, critical, thinkers!

click here and here for two awesome songs we love to sing about rocks.  Thank you to the teacher who created such engaging and educational songs.  We love them!

Also, here is a video I was planning to show today, however the internet was down... Flexibility should be a teacher's middle name! Ha!  Now it will be a great review for tomorrow. :)

Geology is Rockin' in Second Grade!

Landforms

Continuing with our geology unit we learned all about landforms this week.  Here is a snapshot of our Landforms Flip Books.  Each page flips open and behind it you can read what the students wrote about that particular landform.

After the students were familiar with several different landforms they worked in groups to create these awesome interactive landform posters! Each poster has a set of student made label cards so classmates can locate and name each landform illustrated.  Also, the kiddos made a set of measurement questions for others to solve.  For example, "How tall is the volcano?" or, "How wide is the canyon?"

We had such a great time with this project we invited our first grade study buddies over to check them out.   The second graders are now the experts teaching the first graders what the have learned! 

Great job to all my little geologists!

Worth More Than Gold

This week the kiddos thought about special people in their lives that are "Worth More Than Gold".  They wrote a little something telling why that person is so valuable and special.  Then created a festive pot o' gold and a sweet illustration. 

Double Digit Subtraction

Our adventure with double digit subtraction has officially begun in room 8!  Spring is my favorite time of the year for math because we really kick things into high gear!  About two weeks ago I introduced the concept of double digit subtraction to the kiddos.  I just love the excitement this challenging concept generates for second graders.  The anticipation of learning something totally new... and then the feeling of accomplishment and success when they get it!  Moments like these are what make teaching so rewarding.

I am completely impressed by the way this class has really picked up the concept quite quickly.  I added something new this year and I think it totally helped.  :)  On the first day I introduced double digit subtraction and did lots of modeling on the board.  Also, I used dimes and pennies to represent the numbers concretely so the students could get a good visual picture of the whole borrowing from your neighbor business.   Then I introduced the chant, "More on the top, no need to stop.  More on the floor,  go next door and get 10 more."

I think what made this process so successful this year was that I then taught the concept to every child in a small group (4 student) math group.  I have to give a big shout out to my awesome parent helpers!  Your help with math centers is such a treasure!

During small group instruction I modeled the concept yet again showing the work on the board and used dimes and pennies.  Then each student made this handy dandy flap book.

This I believe was the secret to our success!  Before we approached each problem we read our choices and decided which type of a problem we were solving.  Then we flipped up that flap and solved the problem together.  What an effective tool! 

Here is a pic of one student using the flap book as a tool the following week.

I sent the books home so the kiddos can use this valuable reference while doing homework.  Way to go second graders!  Your teacher is so proud of you!

Flyin' High With Fractions!

I love project-based learning!  With the windy weather it was a perfect day for this fraction kite lesson.  We have been learning about fractions being a part of a whole and this fun project solidified students' understanding.  First each student designed their own kite using 2-4 colors of their choice.  After gluing on the yarn, bows, and clouds the students had to figure out which fractions were in their kite.  

Blooming with Time!

Recently we learned how to tell time by 5-minute intervals.  The students have been doing a pretty good job with this skill but were still making the common error distinguishing between the tricky hour hand and the minute hand.  Today we created these fantastic clocks to reinforce our skills. The visual really helped the kiddos that needed a bit of practice and I LOVE how bright and sunny they turned out! 

After each student made a clock I gave them a card with a time on it.  They were instructed to represent that time on their clock paying close attention to the placement of the hour hand and minute hand.  After everyone was done we played a few rounds of a super fun game called "I have...Who has..." 

Lots of listening and careful thinking was involved as the first student would read their card, "I have 12:35.  Who has 3:15?"  Then the student who had 3:15 would respond, "I have 3:15.  Who has 11:45?"  The game continues until all times were mentioned.  A "blooming" fun time was had by all!

Geology Rocks!

We have officially kicked off our next big unit of study...GEOLOGY!  The students were so excited to start learning all about Earth.  We began by learning what geology actually is.  We watched a few videos to introduce the topic and made our own dictionary pages.

Then it was all about the third rock from the sun!  We learned about each of Earth's four layers and made these diagrams to show our understanding.

We also read this treasured book about a child that actually digs a hole through the earth.  I just loved seeing the excitement, wonder, and joy in the children's eyes when we were experiencing this book together. 

Today we had messy fun with science centers.  :)  Our fantastic student teacher helped the kiddos make oobleck to simulate the "plasticity" of the mantle. 

With our wonderful room mom the students made a yummy treat to represent the layers of the earth.  It was made with a red hot center for the inner core, a marshmallow surrounding it for the outer core, a mixture of rice crispies and marshmallow fluff for the mantle, and finally a dusting of cocoa for the crust.  My partner teacher made the crust with melted chocolate chips, I just might have to do that next year because wow was the cocoa messy!  Although, it was priceless to hear one student say, "The crust was so bitter but once I bit into the mantle it was so tasty together".  :)  Hands on learning in action! 

This in not a picture of ours (I didn't get a chance to snap a photo), but I wanted to post a visual. :) Yum!

Thanks to my awesome helpers who were willing to get messy and make this fun learning possible today. xo

Working With oi and oy

For the next two weeks we will focus on the vowel diphthongs oi and oy.  A diphthong has two parts that glide together through a noticeable change in  mouth position.  When making the /oi/ sound as in the word oil and toy, the sound  starts at the front of the mouth and moves to the back of the mouth.  Using a  mirror to watch mouth position change is a helpful tool for students.   Lucky for us  there is a pretty regular rule for this sound. Don’t you just love that! The oi spelling is used when the sound is in the beginning or middle of a word.  The oy spelling is  used when the sound is at the end of the word (with a few exceptions ;).  Our test  is on Thursday, March 13th.

If you are in room 8 for spelling our words are:

1. join                    High Frequency Words

2. boil                      1. enjoy

3. joy                       2. boy

4. soil                      3. would

5. noise                   4. head

6. avoid                   5. enough

7. voice

8. point

9. toy

10. coin

Happy Spelling!