Geology

We have officially kicked off our next big unit of study...GEOLOGY!  The students were so excited to start learning all about Earth and we have learned so much already.  We have been doing a lot of close reading of informational text to learn about the earth's layers and landforms.   After reading and note taking,  students created these neat flip book diagrams describing and illustrating the four layers of the earth.

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.  Such a fun read!

To make learning come to life, the students made a yummy treat to represent the layers of the earth with our awesome student teacher Miss Fekete.  The earth 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.    Hands on learning in action! 

Ours were tiny and did NOT look this perfect, but here is a picture so you can get a visual. :)

After studying all about the third rock from the sun, we dove into landforms.  First, each child made a wonderful interactive flip book that illustrated and defined key landforms.

I am a huge believer in project based meaningful learning, and this next project integrated social studies, science, reading, writing, and art standards!  Students created an awesome landform map illustrating and explaining notable landforms in the United States. Students worked collaboratively to read an informational text explaining oceans, mountains, plains, valleys, islands, plateaus, deltas, rivers, peninsulas, canyons, and volcanoes. Then they read about U.S. landforms such as: Mississippi River, Rocky, Appalachian, Sierra Nevada, and Cascade mountain ranges, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Great Plains, and more! We also learned a fun song to help cement learning called "Have You Ever Seen a Landform?"  The teamwork and academic conversations made this project really special -quite possibly one of my favorites!   Our second graders are turning into little scholars!  Ask your child to share all about it!