Show and Tell

Show and tell is such an amazing thing!  I love show and tell so much, that I have made this one of the items that students can buy in the store.  Show and tell allows students the opportunity to talk in front of their peers about something that they enjoy.  Show and tell helps students answer questions.  They hear the question and think about a response.  Show and tell builds confidence and helps students get to know one another. 

Radish Sprouts

What happens when radish seeds are planted in the dark?  Will they grow?  We tested this hypothesis out and discovered that they DO grow in the dark.  However, they look different.  Our radish seeds in the dark were light yellow in color.  Our radish seeds in the sunlight were a dark green.  It looks like radishes can grow in the dark, but they do not grow well.  We learned that the sunlight is important, and necessary for healthy plants. 

Bee-lieve in the Magic of Bees

Spring is filled with flowers, new plants growing, and rain showers!  The flowers grow and transform into fruits and vegetables.  This transformation could not happen without the hard, behind-the-scenes work of bees.  Bees pollinate flowers to allow the fruit or vegetable to grow.  We could not have delicious produce without these fantastic insects.

Students created bee homes for Mason bees.  These are small, friendly bees.  Often, they are the first bees to appear in the spring.  Students saved a milk carton, added some dried flowers, and some cardboard tubes to their bee homes.  They will place them near a garden area, so that the bees can find some delicious flowers.  Home sweet home!

Corn Adventures

Things have been a little corny lately in second grade!  We have been exploring and wondering about corn.  Here are some of our wonders:

How much water does it take?  Why are they called kernels?  Why are they yellow?  Why is it spikey at the end of the seed?  How long does it take to grow an ear of corn?  Why are the seeds different sizes?  How can a tiny seed grow as big as a person?  How does it grow?  Why do the seeds have purple lines?

We recorded our wonders in our "Corn Journal."  Then we planted our seeds in small pots.  We used soil pods, five to be exact, and added 8 tablespoons of water to our pot.  We watch the compacted pods expand to become soil!  Then we planted our seeds.  We moved them to the window, and plan to water daily.  We are excited to find some answers to our wonders! 

To Market!

Money, money, money: show me the money!  We have been learning about money the last several weeks, and decided to create a "Marketplace" to test our money skills.  Students created cards focused on one of the following three themes: 'Happy Birthday,' 'Happy Easter,' or 'Congratulations on Your First Communion.'  Each student created two cards.  One card was kept by the student, and the other card was sold in the "Marketplace."

Students learned how to price their cards.  They discovered that if you spend more for a card than what you sold your card for, you lose money.   They also learned that if you set the price of your card higher than the amount of money people have, that your card will not be purchased.  Money is super fun!

These three pictures show students setting prices for their cards, priced cards, and shopping for cards.  It was so exciting to see the students navigate the market and work together to buy and sell their card creations! 

Birthday Boy

Spring Break is nearly upon us!  We decided to celebrate this young man a bit early, since his actual birthday will occur during the break.  We enjoyed Cookie Monster donuts, and singing "Happy Birthday" in three different languages!

We wish you the best day ever filled with pizza and ice cream!  We enjoyed reading the story of your first year, and hope that year #8 is great! 

Seed Scientists

The weather has warmed up, and we are investigating seeds!  How do seeds travel?  What do seeds look like?  Which plant has which seed?  Why are seeds so different?  We explored these questions and more, as we began our first week of plant studies.

We learned that seeds are different, because it depends on how the seed can best be moved to a new growing location, away from the parent plant.  We guessed which seed belonged to which fruit/veggie, and then cut each open to find out if we were correct.  There were some surprises!  We also sampled the fruits and veggies.  We look forward to experimenting with variables that plants need to grow: light, soil, and water.  More fun to come! 

Give, Save, Spend

We are in the money in second grade!  Not only are we learning the value of each coin, how to count back change, and money addition and subtraction, but we are also learning the importance of giving, saving, and spending money.  It is important to have some in each jar.  We enjoyed a wonderful visit last week from Mrs. Bosse.  She (and Milton) answered some questions, and offered terrific money advice.  We look forward to reading more about Milton's adventures, as we give, save, and spend!

$uper $uperintendent

We had a special guest visit our class today!  Our guest was Superintendent Andrews!  He popped in when we were learning about money.  We learned about quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies.  We showed different ways to create 42 cents and 38 cents.

We had a super visit, and enjoyed sharing about our learning adventures.  Hooray for money, and, of course, math! 

Freedom Quilts

We have been learning more about our US Presidents, and exploring some of our heroes for Black History Month.  We learned about Ruby Bridges, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks.  We learned that even one person can influence others to make positive choices, and changes that are good for all.

One of our STREAM experiences was to create a quilt block for our class Freedom Quilt.  Students used fabric scraps and crayons to create a message on their block.  All the blocks were put together to form our class quilt.  We enjoyed learning more about these amazing Americans, and creating art too! 

What Happens When Salt Meets Ice?

We wrapped up our science unit on matter last week.  I had some ice left over from our ice cream making project, and thought this would be a super opportunity to explore what happens to ice when salt is introduced.  This, of course, led to a great discussion about why salt was used when we have icy roads and icy sidewalks.

The ice was initially cold, hard, and smooth.  When salt was added, we discovered that the ice changed.  The ice became "bumpy," and it began melting much faster than it did without the salt.  We hypothesized why this may be the case.  Students thought that the salt was "heating up" the ice, which caused it to turn to a liquid.  The properties that make up salt, actually love water.  They try to attach to the liquid water, which does make the ice warmer, and causes it to melt.