Room 24 Camps Out!
We've had a BALL in Second Grade!
Beach Day 2015
The Great Balloon Countdown Begins...
Pop! Bubble Gum Contest!
Baby Chicks!
A New Class Favorite: Hey, Little Ant
Hey, Little Ant is definitely a new class favorite read aloud! When you see an ant, the first thing you might do is try and SQUISH it! But, ants are creatures with families and important jobs to do, too! In this story by Phillip and Hannah Hoose, the little boy wants to squish the ant, but the ant tries to defend himself with the power of words! Next time you see an ant, what will you do?
Here we are sharing our persuasive writing with our book buddies! |
Fraction Action
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In getting ready for 3rd grade, we learned about how to name and identify fractions of a whole and fractions of a set.
Let's Go Fly a Kite!
Opinion Writing: "When Looks Matter"
Some animals are weird and odd-looking creatures! Today, we read an article, "When Looks Matter," and we learned that odd-looking animals are odd-looking for a reason! Based on the article, students wrote opinion pieces about whether or not people should be concerned with protecting these bizarre looking creatures.
Shape Bump:
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Caught in a Web of Learning... About Spiders! |
Digging Up Artifacts in Africa
As archaeologists, we explored artifacts from Ghanaian culture. We brainstormed what we thought these objects could be and how they may have been significant to West African culture.
Visit Ancient China With Our Travel Brochures
Here we are conducting a Gallery Walk to showcase our brochures on ancient China! We left each other "love notes" with compliments!
Welcome to Ancient China!
Ai-yo! We have learned so much about Chinese culture! We started by mapping the important geographical features on a map and connecting our understanding of the landforms in China with the crops that are grown, like rice and wheat. Then, we studied the dynasties in ancient China and have learned about the many inventions and contributions of each dynasty. Emperor Qin, of the Han dynasty, made many contributions to China, including the system of writing calligraphy, the Great Wall of China, and the building of the Terracotta Warriors. What better way to culminate our study than by making DUMPLINGS! Thanks Mrs. Rynd for coming and teaching us how to make them!!! And wait! We aren't even done yet!!!!!!
Learning to Make Dumplings with Mrs. Rynd!
The Ancient Scholar Garden: Chinese Calligraphy
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"Building" the Great Wall of China
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Becoming Experts on the Tastes of China: Rice and Wheat
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The Amazing Terracotta Warriors!
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Meteorologists Here! We are experts on the Water Cycle!
It's SEUSS Week!
Celebrating Seuss is one of my favorite times of the year! Read Across America is an annual celebration of Dr. Seuss, one of the greatest contributors to children's literature. Seuss' stories celebrate fun and imagination! Many of his stories rhyme! He wanted children to love reading and learn how to read with his books! What's your favorite Dr. Seuss book? Why? Please post your response as a comment! |
Writing Our Expert Books on Movement
Sometimes even the experts have to consult other experts. During our unit on informational writing, we learned how to add details to our writing and illustrations using books on our topics. Here we are sitting with our writing partners, as we conduct research on sports and movement!
CATAPULTS!
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We are in the middle of writing another expert book; however, since we learned how to write like scientists, we are writing a book about movement and incorporating our Force and Motion vocabulary. Many of us are writing about sports we play!
We constructed catapults to learn about force and motion in the air! We are observing how air resistance and weight are related because we are comparing the distance of a marshmallow and cotton ball off of the catapult. Although we didn't finish the experiment, here's a look at conducting the experiment and recording our observations! |
Sharing the LOVE on Friendship Day!
Friendship Day (also known as Valentine's Day) is one of my favorite days to celebrate each year! Our love and friendship overflow in our excitement to deliver special notes and treats! February 13th was a busy one in Room 24! We delivered our special valentines after making our mailboxes, we made valentines for our book buddies, we read about the history of conversation hearts and then graphed them by color, and we shared the tradition of watching Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown with our book buddies after exchanging our valentines, too! There were hugs all around!
Our Polar Animal Hall of Fame
If you were not able to join us for our Polar Animal Extravaganza, please take a look at our outstanding Polar Animal Hall of Fame!
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Our Polar Animal Extravaganza!
Sharing our Informational Writing
What a phenomenal celebration of our polar animal research! We have learned about polar bears, penguins, caribou, and many other Arctic and Antarctic animals. With our book buddies, we shared the research we conducted on penguins, and our buddies shared their books about different polar animals. Then, we conducted the official gallery walk of our independent research projects with our buddies and family members.
How cute were the kindergartners as they sang, "I'm a Little Penguin!" AND WOW! Your performance of Tacky the Penguin was incredible! You truly read with expression and dramatized the story, too! I'm so proud of you! |
The Penguin Performances
Polar Treats!
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Sharing Our Polar Projects
We held an unofficial Gallery Walk for our Habitat in a Box projects! Wow! These projects exemplified the research conducted by our students and our creativity! I can't wait to officially share them on Thursday, February 12th!
Culminating our Penguin Research: Creating Our Colony of Penguins!
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After reading many books about Tacky the Penguin, we started to research penguins and specific species of penguins. We are finishing up the unit by writing informational expert books on penguins and creating our very own colony of penguins, based on our research of one species of penguin -- Chinstrap, Little Blue, Emperor, Adelie, Macaroni, and Rockhopper penguins. Just wait to see our colony come to life with our very own march of the penguins!
Writing Like Scientists
After conducting our class experiment, we formed groups and developed new questions and new problems to be explored using the scientific method! We learned so much MORE about Force and Motion from our new experiments! As we have learned to write like scientists, we have written two lab reports and focused on being specific and detailed.
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The Blubber Glove!
Have you ever wondered how penguins, polar bears, and other animals who live in the Arctic or Antarctica stay warm? Don't they ever feel the cold in the icy waters or on land?
In class, we investigated this question by conducting a science experiment. We created and tested a BLUBBER GLOVE! Inside of a Ziploc bag, we filled the sides with vegetable shortening, which acted like blubber. We placed our hands in freezing ice water and recorded our observations. Then, we put our hands in the blubber glove and back into the freezing ice water. In our observations, we noticed that we could not feel the icy cold temperature anymore and the blubber hugged our hands. We learned that the blubber insulated the heat from our bodies. Check out our reactions to the freezing ice water with and without the blubber glove!
In class, we investigated this question by conducting a science experiment. We created and tested a BLUBBER GLOVE! Inside of a Ziploc bag, we filled the sides with vegetable shortening, which acted like blubber. We placed our hands in freezing ice water and recorded our observations. Then, we put our hands in the blubber glove and back into the freezing ice water. In our observations, we noticed that we could not feel the icy cold temperature anymore and the blubber hugged our hands. We learned that the blubber insulated the heat from our bodies. Check out our reactions to the freezing ice water with and without the blubber glove!
BONUS: TRY THIS AT HOME! |
We used the vegetable shortening to imitate the blubber of polar animals. If you want to learn more about how the oily feathers help penguins swim through the water, try this experiment again at home. All you need is a bucket of ice water and petroleum jelly (like Vasoline). First, move your bare hand back and forth in the water like you are swimming. Record your observations. Then, lather your hand with petroleum jelly and "swim" in the ice bucket. What do you notice now? What changed? How can you apply what you learned to penguins swimming in the ocean?
Please email me a picture of you testing out this experiment! In a few sentences, explain what you learned. |
Learning More About Force and Motion!
We are learning to write like scientists, using the Scientific Method. Our problem in this experiment was "Will the little car go farther off the ramp on the bare floor or on the carpet?" Then we made hypotheses! Most of us believed that the car would go farther off the ramp on the bare floor; however, a few people predicted the car would travel farther on the carpet. Next, we gathered our materials and created a detailed procedure to follow. We released the car three times on each surface, and based on our observations, the little car traveled farther on the bare floor. On Monday, we will draw conclusions about WHY this happened and use some of our scientific expert vocabulary to support our thinking!
Polar Bear Glyphs and GraphingTo create our polar bears, we answered questions about ourselves and followed directions to assemble our sea bears. For example, if you are a girl, your polar bear had a bow, but if you are a boy, your polar bear has a hat. If you have seen a polar bear in real life, the fish is in your polar bear's mouth, but if not, it is at the paws. Then, we graphed our classroom data using a bar graph.
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We Love Bump!Bump is a blast! We enjoy practicing our addition and subtraction facts with these math games.
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We grew snowflakes! |
Learning All About Polar Bears |
What happens when you combine Borax with the fibers of a pipe cleaner in boiling hot water? You get a snowflake! How does it work? First, the Borax dissolves in the boiling hot water. Then, the molecules of Borax form bonds with the fibers of the pipe cleaner and crystals begin to form! We left our snowflakes in our mixture for approximately 36 hours! Each is as beautiful and unique as we are!
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As a class, we learned a lot about polar bears from reading, Polar Bears Past Bedtime and reading informational texts like National Geographic's Polar Bears. Today, we read short articles about the polar bears' habitat, fur, and growth as well as about how they are fierce fighters and super swimmers! In our groups, we identified the main idea and supporting details, and then, we presented and shared the information we learned with the rest of the class! We are becoming polar bear experts, which is important because polar bears are actually endangered!
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Exploring Force and Motion
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We are becoming experts on force and motion! We have conducted a few experiments to explore force and speed! Check out these action shots of us crab walking, hopping, and skipping.
In this experiment, we learned how to use a stopwatch to record time and measure our speed. After collecting our individual and class data, we drew conclusions about which movements were fastest and slowest. Most of us were slowest at crab walking and fastest at skipping. At the end of the experiment, we formulated several hypotheses about our results and drew conclusions relating to force, weight, speed, and even friction! At which movement would you be fastest and slowest? Why? |
Going on a Gallery Walk
We spent many weeks studying how Native Americans lived in various regions of the United States. After a brief introduction into the landforms and characteristics of the different regions in the United States, students selected which region they wanted to research and learn more about.
We discovered that Native Americans had to use the natural resources around them in order to survive! Through our research, we learned all about nonfiction text features -- captions, photographs, bold words, Words to Know boxes, and subheadings! We gathered information about the different types of shelter, food, clothing, travel, and ceremonies, and then, in groups, we created nonfiction text feature posters to display our research and knowledge! Look at these amazing posters! They are rich in information!
Here we are sharing our posters on a Gallery Walk. In their groups, students visited the other regions and recorded 3 things they learned and drew conclusions about the similarities and differences between their region's tribes and those of the other groups.
We discovered that Native Americans had to use the natural resources around them in order to survive! Through our research, we learned all about nonfiction text features -- captions, photographs, bold words, Words to Know boxes, and subheadings! We gathered information about the different types of shelter, food, clothing, travel, and ceremonies, and then, in groups, we created nonfiction text feature posters to display our research and knowledge! Look at these amazing posters! They are rich in information!
Here we are sharing our posters on a Gallery Walk. In their groups, students visited the other regions and recorded 3 things they learned and drew conclusions about the similarities and differences between their region's tribes and those of the other groups.
Studying Artifacts |
Happy Turkey Day From Class 2-4! |
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In order to learn about the past, archaeologists analyze artifacts and draw conclusions about people and cultures. We analyzed photographs of artifacts and made inferences about Native American culture. Our observations also led to us ask interesting questions! Our research has begun!!!
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We have so much to be grateful for!
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us in Room 24! On the day before Thanksgiving, in Hawthorne School, the children made butter and learned about turkeys, too! |
Going Batty for Bats!
After reading Janell Cannon's Stellaluna, we were interested in learning all about bats! We discovered that bats aren't really that scary, and we wrote a research-based opinion piece on why people shouldn't be afraid of them!
Publishing & Sharing Our Personal Narratives |
Pumpkin Science |
Writers write amazing stories to be read and shared!
We published fantastic small moment, personal narratives! We focused on zooming in and adding lots of details, including sensory details and dialogue! We also concentrated on our organization of beginning, middle, and end, using transition words to signal the event order. During this narrative unit, we learned about the process of writing, too! We shared our personal narratives with our first grade friends in Mrs. Bono's class and we shared them in our classroom as well with comment sheets left for the author to enjoy! |
We conducted several experiments with our pumpkin! Like smart scientists, we had several wonderings:
Take a look at what we discovered! (Sorry some of the photos did not rotate!) |
States of Matter
Learning how to conduct experiments with the Scientific Process!
LAVA LAMPS! |
DANCING RAISINS! |