Fast Earth Changes and Some Holiday Spirit!

In science, we continue to learn about Earth changes. We moved from learning about slow earth changes caused by erosion and weather, to the more exciting earth changes, the Natural Disasters!!

Of course when possible we love to make our learning HANDS ON! One way we were able to do that, was with the Natural Disaster portion of our unit. We started off with VOLCANOS! We had 3 different volcanos for the students to view. They all had different heights, widths, and different size openings at the top of the volcano. Students had to make some predictions of which volcano they thought would erupt quicker, which volcano the lava would travel down faster, and which volcano would be the slowest.




The excitement that our students expressed as they watched each volcano erupt was priceless! We even had students record each eruption in time lapse and slow-motion, so that we could look back at them later and compare the volcanos!


Then we moved on to some Water Natural Disasters such as hurricanes, Tsunamis, Severe Thunder Storms and Floods. For this part of the unit, students did their research on a natural disaster of their choice. They then created was is called a Telegami. This is an app on their iPad that allows them to create a character, insert a background, then record a short report. Here are some pictures of their telegamis:



Here is an example to view:

Then this week, we moved in Earthquakes! We first learned all about earthquakes. We then released it to the students. Their task was to create a structure out of 20 marshmallows and 20 toothpicks that could with stand an earthquake. The way we simulated an earthquake was with a tray of JELLO! We shook the tray and created an earthquake to see if their structure would survive. Students then were able to take their structure back and try to make improvements to see if they could make a strong structure to survive the earthquake!

Last but not least, amongst all of this fantastic learning going on within our room, we took a little time here and there to participate in our DEC the DOOR contest that was presented by the Student Council. We looked over several different door decoration ideas and as a class we decided to do a combination of a present, Santa's list, and include home made reindeer, Santas, and Elves!

We of course had to add in a silly face one too!

Can't believe how fast time is flying by!! We still have 5 days next week of jammed pack learning before we leave for the holidays!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

JA and Turkey Writing!

Junior Achievement from West Leyden High School

Today we were lucky enough to have Junior Achievement volunteers come to our classroom and teach us all about our community and some business.

We had two West Leyden High School students join our classroom from 9:10 this morning until about 1:15. They started off teaching us all about our community, jobs within our community, and how jobs help us earn money. Below are some pictures learning about the different jobs available to people!

Students also participated in an "assembly line". They worked with their group to make donuts to sell! The students learned about the importance of getting the job right in order to make money for what they made if they made it the correct way.

The students really enjoyed having other students from our community come and and teach them new valuable things. This was a great introduction to our community unit we have coming up in third quarter! A huge Thank You to the West Leyden Junior Achievement volunteers for all of their hard work!

Turkey Descriptive Writing

Another great activity we did this week, was students were able to create their very own turkey. They had full control over how they wanted it to look, and created it entirely themselves. Then, after they created their turkey, they had to use their best descriptive writing to describe their turkey. Then today, we hung up each of our turkeys next to a number without names. Students then came up, read their writing piece, and other students had to guess which turkey was their based on their descriptive writing. The students had so much fun making and sharing their turkeys! This was such a fun activity to get students writing and being creative!

This is such a great time of the year, and I hope everyone enjoys their time off and uses it to relax and reflect on all we have to be thankful for. I am so thankful to have each of these students in my class!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! See everyone on Monday, November 30th!

Weathering and Erosion

This week we joined together with Mrs. Quinlan's class to learn about Earth changes, primarily slow Earth changes such as weathering and erosion.

In class we learned that weathering is the breaking down and weakening of pieces of Earth such as rock. Rain, wind, and ice cause weather and erosion. We also learned down that after weathering happens, erosion can then occur which is when the rock or pieces of land start to move away and move to a new location.

To show students first hand what weathering and erosion look like, the students conducted a graham cracker lab.

First, they were given a bowl, a piece of graham cracker, and water with a dropper. The students then worked with a partner to simulate rain on the graham cracker "rock", to view what weathering and erosion look like. Here are some pictures below:

Then we gave each pair of students an ice cube! They did a very similar activity, but now they were exploring how ice causes weathering and erosion. Here are some pictures below:

The students really enjoyed working first hand on experiencing weathering and erosion! This is only one of a handful of exciting activities we will be doing to learn more about Earth Changes.

Global Read Aloud 2015!

This year, the whole second grade participated in a Global Read Aloud! For those who are unsure what that means, it means that we read a chapter book together as a class. The book we read was The Year of Billy Miller By Kevin Henkes. We have been reading this book as a class for the last 6 weeks. As we read through various chapter each week, we connected with other classes all around the globe that were reading the SAME book!

We were able to connect with a third grade class in Indiana and a 2nd grade class in California and discuss our thoughts, opinions, and ideas about the book. With the class in California, we would post questions using Edmoto and read each other's responses. We were also able to post survey's to see what everyone thought as a whole.

Every Friday, we would skype with the class in Indiana. It started off as a mystery skype, where we tried to figure out WHERE the class was by using clues they gave us.

 

Then each Friday until we finished the book, we would meet for a Skype session to talk about what we thought about our chapters for that week, and share our predictions of what we thought would happen next. This kids loved finding out information about another class, and asking them questions about the book. It was an awesome experience and I know the kids, as much as myself, enjoyed participating in the Global Read Aloud of 2015!

As your students what they thought about the book, and why the main character was convinced, "It is the year of Billy Miller"!

Veteran's Day!

November already? Where has time gone! I can't believe we've already completed our first quarter and worked half way through second quarter.

In honor of having off tomorrow for Veteran's Day. Today we learned what makes it so special. We read about different veterans and their contributions to our country. Students then were able to write to a veteran! They were able to write to a veteran they know in their family or that their family knows. If they did not know any veterans, I told them all about my uncle who served in Vietnam and how every year we have dinner on Veteran's day in honor of the years he served. I told them if they would like, they could write a letter to him, and I would deliver it to him tomorrow! He LOVES receiving these hand made cards, and he LOVES to know that our students are still learning of all service men who have served.

Here are our students hard at work:

Here are some of their letters/cards:

What else have we been up to?

Halloween

Well of course there was Halloween! The kids had SO much fun dressing up in their costumes, passing out goodies, and enjoying the half day with their friends. We got together with our fifth grade buddies, read all about Spookly the Pumpkin, and then read poems with each other before our classroom parties. Here are some pictures of the fun that day:

How-To's:

Students worked hard on writing how-to's! We spent about 5 weeks learning everything there is to know about how-to's, and then students were able to write their own. Keep on the lookout because students will be bringing home their graded how-to's in the next week or so.

Enjoy the day off tomorrow (11/11), and remember to thank a veteran!

Check back soon! The students have been working hard on a culture project that they're going to be sharing.