Informing Others

As part of our Non-Fiction unit, students explored books to recognize non-fiction conventions (labels, captions, index, etc.) as well as learn the difference between a sorted and narrative non-fiction text. Today students participated in a scavenger hunt that allowed them to explore the features of a non-fiction text as well as to help students recognize if they know where to find the features in the book.

One of our Second Grade Writing Standards states that students will be able to communicate big ideas, insights or theories that have been elaborated on or illustrated through facts, details, quotations, statistics and information. To work towards this standard, we have begun researching our topics for report writing. Students have chosen topics that they know little about and are in the process of organizing factual information they have found on their topic. Students will be allowed to search on safe sites such as the ones added to the "Student Links" on the right side of our blog.

*SNAPS*

We ended our Poetry unit by sharing our published pieces at our very own Poetry Cafe. Students sipped on "coffee" (chocolate milk) and shared their poems under a spotlight while their friends celebrated their work through snapping.



Below is a video that highlights a few of our poems:

Untitled from Julia Lewis on Vimeo.

Holiday Play Pictures

Idioms are "a Piece of Cake"

Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards by Serge Bloch is the story of one boy's experience as he moves through the day on his first day of school. The story is illustrated with idiom expressions. An idiom is an expression used by a specific group of people where the meaning is only understood by common usage (ex: "You woke up on the wrong side of the bed," " "the cat is out of the bag," or "the test was a piece of cake") As a class, we explored idioms and the expressions used in this book. Students had to choose one of the idioms and illustrate the idiom literally and figuratively as well as interpret the meaning.

We are currently in our Poetry unit in Writers Workshop. Students had to take the idiom chosen previously and incorporate it into a poem. Check out our poems on the clips outside our classroom! You can also get a closer look at our idiom work on our Standards Based Bulletin Board this month.

Math Strategies

Most of us grew up with the belief that there was one way to add and one way to subtract large numbers - regrouping. It may seem silly to some that students are now taught several different ways to solve a problem. In order to help students become fluent mathematicians, we now teach mathematics conceptually. This helps students to build an understanding and make connections. At the beginning of the year, we worked hard to build a firm foundation of number sense .

At this point of the year, students should feel more confident with their conceptual strategies and departing from less efficient ways to solve problems (such as tally marks). If you were unable to attend our Parent Math Night, you can download the math strategy sheet on our Second Grade Parent Wiki. There is a link on the right side of the blog and you can search "math strategies" on the wiki.

Changes in Matter

For the past week, we have been exploring changes in matter. We completed A Race For Change lab. Students had to predict what the quickest way to melt an ice cube would be only using themselves. Students then tested their theory and timed the results. Students discovered that applying heat and breaking the ice into smaller pieces melted the fastest.

We also made lava lamps! Here are the instructions to make a lava lamp at home:

1. Fill a bottle 3/4 of the way full with vegetable oil (the cheaper, the better).

2. Fill the bottle the rest of the way full with water.

3. Add ten drops of food coloring.

4. Drop half of an Alka-Seltzer tablet into the bottle and watch it bubble!

In a previous lab, students explored liquids to conclude that water is more dense than oil, causing the water to sink to the bottom and oil to rise to the top. The food coloring mixed with the water, making it easier to view the bubbling when the Alka-Seltzer tablet was placed in the liquid. When the tablet (solid) was placed in the liquid mixture, it caused the solid to change to a gas (carbon dioxide) causing the bubbles to rise and become a "lava lamp."

Persuasive Commercials

To end our unit on persuasive writing, students worked in groups to come up with an idea or product that they could persuade their audience with. Below are the students commercials:

Persuasive Commercials from Julia Lewis on Vimeo.