100+ Days of Second Grade – Part 3

We came back in 2019 ready to learn! We worked on money with some math games…”Roll to a Quarter” or “Roll to a Dollar.” Mrs. Nelson, Mr. Marion and I supervised and assisted the students in playing these learning games.

We have been studying the polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctica as well as matter in Science. That means hands-on experiments that we wrote up in writing as lab reports. The students got to experience what it was like for polar animals to survive in icy water habitats. They put their hands in ice water first. Then they did it again with a “blubber glove” and felt the difference. Below is just one photo of this experiment. You can see more under the Student work 18-19 tab.

Annesta demonstrating the “Blubber Glove”.

The students also did experiments with matter. We saw water change state of matter by putting ice cubes on our heater. We also did an experiment with making a chemical change by mixing vinegar and baking soda to make a gas. Here is the photo of this experiment.

Samil and Nathan assist in this experiment. The students were excited to see the balloon fill up with the gas created by the vinegar and baking soda.

We culminated our matter unit with matter projects that the students made at home and shared with us at school. Here are most of the matter projects. Individual photos can be found on the student work 18-19 tab.

Oops . . . I almost forgot to post the photos of these matter projects that came in late.

Although we haven’t had any snow days, there have been many days that have been too cold to go outside. Luckily we have lots of things to play with indoors. Here are some photos of some of the students creations at indoor recess.

On the 100th day of school we had another challenge from Zero the Hero. He brought 5 containers and the students had to estimate the amount in each container. They also had to decide if that number was greater than, equal to or less than 100.

When they were finished with the challenge, they were able to receive a baggie with three cookies from Zero that they had to use to build 100.

It’s been a busy 100 days of learning in C8 and the rest of the school year will be just as busy!

100+ Days of Second Grade – Part 2

Our students joined the other second grade classes in the cafeteria for the culminating activity for our Traditions and Customs unit which was a special feast on the early release day before Thanksgiving. They shared food made from recipes that reflected their family heritage. It was a tasty way to celebrate the diversity of our classroom. Thank you to all the families that sent in food for the feast and to our parent volunteer, Ms. Hibbard who assisted with the set up/clean up. Individual photos of the foods can be seen under the Student Work 18-19 tab.

Ann Biese demonstrating a breathing technique.

Johnny the K was very engaging and entertaining.

We were fortunate to attend two assemblies with special guests. The first was Ann Biese, an author who wrote the book “Worry Bee” and spoke to us about how to handle our worries and emotions. The second was the performer, Johnny the K who played his guitar and wore crazy hats to teach us how to be kind and to get along with each other.

Safety is important so we practiced our bus evacuation drill. The upper grade students assisted us.

We have also had fire drills and Alice drills this year.

We had a visit from Zero the Hero who left a treat of latkes for completing his challenge.

We also did some stations where the students worked on math and literacy skills with a holiday theme.

Gabriella and Devin working on building holiday themed compound words.

At this station the students were measuring holiday images with inch and centimeter rulers.

Before we headed off for the December holiday break, we made Ice Castles out of mini-marshmallows, frosting and lots of candy. Thank you to all the families who sent in the supplies and donated extra candy. Thank you to Ms. Allore, Ms. Hibbard and my daughter Catie for helping with the Ice Castle projects. Here is Sabella with her Ice Castle. More examples of their Ice Castle creations can be seen under the Student Work 18-19 tab.

We also made special snow globe ornaments that we sent home to share with their families. Here is a photo of some of these snow globes.

More to follow in Part 3!

100 + Days of Second Grade – Part 1

I want to share with you all the wonderful things we have been experiencing together in our first one hundred days of second grade.  We ended October with our Halloween Party and school-wide Halloween Parade. Unfortunately it was so busy, I didn’t get any photos of the students in their Halloween costumes but here is a photo of the watching a Halloween DVD waiting for dismissal after the parade.

Zero the Hero even got into the Halloween spirit by bringing clementines with “Jack-o-lantern” faces as a reward for solving his math challenge.

On November 9th, we finally got to go on our field trip to the Boston Museum of Science.

We arrived just in time to see the live animal show.

The live animal wasn’t just any snake. It was a python!

After the show, we were able to go to the stage and touch real snake skin.

We got to see and learn about  dinosaurs and lots of other interesting things!

Mrs. Riordan and C8 students in front of a giant T-Rex model.

State Rep. Garry was one of our chaperones. Here she and some of the students standing in front of an actual stegosaur fossil.

Davian and Jacob explore electricity!

Some of our C8 girls learning that a seesaw is more than just playground fun…learning about force, motion and simple machines.

Investigating a model of a one room schoolhouse.

C8 students learn about heat and energy.

The students had fun climbing inside this model of the waterways and found a statue of a river otter!

Thank you to all our chaperones!

The students got to be paleontologists themselves back in the classroom. They were given dirt from a dig site, magnifying glasses and identification charts to help them find fossils.

Quinton using the chart to identify the fossil he found.

Jayden identifies his fossil as Gabriella looks on.

Here are some more photos of students searching for fossils. Thank you to Ms. Allore and Mr. Santee for supervising our paleontologists during this hands-on science exploration.