The engaged learning continues in second grade! The children had several fun learning experiences this week!
· We have been watching the in-depth presentations the children have prepared on their endangered animal. There were so many, they will continue through next week! I am amazed at the ownership that the children took over their learning with these projects. I have noticed how comfortably they are able to speak about their animal and share what they’ve learned. Thank you for supporting your children and their learning with these home-based projects!
· Even though it was rainy and a bit chilly, our field work at the Brookfield Zoo was a success. You might have noticed that I used the words “Field WORK.” I stressed to the children that our learning may look a little different because it is outside of the classroom while we are at the zoo, but it is still important, authentic work toward our learning.
o The children kept track of the animals they saw, classified them, and jotted down interesting facts they encountered.
o The children made countless connections to our habitat unit, they saw real life animals that we studied in the rainforest, and witnessed upcoming marsupials that can only be found in Australia- in preparation for our upcoming lessons comparing the Australian culture to our own.
o Finally, the children identified the very endangered animals that they studied. We recognized that conservation is a movement that applies in the real world outside of our classroom, and that our actions as humans have a direct impact on these animals.
I am so impressed with the how much the children pulled from this learning experience! It was a huge success!
§ The children participated in a hands-on conservation lesson back in our classroom. Using rainbow goldfish crackers to represent the seaweed and various levels of fish in the ocean, the children experienced “overfishing,” firsthand, as they greedily tried to capture more fish on their spoons than their neighbors. They soon realized that they had taken more fish than what they need, the fish could no longer repopulate, and that we as human beings can cause a species of animals to become endangered or even extinct. The second time we “went fishing,” the children fished much more carefully and slowly, and were careful not to take too many of one type of fish so they could continue to repopulate. This activity proved to be very meaningful for the children.
§ During our Junior Achievement lesson this week, the children had the opportunity to select a business to fill an empty space in a town. They learned about effective decision making by listing the pros and cons of each choice before making a thoughtful decision. Of their choices of a skate park, a toy store, and an animal shelter, the children selected the animal shelter!
Spelling
This week our focus was on words that have a hard c and soft c, (ex: car, cent) as well as words with a hard g and a soft g (ex: giraffe, guitar). Next week we will have a review week of skills and concepts not only in spelling, but in reading as well, before taking the Unit 5 assessment at the end of the week.
Reading
Our theme this week was all about the Moon! We read a cute oral story called, “Why the Moon is in the Sky,” to kick off the theme. New oral vocabulary words include: dazzling, phase, capable, deserve, and sphere. Our whole group story was simply entitled, “The Moon,” and it was full of information about what the moon is made of, what it looks like, and how it compares to the earth! Vocabulary words associated with our reading lessons this week were: discovered, footprint, lunar, spacecraft, surface, and visible.
The children also spent some time working on their fairy tales! We have read several fairy tales, and fractured fairy tales (versions with a twist) for inspiration as we write. The children heard The Three Little Pigs, The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, Kate and the Beanstalk, Sleepless Beauty, Rapunzel, Falling for Rapunzel, and more. We are listening to the descriptive language and noticing how the characters are developed and described. We hope to finish these stories early next week!
Grammar
The children worked this week on contractions and possessive pronouns!
Math
We continue working on decimals an place value as we move through Unit 10! The children practice estimating numbers that are written in decimal notation. We identified several different names for a dollar, a dime and a penny. The children increased their familiarity with the calculator as they entered in different dollar and cent amounts, and practiced adding multiple amounts together. Finally, the children viewed a “Then and Now,” poster in order to compare prices. They were able to determine how to figure out price differences, and again used the calculator as a problem-solving tool.
Science:
We will finish our Endangered Animal projects next week, then look ahead to our last social studies unit of the year, a cultural comparison between the United States and Australia. The children will be creating passports, packing their little suitcases, and “flying” to Australia next week.
Thanks for reading! Have a nice weekend!
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