"Aw, snap!" This is the message my computer has been telling me the last few days. My computer was recently re-imaged, and it hasn't been acting the same! I had to find a new way to add my plethora of photos to the blog. I think I am back on track!
Read below to learn about the new learning experiences we have encountered over the last few days at school!
With a creative lesson from Ms. Breaux in the LMC, the children gained a better understanding of what coding is! They practiced following a series of commands using arrows and red cups to realize that coding involves using very specific directions!
Our US landmark presentations took place last week. Some of the projects really blew us away! The children were prepared, full of age-appropriate facts, and eager and excited to share their learning with us. They did a tremendous job teaching us all about these important, unique, and memorable locations in our country. Thank you so much for supporting their learning at home!
Curtis made an amazing model of the Washington Monument, complete with the color change about 1/4 of the way up!
Emma created a 3-D model of the Grand Canyon, including the Colorado River flowing through it.
Paige studied the Gateway Arch. She made a beautiful poster board with pictures that helped us visualize this stainless steel structure standing alongside the Mississippi River!
We gathered to take a closer look at Joana's Grand Canyon. It was life-like and full of interesting details.
Meg made her Golden Gate Bridge do all the talking! Using the website Blabberize, Meg provided us with fascinating facts about this massive structure in California.
Luke was very professional as he presented a Power Point presentation to the class that showed and taught us about the Golden Gate Bridge. It was clear that he had rehearsed his presentation as he very smoothly shared his hard work with us!
I took an action shot of Kurt presenting his slideshow about the Washington Monument with the class. Unfortunately it came out a little bit dark! Kurt also demonstrated his expertise with his knowledge of the tallest landmark in all of Washington DC!
Samantha was so excited to share not only facts and pictures of Niagra Falls, but details about her family trip to this landmark!
Maggie put together a wonderful narrated movie (with music playing in the background :) that informed us all about the White House!
Alexandra explained through words and photos how Old Faithful Geyser works!
Leo helped us better understand the history between the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C.
Kelsey made an amazing, lifelike model of the White House in Washington D.C.! Kelsey learned and presented so many fascinating facts about one of our oldest and most important landmarks!
Joe was happy to teach us all about the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. He also shared some family photos of this vacation there!
Jovanni studied and prepared a 3D model of the Grand Canyon!
David taught us about the history behind the Golden Gate Bridge!
Ryan amazed us with his project all about Hoover Dam, informing us about how the Dam controls flooding and creates energy!
Emily wrote a very creative story that embedded real historical facts about the Golden Gate Bridge in it! We loved it!
Frankie amazed us with all that he learned about the Golden Gate Bridge! He also created a model of the bridge out of legos!
Natalie made a shoebox diorama of the White House! She learned so much about the "Executive Mansion" and was happy to share her important learning with us.
Tyler made a model of the Liberty Bell, including the crack that prevents it from being rung today.
Scott decided to learn about a local landmark, "Cloudgate" which is also known as "The Bean" in Millenium Park in Chicago. He made a model out of legos and aluminum foil!
In our reading lessons last week, we focused on several complex skills. The children read texts that helped us look more closely at the tone and mood of the text we are reading. We also spent some time investigating the point of view of the characters.
In the lesson I photographed below, we are exploring the dialogue between the characters of the text. We are inferring details about their relationship with each other based on the words, punctuation, and context of the dialogue.
Dialogue in a text has several different functions. It:
1) shows the characters' opinions, feelings, and points of view.
2) makes the characters' relationships come to life and shows how they interact.
3) creates a sense of time; showing what is happening in a specific moment.
4) moves the plot forward by changing scenes and conversations
5) provides clues as to what might happen next, allowing us to make predictions.
During the independent practice portion of our lesson, Curtis found a great quote in his book that helped us better understand the relationship between two characters. This dialogue was "Oh Yeah?" "Take that back! Or else!" Great example, Curtis!
David found a great example of dialogue that showed the characters' feelings (excitement about an upcoming blizzard) "Mr. Jenkins! Mr. Jenkins! There is a blizzard coming tonight!"
It was helpful to display the examples of dialogue using the document camera. The children were excited to show each other the dialogue they found in this way.
Maggie found a quote in her Arthur book that created a sense of time. In this example, we could see that it is just a few days away from Arthur's birthday, and he was very excited about it!
It was Emily's turn to be our Super Star Second Grade Student last week! We were very happy to welcome her mom and dad to our classroom to share her pictures, experiment, and a favorite story with us.
Emily's dad helped us witness how dish soap works! Using milk, food coloring, and dish soap, we watched how the soap pushed all of the colors apart, in a similar way to how it breaks down "dirt" on dishes!
Emily brought an old favorite book to share with the class. It was called "The Legend of the Golden Snail" and it contained THE most beautiful and imaginative pictures! We had never heard this story before, it was a new one for all of us!
A happy photo of the Mortons! Thank you for coming in to celebrate Emily with us! We are so fortunate to have such a sweet and intelligent girl in our class this year!!
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