Problem Solvers!

The children had another fun filled week full of exciting learning moments!

In the LMC, Mrs. O'Kelly and Mrs. Wasik introduced a design project to the children. They shared a story about a rabbit who was unable to get to the carrots in Mr. MacGregor's vegetable garden.

After listening to the story, the children had to decide which problem in the story they wanted to solve.

They had to think about why this was an important problem that needed solving.

With their small groups, the children began to develop some ideas of how they could go about solving the problem that they selected. Then they chose the most logical solution to move forward with in this process. Coming up next, the children will user "makerspace" trinkets and gadgets such as paper towel tubes, pipe cleaners, string, plastic containers, etc., to bring their solution to life and create a model of their design. The children are so excited to put their ideas into action in this way!

We peeked out the window and noticed some very tiny but developing signs of spring life on our class tree! We were so excited to see these new changes our tree is going through now that spring is here!

We talked about ways that we can help our planet thrive. The children learned about the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle and were able to come up with examples of each one! They created a pledge for the planet that included ways to REDUCE by using less water, electricity, and paper, and less cars by riding bikes or carpooling. They thought of ways to REUSE by using cloth bags at the grocery store, slates to write and wipe off instead of paper, and even dishes that can be washed and reused instead of paper goods. Finally, they thought about how important recycling is to conserve our natural resources and reduce the amount of garbage that fills our landfills. They shared so many of these wonderful ideas in their own words on these projects on display in our hallway!

The children enjoyed reading Michael Recycle, a story about a caped crusader who drops into towns to remind everyone to care about our earth!

The children applied their learning one step further by creating an acrostic poem about the earth. We brainstormed some words and phrases that began with each letter, and the children added their own creativity to make their poems unique and interesting. They turned out great!

Since all of our students have celebrated their "Star Student" week, I thought it would be fun to surprise the children with special staff members in the building as our guests for the next few Fridays!

Mr. Gries came in with his mom to share some family pictures, favorite things, and funny stories about growing up. The children hung on every word and really enjoyed getting to know more about one of their teachers!

Mrs. Gries is a retired 2nd grade classroom teacher and reading specialist, and she was SO excited to not only share a favorite story with the children (The Bippolo Seed by Dr. Seuss) but to also show the children the book that she is currently reading! Reading brings a life time of learning and enjoyment, and it was so much fun to see Mrs. Gries convey that to our students!

The visit would not have been complete without a childhood picture of Mr. Gries!

Group photo!

The kids gathered around when our time was up, they didn't want to see Mrs. Gries go!

One final science lesson of the week shifted from land forms to earth's water systems.  We tossed around a globe to see where our pointer finger landed. The children noticed that out of 18 attempts, 16 times students had their finger land in the water, and only 2 times did their fingers stop on land. We learned that water covers approximately 70% of the earth, while land only covers about 30%.  We are going to look ahead to compare and contrast a few bodies of water and then begin to create some models to display our learning!

Poets, Artists, Analysts, Measurers, Researchers, and Presenters

The learning never stops in 2-2! Thinking of a title for this post, I stopped to think about just how many different roles the children take on in the classroom each week. It is truly amazing to see all that they are capable of!

Read on to see some of our latest highlights!

In math our unit on measurement is in full swing. During one of our lessons, the students were introduced to the terms "standard unit of measure." We tried to measure our classroom using 2nd graders, but we realized two important things: not all 2nd graders are the same size, and not everyone knows the unit "2nd grader!" We learned that there are two systems of measurement, the US Customary System and the Metric System. The children and I created a Table of Equivalent Measures and looked closely at what these units are and how they correlate with each other.

 I posted a few of the children's personalized learning projects earlier this week. Here are a few "behind the scenes" photos that showed how the children created such unique, wonderful work. Mrs. Horcher popped in one afternoon during her spring break from her school to help these boys begin their Adobe Voice presentation!

 Joana and Natalie are using the computer to take detailed notes about their "wonder" related to our life cycle unit!

 To connect life cycles with poetry, the children had fun creating these adorable ladybugs! They attached the life cycle of the ladybug and created a clever diamante poem to go along with their project, too!

 Here are a few cute photos of our class in the gym, preparing to see visitor Bill Buczinsky's poetry presentation. He had the children moving and bouncing to the rhythm all throughout the morning!

 Back in the classroom, the children plunged back into poetry. After a few minutes of reading poems with Paige, Maggie raced over to me and said, "Ms. O'Sullivan, I think I found the rhythm of this one! Do you want to hear it?!" I can't tell you how much I LOVE this enthusiasm for learning!

 Emma, Natalie, and Kurt are reading poems carefully and are thinking about what inspired the poet to write the poem. We realized that if we can infer the inspiration, we can even better understand what the poem is about!

 The children are really enjoying this poetry unit! Each poem is so different and sometimes unexpected... Meg and Samantha are reading a poem below about the poet's love of ketchup!

 The children felt so proud to come up and share a poem they had been reading and thinking about with their classmates. They shared what they thought inspired the poet, and then we shared what we thought, too! This led to some great discussions, and even to some changing their mind after hearing the great ideas of their classmates.

 In math the children did some more work with measurement. In this lesson, we focused on the foot, noticing that it is 12 inches long and that there are 3 feet in a yard. We also learned about the decimeter which is the equivalent of 10 centimeters, or 1/10 of a meter. The children eagerly estimated the length of various items in the classroom and then we compared their estimates with actual measurements.

 It was Leo's week to shine last week! We welcomed his mom and dad into our classroom to share an experiment with our class, show and talk about some adorable family photos and moments,  and listen to a cute story, If You Give a Mouse a Cupcake! 

 We are so happy to have such a bright and interesting Leo in our class this year!