The latest news in 2-2!

It has been such a busy few weeks! While the end of the school year is quickly approaching, the children's learning is functioning at full throttle!

 We enjoyed watching the 5th grade musical. It was such fun to see our "oldest" Dryden dolphins sing their final songs on our stage before they swim off to South Middle School in the fall!

 We did a great job in the audience singing, clapping and enjoying the performance.

 Our engineering design project in the LMC went through its final phases. The children took the plans they created and put them into action. It was amazing to see how the children took information from the same story but went entirely different directions with it.

 Some children created designs to HELP the bunnies gain access to the vegetables in the garden.

 Other children created designs that prevented the bunnies from stealing vegetables, including multiple layers of protection! (Ex: watch tower, security cameras, and a fence for protection)

 The children worked wonderfully together as teams to collaborate and complete their design.

 Terrific cooperation!

Thank you to Mrs. O'Kelly and Mrs. Wasik for designing such a fascinating lesson, and for encouraging and inspiring our thinking and creativity!

 The children shared and explained their final designs with the class. They were SO PROUD of their creations!

 Our math lessons last week shed light beyond the thousands place into the TEN THOUSANDS place! We practiced adding and subtracting numbers of various sizes to increase our comfort level with this new place value.

 Our lessons have been full of innovation and design lately. During science, the children worked together to create a model of various land and water formations we have been studying.  Borrowing the makerspace cart, the children had access to various mediums and materials to design, build and form at least one land and one water formation in the model they created.

 The children had to begin with a plan. The only things they were permitted to create had to be found on their original design!

 Then they took a close look at the options they had to build from.

 The children got right to work! Its amazing to see where the 2nd grade mind can take you!

 Again, creativity, innovation, and collaboration came into play as the children synthesized their learning into actual models.

 Samantha was so excited to receive mail from The White House this week! President Obama's office sent Samantha a letter, pictures, and information about the President, his family, and the White House. We loved to take a closer look and share in her enthusiasm! Hopefully other students in our class will receive some mail from The White House, too!

 Here are some photos of the children's completed landform models. Each design demonstrates the children's understanding of the concepts in a very unique way. They did a great job!

 Our star student this week was Mrs. Lane from the Dryden School office! We were so happy to see her come out from behind her very busy desk to come in and visit with our class for a few minutes!

 One fascinating detail we learned about the life of Mrs. Lane is that she loves art- especially drawing! She and Mr. Deptula collaborated on a children's story. Mr. Deptula wrote the words, and Mrs. Lane illustrated the story with the most beautiful pictures!

The book has not yet been published, so we were lucky enough to see the book in its beginning stages.

 We learned how Mr. Deptula and Mrs. Lane worked cooperatively together to complete their book. They carefully planned and designed how the words and pictures would work together on the pages, and they shared ideas and made changes that would make their project the best it could be.

It was really remarkable for the children to see a REAL LIFE example of how the design process works. We learned how there needs to be a plan or design, then changes need to be made and considered before the final project could be complete. They watched and listened as Mr. Deptula and Mrs. Lane talked about how they worked together, listened to each other's ideas, and acted as a team in order to be successful. It brought all of our learning full circle this week!

Thank you Mrs. Lane for taking a few minutes out of your very busy day to come into our classroom so we could learn about one of the most important people at Dryden School! You support the teachers, students, and parents every day! You know the answer to every question under the sun! And now we know you are an amazingly talented artist, too... Thank you for helping our building run smoothly and safely- we are so thankful for you!