Practicing Possessive Nouns

This week we've been learning about the difference between plural nouns and possessive nouns.  We recently learned through our spelling patterns that we have to use an apostrophe when writing a contraction.  We learned this week that we also need to use an "apostrophe s" when showing ownership.  We had a lot of fun practicing this skill today by using pictures.  The class knows that I'm always taking pictures of everything for our blog.  Those pictures were used today to write possessive noun phrases.  A picture of each student was printed and put on each student's desk.  The students went around and looked at each picture and wrote down a possessive noun phrase.  The name of the student pictured would begin the possessive noun phrase and anything else in the picture could be included.  The class was totally engaged in this practice and said they loved looking at all the pictures. 

Glue Outlined Oil Pastel Project

We're excited for spring in 2nd grade.  Last week we completed an art project to bring some spring vibes to our classroom.  The students started with a black piece of paper.  They drew any type of flower design that they liked.  We outlined the designs with white glue.  Once that dried, we filled in with oil pastels.  They turned out beautiful!  I love the vibrant colors the students were able to create by blending colors together.

Matter Experiments

Our most recent science unit focused on matter.  We learned about the 3 states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  Our last 3 experiments focused on a property of matter: density.  This can be a hard concept to understand because it would seem that heavy things automatically sink and light things float, but we learned that is not the case because of density.  We defined density as the amount of atoms that are packed into a given volume.  The more atoms packed in, the more dense.  We experimented with sink and float,  rainbow in a jar which was a layering of liquids from most dense to least dense, and using salt to affect the density of the liquids.  We had a lot of fun with these experiments!

Banana Bingo Celebration: Bumper Seats for the Whole Class!

The students voted on bumper seats for the whole class to celebrate their recent banana bingo.  It's always fun picking your own spot in the classroom for the day!

I Love to Read Month

During the month of February we celebrated I Love to Read Month.  Some of the activities included buddy reading, curling up with a good book in our pajamas, and Books for Breakfast.  We love the chance to get more time with books!

Engineering an Egg Drop

In our engineering unit, we've learned that engineers need to use creative ideas to build or take things apart.  They also need to be great problem solvers who are willing to try things in a new way if they don't work the first time.

In order to put these skills to use, the students built an egg drop box with a few limited supplies.  Each group was given a shoe box filled with 1 toilet paper tube, 2 cotton balls, 1 styrofoam cup, 2 paper towels, 2 popsicle sticks, 2 straws, 2 pipe cleaners, and a roll of masking tape. 

On day 1 the students made their box without the egg.  They had to make some assumptions on how the egg would fit into their design. On day 2, the students were given the egg and many groups had to problem solve a new design based on whether or not the egg fit into their original design.

This project also gave the students another chance to collaborate within a partnership or group, which at times can be challenging.

The goal was to keep the egg safe for 3 different heights of dropping.  We dropped off a desk, off the shelves in the library, and outside on the stairs by the little park.

 The students then reflected on why they think their eggs survived the fall or didn't.  We focused on the fact that if our eggs didn't survive, it's not a failure, but rather it's just one idea that would need further work.  This was a fun project!

Valentine's Day Celebration and our February Author's Celebration

We decorated our Valentine bags on Monday, and they were excited to fill them on Valentine's Day!  They loved opening their cards and enjoying their treats.

We also had our February Author's Celebration today.  The students read a reader's theater of "Froggy's First Kiss" by Jonathan London.  They also shared their opinion writing about the best part of themselves.  Thanks to all the family members that were able to join us!