Spring has Sprung

Over these last few weeks, we have been able to accomplish quite a bit in the classroom.  We completed our year-long project of Digital Citizenship with a culminating project of student filming videos about a specific topic.  The students were in groups and each group had an area of Digital Citizenship: Digital Footprint, Internet Safety, Privacy and Security, Creative Credit, and Communication.  In the previous post, the students had each written their own reasons as to why different areas of Digital Citizenship.  Here we continued this process and the students were able to be in the groups that they thought was the most important part of Digital Citizenship.  The students had to get together and write scripts.  Since they had done this before with their habitat projects, writing the scripts went very smoothly.

As a part of our Digital Citizenship filming project, we were able to receive some extra help from Mr. King from the Lake County Office of Education.  He was very helpful and gave the students lots of tips and advice about how to improve their videos.  The students were very excited to have him come and help our class, so we thought that Mr. King deserved a crown.... a crown about Digital Citizenship.  Thank you so much, Mr. King!

We also had our school-wide Earth Day and Recycling Event.  In honor of that, some of the students had the opportunity to build some words using recycled bottle caps.  (Of course, now the bottle caps are a very highly favored way to build words.)

Building words using bottle caps with letters written on the bottom side.

We just finished our unit in science on plants.  As a class we talked about how plants get the food and nutrients that they need to survive.  With that, we did an experiment using very simple items that can all be found right in your kitchen.  Each group had 2 celery stalks (one with leaves and one without leaves), a cup of water, and some food coloring.  Each group in the class had a different color of food coloring.  Through this experiment the students made great observations about how a stem works.  The part of the celery that we eat is actually the stem, and the students were able to see how the water and nutrients are carried up through the stem.  After 2 days of soaking, we had some pretty colorful celery.

Another part of our plant unit in science we focused on was growing plants.  We found out that plants need only water and sunlight to grow.  There were some students who thought they needed soil as well, but we discovered that is not always true.  Each student grew their bean seed in a CD case that sat in a tray of water for about 2 weeks.  With the grid that you can see in the picture, the students were able to measure the actual growth that their plant had made.  After observing these almost everyday for 2 weeks, we could have almost had  a "Jack and the Beanstalk" in our classroom.  The students were very excited to be able to take their bean plant home and then continue to help their plant grow at home.

Some of the plants even started growing out of the cases!

Studying plants at this time, lined up perfectly with our school-wide Earth Day and Recycling Celebration.  For Earth day, the students memorized a pledge that all of the students said together out on the blacktop.  We also were able to create and view some art made from recycled materials.  With this exciting day, each student also made their own kite which they were able to fly with the rest of the students at the school.  We even managed to have a little bit of a breeze to get the kites started.

Getting ready for the Earth Day pledge.

Flying our kites!

As a class we created pictures to help us remember the Earth Day pledge!  

The Earth is my home

I promise to keep it healthy and beautiful

I will love the trees, the air, the water, and all living creatures

I will be a defender of my planet

United with friends I will save the Earth!

Learning about Earth Day

 Don't be a Litter Bug! Recycled Art Project with Newspaper Print People underneath!  Some of the kites before they were flown.

Our main focus in math over the last few weeks, has been two and three digit subtraction both with and without regrouping.  (FYI... Regrouping is what used to be called borrowing.)  One of our math activities was matching watering cans to their answers, or flowers.  The students had a great time solving subtraction problems that tied in to Earth Day and our plant science unit.

Our current unit in science is focusing on insects and pollinators of plants.  On Tuesday of this week, we started on our expert groups.  Each group is researching a different type of pollinator.  Guess what... there is more than just bees that help pollinate plants.

A couple of weeks ago, one page was sent home giving basic information about our field trip to Fort Bragg (the ocean).  Please look for the field trip permission slip that should be coming home on May 9th.  Permission slips are due on May 16th.

Have a great weekend!  

Welcome Back from Break!

Welcome back from Spring Break!  As I mentioned to the class the other day, we are now in the last trimester (3 months) of the school year.  Some of the students had a hard time believing that they were that close to 3rd grade.  As second grade is coming closer to an end, we still remain the very busy, Busy Bees.

This week our writing has been focused on some of the components of Digital Citizenship.  Each student had to choose one component of Digital Citizenship and explain why it is the most important piece to them.  The class chose from Digital Footprint, Privacy and Security, Internet Safety, Communication, and Creative Credit since these are the main elements that we have been focusing on throughout the school year.  We were able to put together some class books that talk about the different elements of Digital Citizenship.  Some of these written papers will be used for our culminating project on Digital Citizenship that we will be filming in just a couple of weeks.

In math this week, we began to work on learning about two-digit subtraction.  So far, it seems to be a skill that many of the students are enjoying being able to try out.  We have played a couple of subtraction games this week, including the "Pirate Sunken Treasure" game that the students played with a partner. 

Also, in math this week the class was introduced to a new website called prodigygame.com  The students are very excited about this site because the kids answer math questions while they "battle" against wizards and monsters, with quests that they can complete along the way.  

This was probably the highlight of the week for many of the students.

For P.E. this week. we took advantage of the bright sun.  The students were in groups of three and had to create a shadow shape and then the other groups had to make that same shaped shadow.  This was a great opportunity for the students to figure out where they should stand in relation to the sun and how they could move their bodies to mimic the shapes being shown.  Eventually, we combined a few of the groups and the kids had an even bigger shadow shape to match.

Heart

The letter Q

Propeller

Larger group

Larger Group

To end the week, we started an exciting and new thing for STEAM.  The whole class is now part of the Google CS-First Club.  This club stands for Computer Science- First.  In this club, the students get to create a project each week using Visual Programming Interface coding.  This week the students created a project using the site scratch.mit.edu and it's main character the "scratch cat."  This was very exciting as many students were able to program the cat to do something, whether it was talk, walk, run, or meow.  At the end of our club session we were able to have a showcase and view some of the students' work.  As we continue with the Google CS-First club, the students will be able to get  a stronger grasp on what coding looks like and what they can actually have the computer programmed to do.  If nothing else, the students were able to collaborate and gain ideas, tips, and advice from their own classmates.

scratch.mit.edu

Some collaboration in action

This was a great week and a great way to come back from spring break!  

Coming soon.... information on the field trip to Fort Bragg (ocean).  

Quick FYI: The date for the field trip is Tuesday, May 31st.  If you are planning on attending as a chaperon, please make sure you have a recent cleared TB test and have filled out the volunteer packet through the office.