Recap of Red Ribbon Week

This last week we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with hundreds of thousands of other students across the nation.  During this week we pledged to be "Drug Free" and showed our school spirit with dress-up days all week long.  Monday was "Sock it to Drugs Day" with Crazy Hair and Crazy Socks. Tuesday was "Too Cool for Drugs Day."  Wednesday was "Team up Against Drugs Day."  Thursday was "Turn Your Back Against Drugs Day" and Friday was Pajama Day.  I didn't manage to get a picture of each day, but here are few from our spirit days.

Monday

Wednesday

As part of our classroom pledge to be Drug Free, we made some door decorations using some of the Class Dojo Monsters.  Each student picked which monster they wanted to represent them and wrote their name on the tummy of the monster.  We decided that monsters are pretty scary, so we pledged as a class that "Room 106 Scares Away Drugs."

Among all of the Red Ribbon Week Celebrations, we also managed to do quite a bit of learning. :) In math we were comparing numbers using >, <, and = symbols and dice as part of our Place Value unit in math.  

In music this week we learned a fun Halloween song called, "The Ghost of John."  The class had a great time with this one.  We performed it for Ms. Patalano's class (next door to us) and will be performing it one more time for Ms. Brown's Kindergarten class on Monday after our Halloween parade.  Here is a video of the kids singing "The Ghost of John."  (Thanks to Baileigh for being a video recorder.)

In science we had some fun with Halloween candy and related it to what we did last week, how things change and are affected by heat and cold.  We started with Laffy Taffy and Candy Corn.  We observed how they had changed just by putting it in water, first.  The class was amazed to see how much sugar came off of the candy just in water and they were pretty excited to see all of the sugar float to the top.  Then we put the candies in the microwave and the next day observed how they had changed after being in the freezer for 24 hours.  

 

Heated Laffy Taffy

Heated Candy Corn

We ended the week with a very exciting assembly presented by the dentist, Dr. Huffman.  She and her staff came and talked to the kids about the importance of taking care of their teeth, especially this time of year with so many sweets and candies.  They put on a wonderful show for us with many friends from the "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory" movies.  She even had some of the students join in the performance.  The pictures of the jellyfish umbrellas are students that she had helping throughout the entire assembly.  We are so lucky to have Dr. Huffman come to our school and talk about teeth care and give each student a tooth care kit.  What a fun time we had at the assembly.  By the way, she also had some helium filled fish with a controller on them that "floated" above the students which was super amazing.

Jayden and Baileigh as Jellyfish helpers

Jayden and Baileigh as Jellyfish helpers

We had a great week together!  This next week will also be very fun, starting with Monday morning at our Halloween parade.  Students may come to school in costume ---- NO MASKS and nothing that will hide a child's identity.  We are asking for the safety of our students, that the only adults that are allowed to dress up for Halloween on campus is staff.   Have a great weekend!

Hot and Cold

Our essential question in science this week was: How do things change when heat or cold is added to the object?  As a whole class we conducted some experiments where we relied upon the microwave and the freezer.  On Wednesday of this week the students observed different items being heated.  They observed water, butter, popcorn, crayons, and chocolate chips after they were heated in the microwave for 40 seconds.

     
  After making observations and drawings in their science journals, we discussed how heat can change things.  With the exception of the water, there was a visible change in each of the other items.

On Thursday, we continued our experiment and observed the same items after they had been in the freezer for 24 hours.  The most drastic changes here were the water that had turned to ice and the melted butter that had solidified in the bowl.

The other part to this experiment was Jello.  This one we did a little bit backwards from the rest.  I told the class how I had made the Jello the night before by adding cool water and hot water and then refrigerated it over night.  So we started the Jello with observing how it had been affected by cold. Of course, we also had to sample the Jello.... so I captured a few delicious moments!

Thursday afternoon came around for the Jello and we heated it.  The class was shocked to see the Jello they had eaten the day before become something that many of them compared to fruit punch.  Throughout this experiment we talked about the six different items and if after changing them with heat or cold, if the changes could also be reversed.  As a class we determined that the popcorn could not be reversed and there was some debate among the students if the Jello change could be reversed or not.

On Friday of this week we had our 2nd Character Trait Assembly.  This assembly was on being caring.  During the assembly we also found out that 12 of our 18 Busy Bees had 97% attendance or better (no more than one absence and no more than 2 tardies) during the last month.  We had two students from our class who received awards for being respectful (our last month's character trait) during the last month.  Congratulations to Ariana and Baileigh!

This next week is Red Ribbon Week where the students pledge to be Drug Free.  To celebrate this week we will be having dress-up spirit days each day this week.

Monday 10/24 - Sock it to Drugs Day! - wear crazy socks, clothes, or hair to school

Tuesday 10/25 - Too Cool for Drugs Day! - wear your sunglasses (at recess) and other "cool" items to school

Wednesday 10/26 - Team Up Against Drugs Day! - Wear uniforms, sports apparel, or school T-Shirts

Thursday 10/27 - Turn Your Back on Drugs Day! - Wear your clothes inside-out and backwards

Friday 10/28 - Pajama Day! - Wear your pajamas! (NO STUFFED ANIMALS---unless turning in a coupon to Mrs. Crook that day)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Demolition and Construction meet Science

This week was very exciting!  In  the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards), which California will be adopting in 2017 officially, put a large emphasis on students exploring and creating their own scientific experiences.  One of the standards in the physical sciences area for second grade is for students to disassemble something and then take the removed pieces to create a new object.  The class was using old non-functioning small appliances as their machinery to disassemble.  One group had a toaster oven, one group had a bread machine, and the last group had a printer.
On Wednesday afternoon we had our demolition day!  We did discuss that we were not trying to break things, but DISASSEMBLE them.  The classroom literally sounded like a construction zone, with screwdrivers being used as screwdrivers and also occasionally as hammers or chisels.  (I might be needing to get my husband a few new screwdrivers to replace the ones that got really buggered up --- but it was SO WORTH IT!)  Check out some of the disassembling.

 

On Thursday afternoon, the students had 10 more minutes to finish disassembling their machines.  After pieces had been removed, the students wrote in their science journals about the pieces they took off of their machines.  Then as a group the students discussed, decided, and created new items.  While the new items are not "working" items, it was great to see the students get so excited about building something new using old pieces.

The bread machine became a television.  The toaster oven became a house.  The printer became a drawing machine, with an included pencil holder.

 

 

 

This was such an amazing experience.  I  absolutely loved doing this student-led activity because the kids were the ones driving where this experiment actually ended.  Many thanks to Beth McKenna from betterlesson.com with her inspiring base for my own version of this lesson in my own classroom. This was my first year doing this lesson and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I am hoping to continue this experiment in future years and would like to request if you have any old NON-WORKING small appliances at home, I will happily take them off of your hands... all for the sake of science!

Stay dry and have a great weekend!