We are working on measurement in math. Right now, we are using centimeters and meters to measure a variety of objects in our classroom. These pictures are from one of our opening problems: the king's bed.
Hard at work
Monday, February 29, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
flood testing!
The scientists of Lab 204 were designing and testing some solutions to our flooding problem. Using a model of our model town, engineers had fifteen minutes to devise a solution that used either walls, pipes, houseboats, or an early warning system. These first attempts were highly creative and innovative, but most did not protect the house from getting wet. It's back to the drawing board for a second attempt tomorrow!
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Biweekly update, February 12th
We finally had some snow, and had two days off of school!
Reader's Workshop
We continued our work with folk tales these weeks. We started reading some retellings by an author and illustrator named Gerald McDermott. He loves to tell folk tales, and makes all of his own illustrations to go with the story. When he writes one, he does research on the art techniques that match the part of the world the story comes from. He tends to retell stories from Native Americans and from many different countries in Africa and Asia. We read Monkey, Anansi, Zomo, and Raven. Many of these are trickster tales, in which the main character has to be clever to escape from some bad situations. Many of these are also "just so stories" that give a story about how something in the world was created or made to be how it is today. For example, Raven offers an explanation of how the sun got into the sky.
We used two different structures to help us analyze and compare these stories: a t chart and a Venn diagram. These help to categorize information and are great pre-writing tools.
Writer's Workshop
We are still writing our own versions of folk tales. We included a couple of techniques to make our writing interesting: dialogue, comparisons, and the rule of threes.
Next week, we will start to think about finishing, revising, and publishing our work!
Math
We wrapped up our work on multiplication and moved on to measurement. To start, we had to make a bed for a very demanding king.
Science
We are working on flooding! We read the book Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean and played a game about the water cycle. We read about what floods were, then had to discuss whether we should allow floods to happen or try to stop them. Next, groups of scientists developed possible solutions to a flooding problem, ranging from creating a system of pipes that would divert flood waters away from the town to building a fleet of submarines for people to live in during flooding events. In the end, we picked four possible solutions to focus on: building a wall or dam to control or divert the water, building a system of pipes or moats, turning people's houses into houseboats, and creating an early warning system that would give residents advance notice so they could escape to higher ground during flood season. One of our colleagues also mentioned that using multiple systems to create redundancy would be a good idea, in case one of them didn't work. We will not be testing using marshland to capture flood waters, but this is a technique used very often in the real world.
Reader's Workshop
We continued our work with folk tales these weeks. We started reading some retellings by an author and illustrator named Gerald McDermott. He loves to tell folk tales, and makes all of his own illustrations to go with the story. When he writes one, he does research on the art techniques that match the part of the world the story comes from. He tends to retell stories from Native Americans and from many different countries in Africa and Asia. We read Monkey, Anansi, Zomo, and Raven. Many of these are trickster tales, in which the main character has to be clever to escape from some bad situations. Many of these are also "just so stories" that give a story about how something in the world was created or made to be how it is today. For example, Raven offers an explanation of how the sun got into the sky.
We used two different structures to help us analyze and compare these stories: a t chart and a Venn diagram. These help to categorize information and are great pre-writing tools.
Writer's Workshop
We are still writing our own versions of folk tales. We included a couple of techniques to make our writing interesting: dialogue, comparisons, and the rule of threes.
Next week, we will start to think about finishing, revising, and publishing our work!
Math
We wrapped up our work on multiplication and moved on to measurement. To start, we had to make a bed for a very demanding king.
Science
We are working on flooding! We read the book Follow the Water from Brook to Ocean and played a game about the water cycle. We read about what floods were, then had to discuss whether we should allow floods to happen or try to stop them. Next, groups of scientists developed possible solutions to a flooding problem, ranging from creating a system of pipes that would divert flood waters away from the town to building a fleet of submarines for people to live in during flooding events. In the end, we picked four possible solutions to focus on: building a wall or dam to control or divert the water, building a system of pipes or moats, turning people's houses into houseboats, and creating an early warning system that would give residents advance notice so they could escape to higher ground during flood season. One of our colleagues also mentioned that using multiple systems to create redundancy would be a good idea, in case one of them didn't work. We will not be testing using marshland to capture flood waters, but this is a technique used very often in the real world.
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Water Poster Project
Your water project posters are due next Monday! More information about this project can be found on the second grade website: https://sites.google.com/a/watertown.k12.ma.us/lowell-grade2/projects/mwra-poster-project
In class, we talked about ideas that students have. One of the most important parts of this project is coming up with an interesting and new idea. We made this list of ideas we had. Some are very creative and some are very common.
You could use water to:
shower
wash hands
wash glasses
cook
have a water gun fight
make water balloons
take a bath
fill a swimming pool
make snow
give a puppy a bath
fill a shark tank
wash dishes
fill a fish tank
give your pet some drinking water
help with science experiments
in a dishwasher
in a washing machine
wash your face
Then, we came up with a list of poster elements that are important. We made a rubric and figured out how many points each element should be worth. Mr. MacLellan typed this rubric up. It is available here. When you are working on your poster at home, check against the rubric that you are doing your best work! Since you have had three weeks to work on it, teachers are expecting very high quality, detailed work.
Good luck!
In class, we talked about ideas that students have. One of the most important parts of this project is coming up with an interesting and new idea. We made this list of ideas we had. Some are very creative and some are very common.
You could use water to:
shower
wash hands
wash glasses
cook
have a water gun fight
make water balloons
take a bath
fill a swimming pool
make snow
give a puppy a bath
fill a shark tank
wash dishes
fill a fish tank
give your pet some drinking water
help with science experiments
in a dishwasher
in a washing machine
wash your face
Then, we came up with a list of poster elements that are important. We made a rubric and figured out how many points each element should be worth. Mr. MacLellan typed this rubric up. It is available here. When you are working on your poster at home, check against the rubric that you are doing your best work! Since you have had three weeks to work on it, teachers are expecting very high quality, detailed work.
Good luck!
Thursday, February 11, 2016
comparisons
We are working on using comparisons in our folk tale writing.
Here are a few:
as strong as a dinosaur
as big as the Lowell School
She swims as slow as a snail.
as quiet as a mouse
My broomstick is as flightless as a chicken!
They were as loud as breaking glass.
He was as mad as an angry gorilla.
The gingerbread man is as hard as the moon.
as tall as a mountain
She bakes him as hard as a rock.
The stars run as fast as a cheetah.
The cow was as big as all 5 oceans.
as mean as a rhino
Abiyoyo is as stinky as a swamp.
as red as a tomato
Some students also used an inverse comparison, in which they name an attribute that is the opposite of what you would expect. These can be fun to read, because they set your reader up to think you are saying one thing, and then you surprise them by saying something different!
The wand is as smart as a cupcake.
He is as smart as a peanut.
Mr. Mouse is as small as an elephant.
Here are a few:
as strong as a dinosaur
as big as the Lowell School
She swims as slow as a snail.
as quiet as a mouse
My broomstick is as flightless as a chicken!
They were as loud as breaking glass.
He was as mad as an angry gorilla.
The gingerbread man is as hard as the moon.
as tall as a mountain
She bakes him as hard as a rock.
The stars run as fast as a cheetah.
The cow was as big as all 5 oceans.
as mean as a rhino
Abiyoyo is as stinky as a swamp.
as red as a tomato
Some students also used an inverse comparison, in which they name an attribute that is the opposite of what you would expect. These can be fun to read, because they set your reader up to think you are saying one thing, and then you surprise them by saying something different!
The wand is as smart as a cupcake.
He is as smart as a peanut.
Mr. Mouse is as small as an elephant.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Curiosity projects!
Monday, February 1, 2016
Biweekly Update, January 29th
Reader's Workshop
We continued our study of folk tales these weeks, focusing on several versions of Cinderella from around the world. We then compared two versions of a folk tale using a Venn Diagram, thought about character traits of the good and bad characters, and came up with a list of common elements found in many different folk tales.
We also talked about how many folk tales, just as in all good writing, you find lots of dialogue and descriptions of characters' feelings. We will be taking these ideas and incorporating them into our own writing next week.
Writer's Workshop
We did our last little bit of work on our how-to books, then dove into planning out a retelling of a folk tale. Students each picked a folk tale they knew really well, then planned out how they would retell it. Some students changed the setting or characters, some changed around the point-of-view, and some changed the problem and solution. They planned out their characters, worked on describing the setting, and mapped out the story in a tiny book. On Friday, they started writing the actual story. Most writers plan and plan and plan before they start writing, and the students in 204 are no different!
Math
We are doing more work with multiplication, this time focusing on 2s, 5s, and 10s, as well as even and odd numbers. At home, you can give your student a math problem that will involve counting by these numbers, and see if your student can solve it!
We also had a few rounds of America's 7th favorite quiz show game show, Even or Odd!, in which a series of contestants vie for prizes by correctly determining if a list of increasingly-large numbers are even or odd. The prize is, as always, $7,000,000 and a new car.
Science
See our separate post for details of our work with stream tables!
Social Studies
We are studying countries! We have learned a bit about Egypt and India. If you have a world map at home, have your student locate India, Egypt, Brazil, and Watertown on the map, then point out the Amazon, Nile, and Ganges Rivers.
We did a scavenger hunt on the Culturegrams website to learn some facts about India. We also looked at some Indian art, played a kids game from India, tried writing some letters in Hindi and Gujarati, and investigated some spices, foods, and tea from India!
News and Other Information
The Halfway Bandit struck again!
We continued our study of folk tales these weeks, focusing on several versions of Cinderella from around the world. We then compared two versions of a folk tale using a Venn Diagram, thought about character traits of the good and bad characters, and came up with a list of common elements found in many different folk tales.
We also talked about how many folk tales, just as in all good writing, you find lots of dialogue and descriptions of characters' feelings. We will be taking these ideas and incorporating them into our own writing next week.
Writer's Workshop
We did our last little bit of work on our how-to books, then dove into planning out a retelling of a folk tale. Students each picked a folk tale they knew really well, then planned out how they would retell it. Some students changed the setting or characters, some changed around the point-of-view, and some changed the problem and solution. They planned out their characters, worked on describing the setting, and mapped out the story in a tiny book. On Friday, they started writing the actual story. Most writers plan and plan and plan before they start writing, and the students in 204 are no different!
Math
We are doing more work with multiplication, this time focusing on 2s, 5s, and 10s, as well as even and odd numbers. At home, you can give your student a math problem that will involve counting by these numbers, and see if your student can solve it!
We also had a few rounds of America's 7th favorite quiz show game show, Even or Odd!, in which a series of contestants vie for prizes by correctly determining if a list of increasingly-large numbers are even or odd. The prize is, as always, $7,000,000 and a new car.
Science
See our separate post for details of our work with stream tables!
Social Studies
We are studying countries! We have learned a bit about Egypt and India. If you have a world map at home, have your student locate India, Egypt, Brazil, and Watertown on the map, then point out the Amazon, Nile, and Ganges Rivers.
We did a scavenger hunt on the Culturegrams website to learn some facts about India. We also looked at some Indian art, played a kids game from India, tried writing some letters in Hindi and Gujarati, and investigated some spices, foods, and tea from India!
News and Other Information
The Halfway Bandit struck again!
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