Let's Go to Lego Land and Explore Usernames and Passwords

We will talk about usernames and password safety by using this LEGO WEBSITE.

Let's Visit NASA's Picture Dictionary to Practice Searching on the Web

Here's a LINK to NASA's Picture Dictionary

Let's Visit the SanDiego Zoo

Here's the LINK

Welcome 2C Families!

This year is bound to be a blast with an all new cast in 2C. We have 22 friendly faces in our class with many new adjustments and adaptations to our schedule. In just a small nutshell, this is the schedule for our day:
9:00     Guided Math Workshop
10:00    Specials including Art, Music, PE, LRC/Wellness
10:55    Back for more Math Workshop (Math Talk)
11:15    What I Need (WIN) Time: Student goals and interventions explored at this time.
12:10    Lunch/Recess with Third Grade
12:50    Literacy Block which includes Reading, Guided Reading, Writing, and Word Work
2:30      Snack and Recess Break
2:45      Social Studies and Science

We will blend in weekly events like LRC Checkout and STEM Challenges in the 21st Century Learning Lab as well.

More details regarding our year and how we spend it will take place on September 6 at the Curriculum Night. Our second grade class will meet to share these details at 6pm. Please plan on attending and learning more about the awesome year ahead.

STEM: Wind Powered Marble Mazes

Students designed a marble maze with straws, sticks, and glue.

The designs were tested with a stopwatch to see how quickly they could maneuver a marble through it.

Everyone tried to reach their personal best for time on this project.

STEM: Paper Column Challenge

We learned that the shape of a cylinder is the strongest for serving as a structure to hold weight. Triangle columns and square columns buckle quickly with weight being isolated on the folded sides. A cylinder bears the weight all the way around.

This group maxed out at 100 books!

Teamwork in this challenge was high. We also used Chromebooks to log our data from the challenge.

Can you imagine that stack of books being held up by a piece of paper?? 

Cool stuff indeed.

Don't forget to come to the STEM Open House on March 16th! 

I'll have some good things for you to try, and more throughout the building.

New Math Unit Gets a Hands On Start

Students are getting a hands on feel for the addition of numbers in the hundreds. When we bring thinking down to a concrete level, it allows for those connections to be made when we are "carrying and borrowing" in traditional methods. It takes time, but the rewards are large.

STEM: Free Exploration Day

When we went to the lab last week, we left all the options open. Some students explored the Snap Circuits where you use electricity to connect different pieces to show how machines work.

Some found large boxes and went to work on constructing new innovations for play.

Others used familiar tools to build and construct.

Still others found new uses for household items that might be recycled or discarded.

Can you see why we need more tape? Listening to their ideas for what is created is quite fun.

Teaming up to make a volcano... new creations come alive with cooperative thinking.

Sometimes we need the help of a WatchDOG. Thanks Mr. McNamara!

Partners in creation are always proud of their work.

100 Day!

On 100 Day, we were able to celebrate our great behavior with an Angry  Birds assembly.

Fifth graders helped show how well the launchers did by displaying stars. Second grade won their assembly with the most points earned by knocking over "piggies."

Even teachers like Mrs. Woodard got in on the action.

This class may be getting older...

but we will always be young at heart!

STEM: Sledding Ramps

The students built sledding ramps and found out how increasing the vertical height of a structure impacts the distance a sled can slide.

We learned about friction, and how it impacts the distance a sled can move also.

We measured in inches and some chose centimeters.

Sometimes we found ways to channel our sleds to keep them sliding straight.

Many took their "sledding game" to new heights!

STEM: Pulling Penny the Polar Bear

The students completed our most complex STEM challenge of the year when we began researching the weight of polar bears. The challenge continued with students viewing selected videos on pulley systems, followed by project designs to build a pulley driven tool which would elevate a polar bear to the top of the mountain.  All groups were very successful with the challenge, despite the limited amount of duct tape that was available in the 21CLL.

Below are a few action photos of students working on their designed creations.

This pulley was great engineering, with the full loop pulley being used.

This group decided to use a ramp in their system.

The team problem solved a setback with the varying heights of their tubes.

More from the full loop pulley group.

This was a very successful group which used a system which included a balanced seat for Penny.

This group persevered by building, video taping, and then rebuilding for another run when the video was accidentally deleted. Always learning. Always growing!

Don't forget to check out your child's video on Seesaw.

Free Exploration in the 21st Century Learning Lab

There were multiple donors from our GMS PTO who made it possible for all children at our school to experience Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) concepts in a lab that's right next door to our classroom.  We often go to the 21CLL with a designed application activity and purpose, where students use STEM skills after a lesson in the classroom.  The donations from our GMS PTO donors have placed building tools, snap electronics, magnetic 3D shape tools, as well as a weaving loom, and a variety of wares which we use with our STEM activities on most Fridays during the year.

On this day, we went in to have some free exploration with the donated items:

More from our 21st Century Learning Lab

Student are using something called Snap Circuits, where they connect different electrical connections to create fans, radios, lights that light up, and more!

Even a Lego table can promote creativity and opportunities to explore engineering.

Magnetic blocks help us explore 3D concepts with math.

More 3D fun, building patterned tracks for marble drops.