Science: Building Continents

In science this week we used what we learned about landforms over the past few weeks to create a culminating project to help wrap-up our first science lesson of the year. We split up into seven small groups to model the seven continents with clay. Later in the week we used maps to research the landforms on our continent. We added rivers, lakes, mountain ranges and plains to our continents. Students love working in these cooperative small groups and did a fabulous job with their modeling. project-based learning can be so powerful!

S.T.E.M. Challenge: Bucket Towers

This morning we had our first S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Challenge of the year! Today's mission was to build a tower with a suspended bucket that is free-swinging and holds weight (pennies). The structure can only be built using straws, string and tape. 

We had such creative ideas flowing through our classroom! After brainstorming and formulating a plan for only three minutes, teams worked together for ten minutes to build, test, and revise a bucket tower that could hold as many pennies as they could. We had so much fun!

Here are pictures of each team with their final product (revised) after our whole-school walk through!

Welcome to Second Grade!

We have had a great first twelve days of second grade! We have experimented with landforms, created Maps of our Hearts, wrote a Summer Day poem, and read some excellent 'just right' books in Reader's Workshop. There is so much we have already enjoyed so far in second grade!

One of the students favorite activities is weaving at the end of the day. Here is a snapshot of our classroom at 2:55pm. Busy workers!