Riverfront Highlights

There are a few things that all students (and teachers) look forward to each school year and one of those things is a wonderful field trip. The last one we went on was last fall so it was due time for another one. After contemplating various locations, the other second grade teachers and I decided to take our students to Columbia's Riverfront Park. We had never taken students on a field trip here, but we were SO glad that we did! The trip was completely outdoors, was filled with tons of hands-on activities (including wading/splashing/trampling through a river), hit tons of second grade standards, and, best of all, was completely free! I would highly recommend this field trip to anyone in the Columbia area and I think that all of the students would agree. They couldn't stop talking about all of the things they learned and I could tell it really reinforced many of the science concepts we've studied throughout the year. Other than the snake we caught in the river (eek!!), I would go again in a heartbeat! 

Here is my small group going on a walking tour/scavenger hunt. We found lots of interesting plants and animals...

...such as this snail!

We might have scared away most of the animals with our trampling, but we had a good time.

Our little snake...eekk!

Poetry Month

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we wrote a different type of poem each week during the month of April. Our celebration began with us writing acrostic poems, followed by cinquains and haikus. The students really caught on to these different poems and had a wonderful time picking topics to write about. For our acrostic poems students chose a "springy" word as their topic and then created a kite to display their work on. Our cinquains focused on friendship (and included an official friend interview to become informed of their writing topic) and the haikus centered around animals, which we were studying in science at the time. In addition to writing poems, we also read poems whenever possible. The students have become obsessed with Shel Silverstein and all of his wonderful poems! We have started a new end of the day tradition in which students pick a page number and I randomly read aloud from one of his books. I think the students can officially be called poetry experts at this point!

Our acrostic kites proudly displayed in our hallway

Fantastic Field Day

I'm a bit behind the times, but wanted to share our field day nonetheless. We had a wonderful, busy, exhausting field day a few Fridays back. Our wonderful related arts team created an entire day of events that revolved around the theme "The 50 States". Students traveled to different states and did activities that went along with the history of each state. The day was a blur, but everyone had a great time - me included (I might have had more fun than some of the students!!). The kids couldn't stop talking about all of the fun activities!

Let the games begin!

Students did an "Eskimo Pull" when they traveled to Alaska.

Group games in the multipurpose room put our teamwork to the test.

Boys vs. Girls relay

Clickers!

We have MAP testing next week, which means that we had to spend a lot of time this week reviewing what we've learned all year in the areas of math and reading. Reviewing is not the most thrilling thing for most students, so I decided to use SmartBoard clickers to make the math review more exciting and engaging. We practiced with the clickers the week before and the students LOVED them! I loved them, too, because they showed me every student's scores without me having to do anything! How handy dandy. The clickers were a great resource to help students practice important concepts and I just know that they will do great on their MAP tests next week!

Pure joy using the clickers! Look at what pros they are :)

Science Day

Our school did the most wonderful thing this week - they decided to host a school-wide science day! We promoted it for weeks so by the time the day finally came the kids were SO excited about their activities. Throughout the day, the second grade students traveled from room to room and viewed a hilarious science presentation, heard from a true chemist, investigated magnets, learned about bubbles and air, made gloop, and learned about animals from an expert. Every single station hit on second grade standards in an engaging, fun way. By the end of the day I was left with a group of exhausted, happy, educated second grade scientists who couldn't stop raving about all of the fun activities they did during the day. I can't wait until next year when we get to have another science day!

The day began with a great science presentation! Here the presenter, with the help of another teacher, is demonstrating how air travels when force is applied to it.

The stations I taught all day dealt with magnets and racing cars! Students investigated the cars and learned that you could make them move by placing two similar magnetic poles next to each other. 

After a bit of practicing with the cars, we had a race to see who could make their car move the fastest without actually touching it with your hands - only magnets!

After the races were done and a winner was declared, students created chalk mazes and tried to stump their partner. We learned that turning these cars using just magnets was VERY difficult!

What a wonderful day we all had! It was a great last day before Spring Break! Enjoy your week off :)

Mock Elections

One of our key standards in second grade social studies is the community. After studying the job of mayor and the importance of this occupation, the students had an election and five candidates ran for the position of "mayor". With the help of their fellow learning club members, they were given a chance to develop a platform and come up with a speech to present to the class. Their speeches were inspiring and highlighted many important wants and needs, such as longer recess, more use of computers, no more strange noises from other students, and no shoes in school. It was interesting to see where their priorities lie! After a tough competition, the students elected their classroom mayor. Let's hope they're really up for this big job!

Here are two candidates giving their speeches in the front of the classroom. You couldn't take your eyes off of them as they spoke!

Bulletin Boards

This is just a short post to share a few math bulletin boards we have on our 2nd grade hallway. We are blessed with three bulletin boards to decorate and decided to keep one always reading, one always math, and alternate the last board between science and social studies. I've taken on the math bulletin board and have had a great time coming up with fun ideas! 

Our 2nd graders "hunted" for shapes around the school!

After investigating fractions in our classrooms, this board reinforces how fractions are all around us!