Abby and her dad.
Emma and her dad.
(If you have pictures, please email one to me so I can share!)
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Reading - choose two books on the same topic from the library or your bookshelves from home. Compare the two books. Are they both fiction? What is the same about them? What is different? What might be the purpose for reading each of the books?
Math - One person chooses either ones, fives or tens. The other one chooses a number. Start on the number chosen and skip count by the pattern the other person chose. Go back and forth between people. After five numbers, pick a new pattern or a new starting number (or start going backwards!)
Math - One person chooses either ones, fives or tens. The other one chooses a number. Start on the number chosen and skip count by the pattern the other person chose. Go back and forth between people. After five numbers, pick a new pattern or a new starting number (or start going backwards!)
How do you know what the parts of a seed are? You open one up!!
We made some predictions first and then we took a look inside lima beans to learn about the parts of a seed!
We had to be very careful when we opened up the seed that we didn't damage any parts inside.
As scientists, we recorded our observations...
...including labels. Labels are very important in science so we know what the different parts are.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
The BUGS become scientists this week!
They thought about what they already knew about seeds and plants and made some predictions. They decided to conduct an experiment to test their theories about what seeds need to grow.
We planted 15 lima bean seeds and each jar has special conditions: water, no water, too much water; soil, no soil; rocks, no rocks; sunshine, no sunshine; etc. so we can determine what conditions make a seed grow.
One of the theories was that seeds and plants need worms to grow.
I had no idea the excitement a container of worms would bring to a second grade classroom.
We took time (as scientists, of course) to touch the worms and to let them wriggle on our hands.
Kathry was so very brave. But worms are squirmy!!
McKenna and Tanner discovered that worms are hard to pick up sometimes.
Abby and Kara try to be very brave.
Friday, February 6, 2015
We were so excited to have two sophomores from the high school come share their own fairy tales with us today!!
We listened and counted how many elements of fairy tales we heard in each story and then a few of us shared our fairy tales with the high schoolers!
Thanks to Mr. Miller and his students for sharing their great stories with us!!
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Reading - We are reading and writing letters and talking about the purposes and structure to letters. Share some letters that you receive in the mail with your child (even if it's just junk mail!) Show the format of the letter (date, salutation, body, closing, signature) and talk about the purpose of that letter. Perhaps write your student a letter this week and tuck in into his/her lunchbox or under his/her pillow!
Math - We are beginning a unit in math learning about time (and money). Time is a difficult concept for students, especially lengths of time. Start using time in your conversations. "It's 6 o'clock! I'd better get dinner ready! How long do you think it will take me to cook dinner?" Help your child to make reasonable predictions about lengths of time (will it take an hour? a day? a week?) Help your child become increasingly aware of the time that various activities are done. ("I wake up at 7 o'clock." "We get to school at 8:15 in the morning." "I go to bed at 7:30 at night.")
Money - I mention this additional idea because it takes awhile, but I think it's a really great learning experience. To learn money, children need to see it, touch it, handle it, count it, etc. While we have plastic look-alike coins at school, nothing beats the real thing! And nothing motivates a child to learn how to identify or count money like earning money!! Start by giving your child opportunities to identify coins. Perhaps the change you receive at the grocery store, or the coins you have in your pocket at the end of a day - hold out your hand and ask your child to name each coin. If s/he gets it right, they get to keep the change!! When s/he is able to correctly identify each coin quickly, start asking how much each coin is worth (and let him/her keep the change if they get it right!) When your child has mastered naming coins and knowing their values, start having him/her count up the change. You can start easy and build it up to harder combinations. If your child gets it correct - you guessed it, they get to keep it! Finally, when your child is able to all those steps see if s/he can tell you how much change you will RECEIVE from the cashier. For instance, if your total is $4.37 and you hand the cashier a $5 bill, how much change will you receive? Being able to keep the change is a very strong motivator! I always asked my son, "Are you sure of your answer?" prompting him to double check before giving me his final answer. If he was correct, he lit up and was thrilled to add 37 cents to his piggy bank. If he was wrong, we talked about what was wrong and he learned fast!! It's only spare change to you, but it's a tremendous real-life learning experience for your child!
Math - We are beginning a unit in math learning about time (and money). Time is a difficult concept for students, especially lengths of time. Start using time in your conversations. "It's 6 o'clock! I'd better get dinner ready! How long do you think it will take me to cook dinner?" Help your child to make reasonable predictions about lengths of time (will it take an hour? a day? a week?) Help your child become increasingly aware of the time that various activities are done. ("I wake up at 7 o'clock." "We get to school at 8:15 in the morning." "I go to bed at 7:30 at night.")
Money - I mention this additional idea because it takes awhile, but I think it's a really great learning experience. To learn money, children need to see it, touch it, handle it, count it, etc. While we have plastic look-alike coins at school, nothing beats the real thing! And nothing motivates a child to learn how to identify or count money like earning money!! Start by giving your child opportunities to identify coins. Perhaps the change you receive at the grocery store, or the coins you have in your pocket at the end of a day - hold out your hand and ask your child to name each coin. If s/he gets it right, they get to keep the change!! When s/he is able to correctly identify each coin quickly, start asking how much each coin is worth (and let him/her keep the change if they get it right!) When your child has mastered naming coins and knowing their values, start having him/her count up the change. You can start easy and build it up to harder combinations. If your child gets it correct - you guessed it, they get to keep it! Finally, when your child is able to all those steps see if s/he can tell you how much change you will RECEIVE from the cashier. For instance, if your total is $4.37 and you hand the cashier a $5 bill, how much change will you receive? Being able to keep the change is a very strong motivator! I always asked my son, "Are you sure of your answer?" prompting him to double check before giving me his final answer. If he was correct, he lit up and was thrilled to add 37 cents to his piggy bank. If he was wrong, we talked about what was wrong and he learned fast!! It's only spare change to you, but it's a tremendous real-life learning experience for your child!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)