Weather Wonder Day!

It’s been so fun being back on the blog. I still can’t believe I took such a long hiatus. Oh well, here’s to getting a good roll going!

Remember how a couple of weeks ago we had a super busy, fun week with Global School Play Day and World Read Aloud Day?? Well that day of being together as a whole grade level was so much fun and energizing that we decided to do it again—every Friday!

So that meant that this past Friday we gathered again (on Zoom, of course!) to have a fun-filled 2nd grade learning day. Our topic was WEATHER WONDER and each teacher again took a small chunk of the day and shared something new. Check out what we did!

We started our weather-filled wondering day with Mrs. Stephens, learning about clouds! She read us a book, showed us some pictures and we discovered that there were some very complicated names for all of those puffy shapes. Cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus, plus all the ways you can put those words together!

Then she gave us a job to do.

This was so much fun! We had sent kids home with a bag prepared with the materials they would need, and kiddos got to quick work showing what they had learned about clouds. Check out the amazing creations that materialized!

After clouds, we did some movement (thank you, GoNoodle!) and then moved on to the next logical topic–rain! Mrs. Nguyen showed us a video that used some great science words like evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Then we read a book that Mrs. Davis (our librarian) told us about last week that is a contender for March Madness. It’s about rain and it’s so great–Soaked! by Abi Cushman.

After this story, Mrs. Nguyen had a great conversation starter: Would you rather play outside in the rain or play outside in the snow? We had a great time chatting about this in breakout rooms with our friends! And in case you’re wondering, my answer is neither. HA!! Just kidding. I think I would have to say rain, but with some very specific parameters. I would rather play outside in the rain IF it was summer and the rain was warm. AND it was in Disney World where I’ve been caught in many a rainstorm but didn’t mind because I was in the Happiest Place on Earth. No thanks on the snow. :). I’ll enjoy that through the window with a warm cup of coffee in my hand and blanket on my lap.

After clouds and rain came TORNADOES and HURRICANES!! I found a great video from Mystery Science asking kiddos to consider which is worse? The video even included a 2nd grader who asked Mystery Doug the question, which was very cool!

Of course after we learned about these powerful storms and learned some more about what makes them unique, kiddos had a job to share THEIR opinion about which storm is worse.

After the stress of massive storms, we needed some yoga, so Ms. Dale found some on YouTube for us and we followed along and stretched out our bodies.

Ok…so far: clouds, rain, tornadoes and hurricanes. Up next, SNOW!!

Mrs. Dale found a super interesting video about snowflakes that taught us all about how they start with a seed crystal, how they are made of hexagons, and how there are many different kinds that form (based on how warm or cold the air is). We learned (or were reminded?) that snowflakes have 6 arms. She led us in some drawing and taught us a funny story about a Zoid to remember that a trapezoid makes a hexagon ( if you have a second grader who was there for that story, have them tell you about it!!)

Whew! What a busy and learning-filled morning!! After that we needed lunch and recess, which was a welcomed break. We came back after lunch to regroup and reflect on our new knowledge.

Mrs. Kier began by reminding us of what we’d talked about–and man was it a lot!!

And then came probably the BEST PART of the day (in the minds of our 2nd graders at least)–kiddos were invited to share their learning using SCRATCH JR.!

We ended our day with a conversation about what other topics kiddos would like to have on our themed Fridays and not surprisingly they had a TON! I think dinosaurs is leading the pack right now, but the list was long and will last us the rest of the year. I can’t wait to see what happens next!?

Have you ever done a themed day of online learning with your class? With your grade level? What topics would you be interested in learning more about? We’d love to hear from you!!

Design Challenge: Earthquake Proof Buildings

A week or so ago I saw this tweet:

Can you engineer a structure to withstand an earthquake? Find out at #scifest w/ @DesignSqua… (Vine by @NSF) https://t.co/OYRJDDSIZO

— Rafranz Davis (@RafranzDavis) April 17, 2016

Since we had been studying slow changes and fast changes in Science for a while anyway, it made perfect sense to try it out! And unfortunately, there had also just been some major earthquakes in both Japan and Ecuador that same weekend, so the idea of creating earthquake proof buildings was a real life one to solve. And yeah, it would be fun. 🙂

We began by reading a pretty great Seymour Simon book on earthquakes to gain more information, and answer any questions that might come up about how they work. Knowing exactly what happens helps us build stronger buildings that would withstand the tremors.

We talked and discussed and made predictions and inferences. Then we got with our partners and planned–most on paper and some with some help from their iPad.

Then we got busy building. The 1st building part was actually spread over two days (an afternoon and then the next morning) because we ran out of time.

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We used this design cycle protocol to help us know what to do, and wrote down the timing so we could keep on track.

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Some even tried out their prototype on the earthquake machine before the “real” deal. They got some ideas about redesign or shoring up their foundations.

Caught some groups in their planning stages:

We took videos of our trials, and many kiddos voiced their ideas for redesign in their recordings. We all did some writing/thinking about it, but I’ll share those in another post, since after I add our videos, this piece will already take you 7 hours to read it! Thanks for hanging in there–it’s worth it, I promise!!

Charlie, Evan and Joshua

Ella Marie and Emily

Millie, Amelia, Ja’Mia and Tyrin

Makayla and Ava

Amber, Sara and Thomas

Peyton, Baron and Landen

Forces that Shape the Earth: Slow and Fast Changes

I shared some building challenges we had done a couple of weeks ago, where we solidified our understanding of both bodies of water and landforms. We still had some thinking to do, as well as demonstrating that we understood the difference between slow changes and fast changes that happen on Earth. Besides using things like Legos, big blocks, pattern blocks, and other things to build with, we often incorporate art into our science and social studies work and represent ideas with pictures. This was one of those times. It was a mural/collage project, much like these that have happened in 5th grade (with both regular units as well as with test preparation).

Our first step was to jot down what we remembered about slow and fast changes we’d already learned about. We made this chart together:

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We brainstormed what we knew about the difference between slow/fast, as well as examples of each, and the causes for these effects on the land: wind, water and ice. Their directions were then to create a representation (2D with paper and other art supplies) that everyone could recognize and explain when they looked at the poster. No words (except for the two parts of EROSION and WEATHERING since these were important vocabulary terms) were allowed.

While kiddos worked, they went through the design cycle as they planned, created, tested (by sharing their representation with another group or two to see if others could recognize the concept they were trying to display), redesigned and then shared by putting their creation on our poster. This mural did a couple of things for Rm. 202 learners–helped them solidify understanding of concepts, demonstrate that understanding, as well as remind them of that learning as they connect the picture to the idea in their heads. I plan on using the images on this poster as a part of our assessment at the end of the unit (I just haven’t fleshed out exactly what that will look like yet…still in the design phases!).

Here are the images on our mural. Can you tell what each of them represent?

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Each one up close. Half are slow changes and half are fast changes. Oh, and there is one image that we thought was an example of both:

I was really impressed with the diligence portrayed while they worked on this project. There were a couple of pairs who had to go through 2 or 3 versions of their creation before they figured out one that made sense to someone but themselves. There was lots of cooperation and suggestion that happened during our work session, too, as kiddos bounced ideas off each other, shared supplies and asked other pairs for help. Another example of an engaging, motivating and focused way to practice science without pencil/paper or just reading about it. Way to go, Rm. 202 scientists!

If you want, leave us a comment about what you think our pictures are images of. We’d love to share our learning with you. What questions do you have? We’re becoming experts on these ideas of forces that shape the land! 🙂

Second Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of April 18-21, 2016

This was a 4-day week at school, but since we’ve moved our MWU to the afternoon (instead of first thing in the morning), it has seemed it’s been easier to make them happen every day. Maybe it’s just because of the unit we’re in, too, but our conversations about them have been SUPER POWERFUL lately. Can’t imagine teaching without this part of our day!

Monday

I definitely should have taken a before and after picture of this one. The circles were all filled up with post-its when we sat down to talk, but we had to work through them and decide which ones sounded like things mathematicians would say about these polygons. Many of them were vague or didn’t use mathematical terms. They said things like “they’re different” or “they’re the same.” We talked through the definition of polygon (hence the words over there) as well as what some mathematical terms were that we should listen for as we narrowed down the choices. This idea of comparing is something that students are expected to know how to do independently with two different polygons by the end of the unit, so trying some together along the way was crucial.

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Tuesday

This one matches up with both some work on shapes we had done earlier (names and attributes), as well as a replay of the question from the day before to see how they’d do in the same situation with different shapes. The number of specific, mathematical responses was much greater this time and we had less work to do to make our Venn Diagram make sense.

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Wednesday

This question has a great story to tell (which is SO long and involved I’ll be nice and put it in a different post!), and really gave us lots of math to chew on. And I thought I would be an easy one. Those are always the problems that surprise me.

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Do you see the marks on the word HALF up there? Here’s a close-up:

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We’re applying our knowledge of lines, angles and polygons everywhere we look! This wasn’t even part of the question, but of course was a great part of the discussion!

Thursday

After all our hard work (which I hope you’ll pop over and read about), I wanted to see if they could remember and apply it to a similar but new situation. Most could see how the knowledge we had gained the day before about halves applied to thirds (and therefore to fourths, fifths, sixths, etc.).

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What did you work on as a mathematician this week? What warm-ups would you suggest to us that include angles, polygons or fractions? We’d love to try some more! 🙂

Second Grade Writing Warm-Ups: Week of April 18-21, 2016

This was our second week of second grade writing warm ups, and they have been just as successful as they were when I first started them in 5th grade (remind me of this for next year when I forget that again, ok? LOL).

We’re in the drafting/revising/editing part of the writing cycle, so that is reflected in the warm-ups I had them try this week. Check ’em out! We’d love to know what you have to say about them, too, so leave a comment when you’re done! 🙂

Monday

This warm-up goes with the one we did last Friday, as we added details to our fiction with adjectives. And yes, I quickly realized there were WAY TOO MANY WORDS on this chart, when someone’s first response was “Wow–that’s a lot….” Oops. I think they got it, for the most part, though. Since this day we’ve been recognizing them everywhere and talking about how they help the reader. Many have added some to their drafts. I’ll revise for next time. 🙂

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Tuesday

This question is obviously very general, mainly because I knew that our focus in Writers’ Workshop this day would be to finish up (hopefully!) what we’d been working on for the last few days (rather than something new). We had a design challenge planned for pretty much the whole morning and so our time would be cut a little short for writing, as well. It also helped me get a better gauge on where everyone was with their drafts. There are a couple of post-its that say “I haven’t revised yet.” These friends obviously needed more time!

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Wednesday

I tweeted this picture after we did on it, because I was so impressed by the work they had done on it! The endings they chose to post were really thoughtful ones, and then our synthesis of what makes a “good” ending was also great thinking!

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I had them finish this stem “A good ending…” and this is what we decided upon:

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We had a great conversation about how a “good” ending is not any one thing, and that it depends on the story you’re writing, as well as your goals for how you want your reader to respond to your text. Notice the adverb that someone pointed out from our conversation on Monday. 🙂

Thursday

I’m not even sure where I learned that phrase, but long ago I was taught that about the idea of editing being a “courtesy to the reader.” We touched on it at least a little last year in first grade, but I wanted to get their thoughts on it now, as we began editing our pieces for publishing next week. And since I knew they might need help (or at least a reminder) with what courtesy means, I added it to the question. They had great suggestions about how it helps the reader understand your message, as well as making it so they know what to read and how to read it, but we had to really focus our conversation in on HOW to do that. Many 2nd grade writers still talk a good editing game, but don’t always show that knowledge in their actual final drafts. We’ll continue to work on that next week as we finalize our published texts.

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What did you work on as a writer this week? What do you think of our warm-ups? How would you have answered them?

Rm. 202 Kids Take Over–Read Aloud!

Last week I was having a reading conference with a friend, and as we were talking about TBR piles and good book recipes, another idea came to me that would help one reader, and then in turn many others: kiddos doing read aloud.

As I continued to talk to this friend about books, I suggested that he choose a book from his new TBR pile to share with the class. We talked about how he would have to prepare to do this, including practicing holding the book up so that everyone could see the pictures. It was totally picture-worthy while he was working.

And maybe the best part was when he turned to me and said, “Wow, this is hard. My arm hurts! Is it hard for you, too?” We had a great little chat about how teachers have to have strong arms. 🙂

He continued to work and was ready to present to us. Man was he excited!

Check out the stories he shared with us:

Well…as you can imagine, this sparked interest by many other people to be able to share with us at read aloud time. And what a great idea, as I considered all of the many things kiddos learn on both sides of this opportunity.

We began to schedule read alouds in a couple of ways: I gave some friends the assignment based on books we were reading in our small group together, and some friends just began to request a spot. And since then it’s become a “have-to” for everyone. It’s just such a good idea that we (ok, probably I) decided all should participate!

Amber took the next turn, and did a super job of matching up to what my lesson would have been that day anyway–good readers use evidence from the text to support their thinking.

Then on Friday, Emily took her turn and taught us about fiction/non-fiction (as well as using some pretty great teacher moves for management!) with The Little Work Plane.

Now don’t worry if you don’t see your favorite Rm. 202 friend in this post–each will get their turn. While I had originally never intended to take this path with readers in our room, it’s a SUPER example of how organically ideas come up for us, and how kids’ ideas are often the BEST ideas! Thanks, Rm. 202 kiddos for taking chances, learning new things and then sharing that learning with the rest of us!

Mystery Skype–April 14 (#3)

We’re on #3 Skypes in about 2 weeks! YEHAA!! Today was the 2nd in two days!

Like last time, we had jobs, but at the end of the last session we decided to trade. Unlike last time, our camera worked, though (did I mention that? They were Skyping with a blank screen the whole time! 😦 ).

By the way, this post has made me think it might be a good idea to start a new page just devoted to Mystery Skypes. Would make it easier for us (and everyone else!) to find the archives when we need them.

This was another great session, and at the end I’ll share what we know now that we didn’t know just three short sessions ago. 🙂

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The debrief this time was a question about how much more they know now than they did just a couple of short days ago. Here where their responses when I asked “What do you know now?”

“I am a better greeter because I’ve practiced three times. I don’t need my dos/don’ts sheet anymore!” JH
“Now I can visualize a map in my head when they ask a question.” KB
“My job was easier today [than yesterday] because I wrote shorter words.” EM
“I think doing a job more than once makes it easier.” AM
“I know more about maps.” PM
“I know more about what to do as task manager. I can just sit and watch what’s going on [and give reminders when they need them] instead of walking around.” AK
“I know where to stand and use better angles to take better pictures.” CB
“I am better at Twitter. I did it almost alone!” JM

What great thinking, Rm. 202 friends! As always, you amaze me with your reflection and insight. 🙂 Keep it up–excited to see what happens as you keep going with Mystery Skypes!

Culture–Final Drafts!

We worked for much of last quarter on culture, based on many versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Here are our final drafts of the books we published about the cultures of the various regions and countries we studied (not all kiddos wanted me to share, by the way–since I know now that I should ask!).

Khalani B.–THE MIDWEST

Thank you for reading! We worked so hard and would love your feedback! 🙂

Writing Warm-Ups: Second Grade Debut

A couple of years ago, I tried writing warm-ups in 5th grade. The idea was the same as our math warm-ups, and would give kiddos a way of getting their thinking ready for whatever my writing lesson was going to be for the day. For some crazy reason I stopped doing these, and totally forgot about them. Until this week. And then I forgot again between Monday and Wednesday and finally remembered to try one on Thursday. So this 2nd grade debut of Writing Warm-Ups only has two examples. But hopefully they’re really great and that will make up for it. 🙂

Thursday

We are in the middle of a fiction cycle, and were to going to begin revising. Our lesson on this day was about adding details into your draft and making the story more interesting for your reader. This got them thinking about that before we started, and so when we read our mentor text and got into our conversation, they were ready.

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Friday

Can you tell what today’s revision lesson was about? Yep–leads! And since I knew I’d want them to collect some good examples for us to use in our discussion, I had them do that as their warm-up. Again, a win/win because it got them thinking, and saved time during our Writer’s Workshop since had already done that work. They did a great job of paying attention to how the intros sounded and were able to make connections to how writers need to make their leads hook the reader so they’ll want more. 🙂

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It’s only been two days, but I can already tell these are going to give us a really big bang for our buck. Stay tuned–I’ll have more to share next week. 🙂

Mystery Skype–April 13 (#2)

Remember our Mystery Skype last week? Well after that AMAZING experience, the first things that came out of my kiddos’ mouths were “When are we doing this again?” That meant that I had to get busy because I needed to schedule another one for them! I tweeted out a request and quickly I got many requests. One of them was today. Here’s the story. 🙂

We are all about learning in Rm. 2o2 and so the first thing we did was reflect on the experience from last week and talk about what had happened. I showed them the blog post I had written and asked them to think about what they saw. We analyzed the photos and talked about what we would do the same and what we would change. Some noticed that there were not pictures of everyone, and we agreed that the next photographers would make sure to get images of each job that we had on our list.

Next I showed them the video from our first try. We did the same analysis and noticed somethings we could change. Many of the “issues” just came from the fact that this was the first try at something like this for our videographer. We talked about some technical things like shooting at people’s faces (and not their legs and feet), not moving the camera too fast (because it makes the watcher d-i-z-z-y!), not talking over the recording and making sure–just like the photographer–to get the WHOLE room in the video. We made sure everyone knew that we were only working on how to make our next try even better, not saying that anybody did anything wrong.

It was time to pick jobs and so we sat down to decide what each person would do. After our debrief from last time, we had decided to add in Tweeters (check out the AMAZING job Mrs. Sisul, Ja’Mia and Makayla did today!) and Closers, so that made just two people doing each job. Rather than the chart we made the first time around, I thought I’d try to start digitizing some things, so I made our job list in a Google Doc like Mr. Solarz’s example. I just made a doc that we can add pages to for each MS (at least that’s my plan for now) so we can keep track of who’s done what during each session.

I hope to start using a Google Doc for questions next time, too. For today we hand wrote them and I entered it into the table:

We had to go to PE right after this, but before we left, we agreed we should get everything set up, since we only had 10 minutes from when we got back until we got started. I was SUPER pleased that this was what I saw them do:

The Data Enterers had their area ready, the maps for the Researchers were laid out, the chairs for the Questioners, Greeters and Closers were in place and the Photographers and Videographers had their iPads raring to go! Isn’t it amazing what 7-8YOs can do when they are motivated and have a purpose? LOVE!

Here are the photos we collected from our session today:

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And the video. Don’t worry–this one’s a bit shorter than the one from last time. And you should get sick and dizzy either. At least I hope not. 🙂

Then, when we were finished we sat down to debrief. We said many of the same positive comments as last time, but I noticed many kiddos were a little unhappy about their jobs this time around. Well, some of them were. When we went through the assigning of jobs, obviously some kiddos got the one they wanted, and the others didn’t. We talked about what to do about it, and we were divided about how to fix the problem. We suggested that we could stay with our original jobs, since we felt that we had done a great job of finding the right person for each one (which we had agreed upon after we finished the first time around). Not surprisingly, not everyone liked this idea. We also considered just staying with the new ones we made today, since we didn’t really have time to reassign before our next scheduled Skype tomorrow morning. Again, not everyone agreed this was the best. Then, someone quietly suggested that we could trade. He said, “What if I want a new job and so does someone else. Can we trade jobs? That might work.” BINGO! Everyone loved this idea and so we quickly had the “traders” meet on the rug and most got a satisfying trade out of the deal and walked away happy. Unfortunately, since there was an odd number, one person did have to stay with a job they don’t really like, but I’m sure it will all work out and next time she’ll be able to try something new. Oh, and I had forgotten until now, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of the reasons someone gave for trying new jobs every time was “I like to make mistakes so I can learn something. That happens when you try new things.” HA! Pretty amazing, right?

And you know, as fun as this is, and as much as it reinforces geography and inquiry and does loads for engagement and motivation, I just love watching what happens when you get out of the way, let kids do their thing and they run the show in ways that are far beyond what you’d think the realm of 2nd graders would be. But then again, I continue to see it over and over, so I should stop being so surprised, right? 🙂

20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher

Starting a 3rd Grade Journey

Tag Archives: 2nd grade

Weather Wonder Day!

Design Challenge: Earthquake Proof Buildings

Forces that Shape the Earth: Slow and Fast Changes

Second Grade Math Warm-Ups: Week of April 18-21, 2016

Second Grade Writing Warm-Ups: Week of April 18-21, 2016

Rm. 202 Kids Take Over–Read Aloud!

Writing Warm-Ups: Second Grade Debut