STEM Activity

To finish out a week of science, we wanted to do something exciting together, so we participated in a STEM activity. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. All of the subjects involved in STEM are extremely important for students so that they may begin to solve problems while experimenting with these subjects. The STEM activity which we participated in was in building a boat that could hold weight without sinking. Students were given many materials such as plates, straws, cups, tape, etc. to build their "unsinkable ships" with.

Working in groups of three, students built these boats while thinking of ways in which they could construct their boat so that it wouldn't sink. Students were told before building their boats that their boats would actually be placed in a bowl of water to test how well they floated. The boats would also be tested on how well they would hold up under weight...the weight of pennies. Students made sure while building their boats that the boats would also be able to hold this weight while floating on the water.

Once time was up, the groups came up one by one and placed their boats in the bucket of water. I slowly placed pennies one by one on their boats to see how many pennies each boat would hold before sinking. The winning boat held 21 pennies!

I was extremely impressed with how well students constructed their boats, thinking about how they would need to build their boat so that it would float under the weight of the pennies!

Three Men in the Fiery Furnace

In our current unit of Bible stories, students have continued through the Old Testament and read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Students loved reading this popular Bible story which showed amazing faith and trust in God. To allow students to better understand and comprehend the story, students acted it out. Enjoy these videos displaying some fabulous acting talents!

Pollution Activities

This past week our second and third graders have been learning more about the environment, especially about the human affect on the environment: pollution. Throughout this science chapter we did multiple activities to learn more about pollution and how we can help our environment stay clean.

Our first activity allowed students to raise awareness about pollution. In partners, students created a pollution poster which warned others about the harm that pollution, whether it be air pollution, water pollution, or land pollution, can do to our environment. Students enjoyed creating these posters and thinking of catchy phrases to convince others to think before polluting the environment.

After creating these posters, students presented their creations to the rest of the classroom. Later on that day, students taped these posters around the school hallways so they could play a part in raising awareness about this environmental issue.

Continuing this pollution concept later on in the week, students had the opportunity to perform an experiment with polluted water. In groups, students were given a cup of polluted water and a cup of tap water from the school. Students first observed these two cups of water and discovered that the cup of polluted water was very different from the cup of tap water. 

After this observation, students poured their cup of polluted water into a pop bottle/coffee filter contraption which would, hopefully, clean the polluted water. After pouring this water through the filtration device, students once again observed the cleaner polluted water and the tap water. Students agreed that, even though the polluted water was cleaner after the filtration, it still contained pollution which would not make it safe to drink. 

Feel free to ask your child about these activities and what they learned throughout these exercises!

Christmas Activities

The week before Christmas break was a busy, yet fun one! Our second graders participated in many fun activities and I just wanted to show you a few photos from that exciting week:

Christmas Program

Bowling Field Trip

Craft Day

Classroom Christmas Party