Science Experiment

We have been learning about water the past few weeks in science; how much usable water there is on earth, how we get water in our homes, how we can conserve water in our homes, and how professionals clean the water that we use. This past week, we decided to become scientists and experiment with ways in which we could clean dirty water. The students were placed in groups of three and were only given these instructions: they are to create some type of device to clean a cup of dirty water. Students were given a list of supplies to choose from, but they were only allowed to choose six things from this list: scissors, coffee filter, cotton ball, q-tip, paper plate, plastic cup, straw, or a popsicle stick. On the first day of this experiment, groups chose their six items and drew out what their device would look like. I checked over these drawings, approved them, and the next day the students began to create their devices.

After students created their water cleaning devices, it was time to put them to the test with some dirty, stinky pond water. Each group took a turn while the rest of the groups watched to discern whether or not the group's device actually cleaned the pond water or not. Here are a few pictures, along with a video, of the groups testing their water cleaning creations.

Once all of the groups had gone through and tested their devices, the groups decided that none of their water cleaning devices completely cleaned the water so that it was safe to utilize. After coming to this conclusion, the groups met one more time to decide what they did very well and what they could have done better with their water cleaning creations. We discussed how scientists do this sort of reflection after experimenting with something that didn't work quite as well as it should have. Overall, the students greatly enjoyed this chance to behave as scientists would when they're trying to solve a problem. Great job student scientists!

Bible Drill

Since the beginning of the school year, our second and third graders have been working on memorizing the books of the Bible and knowing which books are in the Old and New Testament. In order to make this a little more interesting, our class has been participating in something I like to call Bible Drill. In these Bible Drills, second and third graders hold their Bibles up in the air while I say a reference, such as 1 Timothy 1:10. When I say the first "charge", second graders put their Bibles down and beginning searching for the verse. When I say the second "charge", third graders put their Bibles down and beginning searching for the verse. The first person to stand up and read the verse out loud, gets to go to the front of the room and be in our classroom championship. Once we have five champions in the front of the room, we have a contest between the five to discover who is the classroom champion for the day. This has been an excellent activity to get students excited to know the books of the Bible! Watch the video below to see the second and third graders in action:

PS: I have challenged the students to get good enough to beat me in a Bible Drill by the end of the school year...they have not yet been able to succeed! :)

Water Measurement

Our second and third graders have been learning about water in our science unit. We have learned where water is found on earth, how we use water at home, and where we get the water that we use in our homes. This past week, we began to think about how much water is on the earth and how we could conserve water each and every day. We began this new thought with a globe activity which had students throwing a plastic globe to each other as they stood in a circle. Students passed the globe 25 times and as the students caught the globe, they would state whether their left thumb landed on water or land. I kept a tally on the board marking how many times students had their left thumb on water or on land. After passing it 25 times, students sat down and I calculated our results.

The results should have shown that approximately 75% of the earth is covered in water, however our results showed about 60%. We then discussed how this "globe throw" wasn't an exact science; if we had time we would do what scientists always do and conduct this activity multiple times to discover a more accurate answer. 

The following day, we discussed how liquids can be measured. We talked about how, at home while cooking, we can measure liquids using measuring cups or teaspoons and tablespoons. We also discussed how scientists usually measure liquids a bit differently, using graduated cylinders which measure liquids according to milliliters. Students discussed how scientists want their measurements to be accurate and exact, so they should always set their graduated cylinders on a flat surface to discover the number that is closest to the real measurement. To give students an idea of how scientists measure, students were placed in groups and given water and a graduated cylinder to practice measuring accurately. In these groups, students took turns pouring water into the graduated cylinders and trying to make their measurement as exact as possible. Students enjoyed having this opportunity to act as scientists and make these accurate measurements. 

After this activity, students were given a homework assignment where they were to measure how much water they use while brushing their teeth with the water running and with the water turned off. I can't wait to see the results of these homework assignments and to begin discussing water conservation!

Bodies of Water Booklets

This week after Christmas break we began a new science unit and we've begun to learn a bit more about water. We started the week of by discussing why we think water is important and we then looked at the many ways that we use water throughout our days at home and at school. To end the week, we looked at the different places that we find water on the earth. We had already discussed bodies of water in social studies, so to show their prior knowledge, the students were put into groups to create small booklets describing these different bodies of water.

These booklets included a cover page, four pages with a sentence and picture of four different bodies of water, and an ending page to write their names. Students worked hard on these booklets and the results show that our second and third graders really know all about bodies of water on the earth. Good job students!

A Week of Christmas

The short three days before Christmas break was a full week of Christmas celebrations! While it was a fun week, I still wanted to implement some learning activities. So, for math we went to the gym and with both the second and third grade students, we played Math Madness. As seen before on my blog, Math Madness is somewhat of a relay game where teams of students take turns running to a laminated playing board to solve a problem as quickly as they can so that their team can finish all of the math problems first. We played this with a mixture of second and third graders solving addition problems on each team first and it seemed to work quite well!

The next time we played it, I placed all of the third graders on one team and separated the second graders into two teams. The second graders were solving addition problems again, but the third graders would be solving multiplication problems this time, which made it a little tougher on them!

These Math Madness games allowed math to be implemented when it may have been tricky to capture the attention of students with paper and pencil math problems during this chaotic week. Something else that we did during this week of Christmas was invite my dad, Uncle Bob, to our school to teach a Bible lesson to kindergarten through fourth grade students. We met in the church and Uncle Bob taught us the story of Josiah and how he learned how to worship the one true God from his grandfather Manasseh. After hearing the story, students had the opportunity to play a game to test how well they were listening to the story. Students loved this Uncle Bob time!

On Tuesday, we all went on the bowling field trip. It was exciting to watch the students demonstrate their bowling skills that they have developed over the past few weeks with Mrs. Duclos in gym. Students loved having this time to just have fun with each other and cheer each other on.

The last day of school before Christmas break is always a lot of fun. On this half day, each student had the opportunity to go to classrooms around the school and build different crafts in each classroom. Students loved going through the school and discovering which crafts they could take part in. We ended this day with a math treasure hunt for their Christmas presents and a little Christmas Family Feud as a class. It was a great end to our time together before Christmas break!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Program

Our second and third graders took part in the Christmas Program this year and did a fabulous job! The second graders took part in saying a poem and singing a song along with the kindergartners and first graders while the third graders each had a special part to say on their own. Each and every student did amazing in delivering their Christmas message.

I was extremely proud of all of the hard work and practice that these students put into making this program a success. For those that weren't able to attend, this is always my favorite part of the whole program:

There is just something about hearing students sing Silent Night that really puts me into the Christmas spirit. Great job students and Merry Christmas!

Christmas Crazies

We have officially entered the time before Christmas that I like to call "The Christmas Crazies". This is the time of the year when my students are just itching for Christmas break and have a hard time concentrating on the concepts that I'm trying to teach them. So, in order to contain my Christmas crazy students, I like to implement fun games and activities that will grab their attention (and hopefully keep it for a good amount of time) during this difficult time of the year.

The first game that I introduced to my students this week is a game called "Math Madness". This game involves two teams of students solving addition problems as fast as they possibly can. One student on each team would start it off by running forward to solve an addition problem on the poster board quickly, then run back to their team, hand off the marker, and then the next student would run forward to solve another addition problem. Once the team had all of the addition problems finished, they sat down on the ground to show me their team had finished. I would then check the answers on their team poster board to decide if they were officially done and had won the game. The fun thing about this game is that we can erase the number in the middle and do it over and over again with new addition problems each time. Here is a quick video with our second graders in action with "Math Madness". They loved this exciting math activity since it really got them moving quickly (while inadvertently practicing their math facts).

The other activity that I introduced this week I had heard about through Mr. Parks (thanks Mr. Parks!)...Plickers. Plickers is a website/app that we can use to review certain concepts to determine whether or not we have learned what we should have learned throughout the unit/chapter. I used Plickers with some of our social studies concepts this week since we have a unit test coming up quickly (Monday!). In order to use Plickers, each student has a special "answer card" where they turn it in different directions to answer a, b, c, or d.  For each question, I display the question and the multiple choice answers on the Apple TV, then students make their choice and hold up their answer card. To record student answers, I scan each card with my iPad camera using the Plickers app and this automatically gives me data telling me which students got the question correct and which students need more help in understanding certain concepts. The students really got involved in answering questions and Plickers made review so much more entertaining for them as they got to participate and cheer each other on. Here is a video of our second and third graders participating in our first ever Plickers activity.

These two interactive activities have really helped us with "The Christmas Crazies" and we hope to implement a few more engaging activities this coming week to keep the craziness at bay! :)