Special Friends Day

Today our second and third graders had a great morning with their special friends! We started our morning as normal and then went to chapel with our special friends. After chapel, our second and third graders had the opportunity to make a turkey craft with their special friends. For this turkey craft, second and third graders glued together a turkey made with colorful handprint feathers and then they tried to think of what turkeys would want people to eat instead of turkey on Thanksgiving and wrote this type of food on a sign that their turkey would hold: "Save a Turkey! Eat more ________". Second and third graders wrote many different types of food on their turkey signs like pancakes, candy, and bacon! While they were making their craft, they also had a snack of donut holes and juice. Second and third graders had a blast having their friends and family members come to visit their school and participate in making this craft. These cute little turkey crafts are now decorating the wall outside of our classroom; feel free to come and check them out!

Later in the afternoon, second and third graders had the opportunity to participate in a read-a-thon in our classroom. For this read-a-thon, second and third graders could bring a stuffed animal, blanket, or pillow, along with a flashlight. Students were then told to go somewhere on the floor in the classroom with their items and a good book. We stayed in these different sections of the classroom and read for a whole 30 minutes straight (I even participated)! We had fun turning off all of the lights in the classroom, turning on some flashlights and lamp lights, and reading our good books during this relaxing afternoon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Celebration

Yesterday our second and third graders had fun celebrating Reformation and Halloween. To celebrate, we wanted to join our chapel buddies, the sixth graders, for some fun STEM activities. Second and third graders paired up with their chapel buddy and worked with them as they figured out the best way to solve two different STEM activities. In the first activity, students went to Mrs. Smith's classroom where they were challenged with building the tallest tower out of toothpicks and candy corn. While half of the groups were in Mrs. Smith's classroom, the other half of the groups were in my classroom. In my classroom students were challenged with building a catapult using a spoon, rubber bands, and popsicle sticks. After building these catapults, students had fun testing them out in the gym to see which catapult could launch a piece of pumpkin candy the farthest. Halfway through our time, the groups switched classrooms so that all groups could participate in both STEM activities.

Second, third, and sixth graders had a great time celebrating together as they participated in these fun STEM activities!

Speed Tests

This week our second and third graders have been continuing to learn about force in science. In order to learn about how the mass of an object can influence how fast the object moves, we decided to do a bit of a test. Students were placed into groups of three and the groups were given materials to make a ramp (books and whiteboards), a tape measure, a toy car, an iPad (for the stopwatch), masking tape, and play dough. Students conducted this experiment in the gym because there is less friction on the gym floor, which makes for a better experiment. However, before going to the gym, students wrote down the necessary steps to the test they were going to do and assigned each person a job in the experiment.

Once we were in the gym, each group of students built their ramp and placed tape on the gym floor for their "finish line" (20 inches from the end of the ramp). After building the ramp and taking measurements, students tested letting go of their car and timing to see how long it took the car to reach the finish line. After testing the car three times and finding the median time, students then took the play dough and placed it on top of their car in order to add more mass to their car. Then, with the play dough on top of their car, students conducted the same experiment to see how long it took the heavier car to cross the finish line with play dough on top of it. After testing it three times, students once again found the median time and they compared the different times.

Back in the classroom, we found the median speed of the cars without play dough and the median speed of the car with the play dough by dividing the distance (20 inches) by the time (how many seconds it took the car to cross the finish line). Students then compared the speed of the car with the play dough and without the play dough. They noticed that the car had a faster speed without the play dough then the car that had the play dough. So, we realized through this experiment that how much an object weighs (its mass) will have an influence on the speed of that object. Students loved getting to experiment with the different objects throughout this test and they learned a lot!

Strength of Force in Magnets

Yesterday our second and third graders continued to learn about force in science, this time they used magnets. Small groups of students were given a paper maze glued onto cardboard along with a paperclip. Moving to different places in the classroom, students tested the strengths of different magnets and how well the magnets could work through the cardboard to pull the paperclip through the maze. Students loved testing out the many magnets and they could easily gauge which magnets were stronger than others. Below are a few pictures of the groups of second and third graders as they tested out the strengths of the magnets.