Math Game

This past week we had a few visitors stop by in second grade. These visitors were two of my aunts, Aunt Becky and Aunt Ann, and my sister-in-law, Jess. When these visitors stopped by our classroom they said that they wanted to play a game with us. To play this game we stayed in our three groups in the classroom and each group was given one dye, a pencil, and each student in the group was given a lined piece of paper. Each student was given the task of writing from 1 to 100 on their piece of paper, if they were the first student in their group to reach 100, they would win the game in their group. However, in order to write on their paper, they had to get the pencil in their group. To get the pencil, they passed around a dye and if they rolled a 6 they would grab the pencil and write as fast as they possibly could. They would keep writing until another student in their group rolled a 6, then that next student would grab the pencil and write as fast as they possibly could. As you can imagine, this was a very fast moving game!

The second graders LOVED learning how to play this new game. I want to say a huge thanks to our visitors for stopping by and having fun with us!

Science Quiz-Quiz-Trade

Today our second graders were reviewing for our science test tomorrow. In order to review some key concepts we decided to play a fun review game called Quiz-Quiz-Trade. To play this game, each second grader was given a card that had a question and its answer. Students walked around the classroom and matched with another second grader. These partner pairs took turns asking each other their question; if their partner couldn't answer the question, then they gave them clues and helped them answer. After each partner asked and answered a question, they then gave each other a high five, traded cards, and went off looking for another partner.

Second graders did a great job reviewing for their science test today using Quiz-Quiz-Trade!

Chapel Buddy Reading

To celebrate reading month, this week we got together with our sixth grade reading buddies and read a few Bible story books together with them. Students enjoyed getting together with their chapel buddy and reading together!

Lego Science

We recently began a new unit in science where we have the opportunity to study changes on the Earth. We began by studying fast changes on Earth, such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and landslides. Now we are working on learning about slow changes on Earth. These slow changes include weathering, erosion, and deposition. These are three difficult concepts for students to understand, so to help them understand what each step is, we demonstrated these concepts by using Legos!

I had four different Lego "rocks" built up with the same amount of Legos on each "rock". Students were then separated into four different teams and were given the task of breaking apart these Lego rocks. Students began somewhat of a relay race in their teams as they broke apart the rocks one piece at a time. One team member would run to the Lego rock, break off a piece, run back to the team, and deposit it with the team members. This game continued until all of the Lego rock pieces were broken off and there was no longer a Lego rock on the other side of the room. Once teams had all of the rock pieces, they then formed a new Lego rock to finish the relay race. Of course, to make the relay race a little more interesting, I changed it up on them and sometimes said that they had to skip to the Legos, hop to the Legos, walk backwards, etc.

One day we did this relay race in the classroom and another day we did the relay race in the gym. After going through the relay race both days, we discussed each part that they students just demonstrated. As students broke off the Lego rock pieces they were demonstrating weathering, as students brought the rock back to their team they were demonstrating erosion, and as they were building up a new Lego rock they were demonstrating deposition. Students loved participating in this Lego Science and having fun learning about weathering, erosion, and deposition!

100th Day of School

To celebrate the 100th day of school last week, our second graders did a lot of fun activities that went along with the number 100 to celebrate this special day. First, our second graders had the opportunity to imagine what they will look like and what they will do when they are 100 years old. Students wrote down these ideas; such as they would have wrinkles, grey hair, and they would drink a lot of coffee when they are 100 years old. After writing, they paired their writing with a picture of themselves that we put through an aging app so that they really looked 100 years old. Second graders thought these pictures were hilarious! Student writing and student pictures are now hanging in our classroom window, feel free to come and check out their pictures and writing!

Later on in the day, second graders also made 100 day crowns! To make these 100 day crowns, students either drew 10 pictures, stamped 10 stamps, or stuck 10 stickers on 10 strips of paper coming out of the crown so that students could see that 10 tens equal 100. Students enjoyed wearing these 100 day crowns throughout the day. Lastly, we did an activity where students tried to do certain activities in 100 seconds. Students counted how many jumping jacks, sit ups, squats, etc. that they could do in 100 seconds just for fun. Below are a few pictures of students doing these activities in the classroom.

Our second graders definitely enjoyed celebrating the 100th day of school in our classroom!