Happy 12/12/12!

In second grade, 12/12/12 is not an auspicious calendar date.  It's time for celebration.  We chose to celebrate this quirky date with a dozen academic challenges.

Natalie and Grace got right down to work this morning on 12 pre algebra problems.  This is the first time that I've ever introduced the favorite pastime of Diophantus to 2nd graders.  They have proved to be More than up for the challenge.

Look out, 8th grade math students.  Mia and Trevor are ready to challenge you.

We love Brain Quest quizzes in our classroom.  It is always a fun and fast-paced race to see who will arrive at the tricky solution most quickly.  Here, Ben and Kevin work to complete 12 of the trickiest Brain Quest puzzles that I could dig up.

Map skills in action.

Gabe, James, and Hannah worked on locating 12 states and their corresponding capitals.  This was an easy feat, as we are currently studying many different types of maps in our social studies unit.

Mariana, Natalie, Brooke, Grace and Brooke work on listing 12 Reindeer Names and 12 Reindeer Games. Some of these ideas were super creative.  (Reindeer Lightening Rollercoaster, anyone?)

Gabe works to draw and label 12 geometric shapes.

Awesome work on adverbs and adjectives!

Not pictured:  2nd grade interviewers (hopefully not) running through the school to interview 12 teachers about what they love most about the Woods.



December is figuratively jam packed with deadlines:  report cards, curricular goals, Santa workshops, plays, holiday concerts.  Even though we are working at a feverish pace on a daily basis, it can prove fun and incredibly refreshing to step back from things and target a totally unique goal.  And it is equally refreshing to know that this goal must be achieved in one short school day.


I'm especially proud of the tiny project managers today.  They are creative self starters who never let me down with their tenacity and willingness to collaborate on the fly.

Reading Groups

Have I told you about how much I love reading groups?  No?

I love reading groups.  A crazy amount.

It is all about witnessing the barely concealed glee when the kids learn who will be on their "team".  It is sneakily listening in as they debate a team name.  It is all about watching the true leaders who rally their peers and attempt to organize a group to function seamlessly.  These kids shine.  They are tasked with large challenges.  I deliberately offer limited instruction in the hope that they will be able to resolve issues and work outside of the box to achieve their goal.  And they do.  They achieve the task at hand in the way that only an 8 year old could:  creatively, bravely, uniquely.

The Blue Storm read about George Washington Carver

Mia, Teddy and Ben help to organize their informational poster.

The Superstars organize their poster about Bessie Coleman.

Gabe, Hannah and Sophia work on the final details about Helen Keller.

Amazing teamwork.

It is so cool to witness what kids can produce when they are tasked with a challenge.  It is equally cool to witness the reaction when they are told to complete a team assignment.  They are competitive but also so supportive of one another.  I learned so much about three historic figures, but I also learned new ways to collaborate, question, and discuss.  All thanks to a group of incredible eight year olds.

Dry Ice Day

Dry Ice Day has been inadvertently added to the second grade canon over the years.  It is just too much fun to discontinue.  I seriously feel like the kids treat Dry Ice Day like a holiday.  Except this holiday doesn't call for excessive eating or any sort of long distance travel.  This holiday calls for learning, observing, and occasional excited shouting.  Yes, I said shouting.  Dry Ice Day is not one of the quieter holidays.  

Matt, our resident scientist, was kind enough to visit our classroom right before Thanksgiving.  He brought beakers, dish solution, food coloring, and many little dry ice pellets.  Before his visit we grabbed clipboards and brainstormed some potential questions to ask about this curious substance.

Love the dangling feet!

Our full second grade community enjoyed the festivities.  Matt began the science show by simply plopping some dry ice pellets into a waiting tub of warm water.  We were gleeful as we studied the ice's evaporation process.  We learned that instead of melting, dry ice evaporates into a gas, specifically carbon dioxide.  The octane in the room was raised to aching (but fun) heights as Matt placed a rubber glove over the beaker of dissolving dry ice.  Slowly, the gas that was emerging from the pellets began to fill up the glove!

We desperately wanted that glove to pop.

Great work, Kevin and Lila!

We also enjoyed a bubble making competition.  Representatives from each class tried their hand at constructing a bubble fueled by the evaporating energy of the dry ice.  It was so cool to watch the huge bubbles pop into a cloud!

Natalie explores the vibration of the evaporating dry ice.

Another cool trick called for a coin and single dry ice pellet.  We learned that if we put enough pressure on the dry ice, it would squeal and shake.  The gas was "trapped" between the quarter and the desk.  As the gas was released, it made the funniest screeching sound!  The quarter also got VERY cold.

We all had a chance to try the "coin trick".

My students love to remind me that Dry Ice Day was the most exciting event of second grade.  While I toil endlessly to come up with something to rival it, I have to agree with them.  Thanks, Matt!

Tuesday Three: Bats, Mystery Reader, Ojo de Dios

We've been rather busy here in second grade.  There simply aren't enough days between Halloween and Thanksgiving.  We pushed through our Pilgrims unit at a clipping pace.  We created wetus and wooden houses (more on that in a later post), imagined what the Pilgrims might have packed on their voyage, and made symbolic "shells" (really bits of pasta) to give to our friends as tokens of affection.



Our inaugural Mystery Reader was a smashing hit!  The kids had 5 clues about this mystery person.  They mulled over them all day long.  We knew this person had two brothers and a sister.  She taught dance to kids.  She was born in a different country.  All day, these young lawyers attempted to bargain and coax the information to be revealed.  Their skills in rhetoric are impressive, but I would not give.  It was very exciting when Frannie, Mia's aunt, walked through our door!  She read us Jamie O'Rourke and the Giant Potato.  We were full of questions to ask!

Thank you, Frannie!  And we'll be on the lookout for more Mystery Readers soon.

On to nocturnal animals.  Our first spotlighted creature was the bat.  Did you know that there are about 1,000 types of bats?  The smallest is the bumblebee bat.  The largest is the Samoan flying fox.  Vampire bats exist, but their little fangs are only after cows.  Bats have thumbs.  There are grouped into two types:  Microbat and Megabat.

We've been doing a lot of bat-related reading.  This reading will culminate as a small version of an encyclopedia.  We aim to be bat masters.  I think we're succeeding.

Brooke highlights and writes a section of her encyclopedia.

Kevin scores the dashed lines of the bat.  This figure will become a "pop up" in the center of each encyclopedia.

Finally, we created Ojo de Dios with popsicle sticks and yarn.  Believe me, there's a lesson in this!

Nice work, Natalie!

Ojo de Dios (God's Eye) is a traditional religious craft made by the Huichol Indians of Mexico.  They are believed to watch over the recipient.  Before our craft, we discussed the various ways in which God is always looking out for us.  There is so much to learn from the faith of kids.  They are open and honest about everything.  It's really inspiring.  Becoming a second grade teacher really affirmed my faith in God.  Sharing ideas and experiences is really powerful for these students.  They enjoyed the symbolism and the significance of this craft.  It was tricky - very tricky - to master the weaving technique, but we were old pros once we figured out the code.



Second grade is busy, busy, busy - but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Steal the Clock!

Howard Gardner didn't develop his theory of multiple intelligences for it to remain unpracticed!  Second graders want to utilize every facet of their (astounding, and at times alarming) intelligence.  We've got a bunch of music geniuses in here.  Many of us clamor to show off our math and spatial smarts on the daily.  We don't neglect any of them - that includes our "body smarts".

Being body smart means being active.  We maneuver.  We balance.  And most of all we run.

Running in a field is great fun, but we look for a way to make it more challenging.  Let's combine two intelligences.  Let's show our math and body smarts all at once.

And thus, Steal the Clock was born.

Now, I'm not going to say that Steal the Clock is a smashing hit every year.  There are years when students simply don't itch to compete and yell and cheer.

This year, our second graders have a very, very healthy competitive streak.  They are very math smart.  They are very body smart.

Each child is assigned a number.  Each student shares a number with a member of the opposing team.  When a math problem is called out, the kids work in their teams to arrive at the solution.  If a student's number matches the solution, they race for the clock in my hand.  They must grab it and run it back to their teammates without getting tagged.

I have never played Steal the Clock without getting a stitch in my side.  The kids solve tough math problems.  They race for the clock.  They scream and cheer.  I laugh.

We are good sports through all of it.  Exercise and tricky math never felt so good.

Andrew tries to finagle his way past Grace.  Grace has good defense skills!

Our teams watch a race play out.

Love the action shot.  Natalie crouches down, Mia is jumping for joy and Ben is sprinting to a teammate.

Mealworms

Mealworms are not gross.  Mealworms.  are.  not.  gross.

This is the mantra that I mutter to myself as I pass out the plastic dishes containing individual mealworm abodes.  I need to mutter it under my breath, a little crazily, because I can't let the kids hear me.  Much like parental influence, there is such thing as teacher influence, too.  If the kids see that I am less than impressed with these tiny, wriggly creatures, they might strike the same tune.  I don't want them to sing my scaredy cat tune.  I want them to sing the brave and objective tune of scientists and observers.

So we press on, oats and apple slices in hand, to learn about these curious specimens.

We learn that mealworms aren't actually worms.  They are in their 2nd of 4 growth stages, the larval stage.  They are in the stage where they eat, and rest, and eat, and rest, ad nauseum.  This lifestyle will enable the mealworms to move forward into the next stage, the pupa.  Once they are finished with the pupa stage, they become darkling beetles. 

I will not lie.  I will not say that our classroom was a hushed laboratory as we coaxed the mealworms from their cozy plastic border homes.  

The classroom was full of noise and occasional muted screams as our insect charges wriggled, escaped, got lost under desks...

But we pressed on.  Again.

We measured.  We observed features.  Six legs.  Antennae.  Body shaped like a cylinder.

We inspected via magnifying glass.  We saw two eyes.  We saw different shades of color.

We invented elaborate play pens for the mealworms so that they could no longer escape our clutches.

We had the best time.  Even this scaredy cat teacher.  We charted the average length of our mealworm set:  3 centimeters.

Huh.  3 centimeters.  Such a tiny little insect but so much energy and features of interest.

Being an elementary school teacher is like constantly facing your fight or flight instincts.  I knew that I was "done for", proverbially speaking, when a cricket visited my classroom on my second day EVER as a teacher.  Its shiny, terrifying black eyes stared up at me defiantly while 13 sets of human eyes looked at me expectantly.

I couldn't take flight.  I had to fight.

And by fight, I mean that I had to stay calm.  I had to pretend to be at peace with this gross bug.  I had to enlist a tiny scientist to dispose of it humanely.  Bugs are a part of the game in second grade.  I accepted that begrudgingly, and I accepted it immediately.

Kids teach you a lot.  They help you get over your fears in a lot of ways.  I never thought we would study mealworms.  But we did it.  We did it because they have taught me so much.

Mariana is calm as she assesses the length of the mealworm.

Sophia is learning that her mealworm likes to be evasive.

Mia and Julia trade best practices for mealworm observation.

Hannah helps Kevin with measuring.

Brilliant!  Mariana, if you're inventing this sort of contraption in second grade, I'm going to be amazed at the inventions you create when you're older.

Julia takes careful notes (and names her insect) as we work to determine the average mealworm length.

Success!  3 centimeters is our final answer.

Goodbye Election... Hello Creatures of the Night!

I know that you were waiting with baited breath to hear the results of 2A's Presidential election....

  

 With 63% of the vote, our class enthusiastically backed the Republican ticket of Romney/Ryan!

We were saddened to learn that our candidates did not fare quite as well in the national election ;)

All politics aside, this election was so much fun to study.  We learned about past presidents, studied the 3 branches of government, had spirited debates (Should the school year be only 3 months long?) and made paper models of that famous house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

And feel as you might about the confusing electoral college, it is an EXCELLENT source for some geography and math challenges.

Grace bravely begins our journey to chart and tally all 50 states.

We love this process because it combines state recognition, increasingly difficult addition, and some pretty fierce auditory comprehension.  Montana, mighty in size, has a mere 3 electoral votes.  Why is that?  What are the trends across our country?  Why do people vote Democrat in New England and Republican in the South?

Andrew colors just a line through Florida because the decision wasn't quite official this morning!

Success!  America charted.

But not without a whole ton of paper work!

                                                       So, Goodbye Elections Unit...


                                                   ... Hello, Creatures of the Night!

Bonus points if you can identify what the top right photo is.. the kids don't know it yet, but they'll be doing it soon!

We begin our study with bats.  Did you know that the biggest bat is the Samoan Flying Fox?  Its wingspan is 79 inches!  The smallest bat is the Bumblebee bat.  Bats even have thumbs.  They hunt by using their awesome echolocation abilities.  When they're flying erratically through the air, they're really master pilots, diving and twirling to catch their prey:  tasty moths, mosquitoes and flies.

Great illustrations to accompany your graphic organizer, Sophia!

These notes will help us out when it comes time to write a mini encyclopedia on some of the more interesting creatures of the night.


Check back to find out how our meal worm investigation goes!  This is the very first time I've tried it - these scientists are up for taking on some worms, but I don't know if I am...

Becoming Young Pilgrims

Thanksgiving.  The holiday that has been stereotyped into oblivion.  The holiday that is all about Turkey, with a capital T, and the Redskins/Cowboys game.  I hope that RGIII skips on the tryptophan this year and saves it all for Tony Romo.

Thanksgiving is a beloved holiday, but it just cannot compete with its festive peer that looms a mere month and a few days after it.

Except in my classroom.  In my classroom, Thanksgiving is king.



At last we have begun our study of horn books and religious tolerance, of feast and of famine, of the people who set sail nearly 400 years ago for a chance to live the way that they wanted to.

We marvel at the details.  The pilgrims and the sailors on the Mayflower had a ship as large as two trucks, but it was not big enough.  We try to figure out why the beef and fish needed to be salted in order to survive the trip.  We try to imagine how life would feel on a dark and cold ship for 2 months and 3 days.  We try to feel the excitement that the pilgrims might have felt when they at last saw land, and the fear they might have had when they had to start life from scratch.

Our favorite topic is always the Pilgrim kids.  What would life have been like for these kids?  We start to find many more differences than similarities.

Great cover, Hannah!

We dress differently, sure.  We also live, work, and even eat very differently.  The pilgrim kids had to work as hard as the adults did.  They made their own mattresses by finding materials like feathers, pine needles, leaves, and corn husks.  They were in charge of cooking large roasts by turning the food on a spit.  This process often took an entire day.

Natalie refines her compare and contrast skills.

They had no spoons for dining.  Instead, they used shells and even their fingers.  We did not like to learn that children were not allowed to sit when they were eating.  They could only speak when spoken to.

We use our notes and our memories to pick out the important facts.

We learn that Pilgrim children had horn books.  These flat boards contained the alphabet.  Children learned to read by studying the Bible.  If a child really loved to read, he or she would have to read whatever materials that the adults read.

James illustrates the emotions that the Pilgrims felt.

We really, really enjoyed learning that Pilgrim boys wore dresses until they were six years old!

I love this initial Thanksgiving/Pilgrims project because it asks the kids to become social scientists.  We utilize different books and handouts in order to learn as much as we can about these people who set forth on a long journey to lead new lives.  A simple flip book becomes a small encyclopedia about these people who lived so long before us.


And we give thanks.  We give thanks for learning and sharing our ideas.  We give thanks for the lives that we have.  We feel glad to have learned about the Pilgrims, but we're fortunate to live during the era that we do.

Tiny Project Managers: Tin Foil Boats

Buoyancy.  The ability to float in water.  Simple concept, but plenty of wiggle room in which to question, craft, and experiment.

Grad school was good for a few things, two of them sticking out in my mind as exceptional.  It was exceptional for introducing me to lifelong friends who had also heard the siren song of becoming an educator.  Those folks at my grad school fueled my enthusiasm for education and taught me that I was not crazy for wanting to teach.  They are bright minds with huge hearts.

The other exceptional gift of grad school was a veritable trough of great ideas.  There were lesson plans and even briefer ideas, pooled together in a continuous brainstorm.  As teachers-to-be, we grad students taught each other.  Tin foil boats are just one of a thousand good ideas that I have learned from teacher friends.

Tin foil boats are small but rugged.  They are constructed from a single 4 by 4 inch square of foil.

When I told the kids to make a tin foil boat, the lag time was priceless.

They kept waiting for elaboration.  How do we do it?  What's the first step?

The first step is to brainstorm, you see.  Commune with your inner architect.  Build the sturdiest boat that you can imagine.

No small demand, especially considering the sparse materials that we were working with.

We wanted to see exactly how much freight our boats could handle.  In our case, the "freight" were some glossy marble-type stones, most often found in fish tanks.

As true scientists, we were able to conduct two trials.  The initial boats were pretty impressive, but oh, did we learn from that first trial.  Our second tries were mightier, sturdier, more confident.

It was so awesome to watch these scientists at work, as they examined the various designs of the boats.  They monitored what worked, what didn't work so well.  They dutifully charted.  And they realized that it was not about which boat could hold the most stones (though that was cool to see!) - it was about trial and error, documentation, and making your second boat better after learning from the first.

Fun, simple, inexpensive experiments.  With lots of learning and working together.  Bliss in a classroom.

Love Mariana's constant enthusiasm and determination.  Excellent boat!

Andrew and James confer about best practices :)

Some of us are on tip toes in excitement to see how many stones this boat will hold!

Notes From the Couch

Hurricane Sandy has cancelled school for the next two days, much to the (supposed) delight of student and teacher alike.  While everyone loves a little unexpected holiday, I don't believe that the adult readers in our midst really enjoy the idea of massive power outages.  Unless you are one of those bright people with abundant foresight and you have a generator.  Yeah.  I'm not one of those bright people.

Here at home, Mattie, Tessa and I have been holding our own primitive form of Montessori.  I never appreciate Mrs. Gerber and her amazing crew properly until I attempt to instruct my children in their methods.  It's tough.  Tessa keeps babbling in her baby language about string theory.  I can't keep up.  I'm trying my best with crayons, copious paper, tissue paper, and more than one glue stick.

We're waxing lyrical around these parts.

So, I started thinking.  How can my second graders stay creative during a storm?  You can pick one of these ideas written in crayon format (Sorry; I'm in Montessori mode, remember)

Perfect example of why you should always write in pencil first!

Also, you could try the following:

• Act out those ACTION verbs!  Pick a verb like jump, run, tiptoe, waddle, skip and make your family members guess the action verb.

• Play Categories with a group of 3 (or more)

• Check out the website multiplication.com - lots of fun and challenging multiplication games!

• Start researching the nocturnal animal of your choice - you'll have a head start on our next science unit.

Just some quick ideas from a teacher who is counting down the hours until she herself loses power.  When that happens, we'll get creative over here at Hall Montessori - even in a big storm there is learning to do.

I look forward to hearing all of our stories about riding out the storm!

Tessa says Happy Learning!