Friday Hodgepodge

I just looked up the word hodgepodge.  Stern internet dictionaries inform me that "hodgepodge" means a "mess", a "jumble", a "confused mixture".

Sorry, internet dictionaries.  I'm going to revise the word hodgepodge to second grade standards.

A hodgepodge is a fun mixture with a creative bent.  It speaks of the nature of second grade:  fluid, fast-paced, ready for the next assignment, challenge, problem.

We like a good hodgepodge around these parts.

In the spirit of catching you up on all that we have been doing in these past 7 weeks, I present a varied trio of projects.

Natalie observes and takes notes.

We had to take advantage of the awesome weather.  What real scientist never leaves his or her learning lab? We had to take it to the streets.  Or, in our case, the field.  We aimed to find different types of leaves.  There were three different classifications:  lobed, toothed, wavy.  It was good fun to listen to these investigators as they feverishly tried to identify the attributes of their chosen leaf.  Later we toted our specimens inside and brought out our magnifying glasses.  Perhaps we couldn't see things at the molecular level, but much was noticed and written about.  We appreciate how scientific writing is quite different than creative writing.

Grace works on the hexagon shape.

Tangrams are rooted in some pretty murky history.  Their date of origin is unknown, but it is established that this fantastic mathematical puzzle was developed in China.  The western world finally caught on in the 1800s, thanks to trading ships.

Second grade caught on to these fun and frustrating puzzles on the first day of school.  Seven shapes, called tans, must come together to form a shape.  They may not overlap.  They must all be used.  I like to do this challenge on the first day of school to show these bright lights exactly how hard they will be stretching their minds over the course of the year.  And the verdict?  They are stumped.  They are stomping feet and saying "it's too hard".  And then.  Working through it comes a revelation.  They've figured out the puzzle.  They've done it.  The sense of accomplishment has to be akin to something Einstein must've felt.  When he did that relativity thing.

It's awesome to watch young brains work through big challenges.

Nice work on the Midnight Zone, Teddy!

And finally, Teddy demonstrates an awesome version of ocean zones.  We created Sunlit, Twilight, and Midnight Zones.  We decorated these zones with the creatures that would actually inhabit them.  This was accomplished through reading and research.  Where would you find a seahorse?  Where would you find an octopus?  Would some creatures possibly move from one zone to another?

Is there any surprise that our favorite zone tends to be the Midnight Zone?  Pretty amazing creatures seem to reside there.


I hope that you enjoyed our hodgepodge of academic wonder.  I'll continue to catch you up on what we've been up to.  For now, it's off to the pumpkin patch!