Thursday, January 24, 2013

Field Trip

The First and Second Graders went on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry today. Please ask your child about what s/he learned and saw.

Our visit included watching the movie "Born to Be Wild" about elephants and orangutans. The kids loved it! We also had a chance to walk around and view a variety of exhibits. We saw cars, trains, baby chickens, tractors, tornadoes, and so much more! I think everyone was exhausted when we loaded the bus to head back to school, including our wonderful parent chaperones.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera at the museum today, so I do not have any photos from the trip. If anyone has any photos that they would like to see posted on this blog, please email me (foyleolu@gmail.com), and I will happily add them. (Thank you!)

Here are some pictures (courtesy of one of our chaperones- thank you to Claudia's mom!):

inside a tornado
electricity

group shot

looking at the baby chickens

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Focusing on Nonfiction

This week during Read Alouds, we focused on nonfiction texts... and not just any nonfiction texts, but books about American History. We read about three very important United States symbols.

Monday the students learned about the American Flag.
--> It has 50 stars, one for each of the fifty states.
--> It has 13 stripes, one for each of the original thirteen colonies.
--> A man named Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner (our national anthem) about it. 
The flag in our classroom

Our read aloud

Tuesday, we moved on to learn about the Statue of Liberty.
--> A man named Frederic Bartholdi modeled the statue after his own mother.
--> The statue was a gift from France. It was so big it took over 200 crates (boxes) to ship it to the United States.
--> The Statue of Liberty is in New York Harbor.
--> Liberty means Freedom!
We even borrowed Miss Debbie's miniature Statue of Liberty!

Wednesday, we learned about another important U.S. Symbol- The Liberty Bell.
--> The Liberty Bell is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
--> When it came from England, it had a big crack, so the makers had to make a second one, which also later cracked.
--> It is also a symbol of freedom for our country.
Liberty Bell read aloud, miniature Liberty Bell (from my summer travels), and craft.

It's fun to learn about the history of our country! The students are asking all sorts of great questions during our discussions too.

Tomorrow we're going to compare the past and the present with a read aloud about Alexander Graham Bell and his invention of the telephone.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

What's the Matter?

This week 2nd Grade has been learning about 3 states of matter:

1. Solids
2. Liquids
3. Gases

We read a book about the states; we brainstormed examples of each state of matter; we discussed their shapes and sizes. Then, today we made pictures out of Cheerios to show how the molecules look. Check out our project:

our "jars" to fill

our "molecules"

Look at the differences!

The solid molecules are packed tightly together. That is why solids keep their shape.
The liquid molecules are further apart, so they have more space to move. They move slowly, but that is why liquids change their shape to take the shape of their containers.
The gas molecules are the farthest apart and have a lot of space to move around. That is why gases fill the room (or their container).




Here are some examples of the states of matter:

*Solids: block, brick, desk, Cheerios, pencil, carpet
*Liquids: oil, water, milk, juice
*Gases: bubbles, air in a balloon, hydrogen, oxygen

Next week we'll discuss how states of matter can change and also the physical properties of matter.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Welcome back!

Welcome back!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a restful break. It's been great to see all of the students. They seem happy to see each other and eager to get back into the school routine.

Thank you for helping your children with their Reading Logs over the break! It is so important for them to read every day. Thank you also for bringing them to school on time. I am pleased to see their smiling faces at 7:45 every morning. It makes for a smoother start to the day.