Hispanic Heritage Month: Chile

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month the second grade class has been learning all about Chile. We have read and discussed the geography, the arts, sports, and food and drink.  The culmination was a video the students put together showcasing some of their new knowledge. Ask your son or daughter about the most interesting thing they learned about Chile!

Plants

Our class has begun the first chapter in science. They will be learning about plants throughout this chapter. This week, each child started their own science dictionaries in which they will include important information, new vocabulary, and predictions/outcomes of experiments done in chapter one. The main ideas in this chapter are:

-There are different kinds of plants.

-Plants need water, air, and sunlight to grow.

-Parts of a plant are roots, stem, leaves, and flowers.

-Flowers make seeds.

-Seeds are scattered by wind, water, and animals.

-Food and other useful products come from plants.

In school, every child planted seeds last week. What better way to study and observe plants than to grow our own! The above picture was taken one week after planting. Look at how much they have already grown. Be sure to ask your child about how their plant is doing over the next days and which of the above topics we are covering.

  Each student also put together a diagram of a plant and labelled the most important parts: the roots, stem, leaves, and flower. On the backside they wrote about the three things that every plant needs in order to grow. We will be sure to continue to care for our plants and watch as they change and grow each day!

Three Addend Addition Video

In this video, two second graders describe how they add three numbers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dljazYfLAXA

Enjoy!

Grapefruit Observations

Poppleton the Pig is one of my favorite characters in children's literature. This week the students read the story Poppleton and the Grapefruit by Cynthia Rylant. Ask your son or daughter to summarize the story for you! Each child completed a few different activities to go along with our reading.

First, the students made "open-mind portraits" of Poppleton. To do this, they needed to color and cut out an image of Poppleton and then attach paper silhoutettes to the back. On each paper they wrote about what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. These are hanging in the hallway outside our classroom.

The other activity the students did was to observe grapefruit with all of their senses. First, they looked at the grapefruit, touched it, and finally smelled it. Next, they listened to the sound of it being cut and the juice being squeezed from a segment. Last, everyone partook in a taste test. The students took notes in their writing journals on this experience. Some children enjoyed the grapefruit, while many others did not; just like Poppleton. You can watch the slideshow of all of the children's reactions to their grapefruit tasting in the sidebar.

Ask your son or daughter whether or not they liked the taste of grapefruit!