Blending old and new technology - the tablet and slates! Students are learning that historians learn about ancient cultures from a variety of resources. Students read a poem thought to have been written around the time of Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC, and an article written by Chen PU in 1149 BC. These ancient writings were analyzed as primary source documents to discover the natural, capital, and human resources the ancient Chinese may have had available. Below are pictures of the students reading the documents and categorizing and listing the natural, capital, and human resources found there.
Each year the Matter Unit is a big hit with 2nd graders. They worked on their understanding Matter and the scientific process with the Wheel of Science as they went back and forth between questioning, investigating, observing, creating meaning, and sharing their information. Students created hypothesis to questions such as, “Do physical properties remain the same when a material changes size?” and then conducted experiments to find out. Students also checked out weights of liquids by observing what happens when they mixed oil, water, and an ice cube.
Work as a scientist continued as students worked in pairs to test whether or not stickiness is a property of water. After all, we’ve all seen water drops on the windshield run together and form larger drops. That had us wondering why. Does water have an unexpected property? Carefully using eye droppers to drop water on a penny. Partners counted, observed, and measured as they saw the droplets form a larger drop on their penny. At the end, they determined that water might be a little sticky and wondered if using other sized coins would change the number of drops that fit on a coin. After reading Miss Maggie, by Cynthia Rylant, in Jr. Great Books, two reading groups in Mrs. Frisbee and Mrs. DiSilvestro’s classes spent a few weeks on a Cynthia Rylant author study. Students used their knowledge of Cynthia Rylant from Miss Maggie and a short biography I read aloud to predict what elements they might find in her books. Taking the role of an editor, these readers used the criteria to judge how closely the other Rylant books matched their predictions. They enjoyed selecting their own books, reading at their own pace, and sharing why they rated the books as they did. While the benchmark test we used to analyze student understanding of the scientific method showed us that second graders, as expected, have a lot to learn about being scientists, we are already seeing huge growth! Since scientists measure change during experiments, we used the gifted resource, the Clarion unit to explore the concept of change.
Students used sticky notes to write things they know change in some way, sorted them into categories, and then created generalizations about change. Generalizations for change include that change is everywhere, creates additional change, and takes time. Gifted benchmarks included in these lessons include: Justifies reasons for opinions expressed using authentic evidence; and Expresses opinions based upon defensible analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of processes and evidence. Including benchmarks in lessons helps students develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Below you can see pictures of the matter investigation where students observed dyed water, oil, and an ice cube to reinforce the concept that matter has weight. After using the story, Mac Side Up, by Bob Elsdale, to learn more about the scientific method, students dropped construction paper "buttered toast" to collect and record data on whether buttered toast lands butter side up or down more often. Students discussed how using our paper toast and real toast might change the results. One student astutely commented that the weight of the butter does cause toast to land butter side down more often. The data collected was mixed. Try it out at home with real buttered toast sometime and let me know how it goes. The children loved the experiment. As you can see by pictures of student work, there is some great scientific thinking going on in Mrs. Frisbee and Mrs. DiSilvestro's classes. Speaking of Mrs. Frisbee, I met her beautiful daughter, Charlotte last week. She is completely precious. While the students and I miss Mrs. Frisbee, I am so glad to work again with Mrs. Moncure, her long term substitute. We have worked together in several cluster classes while I've been at Kingston and she understands and meets the needs of gifted students. Enjoy the pictures! Scientific investigation and systems are two main focal points this year. They are the basis for a great deal of our work together in 2nd grade. Increasing inquiry all around, but particularly in science and social studies, will include a great deal of hands-on scientific investigation.
To measure student growth, Mrs. Frisbee, Mrs. DiSilvestro, and have administered a benchmark assessment which asked students to write how they would conduct a science experiment. These scores will be recorded and we will administer a mid year and end of year assessments to measure how far students have grown in their understanding of scientific investigation. The great news is that this means we'll have plenty of experiences starting next week when we introduce the steps of the scientific method. Check back for more details next week. There's a good chance you may have heard about systems at some point this week. Mrs. Frisbee and Mrs. DiSilvestro's classes learned about systems using a fishbowl as an example. Systems have boundaries, elements, inputs, outputs, and interactions that cause them to be functional or dysfunctional. That's a lot of new vocabulary for the first week of school, but our 2nd graders did a fabulous job and Mrs. Frisbee's class was able to apply their new understanding of this concept to prove that a classroom is also a system. Mrs. DiSilvestro's class is also scheduled for this lesson. We will use the concept of systems throughout the year, and across all disciplines, as we study how language, mathematics, weather, and civilizations for example are types of systems and are made up of other systems. As you might expect, 2nd graders in Mrs. Frisbee and Mrs. Pianalto's classes loved their study of Ancient Egypt. Pyramids, pharaohs, papyrus, the Nile, and the process of mummification motivated our class of historians to learn all they can. Virginia Beach curriculum is based on enduring understandings, things we want the children to remember years after the details are forgotten, and essential questions, drive instruction. In the case of Ancient Egypt, students use Egypt to examine how Systems are made of smaller systems, systems change over time and are independent, and that geography impacts lifestyle. The essential questions help students get to the enduring understandings. In this unit, students explore the following questions: How did the ancient Egyptians use the environment to meet their needs? Why does location matter? Why do different cultures develop different customs, traditions, and ways of life? How are the cultures from the past and present alike and different? |
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April 2017
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