We just wrapped up day 72 of school! It never fails; about this time of year, the days seem to fast-forward. I'm thankful that I have a job that is fun and filled with sweet children who make me smile, and dare me to be better than I was yesterday. I am also thankful for a full week off to recharge my batteries. (I'm also kicking myself for thinking that I was too tired to take a short trip to the beach. It's freezing here!)
Things in second grade have been active. We've been telling time to five minutes. My kiddos are making progress. My small group focus has been to challenge my high kiddos (using riddle-writing) and to fill in gaps with students who need to shore up their time-telling skills. The children had fun making clock faces to practice quarter after, half past and quarter to skills. We added some details to make it more interesting: our favorite color, our favorite treat, and our favorite book character.
We jumped into studies of states of matter in science. Excitement goes with experiments, so we had tons of fun watching "explosions" of a mystery solid (Alka-Seltzer) and a mystery liquid (water). I love to take advantage of that interest!
We finished our Thanksgiving is a State of Matter projects, and the results were cute! Each section of their plate had an illustration of a food or drink they'll enjoy at their Thanksgiving meal. They used oil pastels to illustrate them, which made the illustrations vivid and beautiful. Each child added a decorative border or design to his place mat, which was a 12 X 18 sheet of construction paper. The corners were cut off to make them rounded.
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| One student's yummy Thanksgiving "matter". |
The word bubbles had explanatory sentences that described the state of matter of each food item. This fun science/writing/brainstorming activity always puts me in the mood for my mother's delicious food and the wonderful company of my family.
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| Hand print turkeys were a popular decoration on the place mat. |
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| Yummy Thanksgiving "Matter" |
I hope your holiday is wonderful!
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