Reminder About our 100th Day of School!

Please remember that we celebrate 100 days of learning tomorrow! I'm encouraging all 2nd graders to wear 100 of something to add some fun to our celebration. Ideas from past years include 100 dots painted on an old t-shirt, a necklace made from 100 items (Cheerios, paper clips, buttons), 100 rubber bands, 100 bobby pins in the hair, 100 freckles on your face, or 100 tally marks drawn on a baseball cap.

Here is what I will be wearing to celebrate our 100th day. I sewed 100 paper flowers on to one of my favorite hats a couple years ago! 

Cloud Investigations & The Water Cycle

During the month of January we did several studies on the following topics: seasons, weather, temperature, the water cycle, and types of clouds. This past Thursday we created a cloud in a cup. (Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of this experiment though I'm certain that the kids will be more than willing to share the details if you ask them!) On Friday, we put on our winter coats and ventured out into the sunny but chilly weather to go cloud hunting. The 2nd graders had the best time trying to find and identify the clouds, and we really had to hunt for them considering that the skies were pretty clear. I was so proud of each student for staying on task during our cloud investigation!

WEATHER WIZ KIDS is an excellent educational resource for information on clouds and other weather-related topics that we have studied this month. Click HERE to access the site.

UPDATE: I found short video of one of our water cycle experiments on evaporation. In this experiment, the students partnerned up. I gave each pair a wet paper towel. Points were earned according to how dry their paper towels were at the end of ten minutes and also on how well they worked with their partners. Enjoy the video, and please forgive the warped segment at the end. (Still have a lot to learn about editing video.)



Have a great week, everyone!

A Few January Highlights

Humphrey, one of our Traveling Camels, went on a trip to the Creation Museum in Kentucky over the MLK holiday with the J-Family. Here's a picture of Humphrey with his 2nd grade host sharing a yummy treat. (Thank you J-Family for sharing this picture!)

A little info about our traveling camels - anytime that a 2nd grader is taking a trip, he or she can sign up to bring along one of our traveling camels. Students journal highlights of their trip in the camel's perspective and are encouraged to include photos and memorabilia such as postcards, menus from resturants, maps, and travel brochures. Humphrey has logged in quite a number of miles since he first joined the class in 1999. His travels have brought him all over the continental U.S. as well  the Philippines, Korea, Portugal, Canada, Spain, and Hawaii (twice!).

Our Martin Luther King, Jr. bulletin board.

Video from our first big snow of 2012.



The entire student body held a pep rally to send off the Hurricane guys and girls teams with bunches of school spirit and special dedicatory prayer for yearly basketball tournament of SDA academy teams down in Texas.

Superstar of the Week Talent

Each Thursday our Superstar of the Week shares a talent with the class. We've had musical selections, shared art, and even a dramatic reading of a book. This was our first piano solo! The 2nd graders have been extremely supportive of each others' talents, and it's always fun to get to know each other better.

Super Scientist of the Week 4

Volcanoes | Super Scientist of the Week

Here's round one of volcano experiments.




Here's a picture from round two of volcano experiements. Unfortunately, I didn't get video as I ended up helping his dad out with his video camera. The boys ended up using different indgredients for their volcanoes (minus the baking soda), and that led to a good discussion.


Can't wait to see what the rest of the 2nd graders have planned for their experiements!

Super Scientist of the Week

 This post is specifically for parents who may have any questions of what the expectations are. Here are some photos and a video that I hope you will all find helpful for when it is your Super Scientist's turn to share his or her experiement.

Your child will bring home a bag 1-2 weeks prior to his/her scheduled week. The contents of this bag include two science experiment books and a journal.

Please select a simple experiement that your child can perform at school without any help. Make sure to practice the experiment at home.

Have your child fill out the Lab Report in the Super Scientist Journal. Please make sure your child write his/her HYPOTHESIS prior to the experiment.

When it is your child's scheduled day to share his/her experiement, make sure you send the bag and its contents back to school along with all materials your child will need to perform the experiement.

Here is a video of our first Super Scientist sharing her experiment.

Final results of experiement. (Your child can add a photo or drawing to the Results section of the Lab Report.)

If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll be glad to address them!