Scientist of the Week #7

Scientist of the Week #6

Dental Health Month

This past Monday we started our dental health unit. We read the following books with wonderful information about what we can do to keep our teeth healthy.

     

The class created a web to organize information that they already knew in addition to what they learned from the books about how to keep teeth healthy.

 

The kids drew diagrams showing the parts of a tooth and self-portraits in which they labeled the types of baby teeth they each have or have had. To close out our unit, we will conduct a science experiment using eggs to demonstrate how different drinks affect our teeth. In addition, a special guest will come and talk to us about being a dentist in our local community. She also happens to be the mom of one of our 2nd graders!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year started on the 10th and lasts for fifteen days, so I thought the kids would enjoy learning about Chinese New Year as well as some customs and traditions. One of the first activities we did was learn (or in most of the kids' cases, try to learn) how to use chopsticks. We watched a tutorial on YouTube that was helpful for some, but not so helpful for others like the poor little frustrated first grade boy in this picture. (Too funny!)

We also watched professional lion and dragon dancers compete. The kids and I were absolutely amazed at the skills of these dancers. We made red paper lanterns and hung them up along our windows. The kids used their senses to describe a fortune cookie. I made white steamed rice for the kids, and we took tally marks and filled out a bar graph to show the results of who did and didn't like to eat rice.

See the video below to view footage of the most popular activity during our Chinese New Year unit - the kids took turns ordering food and drinks as well taking orders as a waiter/waitress using our local Chinese restaurant's menus. The restaurant not only provided us with menus, they were kind enough to also donate fortune cookies and chopsticks. Thank you, China Wok!



I did promise the class that I would share a few of the YouTube videos that we watched in class to for this unit. Here they are.





I used activities from these units that can be purchased over at teacherspayteachers.com:

     

Scientist of the Week #5

Scientist of the Week #4

For this experiment we started in the classroom but even after we had turned out the lights there was still too much ambient light streaming through our blinds. (One of Florida's many perks!) We ended up moving the experiment to the girls restroom. What an experience that was!

Anchor Charts - Nouns, Verbs, Vetebrates, and MLK

Thought I'd share some anchor charts that the kids and I have created to show you some of the things that we have been learning. As you can see, I have a thing for sticky notes. I think it's a teacher thing.

The noun and verb anchor charts were inspired by pins I found on Pinterest. The one on vertebrates I came up with myself. The kids drew their own examples for each group of animals.

Here's one that we did prior to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. We created two different diagrams to show what we learned about MLK.




























































This is the craftivity that we did as our culminating activity. After watching MLK's "I have a dream..." speech, the kids documented what their current dreams are.

MLK activities are created by of my very favorite teachers who blogs and creates amazing resources for teachers, Rachelle Smith over at What the Teacher Wants. You can download the mini-unit HERE.


A closer look at two of my first grader's work. Love that Miss J drew the butterflies on her blanket and the moon outside her window and that Mr. K wants to be a teacher someday. I would have never guessed! I love my firsties!

Here's a video on MLK that I shared with the kids. It is my favorite one to show.

Field Day

This past Friday our school had its annual field day. All the students in the school were divided into four groups and competed against each other, earning points in fun games and activities. I think my personal favorite was watching the kids participate in a screaming contest. The goal of the game was to see which student could run furthest while screaming. Once they ran out of breath they had to stop running. In order to be fair, each student got their own turn to run. (We have a small school, so it didn't take too much time.) I'm proud to say that one of our 2nd grade boys placed third behind a 3rd grader and 6th grader! Unfortunately, I don't have any video any of our games - I was busy supervising and laughing from all the fun we were having. I do have a few picture to share.

Here are some of the kids getting ready for their turn in the "Don't Drop the Marshmallow" game.

This is one of our 2nd grade boys representing his team in the saltine crackers eating content. He competed against 6th graders, and one of them was his brother!