Dear Parents,
In the Friday Folder today, we sent home information about next week's curriculum night (6:30-7:30 pm, Wednesday, in Horizon House). We understand that weeknights are hard for folks to go out if you have young children. We will provide childcare here at ABS for the event for those whose children are old enough to be out 'til 7:30 pm.
We started our science study this week. We posed the question: "What will happen to a raisin if you drop it in a glass of Sprite? Will it float, will it sink, or will it do something else?" Students got into pairs, and they worked through the scientific method from "question" to "hypothesis" to "experiment design" to "data collection" to "conclusion." We also did three trials. Ask your child what he or she found out about raisins and Sprite. You may even want to have them redo the experiment at home. All you need is a clear glass, raisins and a clear soda like 7 up or ginger ale. As you could imagine, it's the carbon dioxide bubbles that make the raisin "dance". On Monday, we are going to take it one step further by trying it in water and then trying it with Sprite and a marble, a bean, a piece or wooden macaroni, and a wooden bead.
Next week's science challenge: "Who can build the strongest house for three little pigs?" Each group of students will get a miniature pig. Their task will be to create a house for their pig to live in. Once all the structures are done, the big bad wolf (a fan) will blow on each house one by one to see if it can blow the house down. This weekend, I'll send out a list of the kinds of materials (ex: toilet-paper rolls, etc.) that we will need (maybe you have some in your recycling bin?)
Writing: We finished our first writing pieces: "What I Did Over the Summer." I'll be hanging them in the classroom over the next couple of days.
Reading: We are getting our routine down for our reading logs. Thank you, everyone, for supporting your child in reading at home and in completing the reading logs. The kids get excited every Friday to see if they "have enough minutes." We focused this week on reading genres. There is a question at the bottom of the reading log this week asking your child to tell what are his/her favorite reading genres. This info is actually quite helpful to me in my getting to know your child. Thank you in advance for helping him or her to fill it out.
2nd-Grade Math: We have been working on AM and PM this week. If you have a clock in your child's bedroom, please double check to make sure that it works correctly. We had one child say, "I have breakfast at 2:00 am every day." "You do?! How is that possible?" "Well, actually, it always says, '2:00 am,' Maybe it's broken."
We have also figured out that the colors on the days on our class calendar make a pattern that is a growing pattern (red-green-red-green-green-red-green-green-green, etc.) Today, we played "Race to 200" as a way of practicing our addition facts.
Potatoes and Mangoes: as you know, we made the most delicious French Fries on the planet on Monday out in the garden (and we cut up and passed out pieces from a couple of mangoes. Next spring, our exiting 2nd-graders will plant a new batch of potatoes for next year's class.
We'll be taking a Field Trip to the Shelburne Museum on September 26th. Unfortunately, we cannot cover the cost of chaperones ($5.00), but we would love to have you join us if you can. Let me know if you are interested!
Calling all classroom volunteers! I am almost ready to schedule-1n my classroom volunteers. I have been communicating with several parents about this. if you would like to volunteer, but you haven't yet contacted me, I'd love to hear from you. It's always a lot of fun, and classroom volunteers are an essential and valuable part of the learning equation here!
That's it for now. Hope you are staying warm. Have a great Saturday and Sunday. Seven weeks 'til Halloween!
Mr. Bolger
No comments:
Post a Comment