Mystery Reader #1: Mr. Semmen or Mason?

 1) I work in the school.

2) I love football.

3) I work with 2nd graders a few days a week.

Mason has been our first mystery reader ever since he was in 3rd grade.  Every year he writes his clues in hopes of tricking the class into thinking it is Mr. Semmen.  A few students did guess Mr. Semmen this year, but a few students felt certain it was Mason.  They were right!  It was Mason.  Each year he reads his favorite Piggie and Elephant book: "I Will Surprise My Friend."  Thanks for reading to us Mason!  We love having you in 2nd grade!

Engineering an Egg Drop

 In our engineering unit, we've learned that engineers need to use creative ideas to build or take things apart.  They also need to be great problem solvers who are willing to try things in a new way if they don't work the first time.

In order to put these skills to use, the students built an egg drop box with a few limited supplies.  Each group was given a shoe box filled with 1 toilet paper tube, 2 cotton balls, 1 styrofoam cup, 2 paper towels, 2 popsicle sticks, 2 straws, 2 pipe cleaners, and a roll of masking tape.

On day 1, the students created their boxes without the egg.  They had to make some assumptions on how the egg would fit into their design.  On day 2, the students were given the egg and many groups had to problem solve a new design based on whether or not the egg fit into their original design.  

This project also gave the students another chance to collaborate with a partner and practice listening to each other's ideas and working together.

The goal was to keep the egg safe for 3 different heights of dropping.  We dropped off a desk, off the landing of the stairs to the new gym, and off the outdoor stairs by the preschool park.

After each drop, groups may have had to redesign if their egg broke from the drop.  This was a fun project!

Egg drop construction:

Egg Drop #1: 10 out of 11 eggs survived!

Drop #2: 10 out of 11 eggs survived!

Drop #3: 10 out of 11 eggs survived!

Poetry Books

 Over the last month 2nd graders have been working hard on writing and adding artwork to four different poems: acrostic, portrait poem, haiku, and two words on a line poem.  As we learned about each new poem, the students wrote two to three poems and picked their favorite to conference with me.  Then artwork was created for each poem.  We ended our books with a page all about the author.  Their books turned out beautiful!  Earlier in the week, we shared our finished books with first grade.  We will keep them on the rug for a bit for the students to enjoy before sending them home.

Spaghetti Noodle Towers

 We started our engineering unit last week.  We've learned that engineers build things to solve problems.  They use creative and innovative ideas.  We've also learned there are different types of engineers.  Some may create new things, some take things apart to see how they work, and some study why things don't work.

Our first task as engineers was to make a tower out of spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.  Each small group was given a box with 30 noodles and 30 marshmallows.  Before the groups got started, we discussed the importance of teamwork and using words of encouragement with each other.  I let the class know that it's okay to feel frustrated when your ideas don't work the first time and asked them how they would handle it.  They all agreed that as engineers they needed to just try a new idea if their first idea didn't work.  The class also said it would be important to listen to each other's ideas.  The students were so excited to get to work! 

After the first work session, it's not uncommon for groups to end up with snapped noodles and gooey marshmallows.  The class soon learned that marshmallows and noodles are not stable building materials, but they did not give up!  We talked as a class about what was working and not working.  Groups suggested ideas for other groups to try such as doubling up noodles to make them stronger.  In their next work session, they were given 10 more noodles and 10 more marshmallows.  In the third session they were given 10 more noodles and 10 more marshmallows.  Each group ran into challenges and worked together to problem solve a way to get a standing structure.  

We measured our towers yesterday.  In the end, it doesn't matter who had the tallest tower.  I'm proud of each group for their teamwork!

Opinion Writing

 We started our opinion writing unit by reading the picture books "Not Norman!" and "The Best Pet of All."  We discussed how each of us can have our own opinions, and they can be different from each other.  Each student chose what they thought would be the best pet or the worst pet to have.  The students were given the task of writing a topic sentence and then adding ideas to a bubble map to support their opinion.  We used these ideas to write two paragraphs ending with a concluding sentence.  The class came up with some pretty convincing reasons to support their opinions!

We used this same process to write about the best part about ourselves.  I love this writing project!  The students write about very sweet details to support about how their eyes, hands, feet, heart, and other topics they chose help them each day.  These are beautiful pieces of writing.