Ice Boards! (Scroll down after this for regular weekly post)

 Our final Mystery Science challenge was building an Ice Board that a rider could sit up on, using the principles of force and motion we have studied. These scientists were very creative!

Weekly News 2-6-26

 Weekly News for 2-P 2-6-26

 *Thanks for sending coats, mittens, hats and boots, plus indoor shoes daily!

*In math we started unit 7 and the kids are loving the chance to do some measuring. We are working on the equivalencies of 1 yard = 36 inches = 3 feet. We are practicing measuring around the room with inches, yards and feet - so many things to measure. We also learned about centimeters and meters. The kids are improving their measuring accuracy and are solving simple measurement word problems easily!

*Our reading workshops were focused largely on reading books by Chris Van Dusen to get ready for his upcoming visit next week. We are so excited to meet one of our favorite authors and illustrators. 

*In social studies this week we kicked off a new unit on economics. We learned about natural resources, consumers, producers, goods and services.

 

*In writing we worked on another type of descriptive writing - this time with a journal entry. Students brainstormed events and details about a particular day and then drafted pieces that sequentially relayed the information. We continue to work on creating clear, complete sentences, and using adjectives and details to elaborate on our topics. This week our grammar lesson was on possessives - so we are just starting to learn when to use an apostrophe to show ownership. This will be a work in progress!

*Our focus was on word endings (ing, ed) in spelling this week. During our phonics time we practiced suffixes (silent letter words and reviewed many vowel teams).

*In Go2 Science Beth and Curtis brought us along as they explored lava tunnels and a very unusual forest on the island of Santa Cruz. We also got to see them find MANY Galapagos tortoises and find out how people are trying to protect these interesting creatures! Our mission is closing soon and we haven’t seen any evidence of penguins - Beth and Curtis remind us we have to follow the evidence to do good science! 

Grammar Game "Roll a Sentence!"

Math partners solving measuring problems

Go2 Science Observations

Working with a Guidance guest teacher on ways we can INCLUDE everyone!

Author's Circle- sharing our poems

Playing a fun UFLI game together

Lots of measuring this week

We LOVE our tape measures!

Nonfiction text partner work

FUN SNOW!

Scientists engineering ice boards

Spelling challenge game!

We recorded everything we measured around the room with our tape measures.

Weekly News 1-30-26

Weekly News for 2-P 1-30-26

     *Thanks for sending coats, mittens, hats and boots, plus indoor

shoes daily!

*In math we kicked off unit 7 on measurement. We worked on identifying

what an inch is, why we need standard measurement units, and also

began to work with feet and yards. Kids love measuring things around the

room. We are working to carefully line the ruler up with the beginning

of the object to be accurate. Using our personal tape measures has been a big hit!

 

*In writing workshop we worked on more descriptive writing - but this time

with poetry. Students chose an animal and brainstormed sensory details to

describe this animal and how it acts. Again our grammar tie-in was adjectives

so students got lots of practice coming up with interesting words to help the

reader picture their animal. The extra challenge was that this poem had to

rhyme. This was harder than it sounds! The kids showed a lot of perseverance

working through this piece all week! 

*Our focus was on inflectional endings (s, es) in spelling this week. During our phonics time we practiced dipthongs (oi and oy) and vowel team review words.

*In Go2 Science Beth and Curtis took a boat ride to the far end of San Cristobal

as they continued searching for penguins. No luck so far - but good scientists

know that sometimes this happens when you are trying to find the answer to your

scientific questions! We learned a lot about the blue and red footed booby birds

and their very unusual feet! Curtis donned S.C.U.B.A. gear to dive deep, and

Beth surveyed the surface while snorkeling. There are amazing animals at this

new location, but it did not seem like the penguins call this remote rock their

home. More research next week! 

*In science we completed the Mystery Science lesson called “How can you

unlock a door using a magnet?” To investigate magnetic attraction and repulsion

we tried to build a useful product; a magnetic lock that can open a paper door.

Tricky stuff, but we persevered! 

We enjoyed using rulers to measure around the room as we learn about inches, feet and yards.

So much snow!

We wrote a class poem about penguins and shared our revisions to our own animal poems.

We really liked using our personal measuring tapes!

One of our last force and motion explorations was figuring out how to make a door that a magnet could open.

We tried lots of techniques and strategies.

Sample magnetic door

A little birthday treat for a new 8 year old friend!

Finished animal poems!

Maine Maritime Museum

 

The "storm" in the sea

Building an old ship