Marshmallow Worlds

We are continuing to learn more about 3-D solids and have been building models of them using toothpicks and marshmallows. Students are learning about the number of vertices or corners (marshmallows) and edges (toothpicks) on each 3-D solid. They are working in groups to make "Marshmallow Worlds" including zoos, boats, cities and castles.

Ask your child what his/her group is building and what 3-D solids he/she built for this project.

Big Dig

  

 

We bought the Dinosaur Dig off a Scholastic order. We got it because keep on buying things for the class from Scholastic. We had tally marks and we had a bunch of stuff if we were going to choose anything: Sponge Bob, Scooby Doo, but the Big Dig had more tally marks.

We were looking for the bones of the dinosaur and then we took them out.

We used tools to dig the bones out and under the bone, there was the picture of the bone in the sand. We used a special kind of hammer to hammer some of the sand.

When we found some of the bones then when we were digging for bones we saw a bump and when we opened it it was different because it looked like all the bones together but we only found one. They were all separate.

There were two different parts of the dinosaur, the head and the body. First we dug the body and we found lots of pieces and after you find all the pieces you use all the pieces and make the dinosaur.

I was the one who washed all the bones off and I was starting to build it and I only got a little bit far because you need to glue gun it.

When we were making them we saw some fossils and we didn't even notice they were in there and when people were breaking the rocks, some people were breaking the fossils too.

3-D Solids

 

We have gone on a hunt around the school for real life objects that resemble the 3-D solids we are learning about: cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, prisms and pyramids. We learned that rectangular prisms are by far the easiest to find. We had to venture into the gym cupboard to find a greater variety of 3-D solids!

Students have been tracing the sides or flat surfaces of the 3-D blocks we have in the classroom. We have learned that a sphere has no flat sides and a cone has only one.

We have also been sorting the shapes. For example, let's put all of the solids with square faces in this group and all of the solids with triangular faces in this group... Are there some solids that belong in both groups?

Now look for 3-D solids at home! (Note: The "cuboid" should be called a "rectangular prism".)

Blue Spruce Reading

 

 

Blue Spruce is an annual reading program organized by the Ontario Library Association. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 2 from across the province will be reading these same books and voting on them. New books are chosen each year and they are always great picks.

So far we have read four of the ten books. Ask your child which one is his/her favourite so far and why. Then try checking out other books by that same author.

Painted Faces?!

Your child may have come home with a painted face yesterday. Today the students are going to explain what we were doing.

....

We were making Pokemon cards and we painted our face to make them look like Pokemon cards. We painted our face because we are putting our faces on the Pokemon cards. We are going to make our own Pokemon cards and today we made little costumes for our animals to be Pokemons too. Some of us are doing Yu Gi Oh cards.

Grade 2 Science Experiments

We mixed hot chocolate.

1. Everybody put in two scoops of sugar and one scoop of cocoa.
2. We got to stir it for 5 seconds.
3. We added water.
4. We mixed the water and the cocoa and the sugar together.
5. We put it into the pot of hot milk.
6. We mixed it.
7. We poured it into cups.
8. Everybody got 5 marshmallows in their cup.
9. We drank it.

We made magic mud.

1. We got the ingredients.
2. We put in water and cornstarch.
3. We stirred it.
4. We put our hands in it.
5. We had to wash our hands really well!

Written by the grade two students in Mrs. James's class.

Legoland Stories

At Legoland there was a pitch dark slide and then it turned into an orange slide and there was a jungle gym too.

When I went on the pitch dark slide it turned red and then I was screaming in the slide and then I got out.

There was this ride where you had to shoot the bad guys and there was points at the end too and I won in my group.

In the movie theatre, when they raced in the winter, snow came down onto people and when it rained, rain came down on people.

To get onto the laser slide, you had to go through this tunnel and it has a waterfall in it and all this Lego and then you have to press buttons if you want to move them, but if you press one it turns on the propellers and it spins really fast.

We were building really really tall towers and the teacher said you have to build it really strong. The girls' tower fell down because it was too skinny. Our tower was really really strong because my smacked it by accident and it never broke. We put the pieces on really tight.

We had a really big base and then we made it bigger. At the top we made it skinnier. We put a roof on top and a door at the bottom.

-Written by the grade one students in Mrs. James's class