This week finds us wrapping up our year in 2nd Grade. Today, we began our residency through the Right Brain Initiative with artist Lisa Wilke. Students learned about the different ways glass is made through nature and talked about the history of how glass has been used. We saw samples of glass made by meteors, glass made by lightning hitting sand, and glass made by magma. After we learned how glass reacts when it is heated, students moved through three stations. They had a chance to cut glass, make a necklace, sort glass by opaque and transparent, and order pieces of glass from least to most fused. Later in the week, the class with create a fused glass mural of animals at the pond. The mural will focus on the animals found at various parts of the pond: the muddy bottom, open water, surface skin, and outer bank or riparian layer.
In addition to working on our pond unit, students are continuing to work with Kristina on their research writing project. Each student is writing a nonfiction book on a topic from Kristina’s Environmental Studies unit. Students are incorporating elements from our Nonfiction Features study to the writing they are doing. Each chapter includes one or more of the following features: labeled pictures, captions, diagrams, cutaways, comparisons, maps, titles, headings, table of contents, and an index. After editing their writing for clarity, punctuation, spelling, and neatness…students will celebrate the writing process with an Authors’ Share.
This week, we continue our exploration with the addition and subtraction of two digit numbers. Students are learning how to use an open number line to add or subtract two numbers. They are also working with base ten pieces in addition to using the standard algorithm of borrowing and carrying.
