We had a great time this week learning about Spring!
In Reading, we read a lot of books about eggs and learned about what animals are oviparous and which animals are viviparous.
In Writing, we did Tools of the Mind all about spring themes. Tools of the Mind is new way of writing we have been learning about. The students make a play plan of what they would like to act out on a specific topic, for example made a play plan for going on an egg hunt. The students had to write what they were going to do first, next, and last. After the students wrote out their plan they were given the opportunity to act it out in class. Finally, the students went back to their seats and reflected on their play time and wrote down any other activities they acted out. The students seem to truly enjoy this form of writing and it gives writing a purpose for most of them.
In Math, we were learning about telling time. We made flower clocks and learned how to tell time using a digital and analog clocks. We discussed hour and half hours. Be prepared for requests from your child for a watch, it seems to happen every year!
In Science, we had a blast creating hypothesis and watching experiments throughout the week. On Monday, we placed peeps in different liquids and made hypothesis's on which liquid we thought would dissolve the peep first: vinegar, soda, apple juice, laundry detergent, or water. Throughout the week we observed, wrote and drew the peeps. We also experimented with eggs. On Monday, we placed the egg in vinegar. On Tuesday, we noticed the egg's shell had disappeared and we decided to put the egg in a different solvent to see what would happen. We put the egg in corn syrup and made our hypothesis on what would happen. Everyone thought the egg was going to get bigger and explode! On Wednesday, to our surprise the egg shrunk! We were so excited about the changed that we put the egg in a different liquid, water! At this point the students had no idea what was going to happen, a chick might hatch, it will get smaller, it will get bigger, it will explode, it will disappear! On Thursday, the egg got bigger and we decided to mess with the egg a little! We took a tooth pick to the egg and watched it squirt out all of the water!
To finish our week we had an exciting Thursday! Our second grade friends came in to help us create an egg shaped bunny in the morning. In the afternoon we went on an egg hunt outside in the field!
