Happenings in Second Grade

February has flown by for the second grade. We celebrated Valentines' Day together while eating yummy treats and exchanging cards, started and finished our pioneer crafts, and had the S S S S during language arts. Here are some pictures of the girls participating in all these fun events!

The beginning of our Silent Reading, Sipping hot chocolate, Slippers, and Stuffed animal event! 

YUM!

Even the teachers joined in on the fun!

   In math we have completed our multiplication unit and started our measurement unit. The girls are enjoying measuring objects around the room. During this unit we will be predicting length as well, which the girls love.

More Scratch Jr.

During Technology the girls have continued to work in Scratch Jr., a coding app for younger students.  Our final project is to create a game using all of the buttons we have learned.  Students had the choice of creating a game that required the main sprite to collect objects while going through a maze or to avoid an enemy while going through a maze.  Each girl has shown creativity and problem solving while creating amazing games!

Science: Native American Houses

The girls learned about some of the properties of the materials used in our Structures unit by experimenting to see how they could be manipulated and put together. After studying Native American tribes throughout the country in Social Studies this fall, they were asked to pretend that they were Native Americans living on the Bryn Mawr campus 800 years ago. The girls walked around the campus woods to visualize the materials which would have been available then. They thought about how people would have constructed their houses. Then they integrated what they learned about the materials we worked with in order to design and make models of those houses.

It was important to plan before starting construction.

The structure was anchored to its base.

The framework was prepared.

The structure was checked for rigidity.

Bracing was provided to make the structure more rigid and sturdy. The next step is to add a roof and walls.

From the Library

In Library we read two books in which characters are swallowed whole by lions: Maurice Sendak's beloved Pierre, and then Mac Barnett's Chloe and the Lion. Ask your daughter how these books were alike (not very, except for the lions) and how they were different. We then moved on to two books about coats: Jim Aylesworth's My Grandfather's Coat, in which a young immigrant sews himself a wedding coat and wears it until it's worn out, then makes from the good parts, a smart jacket, and then a snazzy vest which he wears to his daughter's wedding, a beautiful tie, and then a toy for his grandson. A mouse uses the remaining scraps for her nest. Finally nothing is left of the coat except the story about it. We then read Lauren Mills' The Rag Coat. In this story the leftover bits are put together into a patchwork coat, each rag with its own memory and history.
Girls have been challenged with reading, before the end of the school year, a book from our paperback offerings and a book from the sometimes-overlooked bottom shelves.

Scratch Jr.

The girls have been working hard in the Scratch Jr. app.  We have learned how to delete, add, and edit a sprite, add more sprites, change the background, and use the majority of buttons.  Using these skills we have created a race with three sprites that move from scene to scene.  We will continue our work in Scratch Jr. this month.