Ready...Set...Launch!

For the past several weeks, our 2nd graders have been transformed into Scientists! Although we have considered them to be Scientists all year during Science Workshop, they are now scientists during writing. We've been asking questions about how th world works, making hypotheses, creating something to test multiple times, holding symposiums to analyze our results, and writing conclusions! Take a look a that we've been testing:

It all starts with a question we can test, and writing our hypothesis based on our previous scientific knowledge. 

Then, our friends invent! They think of ways to make a catapult and test it multiple times. 

We can't forget to record PRECISE procedures for building and testing. W also have to include labeled diagrams to teach and give warnings if needed. For this one, you might want to mention "heads up!" 

And of course, we have to record our results.

Before we state our conclusion, we HAVE to have a symposium! It's when scientists come together to discuss their results, ask questions about it and come up with possible answers to help them write their conclusions.

Finally, we write a conclusion where we reflect on our hypothesis, ask new questions about why and how and state possible explanations. 

Our friends are such smart and inquisitive scientific authors. What will you test? 

Ready...set...launch!!!!! 

Readers to Leaders

Today we celebrated our fabulous readers with Readers to Leaders Bingo! Keep reading and logging your books friends!

"Lettuce" be thankful for Science!

During the month of October, we were studying the needs of plants and our class got to plant lettuce. We watched them grow from teeny tiny seeds to full grown lettuce, noticing all the changes it went through and finally being able to have every friend harvest the lettuce today. What an amazing experience for us all! Salad anyone? 

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holiday from the Pom-bitos!

It has been a wonderful first half of the year. We are sorry for not blogging as much as we would have liked to, but as you all know, life can get busy and time slips away so easily. We will do our best to put blogging back on the top of our to-do list in the new year!

We are extremely proud of each of our fantastic second graders for their wonderful performance of December in Our Town. They spent months learning songs and choreography, spent countless hours practicing, and for many, stepped out of their comfort zones to speak on stage. They were amazing!

And we'd like to say a special thank you to Ms. Kia for her time and effort in getting our props and costumes ready for our production. We would not have been able to do it without you!

Happy Birthday Ms. Pomeroy!

We have spent the day celebrating Ms. Pomeroy! Tomorrow is a big birthday for her and we have enjoyed showing her how much we love and appreciate her. 

Here she is showing off the Venus Flytrap that our friend G brought as a gift for her:

Science never tasted so good!!!!

Today we had a taste test in science....with dirt!!!! 

No, not real dirt, dessert dirt. We made dirt cups for students to observe. Right away they started describing it with their taste buds, but we quickly reminded them to think like scientists to make their observations. That's right, we made them stare at it for a long time before they could eat it (muaaaaa haaaaa haaaaa). Our students are so in the routine of science practices, that they quickly began to create a list of things we know and what we want to know. Our observations included things like, some parts look moist and some look rough, why is it brown, is all soil brown, is sand a kind of soil, I noticed there are layers, etc. Our little scientists surprised us with all of their questions and observations! 

Today, we looked at three different soil samples, however we did not eat these! Students were asked to make observations with their senses of sight and touch and record them in their soil journals. Tomorrow we will learn the names of the soils and understand each type, and where soil comes from. Do you know the three types of soil? 

Congrats A!

Congratulations to our friend A! A takes Taekwondo at the same school as my nieces, and I was excited to come watch him test for his orange belt this morning. A showed his strength and perseverance, and I am SO proud of him!

Way to go A!