Moon

We watched an awesome movie about the moon today!

This is what we learned...

• Moon is shaped like a sphere, just like the Earth. 
• It is 1/4 the size of Earth. (Like a tennis ball next to a basketball) Because of this, it has less mass. 
• Telescope make things that are far away look like they're close up.
• The moon does not have water on it. 
• The moon has lowlands and highlands. 
• The moon has no atmosphere so it has extreme temperatures. 
• The moon has craters from large objects in space hitting the moon
• Comets are large balls of ice and dust that usually have a tail
• Asteroids are made of rock and metal. 
• Meteoroids are like small asteroids. 
• The force of gravity depends on the size of the object so the moon goes around the earth because the earth is bigger.
• The moon is closer to the earth than to other planets, which is why the moon goes around the earth. 
• The moons gravity is 1/6 of gravity on earth. 
• Rotate means spin. The moon rotates (spins)
• Earth moves around the sun. 
• Phases of the moon are all the times that moon looks different in a month.
• We see only the part that has sunlight reflecting on the moon. 
• Waxing is when the lighted side is getting bigger 
• Waning is when the lighted side is getting smaller.
• A while sky of moons would still only be 1/5 as bright as moon
• The moon and the earth play tug-of-war over the ocean waves. 

Here's a great link for looking at what the moon looks like in different phases. 

Regrouping

When I was in school, I learned the old school, "borrowing" way. I did it, and I got my answers correct, but I had no idea why I was crossing out the tens and changing the ones. It was totally mindless for me.
While it was nice that I got my answers right, it is more important to deeply understand place value.
That is part of the reason we teach all sorts of methods before we go into "borrowing."
Also, it is no longer called "borrowing." It is now called, REGROUPING.

I put my regrouping worksheet on teacherspayteachers for free!

Here is a video of me doing the worksheets.

The way we are told to teach regrouping is by first looking at expanded form.
Expanded form means that you look at the value of every digit in a number and adding them together.

For example 623 becomes 600 + 20 + 3

So how does that translate to borrowing regrouping?
If I am taking 623- 351 that becomes
  600 + 20 + 3         I can take 1 away from 2. But I cannot take 50 away from 20. I need to borrow   
-300 + 50 +1          regroup. So I change the problem into
___________

500+120+3

-300+50+1     

______________

200+70+2

272

How To Brush Your Teeth

How To Brush Your Teeth

List of Materials:
A tooth brush
Tooth paste
Water
Sink
Mirror
Mouth wash (maybe)
Teeth
Hands
Cup

First, walk into the bathroom.
Take a look at your teeth in the mirror.
Take your tooth brush out and keep it in your hand. Then, turn on the faucet. Put the bristled part of the toothbrush under the water stream. Leave it there for three seconds. Turn off the water, by turning the knob.
Get out the toothpaste. Unscrew the lid and put the lid down. In one hand you should have the toothbrush. In the other hand, you should have your toothpaste. Squeeze a little bit of toothpaste onto the bristled part of the toothbrush. The amount of toothpaste should be about the same size as a ladybug, or two. Carefully, put the lid back onto the toothpaste. Put the toothpaste down on top of the counter.
Slowly, bring your hand that has the toothbrush up to your mouth. Put the bristles with the toothpaste inside your mouth and move your hand back and forth so that the bristles go against your teeth.
Do this 10 times for the top teeth and 10 times for the bottom teeth. To do the sides of your teeth, bring your hand forward and back. Be sure to brush your adult teeth extra well.
Brushing should last about 2 minutes.
 Put the toothbrush on the bathroom counter. Turn on the faucet so that water runs. Put your toothbrush (the bristles) under the water for three seconds and take it out. Put your toothbrush into the cabinet, or drawer where it belongs.
Get a cup, make sure the water is going into the cup. Turn off the faucet. Then put the water from the cup into your mouth and gargle it three or four times. Last, spit it out into the sink.

Math Strategies

Math in second grade is all about strategies.
When I was in school, math was all about memorization.

Instead of memorizing that 8 plus 9 equals 17. My kids are told to use a variety of different strategies.
For example, I know my doubles facts (8 plus 8 equals 16, really keen!) so I know that 8 + 9 is one more than 16, which is 17.
Or they could say, I know my doubles facts (9 plus 9 is 18 jelly bean!), and so one less is 17.
Or they could say, I know that 9 needs one more to make 10, so if I take that one away from the 8, I have 10 plus 7, which is 17.

Also in addition, they are told to look at "partial sums" rather than the "carrying it over" way I learned. This is supposed to help them really understand place value.

Here is a video of Beck showing the "Bridge to ten" and "do subtraction, think addition" way. 

Procedural Text

To start off our procedural text unit, we made a list of things we are experts in...
In the form of a chart that says I know how to do, make, and be.

Here is the link to my TpT page for procedural texts.

I showed this video about Curious George learning how to make a pinata. 

I also had the brilliant idea to make stress balls with my kids using a youtube how-to video!

Here is the link to a free list of transition words!

Here is Rachael with her chart.

If you notice... she wrote down doctor. When I asked her about this, she said it is because she has put band aids on her little sister. 

Fractions in Miss Dower's class

We collected data and learned....

7/18 wore crazy socks.
1/1 teachers are eating pizza.
4/18 like chocolate ice cream the best.
3/18 doesn't like ice cream at all.
5/18 like strawberry the best.
6/18 like vanilla the best.
9/19 like Minecraft the best.
3/19 like red the best.
10/19 like blue the best.
2/19 like green the best.
4/19 like pink the best.
11/19 have brown eyes.
11/19 like puppies.
0/21 have black eyes.
12/21 like winter the best.
7/21 like summer the best.
0/21 like spring the best.
2/21 like fall the best.
5/21 own glasses.
19/20 like fruits better than veggies.
11/20 like chocolate chip cookies the best.
1/20 like mint cookies the best.
6/20 like Oreos the best.
2/20 don't like cookies at all.

Poetry

We are finishing up with writing poetry. Each kiddo chose one of their favorite poems to publish, and then to read aloud to put on the blog.

Here are the poems! 

MLK

Next week we have Monday off.
HOORAY!
But even more important than having an extra day to sleep in (and try to get over Cedar fever) is Martin Luther King and the example he set for us.

My mom came in to read a few books about the hero, Martin Luther King.

I have a dream speech.

MLK Song for kids.

Our Friend, Martin (61 minutes)

After reading some MLK stories and talking about him, we wrote our own dreams.

Here's Emilee's.

Here are some of my favorite MLK quotes:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

This isn't an MLK story but it's a great story about overcoming racism.... White Socks Only

Don't forget to check out the Friday eFolder.

Duck or Rabbit

Counselor Lesson today!
We talked about team work and perspective.

Mrs. Hougham read the book Duck Or Rabbit


This story talks about different perspectives. Do you see a duck or do you see a rabbit??

Mrs. Hougham split the kids into groups of 4 and the kiddos have to work together to make cards into a high tower.

We wrapped up by talking about the importance of teamwork! 

Cars Experiment

Today we did a science experiment involving ramps and cars. We measured how far the car would roll based on how high the ramp was. Did the car flip? Turn? 

What if we pushed the car? etc.

Things we learned:
The higher the ramp, the more often it would flip over.
The higher the ramp, the faster the car went.
If you put the ramp low, the car won't flip and will go farther.
If you pushed the car too hard, it would flip over.
The reason the car flipped was because the front of the car would bump.
If you put the ramp really high, it will flip lots of times.
Sometimes the car would flip and the roll.
When we put the ramp in the middle it would go the farthest.

This experiment gave us an opportunity to go over lots of science vocabulary words such as:
observing, collecting and recording data, gravity, motion, experiment, variables, energy, increase, decrease

Movement of objects

Today we did an experiment about what objects do which movement. 

Ready to learn!

Spinning tops

Rolling cars

Emilee pointing to where an object will go in our Venn Diagram

Materials:

• Dice
• Tops 
• Soda can
• Cars
• Balls
• Pennies
• Plastic Dinosaur

Vocabulary Words:

• Roll
• Slide
• Spin
• Motion
• Movement
• Observe
• Record
• Venn Diagram

Here's a Bill Nye video about movement.

Fraction Pizza

I showed this Fraction Pizza Song and then we made our own fraction pizzas!

I got the idea off of Pinterest. God bless Pinterest.

Inside their pizza they wrote the fractions. 

Motion

My kiddos waiting in line to roll down the hallway. 

Slide- movement along a surface
Roll- turning over and over again
Spin- twirl around a point or axis

Those were what the Stemscopes defined the words as... when we defined them we said:

Slide- moves flat and doesn't turn
Roll- moves from one place to another, turns top to bottom, top to bottom again and again
Spin- doesn't move to a new place, goes side to side

We went out in the hallway to practice

Beginning Fractions

We are starting our fractions unit! To check out my fractions pack on TPT click here. 

In Math the main ideas I want my kiddos to understand are:

1. Fractional parts are equal shares or equal sized portions of a whole or unit.

2. Fractional parts are named to tell how many parts of that size are needed to make the whole. (halves, fourths, eighths …)

3. Fractional parts can be counted just as wholes can be counted. (one fourth, two fourths, three fourths, …)

4. As an object is partitioned into more fractional units, the smaller the size of the units. As an object is partitioned into fewer fractional units, the larger the size of the units.

5. The parts that an object is partitioned into are equal sized fractional units.

6. A fraction is a relationship between a specific whole (unit) and the part of that whole that is being considered. 


I started off by reading The Doorbell Rang.
If you don't have your own copy, here's a video of the story

Then I had my kiddos sort picture cards into categories of "Fair" and "Not Fair" to encourage the idea that fractions are EQUAL parts of a whole. 

Welcome Back

Our winter break is finished!
I have to thank my wonderful parents/students because I went and saw several movies over the break thanks to their gift cards, enjoyed many Starbucks chai teas, and even bought myself some cute nail polish at Target. Ya'll are the best and I appreciate those gift cards SO MUCH.

I also found a hilarious picture from my very first Christmas to share...
Check out the matching jammies as well as the matching chubby cheeks.


I hope that everyone is coming back refreshed, happy, and ready to learn.
We're jumping right back into things with...

Science- Force, Motion, Energy (specifically magnets) We're going to start this week off with the Bill Nye video about Magnetism. Does every one remember him? He was my best science teacher ever.

Things we learned from the video:

• The earth is a giant magnet because it's core (middle) is mostly made out of nickel and iron
• The three things that stick to magnets are iron, nickel, cobalt
• Opposites attract
• Magnets have a North end and a South end
• Attract means to draw closer to
• Repel means to move away from
• A compass will always point North
• Iron is made of electrons
• When electrons move, it causes electricity
• 
  

Math- Fractions
Reading- Poetry
Writing- Poetry

In Science the main ideas I want my kiddos to understand are:

·        Changes in the amount of light can affect how objects appear.

·        Changes in the amount of heat can cause physical changes to objects.

·        Changes in the amount of sound energy can cause objects to move or vibrate differently.

·        Magnets are useful in everyday life.

·        Without magnets, many devices such as tools that require electric motors will not work.

·        Forces cause objects to move and change position over time.

·        The motion of objects can be observed, traced and described.

·        Patterns of motion such as sliding, rolling, and spinning can observed and compared.