Newsletter: Thursday, March 6th

Dear Parents,

This week we have been exploring weather with Ms. Nozsa. Mother Nature has been a willing participant in  this inquiry as there have been somewhat drastic weather changes from day to day (especially dating back to the recent snow, ice, and then 80 degree days). Here's an update from Ms. Nozsa explaining what the kids have been up to...

Last week we began weather with one of my favorite books as a child, Thundercake by Patricia Polacco. The story focuses on Patricia as a young girl who at the time is terribly afraid of thunderstorms, but overcomes her fear as she helps her grandmother prepare thundercake. The class seemed to enjoy the read aloud and some of the kids were even familiar with it. Afterward we took some time to explore some fiction and non-fiction books on many different types of weather in order to get our minds churning. I generated a list of the weather ideas that the students were curious about. After the list was created the possibilities with weather seemed endless.

Since our initial introduction of weather we have created our own weather journals and many weather instruments. Our weather journals consist of "Daily Weather Forecast" that the students take turns presenting to the class, a "Weather Tools" section that we fill in as we create and explore each of the tools, a "Glossary", and coming soon will be our "Severe Weather" section. Creating weather tools such as a rain gauge, an anemometer, and a wind vane has been everyone’s favorite part. We are all taking the time to observe these tools and we are recording our results carefully because as true meteorologist that’s what our job is to do. So be prepared for a weather lesson or daily forecast from your 2^nd grade meteorologist because we’re all eager to share our data and new knowledge!!!

Here is one of the rain gauges we created for our garden.

This is our wind vane. We have oriented it with a compass.

In math we have been exploring data and graphs. Over the course of a week, the kids generated survey questions, gathered data (responses from classmates), and created multiple graphs to share this data with others. We concluded by working to read and answer questions from bar graphs and pictographs.

Bar Graph

Statistical Graphic (Artistic Graph)

 On Wednesday Ms. Nozsa combined our inquiry of weather (namely, wind/air force) with our mathematical studies. The kids blew on various objects with a straw, measured and recorded how far they traveled, and found the median value of their measurements. It was math in action, to be sure. Next week we will begin generating strategies to solve complex subtraction problems.

Blowing the pencil to see how far it will travel.

Preparing to measure the puffy ball.

Working to measure to the nearest half inch.

Launching the wood cube.

In reading we have been enjoying book clubs. This is a time to read a book with a group of friends and get together daily to discuss what we are thinking around these stories. The books selected this time around are: Katie Kazoo, Clementine and the Spring Trip, Talented Clementine, Gloria Rising, George Brown Class Clown, Andy Shane and the Pumpkin Trick, and Freckle Juice. At the beginning of the week each group came together to decide how many pages they wanted to read each day. Our goal was to finish our books within a week. Ms. Nozsa, Ms. Melanie, and I are a part of these groups as well. Our preparations for book clubs over the past few weeks has helped us to learn how true it is when people say Reading is Thinking. Our heads are filled with so many connections, questions, predictions, reactions, and more. Book clubs provide us an outlet for these thoughts as the kids work together to negotiate new understandings and share favorite parts.