Introduction to Mapping

We made maps of our bedrooms!
We read some books about mapping, and then made maps of our bedrooms.
We discussed birds eye view and then used some real doll house furniture on a grid to represent our furniture.

This really helped with the scale of furniture (and toys) in the rooms.

Life Cycles

The Grade 2's are observing life cycles of butterflies and the life cycles of frogs. Then they will compare them!

We were really lucky to see some butterflies while they were emerging from their chrysalis. It usually happens in the early morning (dawn), but we saw many of them.

We have also been watching our tadpoles grow legs. It is really cool!

 

Composing 2 Dimensional Shapes

We have been learning about 2 Dimensional Shapes.
Our Learning Goals for this Unit are:

 First we learned what a polygon is, and then we learned the properties of different polygons.

 

We added geometry words to our Math Word Wall as we went:

Then we did a warm up -- we had all spent lots of time using pattern blocks, so this wasn't too hard.

Then the problem was introduced.
First we had to talk about how the word "least" has a few different meanings!
And one student asked if the hexagon had to be a "regular" hexagon (excellent question!) No it does not have to be regular!

 

Then we worked in pairs to solve the problem:
We are really learning how to show our work clearly!

One group found a way to create a hexagon with only 3 pattern blocks! AMAZING!

What we learned:

DPA

DPA is "Daily Physical Activity"
It is recommended that each day we have at least 20 minutes of sustained exercise.
On days that we don't have gym or pool, we do some form of exercise in the classroom, in the hallway, downstairs in Room 35, or outside.

I have been reading this book about how exercise helps our brains learn other things better.

One day last week we had a tabata challenge with Mme. LaFlair's class. For 4 minutes we alternated squats with seal jacks.

Here is a fast motion video of us during one of our sets!