2N presents The Digestive System

Grade 2N – The Buzzing Bees has been working on the following stop-motion animation project of the digestive system in class.

First we began by tracing an outline of our friend “Alma” then all students worked to create the various parts of the digestive system to be included on our poster. Students were then asked to move pieces of food through the system while Mr. McKillip took photos of each step. Through shared writing, we as a class wrote the script to describe the steps involved in digestion.

Finally, students used microphones to read aloud the script we created to describe the whole process. We hope you enjoy, thanks to Mr. McKillip for all his help, it was lots of fun!

2L Digestive System Animation Project

The Lively Ladybugs have been spending the past several weeks making an animated movie about the digestive system. Since Chisha, one of our classmates, was preparing to move to Dubai, we used his face and body outline as our template. We made each of the organs of the digestive system and glued them onto Chisha’s body. Mr. McKillip came into our classroom and helped us take more than 100 pictures as we moved a little piece of paper food though the digestive system. All of the pictures were put together and made into a ‘stop-motion’ animated movie. We worked with Miss Lane on a shared writing activity to explain what happens to food when you eat it. Then Mr. McKillip brought a microphone into our classroom and helped us record. We combined this audio recording with the pictures and now we have a complete animated video. Check it out!

Biff! Bang! Pow! – Onomatopoeia

As part of our ongoing poetry unit, students have been exploring onomatopoeias. What is an onomatopoeia? An onomatopoeia is a word that is used to represent a noise or a sound.

Here are a couple of examples from Faris and Sage:

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Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Aryan shared with us an article titled Costa Passengers Describe Panic As Cruise Ship Crashed Into Pier from USAToday online.

Aryan stated that, “On the 7th of May in Egypt, a cruise ship crashed into a pier. There were holes on one side of the ship so the captain turned the ship so it would not sink.”

Aryan continued by stating, “I think this article is important because three people died and three other people got hurt.” He also shared with the class, “I wouldn’t want to go on a cruise ship because it might crash.”

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Faris shared with the class an article titled, Earth-Friendly Fabrics from Science News For Kids online.

Faris told the class, “This article is about companies that make fabric out of bamboo and corn. People began to understand the need to protect the environment. They started new ways of making fabric using natural products that are easily replaced.”

Faris shared the following facts, “Bamboo fabric is made in the USA, Canada, China, India, Taiwan and Turkey. Corn fabric is made in the USA and China.” Faris continued by saying, “I think this article is important because we need to save our planet Earth and to keep the environment clean and healthy.” He concluded his presentation by saying, “I was surprised to learn that fabric is made this way and I think this is good for the environment.”

Faris used the following slide presentation to share information about his article.

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Thank you Aryan and Faris for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Shape Poems

As Grade 2 students continue to explore the genre of Poetry, we decided to experiment this week with Shape Poems. What is a shape poem? We looked at objects and talked about how each object has an identifiable simple shape. For example, the sun is the shape of a circle, a house can be the shape of a pentagon or an ice cream cone can be a triangle with a round top. A shape poem is a poem that follows the outline of a simple shape to create an picture of an object.

Students thought about shapes as they chose a topic for their poem. Once students had a topic, they then brainstormed ideas and made a list of words and phrases they thought might work for their poems.

Students were given a blank sheet of paper. With a pencil, students then lightly drew the shape of their object/topic. Students then wrote their poem following the shape outline. Students were encouraged to ‘stretch’ their ideas/sentences using interesting words and phrases in order to fill all of the space needed to complete their shape(s).

Here are a few examples of our Shape Poems:

Bertha’s Ice Cream Shape Poem

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Insiyah’s Flower Shape Poem

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Jodie’s Butterfly Shape Poem

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Sage’s Moon Shape Poem

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Edward’s Tree Shape Poem

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You can practice creating your own Shape Poems online:
readwritethink.org – shape poem creator
wildaboutwoods.org – concrete poetry maker

Please leave us a comment to let us know what think of our poems AND if you or your class have also created Shape Poems, send us your website information and we will link you or your class to our site.

Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Lucca shared with us an article titled Une Nouvelle Espèce de Léopard (A New Species of Leopard) from lesclesjunior online. Lucca explained to the class that this article is about a new species of leopard that has recently been discovered in Borneo.

Lucca said, “I think this article is important because it is rare to find new species of plants and animals. It is very important for our planet to discover new species.”

At home, Lucca spent time creating colorful posters to share information and pictures with the class during his presentation. Lucca also shared the following video as well.

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Aidan shared with the class an article titled, Triple Fossil Find Puts Australia Back On The Dinosaur Map from Science Daily online.

Aidan explained to the class, “Scientists have found three new dinosaur fossils in Queensland, Australia.” Aidan continued by saying, “I think this article is important because lots of people have worked hard to find these fossils and it is cool to know that there are new species of dinosaurs being discovered.”

Thank you Lucca and Aidan for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Acrostic Poems – The Knight And The Dragon

As Grade 2 ventures into the world of author Tomie dePaola, we also started to learn about different types poetry. This week, students are looking at acrostic poems with a focus on character traits.

After read the book The Knight And The Dragon students were given a choice of writing and illustrating an acrostic poem for either the dragon or the knight – developing each character by choosing a word for each letter and then writing a sentence to explain the connection between the word and the character from the story.

Sage wrote an acrostic poem for both the knight and the dragon. She included the following illustrations with her poems. Here is her dragon poem.

Dangerous – The dragon is dangerous.
R oars – The dragon roars a lot!
Angry – The dragon is angry.
Good – The dragon is good.
Order – The dragon’s books are in order.
kNight – The dragon fought the knight.

Danni wrote an acrostic poem about the knight. She also included illustrations of the knight, dragon and the castle. Here is her poem and picture of the castle.

Knife – The knight has a knife.
Nice – The knight is not nice to the dragon.
Idea – The knight has an idea to kill the dragon.
Gate – The knight’s castle has a gate outside.
Happy – The knight was happy because the dragon helped him to cook the Bar-B-Q.
Teeth – The dragon’s teeth are sharp.

Learning About Grammar – CONJUNCTIONS!

Grade 2 students love using conjunctions in order to get their point across. As a matter of fact, grade 2 students love conjunctions so much that they keep their sentences going on, and on, and on, and on…

We are focusing on how to use conjunctions (or joining words) the right way – to connect words, phrases and clauses ( and not to make run-on sentences).

To introduce conjunctions we watched Conjunction Junction – from School House Rock:

Learn More About Conjunctions!
Try playing the BBC Bitesize Ballon Joining Word Game to practice using and learning more about conjunctions.

How to… (Procedural Writing)

Grade 2 students are currently learning about procedural writing. Today students got the opportunity to teach others how to do a magic trick – The Jumping Paper Clip.

Students used the online resource WikiHow to find examples of “How to…” or procedural tasks. We found the article “How to Connect Two Paper Clips without Touching Them” and felt that this would be a good example to use for our magic trick lesson.

Students followed the directions and completed the task. We reviewed each step and helped each other to make sure everyone was able to successfully complete the magic trick. Mr. McKillip took pictures and made the Jumping Paper Clip outline for students to follow.

As a whole class, students worked together to fill out the Jumping Paper Clip outline. Students then wrote their own steps in order to teach others how to do the Jumping Paper Clip trick. Here is what we wrote:

Grade 2 students visited other teachers and classrooms, reading their step-by-step procedures, teaching others how to successfully perform the Jumping Paper Clip.

More information about Procedural Writing:

eHow – Procedural Writing Activities for Grade Two

Update for Our Families

Dear Grade 2 Families,

Welcome back from what we hope has been an enjoyable and restful holiday. As we settle back into classroom routines, we would like to take a moment to update you on various aspects of the Grade 2 curriculum for this first part of Term 3.

As is the IST policy, all Grade 2 students will be receiving homework two times a week. These activities are meant to be a review of what has been done in class and your child should be able to complete the homework independently. The purpose of homework for Grade 2 is not only to give extra practice but also to instill a sense of responsibility in students and prepare them for upper grades.

Maths
Your child is beginning to explore 3-D and 2-D shapes. Studying geometry helps develop spatial sense and the ability to represent and describe the world. Students will consider five basic kinds of 3-dimensional shapes: prisms, pyramids, cylinders, cones, and spheres. To sort the shapes, students will explore similarities and differences among them. They will become familiar with both the names of shapes and the terms for parts of shapes.

Students will also explore line symmetry as they experiment with matching two halves of an object and, when given half of a shape, will draw the missing half.

I Like to Move It, Move It
As we begin our next PYP unit of inquiry, we investigate the realm of Simple Machines. Each PYP unit has a core or central idea. Our central idea for Simple Machines states: “Simple machines are used to move objects in different ways and influence our daily lives.” Key concepts are ideas and concepts to help students gain a better understanding of the central idea. Our key concepts are: FORM: What is a simple machine? FUNCTION: How do simple machines work? What happens when they work together? CONNECTION: How do simple machines affect our daily lives? REFLECTION: What evidence have we collected to support this idea?

On this website under ‘Students‘ there is a list of internet games and resources that allow your child to further explore Simple Machines.

Literacy
In conjunction with this scientific, experiment-filled unit, we will be focusing on procedural writing. This includes making lists of materials and equipment, focusing directions in a chronological order of steps, numbering each step, using action words to start each short sentence, and using diagrams or illustrations for clarity.

Your child will continue to bring a book home from the classroom daily. Please ensure that your child has been written in the Link Book each day and reads for at least 15 minutes each night.

Spelling
Sitton Spelling proves to be a valuable resource to IST for several reasons. It gives additional structure and purpose to our ever developing language curriculum as well as, and more importantly, makes connections between spelling, writing and reading.

Occasionally we will send home Sitton Spelling letters to parents that explain a concept we are learning in class, followed by an activity to do with your child that allows for further practice. Unless otherwise noted, these activities are not required homework and do not need be returned to school, however, its completion is encouraged.

Grade 2 will have a great unit full of action and exploration. Please ask your child what is being done at school and read updates here on IST Grade 2.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments. We are looking forward to another great term!

With Enthusiasm,
The Grade 2 Team