Category: Second Grade

The second graders are busy exploring the properties of sound and learning about the parts of the ear. They have done many experiments to see how sound waves travel. They held a clock at the end of a yardstick and listened to see if the sound traveled through the wood. They struck a tuning fork to see what happened if you held a ping pong ball on a string and let the tuning fork touch it or if you put the tip of the tuning fork in a bowl of water. They discovered that sound travels through solids, liquids, and gasses and without vibrations there is no sound. The children also brought in sounds for us to guess and even learned to sign their names using the manual alphabet.

The second graders are hosting a bake sale on Thursday, March 2 from 2:30-3:30PM in the Hoot Owl room. We are raising money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Later in the month members of the Contra Costa County Guide Dog Raisers will be bringing some four legged friends to meet us. We will then present our donation. Please come to our bake sale and support this worthy cause.

Last week, the second graders went to Chef Chao in Moraga to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Great food and great conversation. It was a wonderful experience enjoyed by all.

The second graders enjoyed reading their original fairy tales to some of the younger students at Saklan.

The second graders have been working very hard on their Dragon and Fairy Tale Unit this month. They read stories in their Open Court reading series as well as many additional fairy tales and fables.

The next task was to write an original fairy tale. This involved mapping out their ideas, writing a rough copy, editing, final copy, and then illustrating their stories.

This unit also included several fun art projects. The second graders designed and painted a castle cover for their fairy tale unit, painted a water color picture of an imaginary dragon, and lastly made “egg carton” dragons. This unit has been a lot of fun.

Second graders are working on their Family Heritage Unit. The children have completed many family projects: a family tree, memory box, ancestor clothespin dolls, finding the origin of their names, and a paper quilt square that tells about their special family. A very important part of this unit was when the second graders interviewed one of their grandparents about life when they were young.

They are now working on a Past and Present book comparing their grandparent’s life to theirs. In class they made passports and wrote stories imagining they were immigrant children in the early 1900’s coming to America. This unit is a wonderful keepsake and a time for the children to discover some of their family history.