Second grade did an experiment together relating to air and the sun. First, they predicted. Then they observed. Enjoy the action and excitement!
2nd Grade Air Bag experiment 2012 from YIS Academics on Vimeo.
A re-post from the YIS Elementary Blog…
On Friday 2nd November 2012, elementary held it’s weekly morning assembly under a clear sunny blue sky! The Grade 5 hosts did a fantastic job running the schedule. The assembly was also well attended by parents and visitors!
First, there was some birthday announcements for Ms Nanwani and Ms Quinn, and a special cheer for “Happy Halloween”.
Next, Grade 4N shared their learning from their recent Unit of Inquiry, Where We are in Place and Time; People continue to migrate for many reasons. Students shared facts about the Ainu culture through a creative “Do you know… ?” skit.
Then, Grade 2R performed an Australian story that was part of their Grade 2 Cross Cultural Lunch. The students told an Australian Indigenous story from the Aboriginal Dream time, where they sang and played Orff instruments and acted out parts of the story. The elementary music teacher, Ms Bridgewater, had collaborated with Grade 2 on their Unit of Inquiry, Where We are in Place and Time; People can be enriched by their own cultures and the cultures they connect with throughout their lives.
Friday Morning Assembly from Shanel Catasti on Vimeo.
Afterwards, the PTSA representative reminded the school community to come along to the YIS International Food Fair on Sunday 3rd November, from 10:00-15:30. After a few announcements from Ms. Pender, the Grade 5 hosts wishes everyone a “Freaky Friday”!
The first unit of inquiry grade two embarked on this year was a study of ways in which we are enriched by our own cultures and the cultures we connect with throughout our lives.
As we began asking questions along a line of inquiry exploring similarities and differences between cultures, we struggled with ways to collect and make sense of the answers.
Among the Mathematics learning outcomes for this year, in the Data Handling strand, is the Conceptual Understanding that Data can be collected, organized, displayed and analyzed in different ways. This was a perfect opportunity to bring together Maths learning with our Inquiry studies.
Students began by building on the sort of questions that had been bubbling up already by brainstorming a wide range of curiosities about differences and similarities amongst families and cultures.
I challenged them to find answers to their questions from our class. Each student chose a different question of personal importance or interest and used their previous knowledge of collecting answers to their questions to go about surveying their peers.
Each student had recorded the data in different ways so we took some time to analyze the features of their data collection systems and students explained the thinking behind their strategies. One student recalled having made graphs of data in the past, as a way of clearly presenting the information, so students discussed what they remembered about this, and had a go at making their own from the data they’d collected.
We compared the varied graphing strategies students had used and the conclusions they had been able to draw from their data. We followed this with a discussion of what we thought some of the most successful features of data collection systems had been, that had allowed for us to most clearly, accurately and quickly collect information.
In small groups, students worked together to build new data collection tools, based on our previous discussions and examples, to most effectively get answers to the questions they were posing.
Students collaborate on a data collection tool.
With these complete, groups presented their tools to the class and used the questions and suggestions to refine their tools before trying them out.
Students present their collaboratively-created tools for class questions and suggestions.
Finally, it was time to put our team-created and class-critiqued tools to the test, by surveying the class. How accurate, clear and fast would the tools allow our data collection to be?
Students test their tools by surveying their peers.
Having collected data with their tools, groups used the Two Stars and a Wish reflection strategy to identify two elements that had worked exceptionally well about their designs, and one feature they could improve upon.
We shared these with the rest of the class and developed a collaborative list of features we all considered key to making a data collection tool as Fast, Accurate and Clear as possible.
Students used this list to support their posing of a final, independent question. They each created their personal, ultimate data collection tool and surveyed the class.
Students apply new understandings in creating their own super-data-collection tools.
Finally, we came back to the discussion of graphing and presenting our data. I introduced the simple graphing features of the Pages application to the class and we looked at how our understanding changed depending on the wide variety of ways we could display the data. Some students considered pie graphs to be most appropriate for communicating their answers, others preferred bar graphs. Each student explained the thinking behind their choices for a way to present their data.
We reflected on our learning through this process as being a design cycle. We looked at our original data collection tools and graphs, how they’d been improved through discussion and group work, then further improved by presentation and critique, tested by trying them in action, better understood through reflection and sharing our learning and finally improved in our individual final tools and graphs.
In reflection, one student mentioned proudly how much better his final survey and graphing worked, compared to his first attempt. Yes, agreed another, but we could still make them better next time…
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The orange posters above are from the classroom display I created to document this inquiry process. All photos are my own.
This past week’s Team Time, always a favourite in second grade, took on a whole other shape when it turned into Mad Science Team Time!
In honor of our new unit ‘Climate affects people’s lives‘, the grade 2 students enjoyed weather-related science explorations and experiments.
Students had the choice of investigating wind, water, or air pressure!
Enjoy the slideshow…
Second grade have launched into our second unit of inquiry of the year. This one falls under the transdisciplinary theme of: HOW THE WORLD WORKS
Central Idea: Climate affects people’s lives.
Key Concepts: function, causation
Related Concepts: systems (water cycle, weather), seasons, atmosphere, climate, weather creation: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, clouds; weather instruments, seasons
Lines of Inquiry
The water cycle and how it works
The causes of weather
How weather affects people’s choices
Student questions about hurricanes… These launched two days of collaborative and independent inquiry, and got our new unit off and running!
The arrival of the typhoon a couple weekends ago was a great provocation to launch our inquiry and students did a whole bunch of research to answer their questions about hurricanes (aka typhoons).
We will be doing a ton of inquiry into these topics over the coming weeks and you can support your child by engaging in discussions and explorations at home as well. Some families check the weather report together each morning, others actively discuss it when planning what to wear each day, or what to do on the weekend. Use your creativity and enjoy exploring together!
Students used measurement skills and water to explore concepts and attributes of air pressure.
During this unit we will also be exploring measurement in various forms, including linear, capacity and temperature.
Lars, Lisa and Hannah had just read The Magic Schoolbus: Inside a Hurricane for 2R Book Club. They decided to do one of the little experiments described in the sidebar… See Hot Air Rise. After an unsuccessful paper spiral, they switched to a heavier card and presto! It worked! In this video, Lars and Lisa describe what is happening, why they think it’s happening and how it connects to weather. Enjoy… And try making your own!
See Hot Air Rise: An Experiment from YIS 2R on Vimeo.
This post is from Lisa in her own words…
Today I did Ikebana, Ikebana is something you use with flowers. We put different kinds of nature on a small spiky board (forgot the name) and created a type of decoration…we wrapped the flowers in to newspaper and I bet you would enjoy it, just like I did!
Use this Voicethread to take a look at my culture collection. If you’d like to leave a comment, question or connection, that would be great! You can use video, audio, text or drawing!
As part of our unit of inquiry People can be enriched by their own cultures and the cultures they connect with throughout their lives, second grade have had the opportunity to collaborate and get a taste of many of the programs at YIS’s International Center for Japanese Culture. Check out earlier posts for details on our experiences with Japanese Calligraphy, Dance, Sushi-Making and more. This week we were invited for a taste of Taiko drumming. Enjoy our mini video-slideshow!
Taiko Drumming for 2R! from YIS 2R on Vimeo.
Dear Parents,
Thanks for showing your support and joining us at last Wednesday’s Back to School Night. I hope it helped you get a clearer understanding of second grade at YIS, what your children will be doing and how you can be involved.
As I promised, here is the photo taken at the end of our session (apologies if you don’t feel you look your best!). Please feel free to use this post as a mini-forum for asking questions that went unanswered at BTSN. Just leave a comment and we’ll talk! Alternatively, I’m always available by email and quite regularly just by showing up at the classroom door.
More soon,
Jamie Raskin & the Grade Two team
