A day full of unique opportunities...
After our Early Release yesterday, the second day of the week was filled with some regular events and some out-of-the-ordinary experiences. We continued with our latest installment of book clubs with Mrs. Black's class. We are enjoying some books on the environment as well as fairy tales, a unit of study Mrs. Oeth has continued with Second Grade in the Spring of each year. We have moved quickly from an introduction to fractions to a study of money in math. The 2D Rocks are stellar mathematicians, enjoying money exchanges, identifying amounts and playing a variety of monetary games.
Recess and lunch today were followed by some time dipping our hands in buckets of glue! We helped paper-mache the giant globe which will be part of the Earth Day celebration this Sunday. (We hope everyone can make it to this fun-filled event!) After paper-mache, the 2D Rocks went to P.E. to race around the track for their Presidential Fitness test. The Rocks were worn out, but still smiling at the progress they made!
From P.E. we moved on to Organ Day. Dr. Bezant, a middle school biology teacher, organizes a day for his biology students to see real organs provided by doctors whose children attend Academy. He extends an invitation to the rest of the school to come and visit his classroom during the event. The 2D Rocks were able to see a brain, an eye, a heart, as well as a skeleton, intestines and an ankle socket. We had some great conversations to follow this visit: "The heart isn't really the shape that we draw it," "They said the brain was spongy," "Intestines kind of look like chewed up gum," and "Our bones look like plastic."
Finally, we came back to the classroom to write about our experiences. We ended our day with a special presentation by Mr. Ahern, parent of another second grade student in 2C. Mr. Ahern works for the EPA, specifically on air pollution. He shared many slides of the effects of air pollution from reduced plant size to sooty buildings, leafless forests to smog. He also brought in two different machines used to collect data on air pollution. It turns out inside our building we have less than 9 ozone parts per billion while outside today the air was 30-40 parts per billion. Those people with asthma would notice more difficulty breathing if the level were about 70 parts per billion. We were in the clear today.
After a busy day, I hope your 2D Rock finds a little peace this evening...
especially since we'll be at it again tomorrow!
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