Oceans!

Wow!  Can you believe we are nearing the end of September and we haven't even made one post!  We have been super busy in second grade learning our classroom routines and as much as we can about oceans!  We began our study locating and naming the worlds oceans and continents.  We needed some perspective for our class discussions.  We used atlases to help us locate and name the continents and oceans and worked together in small groups to create these awesome maps.

We have also been learning about wind and waves.  Did you know waves are formed in two ways?  Most waves are wind waves but there are also waves that form when earthquakes or underwater landslides occur beneath the ocean. These waves are called seismic waves and can be very dangerous.  A seismic wave is also called a Tsunami. You can learn more about Tsunamis by watching this great video.  

After we learned about Tsunamis we made these cool diagrams so we could explain what a tsunami is to our parents.  Next we will be learning about the Water Cycle and the oceans important roll in this incredible process.

Dinosaurs!

We are currently working on creating a question and answer book about dinosaurs through guided research. Today we will try to find answers to the questions we have collected from our reading.  We will be using some really fun iPad apps as well as these websites here!

Create your own Playlist on LessonPaths!

Pacific Walrus

Today we are learning about the Pacific Walrus!  We are going to learn about and observe walrus behavior by watching this video.  We will then take careful notes in our Arctic Journals.
)

Polar Bear Adaptations

Today we watched this video and recorded what we learned about polar bears adaptations.



Here are some of the facts we learned:

Did you know that polar bears have fur everywhere?  Even in their arm pits!

Polar bears have long, narrow noses so they can fit their heads into small spaces...to get those seals!

Polar bears grow quickly.  Their mother's milk is 30% fat. 

An 8 month old polar bear can weigh up to 200 pounds!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Yesterday we celebrated Dr. Seuss and all his wonderous work!  We dressed up as our favorite characters, read Dr. Seuss Songs and Poems, began Dr. Seuss Reader's Theaters with first grade, listened to Dr. Seuss stories read by some of our high school friends, made Oobleck, crazy sox, ran in a relay and painted our feet! We also ate a delicious Cat in The Hat snack and watched the original Lorax with our first grade friends. Fun, fun, fun!

Glacial Movement and Erosion

Today we are learning about glacial movement and erosion.  After watching our video we will draw pictures and write captions in our Science Notebooks to share our learning with our classmates.

Glaciers!

Currently we are studying the Arctic.  As scientists we are interested in how glaciers form.  We learned how glaciers form by watching this excellent video.  After watching the video we journaled about the process in our Science Notebooks.