Little Free Library

On Monday we paid another visit to Mrs. Van Nice's "Little Free Library" on Orchard.  We were so excited to see Mrs. Van Nice and she was excited to see us!  After choosing a book she gave us superhero bookmarks AND superhero popsicles.  What a great way to spend the afternoon!  When we got back to school we read our books to each other.

Don't forget that every Thursday this summer there will be a special reader at the Cove Library waiting to share a fantastic book and activity related to superheros.  Hope to see you there!

Thank you Mrs. Van Nice!

Geodes!

Last Monday we began an inquiry unit of study on rocks. We have been building our background knowledge about rocks through reading, viewing and observing. Today was by far the most exciting day of our inquiry and observations!  We had a bag full of geodes that Mrs. Van Nice gave us.  With hammers, eye protection and 16 excited second graders we headed outside and got to work. Oh my goodness, if only we could have bottled all that excitement! Not a single geode was alike and we all waited with great anticipation for each geode to crack (explode) open. Some of them were a little stubborn but we all persevered.  After everyone took a "whack" at their geode, we headed back inside to look at them more closely.  We can't wait to continue our study of rocks next week! Thank you so much Mrs. Van Nice!

We are EXCITED!

Fourth graders came to see what we were up to and enjoy the show.

Three of our rock hounds.

Beautiful.

WOW!

SD breaking up his geode.

BC works at cracking open her geode.

CG likes what she sees!

Observing our geodes with a black light.  Very COOL!

Fire Safety

You should not play with matches or lighters!  Our friends from the Cove Fire Department and the Forest Service taught us this today.  We learned that you can start a fire if you play with matches or lighters.  If you play with matches or lighters in the forest you could be responsible for killing wild animals like deer, porcupines, mountain lions or elk.  You could also injure a family member if you play with matches and lighters.  As you can see matches and lighters can be very dangerous.  DO NOT PLAY WITH THEM.  MATCHES AND LIGHTERS ARE NOT TOYS!!!

Cove Firefighters are showing us their masks and tanks so we won't be afraid of them if there was a real fire.

We gave the firefighter a high five so we could feel his glove.

At the end of the assembly we gave Smokey and Sparky hugs and high fives.

Happy Spring!!!

Yesterday we used our mad geometry and art skills to create these sweet bunnies hiding in the grass. Don't you love how unique each bunny is? They are so adorable!!!

Phases of the Moon

We studied the phases of the moon last week.  The moon changes as it orbits the Earth.  There are 8 phases the moon goes through.  The phases go in this order:  new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent and then it cycles all over again.

This is a diagram that we made with Oreo cookies to show the phases of the moon.

This is a phases of the moon flip-book.  When you open a flap it tells you about each phase of the moon.

We made pictures of the 8 phases of the moon for our classroom.

Galaxies

We read Gail Gibbons book Galaxies, Galaxies! and then created the four most common galaxies with Elmer's glue, glitter and our imaginations.  We live in the Milky Way Galaxy which is a Spiral Galaxy.  Our galaxy is about 100,000 light years wide.  Our solar system is located in one of the arms of our galaxy.  It would take us 30,000 light years to travel from our solar system to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy!

Constellations

We have just begun a unit about Outer Space!  Our first order of business was learning about stars and constellations.  We have learned many exciting facts about stars.  Did you know that most stars live for billions of years?  Stars may also be yellow, orange, white, red or blue.  As stars get older they get bigger. They are huge fireballs of gases in outer space.  Ancient astronomers studied the night sky and many of the constellations we see in the sky today were named by them.