"Egg"-citing Times
9/28/2019
This past week the second graders participated in our highly anticipated and always challenging annual 2nd grade Egg Drop! This project provided students with the opportunity to strengthen their Science and Engineering Practices as laid out by the Next Generation Science Standards. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations Working within a few parameters (they had to use a real egg, the contraptions would all be dropped from the same height with the same weather conditions, they had to work on their own to design, plan and ultimately create a contraption), students were challenged with the question "How can you protect an egg from a 30 foot drop?" Analyzing and Interpreting Data Students watched video of other egg drops before creation started and also used prior knowledge gained from watching past egg drops to help to create the best possible first version of an egg contraption that they could. Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions Building on their prior experience gained during the test drops, students used critical thinking to explain why their test drop was or was not successful. They then used that data as evidence of what they could re-design or strengthen in existing designs to produce their second version of the contraption for the official egg drop. Engaging in Argument from Evidence Finally students underwent a reflection process in which they took the outcomes of the final egg drop to explore the relationship between the contraption design and ensuing result for each of the students. They were engaged in discussions that moved from possible flaws in design to why people were successful. The discussion moved into talking about the generalities of gravity and why some of the contraptions fell at different rates. Some of the questions couldn't be readily answered such as "Why did the egg that fell out of the box and hit the concrete survive but mine that stayed in the box didn't?" because the students felt that they had insufficient evidence to come to a satisfactory conclusion. This type of discussion, reflection and questioning is what we strive for to further strengthen the critical thinking and communication skills of students. Arguably an equally important aspect of this project is the opportunity for students to strengthen their growth mindsets. Students learn that not everything will always go as planned. They work on overcoming frustration and disappointment to persevere through challenges that arise. They offer support and feedback and encouragement to their classmates. And through it all, they learn that it's ok to make mistakes and that is where real learning happens.
Seven Minute Stories
9/22/2019
"Mr. Robot guy was doing his normal clean up one day when he found some mysterious spare parts. Outside the base, there was a fish looking for his spare pieces. It was a secret base deep underwater. Another robot looked out the window. He saw something that surprised him. The alarm started to call all of the robots..." This was a story told by the second graders during a recent morning meeting. This new storytelling activity has been a big hit with the class. Tell Me a Story is a deck of creative story cards with just pictures. Students are given between 2-3 cards that they will need to play in turn to contribute to our collective story. Students take turns playing one card at a time and adding one sentence to help create the collaborative story. This is a great activity for several reasons. First of all, it is inclusive and everyone has a turn to be creative and add to the story in their own way, while simultaneously building upon a collective storyline. Secondly, the second graders really have to listen and pay attention to each other in order to follow the previously played card to continue a coherent story. They communicate ideas and suggestions to each other easily, while still respecting each student's contribution to the plot, no matter how crazy it might be. The third opportunity students have when we play this game is to practice using transition words or phrases to continue events in the story. Things like "Meanwhile..., Suddenly..., However..., But little did they know on the other side of the world..." are now being naturally used not only in this activity, but also in the student's writing as well. Oral storytelling has been a part of human history since there has been oral language. Research suggests that oral storytelling not only provides an opportunity for strengthening vocabulary, creativity and interpersonal skills, but that it also supports the improvement of critical thinking skills, active engagement in learning and narrative thinking abilities. These are all great skills that are reinforced in a quick seven minute game! You can find these games online if you wanted to have a deck or two for a quick educational time-filler! Agosto, Denise. (2013). If I Had Three Wishes: The Educational and Social/Emotional Benefits of Oral Storytelling. Storytelling, Self, Society. 9. 53-76. 10.13110/storselfsoci.9.1.0053. Community Minded
9/14/2019
One of the things we strongly value and strive to nurture at PNA is the sense of community. While the term community is often referred to a group of people living in the same place or having the same common characteristic, the Oxford dictionary also defines community as "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals." It is this result that we are all striving for everyday inside and outside of the walls of PNA. One might ask why this is so important and why we spend so much valuable instruction time in the nurture and care of our community. In a recent article in Huffpost entitled "The Importance of Community", the author identifies 5 questions to consider and reflect on when developing a community. Three of these questions are important for our purpose of building our school community. 1. What are your values and what values do you want to be aligned within the community? 2. What is the purpose and goal of creating or joining a community? 3. What do you have to offer the group and what do you want to receive? How can you share and collaborate? The answers and reflections from these questions lead to the idea that we are looking to build a place where students, faculty and families all play an equally important role in building a place where every member is loved, respected and supported. Not only this, but true communities motivate, push and drive its members to better themselves and their surroundings in a safe and goal-oriented environment. Here are a couple of examples in which our sense of community was strengthened over the last week at PNA. 2nd and 5th graders continued to develop their "buddy" relationships by enjoying some great books together. Middle School students enjoyed a retreat at nearby Birchwood Camp as they continued their important work of building a strong 6/7/8 community to embrace the joys and challenges that middle school entails. The second graders worked together during an exploratory time to collaboratively build this great land, encouraging and supporting each other along the way. Some friends spent their weekend supporting a fundraiser to end childhood cancer during the annual Trick or Treat in the Heat. The first round of Lower School ACE classes met together in multi-age groups where they enjoyed doing activities in these different electives that spoke to their own personal interests. The whole school turned out to support one of our own, Ms. Annie as she moves on to new opportunities and adventures. The students created cards, posters and gave out flowers as we lined the halls to say a bittersweet farewell to a much loved member of our community. And we are all looking forward to another of our much loved annual traditions - the Fall Outing next week. This is a time for more multi-age magic to happen as students in grades K - 8 walk over to a nearby park where they enjoy a picnic lunch and play games and engage in team building activities. The Fall Outing will end with the students supporting the past and current MS students at a ribbon-cutting ceremony to dedicate their student designed and created obstacle course in the woods near our school. That's what being community minded at PNA means - supporting, encouraging and growing alongside each other. Spero, Harper. "The Importance of Community" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-importance-of-community_b_6978186
It's a Growth Mindset
9/7/2019
You might have hear the words "growth mindset" in your conversations with your second grader this week. We began exploring the work of Carol Dweck, a world-renowned Stanford University psychologist. Dweck took decades of research on achievement and success and developed the mindset theory. There are two different mindsets according to Dweck: Fixed Mindset: This is the belief that intelligence and talent are fixed traits and talent alone creates success. In other words, you either have it or you don't. Growth Mindset: This is the belief that intelligence can be grown and that abilities can be developed through hard work and dedication. Perseverance, grit and determination all play a role in growth mindset. At PNA, students practice a growth mindset. They are engaged in challenges and opportunities for growth every day. Teachers support and lead them in developing a courageous and reflective way of thinking to not only come back from mistakes, but to not be afraid to make them in the first place. One way of doing this is to provide students with the language they need to "train their brain" and strengthen their growth mindset. Poster available at https://www.brainwaves.net/growth-mindset-posters--brain-train/ The second graders tackled some different challenges this week in order to practice their growth mindsets. Some of the challenges were easy and the students succeeded right away. Others required a bit more grit and perseverance in order for students to accomplish their goals. Some of the towers never held the weight they were supposed to and the students figured out that that was ok too. The best part about these challenges was not the successful creation of towers however. It was hearing the students not only speaking to and encouraging themselves, and reflecting on their designs but also how they began to encourage and help each other using phrases like "I'm sorry your tower fell down because I know you worked really hard on that. Want to try again?" and "Wow, it took you a long time to build that tower but it really worked!" The seeds of growth mindset in our second grade classroom have been planted and I can't wait to watch these kids bloom in their abilities this year! For more information on the idea of growth mindset, please see these resources. This article talks about the brain science behind growth mindsets. https://www.mindsetworks.com/websitemedia/youcangrowyourintelligence.pdf This site contains several short and kid-friendly videos that discuss growth mindsets and how you can train your brain. https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/growth-mindset-videos/ Carol Dweck's Mindset book is another great source of information on this topic. Building a Foundation
8/31/2019
We've had a great start to our year in second grade in the last 8 days. Students were excited and ready to be back and to explore our new classroom. Here are some quick glimpses of some of what we did as we started to settle into a positive learning community. PNA utilizes Responsive Classroom as our Social Emotional Learning curriculum. While there are many pieces to Responsive Classroom, one of the most important is that of our daily Morning Meeting. Consisting of a greet, game/activity, share and news & announcements, this ritual is paramount to starting our day off right. Below is one of the games we played during morning meeting this week. Another important part of Responsive Classroom is the collaborative creation of our class rules and guidelines. After discussing what the teacher's and student's jobs are in the classroom, the second graders independently brainstormed some rules and guidelines that were important to them. The next step was to sort their ideas into categories. From there, the students decided that some of the guidelines could be combined into one and others needed to remain by themselves. Once everyone was happy with the guidelines, they began to create posters for each one to hang up in our classroom. Students worked across the curriculum areas learning procedures and expectations for materials. They also worked on activities such as the Beetle Glyphs in math class and the Important Poems in Language Arts to tell their classmates a little more about themselves. The balance ball team building challenge offered students the opportunity to practice their communication and problem solving skills. While the first attempt was a success, the second attempt (with a larger ball) wasn't quite as easy. After a bit of frustration, the class agreed that they were going to think about it for a bit and try again next week. All in all, it was a very productive first days together as students learned more about each other, worked together to solve challenges and began to form the foundation for a supportive, creative and safe learning 2nd grade community.
"Summer Slide"
5/19/2019
As we approach the end to this school year, students are looking forward to a break from school and sun-filled days full of fun and play. Alaska offers a bounty of amazing things to do in the summer and students need this time to get outdoors, enjoy the fresh air and experience different adventures. Time spent with family and time for kids to just be kids are vital to a child's growth and wellbeing. However, we don't want them to lose the gains they have made this year in their academic work, especially in reading. "Summer slide" is a real thing. This infographic from Oxford Learning illustrates the issues associated with "summer slide." In an article entitled "Three Ways to Prevent Summer Slide", the Scholastic Parent Staff offer three simple ways to incorporate daily reading into a summer routine. 1. Six books to summer success: Research shows that reading just six "just right" books during the summer may keep a struggling reader from regressing and creating opportunities for flourishing readers to continue to strengthen their skills. An easy way to do this is to take advantage of our local library. They also offer a fun reading program that helps to provide just that right amount of structure to have a consistent reading plan for the summer. You can access the reading program for the Loussac Library here. You can also check out grade level book lists from Scholastic (book lists) or the Loussac Library (Summer Reading Suggestions by Grade booklists). 2. Read something every day: Encourage your child to take advantage of every opportunity to read. Find them throughout the day: Whether it's reading the cereal box at breakfast in the morning, to reading signs as you are driving around town, to dedicated sit down time in the evening, make sure reading is a part of every day. 3. Keep reading aloud: Reading aloud benefits all children and teens, especially those who struggle. There are many benefits in reading aloud, even to fluent readers. However, for struggling readers, they will continue to build comprehension skills, expand vocabulary and have exposure to fluent and expressive reading. Here are also some websites and apps that students can utilize to help keep their reading skills sharp this summer. Epic (www.getepic.com/) - This app is full of high-interest and varied books on a multitude of reading levels. Popular titles and an easy-to-use format allow students to navigate and read with ease. You can also keep track of the number of minutes students are reading and what books they have interacted with. Playkidsgames.com – Helps your students build and retain reading comprehension skills through interactive games. Opposite Ocean – The Opposite Ocean is a great app to improve student vocabulary and reading comprehension on the go. www.abcya.com/ - This website has interactive games on language arts, math and a multitude of other subject areas. Let's make sure that the only "summer slides" our students are experiencing this summer are the playground ones!Birchwood Camp 2019
5/11/2019
Spring Trips are a much anticipated tradition at PNA. From our youngest students to our world ready 8th graders, students of all ages take a culminating field trip at the end of each year ranging in distance and duration. While these trips are designed to tie into curricular topics students have been studying this year, the real benefit are the other gains that students make. Students are practicing independence and pushing personal boundaries and comfort zones. They are treated to valuable experiences and meet and interact with new and amazing people. Teamwork activities and community building are always a part of these trips and students strengthen the bonds with their classmates that they have been cultivating all year long. And of course, there is always a lot of fun thrown in! The mission of our school plays a huge part in the design and implementation of these trips, as it does in every day at PNA. Having the courage, vision and integrity to not only participate, but to really experience all that spring trips have to offer is the culmination of a great year as part of the PNA community. Here are some glimpses into what the first and second graders experienced on this year's overnight spring trip to Birchwood Camp. Lots of playground research, nature exploration, journal reflections, art activities, teambuilding...the list goes on and on! To be resilient...
5/5/2019
Merriam-Webster defines resilience as "the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” While this is the actual definition, it doesn't take into account what else is actually entailed by one who is resilient. People who can bounce back from mistakes and successfully adjust to change have a different mindset. They know that they have the power to do what is needed to not only take what life throws at them but also to use that as an opportunity to grow, learn and succeed. This week students and teachers at PNA were given the opportunity to exercise their resiliency. Due to a sharing of common spaces with an outside group, some classes were temporarily relocated to other rooms. Teachers and students were both put to the test to put their growth mindsets to work. When a challenge popped up, whether it was where to eat lunch, how to send groups of kids to where they needed to go, or how to access things that we were used to having right at our fingertips in our own classrooms, critical thinking, problem solving and a positive attitude rose above the challenge. These solutions came from not only the teachers but the students as well. Kindergarten took advantage of having an extra large room and utilized the space for their endangered animal museum. Second grade took advantage of being in the MS science lab to do some fun science experiments. And everyone pitched in somewhere - helping to man the front doors, offer to take extra duties, help to move furniture and classroom supplies, revamping lesson plans to utilize the spaces we were able to go, and more.
Since we as a school practice and expect this growth mindset, it has become second nature to not only the staff but the students as well to meet each challenge head-on with the knowledge that it's ok to make mistakes or deal with challenges and that we are going to come out better for it. 5 - 7 - 5
4/27/2019
The last parent gathering of the year for the second graders happened this past week. Parents joined us for a yummy taco bar lunch and then took on the role of the student as their second graders taught them how to write haikus. We are currently working in our last Lucy Calkins writing unit which is all about poetry. Haikus are a great way to introduce what Calkins calls "Seeing with Poets’ Eyes."
Students are introduced to the idea that poets "see with both their hearts and minds, and they write about the world in fresh, unusual ways". They continue honing their poetic craft as they develop the idea that poets are intentional with their line breaks and white space. They also learn that poetry is about passion, where they can put strong feelings and concrete details in their poetry to tell a story. They learn that the idea for poems can come from pretty much anywhere and that poetry takes on many different forms. Haikus are a great form for students to practice with as they offer opportunity to touch on each of these components that the Lucy Calkins poetry unit of study teaches. Utilizing the writing process, second graders work through their various forms of poetry, eventually publishing their work. Wax Museum 2019
4/20/2019
The 2nd grade annual Wax Museum was held as an exhibit as part of our first school Science Party this week. Students look forward to this project each year where they are able to choose a person of importance, study and learn about them, and then portray them as an exhibit in our wax museum. While this is quite a fun undertaking, there are plenty of opportunities to throw in some real authentic learning at the same time! After students have chosen the person they want to learn more about, they begin their research. The first step is to think about what they already know about their person, activating prior knowledge. They then come up with questions they have about the individual and dive right into their research. A combination of printed books, websites and other forms of text are used so students can form a picture of their person, including their history and achievements. Students then take that information and use an app on the computer to make a word cloud about their person. This word cloud contains adjectives and nouns that relate to that person. They really strengthen their critical thinking skills with this part of the project, as they have to be able to defend their choices with evidence. This word cloud poster is what the viewers see as they come to the presentation. What the viewers do not see is the back of the word cloud posters which contain succinct speeches that the second graders write. Students have to employ their summarizing skills in order to get the main gist of the person and their achievements in only a few short sentences. Once a museum visitor presses the "on" button located on the poster, the student "comes to life" and recites their speech, hopefully educating visitors about some of the scientists, mathematicians and inventors of our world. Another quite large component of the project is the backgrounds each student creates. These backgrounds also provide information about the individual as students have to really think where they should "place" themselves for the exhibit. This is where creativity of each student really comes into play. They are given a few parameters such as the backgrounds have to be made entirely of paper, they have to have their names and be a specific size. Collaboration and communication skills happen naturally here as students jump in to help each other create and solve problems together. Finally it is time for the opening of the wax museum. This provides a real world opportunity to hone communication skills as students are interacting with a large variety of visitors and working on their public speaking skills such as speaking loudly, clearly, and maintaining eye contact. Plus they get to celebrate all of their hard work with their friends and family!
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Marcella HitchcockMs. Hitchcock teaches second grade, is a mom of two, an avid reader, lifelong learner, and a seeker of sunshine! Archives
March 2021
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