The 2nd graders started their day by either finishing up adding their moon base design to their Book Creator portfolios or creating some fun space-themed teacher appreciation and Mother's Day cards. The students then got a lesson on giving productive feedback on their classmate's work. Productive feedback is specific, connected to the project success criteria, and sandwiches critical feedback with positive observations. If we don't know what to say, we can also just ask a question. Today, we focused on only positive (glow) feedback, and students added their feedback as comments on Book Creator. This will be a big focus in 3rd grade and beyond. A couple students didn't get a lot of feedback today, so we will work on protocol in the future to ensure that everyone gets plenty of positive praise about their amazing work!

The students then worked on a mini project that we will continue next week all about lunar survival skills. They imagined that they crash landed on the moon a 3-day walk from their moon base. They had to categorize 15 items from their stock as Essential, Helpful, and Useless for their journey. Then, they were challenged to think of how the Useless items could actually be helpful if used in a creative way. Next week, they will craft their adventure into a creative story of resiliency and survival!

Since next week is the last day of GATE for the 2nd graders for the year, they are welcome to bring a special snack for themselves or to share. We have 26 students and our only dietary restriction is that we have one vegetarian. If everyone brings a snack to share, we will have WAY too much, but if your 2nd grader would be really excited to bring something, feel free!

Next week, we will finish the lunar survival challenge, complete end-of-year reflections, and give end-of-year affirmations. We will also build our 2nd annual last-day-of-GATE blanket fort and have some fun treats!