Second graders did their performing arts work share with a show on jokes and poems! 

Students worked hard on their poems for Mother's Day. They used similes to capture their mom's personalities and watercolors to decorate.

Students worked hard on their water summative projects. They are making board games based on the topics of water pollution, water conservation, and global water access. Each game has cards that move you forward or backwards depending on the choices you made. For example, "You forgot to turn off the tap while you brushed your teeth, go back 10 spaces."

Second graders loved playing a jeopardy game that we made for them to remember fun memories from the school year. They were so inspired, they wanted to make one themselves for part of their graduation ceremony!

Second graders get to design their own graduation ceremony! They brainstormed and voted on ideas in the categories of:

• what to wear? 

• how to enter the room?

• how to celebrate and remember fun memories from the year? 

• how to decorate/theme?

• how to celebrate each individual student?

As part of their ceremony design, they made paper plate awards for each student in the class for things that they stood out for. Students were nominated and voted on by their classmates. Each student was so proud to recieve their paper plate award at the ceremony!

They also made paper plate awards for memories! The awards given at the ceremony were the top memories voted for each category but you can see a list of the memories that your child nominated for each category in their binder - a great way to talk about their year with them as they reflect back!

The theme for the graduation ceremony was rockets, airplanes, and fairies (things that soar!) There was amazing teamwork to create all the decorations for this special event!

At Field Day, second graders rotated stations including a bounce house, a hoola hoop game, giant Jenga, bench ball, facepainting, and more! 

Face painting and tattoos for Field Day

Bounce house for Field Day

They got to attend the 8th grad graduation ceremony with the whole school. Then they worked on making memory books for the year and signing each other's yearbooks. 

Mackfest was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the school year! Lots of kids were sad to leave!

Making fairy houses together at recess

Fun in the sandbox

Friends

Here is the slideshow that we made for the 2nd grade graduation ceremony to capture some of the amazing memories of our school year.

Second graders spent a week designing for and preparing a graduation ceremony that would mean a lot to them and feel authentic to who they are. Here is the video from the ceremony in case you couldn't make it or want to watch it again!

Second graders did puzzle research from the book "Our World of Water" to learn about how kids in other parts of the world interact with water and how not everyone can turn on the tap and get clean water. They shared interesting things that they learned about the child they read about. 

After learning about how many people around the world, especially women and girls, have to walk to get their water, second graders did a water walk where they put themselves in the shoes of someone that has to walk to get water. They carried a bucket of water around the fun run track followed by a great discussion of empathy and grattitude.

Julian's mom Sarah came into our classroom as a guest speaker to share about her experiences living in Kenya during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer and how she interacted with water there. She had the kids do some fun experiments with different ways to carry water more efficiently by working together and using tools (like poles, rope, or cloth.)

Second graders worked in partners to research a water habitat (ocean, coral reef, wetland, river, lake, pond) including 10 organisms that depend on it, 3 problems that it encounters, and 3 solutions. They then turned their research into a diorama.

In writing workshop second graders continued to work on their fiction stories. Many of them are wrapping up their final drafts complete with illustrations, covers, and a summary on the back cover. They are so proud of their hard work and finished pieces!

In reading workshop, students continued to work in their series book clubs. They have been having so much fun reading these books together, getting to know their characters, and havign in depeth discussions with their book clubs. They have been using questioning cards based on Bloom's Taxonomy to help guide critical thinking questions at progressively higher level thinking. 

In Jenny and Jen's math groups students completed their end of year assessments. After that, we dove into working on some projects that will review and apply many of the skills that students learned throughout the year. They have been planning summer vacations/roadtrips complete with costs of gas/airfare, mileage totals, hotels costs, food, and activity costs. Be prepared if your child petitions you to go on their trip for real! They are very invested in their plans!

We also spent quite a bit of time wrapping up end of year literacy assessments including reading, writing, and spelling. These help us understand where kids have grown and where they still need more support. They will also help inform how we set up groups & staffing for literacy support needs for next year. 

Students have been spending extra time outside, playing, and connecting together. Beautiful weather, spring energy, winding down the school year, and the natural need to feel good about friendships before summer vacation all mean a little extra recess time is a wonderful thing. 

Students started working on their summative project for the water unit. They had a choice of making a podcast, a song, or a board game to teach others about one of the following water topics we've learned about during this unit: water conservation, water pollution, or global access to water.

Second graders loved getting a sneak peak of their 6th grade buddies' play. 

Students walked around the school and grounds and did a water survey at Mack to figure out how our school uses water. Then they brainstormed ways that we could better conserve water.

Second graders learned about how water rights work. They did a simulation exercise where they each represented a business and took the amount of water they wanted in the order their businesses were established. After in depth discussions about how that worked and if it felt fair, students brainstormed other ways to fairly distribute water such as everyone gets equal amounts and every takes only what they need to run their business. We ran all the simulations and discussed how each one worked. 

Second graders learned about common water pollution sources and what a watershed is. Then they polluted watershed model and saw how when it "rained" with spray bottles, pollution from all over the watershed ended up in the rivers and lakes. Then they brainstormed ways to avoid these types of pollution.

At four stations around the room, second graders listened to a variety of water sounds such as a river, ocean waves, rain, and waterfall and represented them with dance, drawing, writing words, and just peacefully listening.

Second graders learned about different types of clouds and worked together as a team to represent the shapes of each type of cloud with their bodies.

Second graders loved building a watershed together in the sandbox to see where the water flowed. Teamwork! 

On a field trip to the Denver Aquarium, second graders loved seeing all the water animals and doing a scavenger hunt. 

After learning about different types of sea turtles and dangers that they might encounter, students worked in teams using their measuring skills to build three actual size sea turtles including the huge leatherback!

Second graders learned about how oil spills impact birds and other animals. They tested dunking feathers in water with oil to see what happened to them and tried washing them off in regular water and then with dawn soap. They did the same thing with dunking their hands in oily water and tried washing them off without soap to see how it felt. 

Pretending to be a sea turtle or a bird, students wrote a letter to human helpers, sharing the dangers that they encounter and ways that humans can help. 

For Earth Day, we had stations that students transitioned between. They started with an interactive readers theater about the book The Lorax by Dr. Suess

Next for Earth Day, they worked in teams to decorate spray bottles and fill them with environmentally friendly cleaning products for each of the classroom (vinegar with water and essential oils)

They picked up trash around our campus to help protect our animals and the environment at an Earth Day station

The final Earth Day station was working together to build, decorate, and hang bird feeders for our beautiful birds on Mack's campus. 

In Reading Workshop, students discovered how authors of a book series plan how each individual book is connected to the others and how the whole series will flow. 

In Writing Workshop students continued to work on their fiction stories. Some things we learned about:

• capitalizing proper nouns

• using the revising and editing checklists

• using verb + adverb combinations to paint a picture for our readers.  Students acted out funny random verb + adverb combos that we pulled from a pile and cracked each other up!

Mack K-5 students were visited by local Denver author, David Obuchowski, and illustrator, Sarah Pedry. Their non-fiction book, “How Birds Sleep” is a beautiful and witty tale full of facts about this underexplored aspect of bird life. They shared what inspired them to write the book, explained their research process, taught students how to draw two basic bird shapes, and held a mini-book signing. 

In Jenny's math group, second graders have been working on exploring beginning multiplication and learning about how multiplication is like "groups of" the same things. They have been playing multiplication games and practicing things like making pictures and cube buildings with equal floors to match multiplication equations. We have also been reviewing concepts from earlier this year to refresh before our end of year assessment.

In Jen’s math group, we’ve explored measuring volume and mass. Students enjoyed used various beakers and droppers to learn about liters and milliliters as they calculated volume. They also had a blast measuring the mass of grocery items using kilograms and grams on a good scale. 

Second graders got to tour the 5th grade Exhibition Museum and learn about issues around the world.

Warm spring weather means getting out the water table for recess time! The kids have loved working together to create dams, built tracks with pipes and sand, and carry water in buckets to the sandbox.

Being back outside in our MOLO means that we have been able to bring back our "nature moment." Students each go to their special spot in the MOLO and just take a few minutes to breathe and listen to the sounds of nature surrounding them. Ideally, they come back more grounded and feeling peaceful.

Students learned about how much water it takes to make different kinds of food. They pretended to come to a potluck party and bring foods. They estimated how much water each type of food uses. Then they confirmed how much each type of food actually uses and did the math for their potluck meal's total water usage. We talked about water usage may impact people's choices of food that they eat, for example, some people may choose to eat less beef as it uses the most water to make.

As part of our exploration of the circulatory and respiratory systems, second graders had the unique opportunity to dissect sheep hearts and lungs. This hands-on experience allowed our young learners to explore the inner workings of these vital organs, as well as gain a deeper understanding of how they relate to our own bodies.

Students were able to observe and touch the different parts of the heart and lungs, and ask questions to deepen their understanding of how these organs function. There was a high level of excitement, inspiration, and awe!

As always, we started the unit by collecting burning questions from students. We had some wonderful questions such as "what happens if you don't drink water?" and "why is the Black Sea called the Black Sea?"

We reviewed the water cycle with a water cycle magic show where we watched steam rise from a kettle into a glass jar, cloud up, and condense. Then we learned a song about the water cycle to remember the steps. Second graders loved adding new vocabulary to the familiar water cycle when they learned about sublimation and transpiration.

Second graders pretended to be molecules moving faster or slower as they learned about the different states of water: gas, liquid, and ice. This is a great movement activity that we will incorporate throughout this unit. 

Second graders did some watercolor paintings of the water cycle steps including evaporation, condensation, precipitation, sublimation, and transpiration. 

We had fun mapping water around the world. Second graders rotated around four stations to practice water geography in different ways. At the first station, students made their own water maps by referencing a variety of maps and globes that showed rivers, oceans, bays, and seas. They labeled these on their own map.

At the second stations, students met on the world map rug. They pulled cards with the names of major rivers on them from a bucket and used blue yarn and the cards to label them on the rug map.

At the third station, students worked together to build a world map puzzle, focusing on noticing the water on the map.

At the last station, students used a checklist of major rivers, seas, oceans, and bays to find these bodies of water on a giant wall world map. 

We started reading together from a collection of water stories from different cultures and have been having some great conversations about what we might learn about different cultures from reading them.

In writing workshop, students continued to work on their fiction stories. We reviewed adding dialogue and dialogue tags, strategies for creating satisfying endings, and revising with a checklist.

In Reading Workshop, 2nd graders have become experts within their various book series clubs. They are able to make predictions about how their main characters may react to situations as well as how each book will end by using their previous knowledge of the author’s craft. 

In Jen’s math group, we have been learning about fractions, fractions on a number line and equivalent fractions. Each student made their own “brownie” fractions set and we discussed various ways to break apart the whole of an object. 

In Jenny's math group student have been working on measuring distances using the metric system with centimeters and meters. They have also been doing word problems involving lengths, comparing lengths, and adding lengths together. (pictured: measuring jumps of different animals- ie. bunny jump, kangaroo jump, cheetah jump etc.)

Students filled up their jewel jar and earned a PJ day right before spring break. They elected to do a showing of all the explorer stop motion videos that they made so that everyone could see them. 

Second graders worked on teams to make functioning models of the respiratory system using balloons in bottles. Students got to see first hand how the diaphgram helps to bring air into the lungs and expel it. 

We read the book Moody Cow Meditates and made meditation jars. Students learned about how to use biofeedback and their meditation jars to intentionally lower their pulse rate with deep breathing and meditation. They checked their results using pulse oximeters.

Students learned about different blood types and what blood is made out of. They used different ingredients representing parts of the blood to make their own "blood." Marshmallows for white blood cells, lentils for platelets, cheerios soaked in red food coloring for red blood cells, and water for plasma!

Second graders have been working on making graphic novels that show the journey of a character through the respiratory and circulatory systems. They were so excited to create these illustrated non fiction stories! 

We started to learn about the digestive system through a hands on lab where students mimicked parts of the digestive system as each team "swallowed" a banana and a piece of bread. They started out with using scissors for incisor teeth cutting and ended with squeezing waste out of the corner of a ziplock bag "colon" and all the steps in between. We decided science is gross AND awesome!

Students worked on teams to begin their research for a digestive system section. They are starting to prepare for writing a speech that they will give as an audience crawls through the digestive system that they build. 

Lila's mom is an orthopedic surgeon and her dad is a doctor. They came in to share their expertise with our class. Mith ran a casting station with real casting materials for students to practice casting on each other. 

Katie ran a station where students could practice drilling on bone models and adding plates and screws to hold broken bones together. Thanks Mith and Katie!

Beautiful respiratory and circulatory system tshirts made in visual arts!

We went on a field trip to Eldorado Yoga Ashram where we got to do some yoga and practice breathing and calming techniques

We also got to feed the llamas at the Ashram!

Reading with our 6th grade buddies is always a hit

In writing workshop, we started our fiction unit with a focus on character development. Ask your child to tell you about our "Dip A Character In Paint" strategy. Students loved writing descriptions of mystery teachers at Mack not using their names for other kids to guess based on their descriptions.

After focusing on characters, second graders were ready to start their fiction stories. They brainstormed ideas for four part stories (setting, character, problem, solution) with a tableau game and then with brainstorming their own ideas with planning sheets before diving into writing. 

In Reading Workshop, students have been excited to be in book clubs. They take turns being the leader and facilitating group conversations. Each reading group is diving into a unique series. Teams explore how to discuss main characters, use their knowledge to guess what the characters will do next as well as noting how authors paint pictures with their chosen words. 

In Jenny's math group we started our new unit on linear measurement. Students spent the last couple of weeks learning about measuring using US units of measurement (we will do metric next.) They got to play lots of games with estimating lengths, choosing the right tool, and practicing measuring. In this photo students are collecting and graphing data for how far they can blow a cotton ball over 10 tries.

In Jen’s math group, students have been enjoying measuring classroom objects as well as each other to the nearest 1/4 inch. We explored the term “circumference” and which measuring tool is best for various data collection. Students then graphed their findings on a line plot.

Congratulations to Lila! She won a top ten award for the poem she entered in a national poetry competition earlier this year out of thousands of entries across North America! She got to share her poem at Mack Morning Meeting with the whole school. What an honor!

We began our new unit about the human body with having the students write down their burning questions to help guide our unit, as we always do.

Second graders loved learning about the different features of the respiratory system by making some artwork! They each did a watercolor painting of the respiratory system with labels for each part.

After our aborted field trip to the yoga ashram (rescheduled for next week!), we did a little cosmic kids yoga in class to move our bodies and get a taste of some yoga. These videos are free and great for movement breaks at home too! check them out here. 

Students practiced revising, editing, and illustrating as they completed their nonfiction book based on their explorer research or their planet research. Then they added beautiful illustrations, diagrams, & graphs.

Students that were done with projects were able to do some extra projects! One of these was making a polar tool in a design sprint with planning, prototyping, scripting, and recording a video advertisement

Another bonus project was making an anemometer to test wind speed. Students learned about how important it is for polar and mountain explorers to understand the relationship between temperature and windspeed so that they can know the windchill temperature and poperly prepare. Students tested their anemometers using multi speed fans, then recorded and graphed their data.

In reading workshop we started series book clubs! Students will be working on reading a book series with a group of their peers. At the end of each reading workshop, for the last 15 minutes, groups come together for a discussion around the book. Each day, a different leader is selected who facilitates the discussion using question cards based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Reading workshop lessons this week focused on getting to know characters and comparing and contrasting characters. 

In writing workshop we started a unit on fiction writing with a heavy focus on character development. Students learned about Dip A Character in Paint (a checklist strategy for how to develop a robust character.) They practiced using the checklist by choosing a dragon image for inspiration and then creating a dragon character from it. 

Jen’s math group has been excited to learn about 2D shapes and polygons. Students are learning the different attributes of each shape as they classifying them. We also discussed their edges and vertices. Our “mathletes” had fun constructing their own polygons!

In Jenny's math class we are working on solving comparison word problems. Students are also practicing working with breaking down, manipulating, and adding numbers up to a thousand. Lots of our games have extensions that help students to jump to those bigger numbers and practice working with them.

For Valentine's Day, second graders passed out valentines and each got some heart art filled with words from their classmates that describe them.

Friends on the playground

Students applied the non fiction book skills that they learned from our non fiction expert book unit previously, to make research based non fiction books. They took research they had already done from their planet or explorer biography and reorganized it in a way that would make sense for their book and removed facts that they didn't want to include.

We reviewed non fiction text features and strategies for writing non fiction books like hooks, captions, labels, using expert vocabulary words with special print, and making a glossary. 

They also learned some new skills such as how to list sources used in research and using their information to make charts, graphs, timelines, and comparisons in their books. When they complete their books next week, they will be using revising and editing checklists.

After completing challenging research about their explorer and writing scripts for narration during literacy time, students began to prepare for their stop motion video about their explorer. They started by splitting the scripts they made into 5-10 scenes and making a storyboard to plan their video scenes and the props they would need. 

Next they painted their backdrops with watercolors, created any props they might need, and selected their characters from lego people.

Finally, teams learned the basics of stop motion video recording and began to record. For each scene, they will record audio from their script, practicing fluency and expression, and then make a scene using stop motion depicting what they read. Groups will continue to record next week. 

Students got to explore the exhibits at Fiske's museum. Students especially loved touching the real meteorite and playing with the infared camera. 

Then our guide gave us a wonderful specialized star talk in the planetarium. She taught us about innovation in exploration as it relates to using the stars to navigate and developed into other tools and instruments from compasses to GPS. She also taught us about some innovation in technology as it relates to rockets and the changes in rocket technology over time.

After that, we watched a short film called Capcom Go! about the Apollo 11 Mission to the moon. The movie shared a lot of great information about the story of the mission including the huge amount of people that worked at a team to make it happen and invent the technology to get there. 

After learning about how NASA designed rovers and how rovers have "body parts," Second graders used the planet vacation research that they worked so hard on to carefully plan how they would design a rover or probe that would be perfect for exploring their planet including what it would test and what features it would need to do so. 

Then they worked with their design teams to build a prototype of their rover from maker materials and write a script pitching their design to NASA that explained all the features of their rover.

After practicing their scripts until they were fluent and expressive, students recorded their videos pitching their rover designs. 

Watch more rover design videos in our explorer tools playlist (I'll keep adding more as more groups finish)

In Jenny's math group students have been working on strategies to add two 2-digit numbers together and how to figure out how many more to get to 100. They've been learning how to solve multi-part word problems and playing some fun games that practice mental math with adding numbers together within a hundred. 

In Jenny's math group, students' favorite math game over the last 2 weeks has been Close to 100. You can try it at home if you want! A fun challenge variation is called Close to 1000 where students add 3-digit numbers together instead of 2-digit numbers. 

Close to 100 Game

Jen A.’s math group has been exploring perimeter and area of irregular shapes! This week we learned about tetronimos (shapes made of 4 square units) and had fun seeing if their area would perfectly fill up a 10 x 8 frame. 

Some of our students helped present at an all school Mack Morning Meeting for ADHD awareness day about famous people with ADHD and ADHD super powers.

On beautiful days, we can always find a little extra time for recess & playing outside

Friends are the best

Second graders learned about Sylvia Earle (ocean explorer) and wrote her letters about why she inspires them. 

They each made a painting of Sylvia exploring to go with their letter. We will mail the letters and paintings to Sylvia! (She usually writes back!)

We learned about how caves are formed and cave erosion with a fun experiment where students made caves out of sugar cubes and clay and poured water through them to see where the sugar eroded. They explored how different amounts of clay changed how the cave formed, representing harder and softer types of rocks. 

Second graders loved performing a readers theater about Jacques and Auguste Piccard and their expedition to the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the ocean.) In addition to learning about these famous deep sea explorers, they also got to practice reading with fluency and expression (puppets make it so much fun!) After, we learned about James Cameron's subsequent expedition to the Mariana Trench with more modern technology. Check out the full length movie Challenger Deep about this expedition for an at home extension with your family!

Second graders started their next big literacy project: explorer biographies! They each went book shopping and chose an explorer to study with their partner. Then they began taking notes using sticky notes as they read their book. They practiced pausing at the end of each page to think about what it was about and what the most important thing that happened on the page was. Then, if they deemed it important enough to add to their notes, they jotted it down.

Next, students organized their explorer notes on a timeline in chronological order. They looked for any holes in their information and referred back to their books to fill in anything that was missing. Then teams began using their explorer notes & timeline to write a script about their explorer's life. This script will be the narration for a stop motion video they will be making about their explorer! While writing scripts students practiced writing facts in their own words (paraphrasing), combining two facts to make one sentence (writing compound sentences), and turning short notes into full sentences. 

We had guest speaker Brad Hensley come in to talked about an analog mission that he did with NASA where he lived in a simulated Mars shuttle for 6 weeks. Brad is an aerospace engineer and he talked about how this mission helps him and other engineers to better design space shuttles. Second Graders had so many terrific questions to ask him! If you're interested, you can check out the FULL VIDEO OF HIS PRESENTATION.

Second graders embarked on their next design sprint, choosing to design a tool for a cave explorer or for a deep sea explorer (some teams had time to create both!) They went through the design process with their team: planning, building a prototype, writing a script, and recording a video to market their product. 

We also began learning about some polar and mountain explorers like Edmund Hillary and what it takes to climb Mount Everest with some fun read alouds. Every morning we've also been watching a short video clip (about 2 mins) about a different explorer or type of exploration. Students especially loved learning about Erik Weihenmayer, a blind explorer who has climbed the 7 summits (including Everest) and kayaked the Grand Canyon.

In Jenny's math group last week we wrapped up our unit on data collection and graphing where students made up a question, collected data, organized their data and chose a way to graph it that made the most sense. They have learned about line graphs, pie charts, line plots, pictographs, and bar graphs. 

In Jenny's math group this week, we started a new unit. So far, we have reviewed strategies for adding or subtracting 9 and for adding two 2-digit numbers together (adding tens and ones OR adding on a number in parts) and learned some new games to practice our strategies. Students especially loved the games +/- 9 bingo and Capture Five. You can play them at home too if you want!

Jen A’s math group has been studying properties of various 3D objects and enjoyed creating their own designs using gumdrops and toothpicks. They made rectangular prisms, trapezoids and dodecahedrons! They also had fun with measuring the perimeter of classroom objects to the nearest inch, half inch and quarter inch and calculated the area of 2D shapes. 

Second graders got to visit the sixth grade Civil War Museum. They loved being there to support their buddies and learning some new information about the Civil War!

The big hit at recess the last couple of weeks has been sledding! Second graders joined several other grades and launched sleds from the small hill in the field. They had a blast!

As always, we kicked off the unit with burning questions. We love to get the kids involved as inquirers and know what they are wondering so we can incorporate as much of it as possible into our unit. We ha some great questions ranging from "Has someone ever explored a volcano?" to "Can we pretend to be explorers?"- Yes and Yes! 

Second graders each got paired with a buddy that will be their design team partner for the remainder of this unit. They will be working on projects together to design and invent explorer tools. Each team created a company name, logo, and jingle. They loved getting stickers of the logo they created for their company! These will go on all their tools for branding!

Each design team created a jingle that will go at the end of each of their video advertisments for the inventions that they make.

Students worked with their design team partner to do research about a planet of their choice using EPIC books. They read at least two books about their planet.

They learned how to take notes using sticky notes by jotting a few key points and not using complete sentences. One fact per sticky note. Each book they used for research got its own color sticky note so they could identify which book that their fact came out of and each sticlky note got a page number on it.  After taking notes, they sorted their facts into 4-5 categories of their choice based on there their facts lumped together. Then they did a little more research to fill in any categories that were a little weak. 

Each team made a poster for a vacation to their planet. They practiced being word wizards (paraphrasing or rephrasing) to make their facts sounds appealing to a tourist that might want to visit their planet. For example, instead of saying "Venus is so hot you would die there" saying something like "are you tired of the cold winters in Colorado, well come to Venus where the temperature is a balmy 870 degrees!"

Design teams were tasked with creating a pair of explorer goggles to help explorers of all types enhance their senses and document their experiences to share with others. Bonus challenge was if their goggles could also help someone with a disability related to the senses (blind, deaf.) Design teams started by working together to communicate their ideas and make a plan. 

Then they built a prototype of their goggles to show their ideas. 

After that, they wrote a script to explain their goggles to the world. They had the choice to write a script from scratch or to use a mad libs style script and fill in their ideas. 

It can be a challenge working as a team and there are lots of opportunities for learning moments! A big part of this unit is based on the 4Cs of 21st century learning: critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication. This week we focused lessons heavily on collaboration with strategies for when you disagree and practiced them as we worked on teams. Here are the 5 strategies we learned:

• Rock, paper, scissors (one time)

• Be generous and give your partner their way if its important to them

• Combine your ideas into one great new idea

• Take turns (Your way this time, my way next time.)

• Come up with a new totally different way together

We started learning about cave exploration and got to experiment with a squeeze box, a tool that cavers use to determine how small of a space they can safely crawl through without getting stuck (basically limbo for cavers.) We continued to lower the roof until no one could fit through anymore and each child took note of the smallest space they were able to go through without getting stuck. River broke our all time record at 4 3/4 inches! 

We learned how cavers always have at least 3 sources of light so they have a back up. Second graders got to experiment with simple circuits using copper take, LED lights, and a coin cell battery to build their own flashlight with a switch that lights up when the circuit it closed. 

Guest speaker Steve Chappell came in and shared with us his experiences working with NASA and getting to go on a mission with the NASA NEEMO program to the underwater lab Aquarius as a simulation for astronauts going to the moon. He also shared a bit about his experiences working with the recent Artemis mission. Students were enthralled. "I want that job, that is so cool!" was heard as they walked out to recess. we recorded the presentation and you can watch it HERE if you would like to. 

Blue Sky Bridge also came in and talked with our class (with a puppet show!) about safe body touching, how to make sure you don't pop someone's personal space bubble, asking permission before touching, and what to do if you accidentally pop their bubble. They will be back next week to finish up.

Second graders filled up their jewel jar and earned a pajama day! They got to wear their PJs to school and bring a stuffy. We watched a short Billy Nye video about cave exploration and cave science. Fun was had by all! 

Jenny's math group began our new unit on data collection and graphing. Students practiced collecting data with tally marks and surveys. They interpreted and graphed data using pictographs, line plots, bar graphs, and Venn Diagrams. They also got to practiced sorting data into categories (categories already made and coming up with their own categories) to graph it. 

In this photo they are playing a game called Yekktis where they sort Yekktis (aliens with a variety of sortable characteristics) into a Venn Diagram made of yarn to follow 2 rules.

Jen’s math group has been learning about the differences between digital and analog clocks. We also discussed the meaning of AM (ante meridiam meaning before noon) and PM (post meridiam meaning after noon) 

This week we focused on how to tell time using analog clocks. Students loved playing “Rush Hour” which is a fast paced game that tests each player’s ability to tell time. Students also had fun creating clock challenges for one another! 

Hanging with our 6th grade reading buddies

Fun in the sandbox, working together to dig a cave that they can explore! We loved to see what we are learning in the classroom migrate into imaginative play at recess! 

The bottom of the loft morphed into a recording studio with a green screen! 

Some literacy groups worked on round robin reading an article about Aquarius (underwater sea lab) and answering comprehension questions to help prepare for our guest speaker. They used their non fiction reading skills to help them understand the article, noting the glossary, bold words, captions, and information. They also practiced syllable division to help them figure out tricky words.

After learning about the importance of keeping trash out of landfills in our Recycling Unit, students became expert up-cyclers! They were able to use resources from our "creation station" collection and designed intricate NEW inventions made from reusable items such as cardboard, plastic, foil and wire. 

In Jen A.'s math group, students have been learning about working with numbers up to 1,000. They have also practiced developed their skills of adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers. 

In Science, 2nd graders had a blast getting messy and learning all about worms! They explored how worms help protect the planet. Students loved learning facts about how they digest trash and eat food scraps to help keep the earth healthy. 

During Writing Workshop, our class got cozy and inspired while sipping hot tea. They were excited to share their BIG ideas as experts on various topics. They worked hard on publishing their own non-fiction books. 

During our Unit of Inquiry time for "The 4 R's",  each student created and shared a comic strip to portray "What will happen to Earth if we don't protect it..." 

Students furthered their knowledge of our unit by reading non-fiction books about natural resources, recycling and how we can do our part to protect Earth. 

Students researched different animals that are impacted by global warming and shared what they learned and ways we can help with the class. 

Our field trip to the Boulder Recyling Center was a great way to see just how much we can do to reuse our natural resources (again and again) so they don't end up in a landfill. 

In Brandy's math class, students explored working with 100's charts using addition and subtraction equations.

During writing workshop, students enjoyed hot tea while writing and illustrating special poetry books to share with family and friends! 

We began our new recycling unit and discussed the importance of avoiding single use plastics. Students were delighted to design their own reusable bags to reduce waste. 

In Jen A's math group, students explored presenting data using line plots and bar graphs. 

During our unit of inquiry, we have learned about the 4 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot. Students designed their own unique signs to help remind others to help the planet on a local level. 

Outdoor learning at it's BEST! Our class worked as a team to construct some pretty amazing snow structures. 

Rocky Mountain Recess

Students did an art project inspired by tree growth rings. We learned about the science behind tree growth rings and then students made their own growth rings. Inside of the tree rings are things they feel like they have already grown so much in and outside of the tree rings are things that they would like to continue to grow in. Some things showed up in both spaces because we are never done learning and growing! 

We began out big project for this unit- the biomimicry fashion show! After learning about what biomimcry is and how so many inventions and concepts are inspired by nature, students each chose a photo from nature and planned an outfit design inspired by the photo. They identified the important colors and patterns in their photo and then drew their ideas for their outfit. 

Working in teams of two, students began cutting, gluing, and stapling fabric and cardboard together with gusto! They used great communication skills and collaboration to share ideas, work through disagreements, and build a great outfit. Next week they will all finish their outfits and showcase them at our biomimicry fashion show on Thursday! 

During writing workshop, student learned and practiced the following new poetic strategies:

• how to write a moody poem 

• how to stretch out a comparison through an entire poem

• using photos for inspiration to get ideas

• personification

• using a checklist to include a selection of poetic strategies we've learned so far

Students each selected 3-5 poems that they were most proud of and revised them by checking for clarity, making sure their line breaks and stanza breaks were where they wanted them to be, and changing or adding words and ideas where needed. Teachers typed up their selected poems and they began to illustrate them for their poetry books.

In reading workshop, we’ve been learning about how authors use powerful language. When discussed idioms and that when we come across phrases like “it was raining cats and dogs” we can stop and think, “What does the author want me to think or feel here?” 

In Jenny's math group, second graders learned about fractions! We explored fractions where the numerator is one (1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.), learned new fraction vocabulary like numerator and denominator, learned about fractions where the numerator is more than one (ex. 2/7), explored fractions of a set of objects, identified equivalent fractions, played with finding fractions of shapes on geo-boards with rubber bands and finding halves of 3D geo-block shapes! 

Jen’s math group has been exploring the inverse relationship between multiplication and division and how to know which one to use to solve a word sentence. Students also had fun making their own multiplication and division equations for friends to solve. 

A fun Mack tradition for Halloween is that the middle schoolers put on a Spooky Science Lab for the little kids! They decorate the science lab to look spooky and then set up all kind of fun Halloweeny science experiments like dry ice and making glowing worms!

Second Graders loved participating in our all school Halloween Parade and photo!

Fun in the snow!

Hanging with friends in the snow with the beautiful snowy mountains the background!

Math meets nature meets art! Second Graders learned about radial and bilateral symmetry and where you can find these types of symmetry in nature. Then they made beautiful designs with radial and bilateral symmetry using pattern blocks

Students completed their beautiful digital microscope artwork. They started this project by taking photos of something in nature using a digital microscope and then 

Second Graders loved learning about the artist Andy Goldsworthy who makes beautiful sculptures out of nature materials and looking at mandalas made of nature materials that used radial symmetry. We connected to the Diwali celebration where they make beautiful mandalas; often out of flower petals and colored powders. Lila loved sharing about her family's connection to this tradition with our class! They got inspired to make their own mandalas out of nature materials using radial symmetry

More math in nature! We learned about finding tessellations in nature and where we might see them in the wild. Then students had fun making their own tessellation art, inspired by nature.

We took a wonderful field trip to Bobolink Trail where we did lots of exploring and hiking!

While we were there, students got to work on their nature art journals; observing, drawing from nature, doing leaf rubbings, and writing poetry

They also each made a mini museum where they collected tiny special objects from our expedition.

Second graders loved hearing a Cheyenne and Arapahoe story about how the stars in the night sky are made from the stars in cottonwood trees and found their own stars in the tiny cottonwood branches.

Read the story HERE.

Did we mention that we love finding math in nature!? Student learned about fractals in nature and then made their own fractal triangles and fractal trees. 

Hugh got inspired to bring in a flower from their garden to show our class. They were so proud that their flower had fractals and radial symmetry!

In writing workshop, we continued to learn about poetry. Some poetic strategies that we learned over the last two weeks included:

• writing feeling poems and incorporating emotions into poems

• using precise juicy words

• using repetition 

• experimenting with alliteration (either with a poem focused on alliteration or with a little sprinkle of alliteration in the poem)

In reading workshop, we learned and practiced some new reading strategies including:

• using meaning to read fluently

• reading at a just right pace (not too fast or too slow)

• recognizing literary language as you read and noting it with a "stop and jot" on a sticky note

In Jenny's math group we continued our unit on geometry. Students learned about 3D and 2D shapes. They learned the names of them and explored new vocabulary like parallel, perpendicular, right angles, and quadrilaterals as they described their shapes and sorted them. Students loved playing games like find the block where they matched faces to a geoblock and mystery block where they described a hidden geoblock to their partner to try to get them to guess which one it was. We learned about rows and columns and started exploring arrays.

Jen’s math group has been investigating and creating their own arrays using rows and columns, discussing the array’s dimensions as well as how to find the area of a certain shapes.

They have also started learning about division and how it can help us take away numbers from a larger group.

Students enjoyed solving multiplication and division word problems and writing them as equations.

During explorations, second graders loved learning about their passions such as Mack on Stage and mack-full-ness. This picture is from Enviromack where the group picked pumpkins from our garden and then weighed them on scales. 

Jenny: Whatchya making?

Kids: A fairy house

Jenny: Ohh can I have a tour?

Kids: Well here is the composting area and here is a water spout that collects rainwater for their pond

Jenny: Wow your fairies are very eco friendly!

Kids: Yeah, they really care about the earth.

#Mackkids

The Orchard Center kids ran our Mack Morning Meeting last week for Dyslexia Awareness Month. Loved this syllable clap name greeting that the second graders introduced!

Cute photo from our field trip to Bobolink

We mapped the solar system using to scale distances between the planets. Students measured the distances with a surveyor's wheel, then stood to mark the place of their planet. They were spread all across the field!

Second graders learned about mapping the sky with constellations and how people used the constellations and stars to navigate even far back in history. They built some constellations using toothpicks and marshmallows

Jenny put on her mountain rescuer hat and was a "guest speaker" from Rocky Mountain Rescue. She explained how maps are used in search and rescue and students got to interview her.

We learned about the cartographer's dillema: how to turn a 3D sphere into a flat map. We cut apart a blow up globe to see how it looked laid out and learned about different ways that cartographers had decided to fill in the gaps. We also learned about several different mapping projections and why you might choose one over another other.

After students learned about different mapping projections, they made paper 3D globes from several styles of 2D cutouts.

We wrapped up our mapping unit with a pajama day when second graders filled up their jewel jar! They can earn jewels for lots of things including great transitions, great clean ups, sticks in our learner profile buckets, etc.  Here, Julian is reading to their stuffy during reader's workshop. Turns out dragons love Amulet too!

To kick off our unit on nature (as we do with all units) we went over the central idea and lines of inquiry for our nature unit. We also had each child write down burning questions and ideas for the nature unit. We love to have student questions help guide our units and we love to incorporate their ideas as much as possible!

We began the nature unit by practicing noticing in nature. Students explored our outdoor classroom and the areas around it with super senses and a magnifying glass. They found bugs, worms, animal tracks, and examined bark and grass closely!

They learned about nature art journaling and checked out some examples of nature art journaling from a variety of artists to get inspired. They carefully observed things in nature and drew them or wrote about them in their journals.

Next, we zoomed in even further! Second graders used microscopes to closely observe tiny objects. They drew zoomed out and zoomed in images in their nature art journals as they observed. 

Each student then picked out one object and used a digital microscope to take a photo of it.

Second graders used their microscope photos to begin a watercolor painting from. They will spend 2-3 days noticing every detail in their photo as they use it to create an illustration from. We talked about how they can exaggerate or imagine colors that aren't there if they want to in their watercolor. Nature is inspiration for the artist but doesn't have to be copied exactly!

In writing workshop, students finished their personal narrative stories, edited, and illustrated. 

Second graders loved sharing their personal narrative stories with their 6th grade buddies!

We started our new writing unit on poetry! Students practiced:

•  Taking something extraordinary and thinking about it in an extraordinary way

• Line breaks & stanzas

• Making poems have music or rhythm to them (sometimes this means rhyme but many poems don't rhyme)

• Reading poems by other authors and noticing things about the poems such as juicy words, comparisons, line breaks, stanzas, and how poems look and sound

In Reading Workshop Students learned about:

• how the whole books clicks together and noticing masterful writing

• thinking about "what does the author want to teach me?" as you read

• using reading voices when you read out loud or in your head

In Jenny's math group, students wrapped up our first unit on adding and subtracting with practicing story problems and playing some fun games. Their favorite games were Moving on the 200 chart and Turn over 20. You can play these game at home!  

• Moving on the 200 chart

• Turn Over 20

In Jenny's math group we also started a new math unit on geometry. Students began learning about 3D shapes and associated vocabulary such as edges, faces, and vertices. They practiced drawing geoblocks and matching geoblocks with the faces of each block broken up

Jen’s Math Group has been focusing on our unit, "Understanding Equal Groups". Students enjoyed creating their own multiplication word problems and presented them to our group to solve. They also enhanced their understanding of math vocabulary by learning about “factors” and how they are multiplied to find the “product” within equations.

We had a bird that was in our indoor classroom on Monday morning! We decided that she came to visit for the start of the nature unit!

Friends eating lunch together in our beautiful MOLO.

Exploring animal tracks in the mud of the creek when it dried up (its full of water again now!)

Close noticing of a snake skin. Students found this under our bridge a few weeks ago and we've been keeping it on our nature table to examine

Katie found a worm friend during our nature exploration. 

Students practice spelling words every week with lots of multi-sensory stations. Building words with pencils is a very popular station!

Leo explaining why Greenland looks so big on this map to his 6th grade buddy right after our mapping projections lesson! Yes!!

We have a new poem of the week every week and study different things about it during every day of the week such as juicy words, parts of speech, letter teams and spelling words, poetic strategies etc. On Fridays we have a challenge for anyone that would like to try to read the poem with their eyes closed! Many students have the poem memorized by the end of the week!

Second graders finished their dream house blueprints and used math to figure out the area of each room and the cost of each room based on the cost per square foot. We practiced turning a multiplication equation into an addition number string to add multiple numbers together and practiced strategies such as using a hundreds chart to help us do this. 

Students learned about what a topographic map is and how to read one. Then they made 2D and 3D topo maps by cutting out foam pieces and tracing each layer. 

The giant map of Colorado came to Mack for a visit from the CU mapping library! We loved exploring the different types of land forms on the map, used the key and compass rose, and played fun games such as Simon says with the map. "Simon says blue team stand on a National Park!" 

The CU mapping library offered to have Mack students visit with their parents if they would like but to please let them know ahead of time so that they can be there. 

Second graders worked on another big mapping math project! After learning about scale, they made road maps using several different colors. Then they measured each road segment in cm and added together the cm for each color using number strings. After that, they answered questions based on scale. If your scale is 1 cm= 2 miles, how many miles of green roads do you have?

In reading workshop, students learned some new fun strategies including:

• Think as you read and use a stop and jot sticky note to remember your ideas. Students marked pages with an I wonder, a connection, a wow, and a feeling using symbols.

• We learned about having a balanced reading life and reading from a variety of genres. Students set goals for themselves in each genre and started a graph where they will chart the books they read in each genre

• Stop and check yourself when a word doesn't feel right. We loved practicing this with jokes that used a play on words where you had to read exactly what it actually said

• Thinking about the author's intentions as you read

In writing workshop we learned about:

•  show don't tell for emotions and weather (like saying "my hands were trembling" instead of "I was scared.")

• Adding descriptive details with setting details woven throughout the story, strong action words, dialogue and dialogue tags

• crafting powerful endings

• using checklists to independently revise their stories for all the strategies we have learned throughout this unit 

In math, we practiced strategies for adding and subtracting (use a fact you know, jump on a hundreds chart, jump on a number line.) We also learned some new games like collect 50 cents, 5 in a row with three dice subtraction, and 5 in a row with four cards addition. Students are loving our math menus, including a challenge by choice menu where they can choose to do more challenging options for math each week.

Find these math games and more HERE to play at home

Buddy reading with our 6th grade buddies

We began explorations! Students loved a variety of activities that they got to choose such as Mack on Stage, Mackspression, and EnviroMack. Photo above from the Enviromack group today where they got to taste fresh honey from our beehive and sample veggie treats from the garden.

Beautiful maps made in visual arts class! 

Gorgeous snake skin found under the bridge in our outdoor classroom! Of course we all had to examine it closely, touch it, and see what we noticed about it. 

Hugh brought in seeds from his garden at home to plant in our outdoor classroom. They loved leading friends during recess and morning work time to plant them.

Second graders learned the difference between a compass and a compass rose. They learned how to use a compass and how to orient a map using a compass. They also learned the cardinal directions and how to find West in Boulder (towards the mountains!)

We learned about coordinate grids, how to read them, and why you might see them in some maps. Then we played a fun coordinate grid game where students moved their bodies between boxes on the coordinate grid drawn on the ground.

Students loved learning about how boats use sonar to map the ocean floor. We did a fun project to mimic this process where they color coded a coordinate grid based on "sonar measurements" of the depths in a tub filled with water and materials. 

Next, we dove into how coordinate grids translate into latitude and longitude on a map and how to read lat/long coordinates. This was tricky for some friends but they enjoyed the challenge! Students enjoyed making up lat/long coordinate riddles for others to solve.

We started a big mapping project where students create blueprints for their dream house. They color coded each room in the dream house using a key to show what materials the floor is made out of. Then they are diving into mapping math where they learned to figure out the area of each room and how much it costs based on the cost per square foot.

During our mapping unit, we kick start one of our daily morning meeting routines that will last all year. Student sing the continent song and jump from continent to continent on the floor map. Then we learn 2 new countries every day and review all the ones we've already learned by going around the circle and pointing them out on the map. 

In writing workshop, students continued their personal narrative stories. Some strategies we learned include:

• how to bring stories to life by making characters move, talk, think, and feel

• adding simile and metaphor comparisons to paint a picture for your reader

• hooking your reader at the start of your story with a sound word, dialogue, a description of the setting /weather, or action

• zooming in on an important moment in your story and magnifying it with details

• Using carrots and flaps to revise and add more to parts of your story

We loved planning our stories with the plot mountain story map so Jen learned the plot mountain song on her guitar and students got to sing along with the lyrics!  (video in our google photos folder!)

In reading workshop, students practiced reading independently and with a buddy out loud. Some strategies we learned include:

• Taking a sneak peak to decide how a book wants to be read

• Reading with emotion

• Reading in longer phrases and scooping up snap words

• Pausing for punctuation

• Keeping tabs on comprehension by stopping to retell what happened in the story to your reading buddy after each chapter or at the end of a short book

• Summarizing using "Somebody, wanted, but, so"

In math class, we dove into our regular math curriculum. Students loved leveling up in their math menus which provide independence, choice, and challenge as they progress through their work. They enjoyed learning all of our daily warm up activities, practicing math workshop, and learning new math games like do we have 100? and 5 in a row with 4 cards. 

A class favorite in math last week was working on counting strips to see how high they could get in 15 minutes! Some kids made strips taller than they were and many took them home to continue. 

We started spelling groups where students work in a small group of 3-5 students with one teacher to practice spelling rules and phonics. These groups are based on assessments we did at the start of the year that inform what students already know and what they need to practice so that they aren't spending time on spelling rules they already know. 

We also started spelling stations where once a week, students practice words on their personal spelling list at multi sensory stations like magnet words, sand, fancy words, and building words with pencils.

Second graders finished and hung their fairy houses in our outdoor classroom. The excitement and magic of fairies flitting around next to the pond as we read and learn is something special you can't find at most schools! 

Our all school Mack Morning Meeting happen every Wednesday morning in the Grove Theater.

We are partnered with the sixth grade for buddies this year! Second graders loved playing games to get to know their older buddies.

Every morning when we lift the tarps off the camp chairs in our MOLO we find an assortment of critters (mostly frogs and mice.) We've started graphing who has been hiding out under the tarp and it's a special reveal every day!

The sandbox is a great place for getting out wiggles, building epic projects, and building friendships

Friends hanging out at recess

Students began the school year with touring Mack's campus and labeling a map to show where the MOLOs (Mack Outdoor Learning Outposts) are as we toured. As they did this, they learned how to orient a map and to label important places on a map.

We loved getting to know more about what fills your children's hearts as they made heart maps. Things that take up more space in their heart get more room on their heart map too!

Loads of community building games like big wind blows and tag helped students get to know each other better and feel more comfortable playing together. For the first few days of school, teachers also facilitated games at recess too as an option for kids to join. This helps everyone feel included.

For the first week and a half of school, we introduce math with YouCubed's week of Inspirational Math. Students do math activities that set them up for a successful math mindset, learning things like "speed it not important" and "struggling to figure something out helps your brain grow more than if you got the answer right immediately." These math activities are all super fun and build a joyful and playful feeling about math from the beginning. 

Students each made their own fancy pencils to inspire them to write. Who doesn't love writing with a special writing tool!?

They also made watercolor covers to personalize their writing journals.

We learned two variations of tic tac toe from different cultures around the world.

In reading workshop, second graders learned how to pick a just right book using the five finger rule and how to balance vacation/just right/and challenge books in their reading life. They also learned and practiced buddy reading strategies in our beautiful outdoor space. 

In writing workshop, we began our writing unit on personal narratives. Students brainstormed ideas for personal narrative stories that emphasized feelings, people, or special places. They verbally told their story to a partner and their partner asked questions to help clarify missing pieces of the story. Then, each child planned and mapped their story using a story structure called plot mountain. Check out this fun plot mountain song that we listened to! 

Second graders each did a one day writing sample. We will compare these from the start of the year to the end of the year to see how much each child grew in their writing. Teachers also use these to help inform us about what your child needs to work on in their writing practice. We also began spelling assessments to help us understand what spelling group would best serve each students.

We learned about using symbols and keys on a map. Students worked with a partner to invent a world of their choice. They used pattern blocks as symbols and built their 3D map. Each map had a key to show what the different symbols/blocks represented.

We painted fairy houses to add to our fairy village in the second grade MOLO. Next week we will glue seashells and jewels onto them before we hang them up! 

Some second grade fairy village magic. (Leaving special nature treats for the fairies)

We learned about mapping from a bird's eye view and students mapped our second grade classroom, making sure to label all the important things in it. 

Pulling the wagon of supplies back and forth from the MOLO is a great job for helpers! (It also helps our students that need those big gross motor movements and proprioceptive input in their bodies!)

At Mack we have lots of opportunities for movement. We know little bodies are not built for sitting all day. In our MOLO we have a trampoline for kids to take brain and body breaks when they need them.

Second graders loved attending the middle school sorting ceremony inspired by Harry Potter where each student gets sorted into a house.

Story time is a favorite already with this class! We enjoyed reading books that emphasize kindness and community as well as mentor texts for our personal narrative writing unit. 

The Mack sandbox is epic!

Gaga ball is a favorite for recess time.

Friends climbing on the play structure with a view of the mountains behind them.