100th day, Science,

Celebrating Rosh Chodesh with Pajama Day!

We had a fun filled Pajama Day today!

Kids loved seeing their friends and teachers in pajamas, as well as having their stuffed animals in school. We joined the rest of the school in singing “Mi shenichnas Adar Marbin B’simcha” (When Adar comes, we are happy!) during the school wide pajama parade. During Hebrew we listened to and read the words to the popular song about a Zebra and pajamas. We also made our stuffed animals speak to each other in Hebrew!

100th Day of School

Right before break we celebrated the 100th day of school by writing, reading, eating, and counting! We enjoyed celebrating all that we have accomplished in 100 days, and were excited to do stations with Kindergarten and first graders. As the oldest kids in the stations, second graders became leaders in helping younger students string 100 Cheerios, write about school, and use Hebrew words. We are so proud of all we have learned in these 100 days- not just the academic subjects but how to be kind and positive community members as well!

Science

The last sections of our unit on Changes has focused on mixing substances and reactions. Students conducted experiments to explore and compare what happens when they mix baking soda and water, and baking soda and vinegar. They enjoyed inflating balloons with the baking soda and vinegar mixture and testing what happens when we added more or less baking soda to vinegar in different sizes of bottles. When students put an antacid tablet into a sealed plastic bag with water they were surprised at the reaction which created gas, and caused the bag to expand. They also had the opportunity one day to choose from various liquids and solids and mix them together to make different reactions.

The “Dancing Raisins” experiment introduced and illustrated the idea of density and what happens when carbon dioxide attaches to the surface of an object.  We poured 7Up in a glass, watched the carbon dioxide gas release from the liquid, and then added raisins. The raisins initially sunk. As bubbles adhered to the raisins they were lifted to the surface, the bubbles popped and they sank again. Students cheered as the raisins continued to dance up and down until most of the carbon dioxide had escaped.

Next, we have been exploring the idea of chemical reactions through readings in the Changes magazine as well as experiments with steel wool soaked in water and vinegar. Students predicted whether or not these mixtures would produce a chemical reaction, rust. We compared observations at the time of doing the experiments with what happened to the steel  wool a week later. They learned about conditions necessary for rust to take place, what types of metals do and do not rust, and why the different liquids created different reactions with the steel wool.

Our science experiment of making and watching salt crystals grow over the past couple of months came to a creative writing conclusion recently.

Science partner pairs closely examined their multi-colored crystals which they used as the basis for a poetry writing session. Many students also drew their crystals and shared their poems with classmates before bidding the crystals farewell.

Math

In math we had a chance to play each other’s board games and work on mental math strategies for addition and subtraction. Students shared that using “friendly” numbers, like 10, can help them figure out solving problems in their heads. We then moved on to rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. We learned that we can round to help estimate, and that any number ending in the digit 5 must be rounded up.

Over the weekend, give your child some random numbers and have them round them to the nearest 10, 100 or even 1,000!

Also, second graders can always use extra math fact practice. Make flashcards with problems up to 20 for addition and subtraction and practice a few every night!

Chumash: Reflecting on the Creation Story and Learning Kiddus

As we complete our first unit of Chumash study, we closed our learning with two activities.

We started the second chapter of the Torah, and saw that the first three verses describing Shabbat are also the opening to the Friday night kidush. We created a page for our siddur with the full kiddush and have added it to our weekly kabbalat shabbat service. If you say kiddush at home with your family, challenge your second grader to follow and sing along!

Secondly, we reflected on big questions that have come up in class around the creation story.

• Does God have a gender?
• Do you believe that God created the world?
• Why do you think humans were created last in the creation story?

The responses to these questions and more are on display in our hallway. During parent teacher conferences we will invite parents to add their own responses as well!

Shinshinim: “Lashon Ha’ra Lo Medaber Elai”, Speaking Nicely

The Shinshinim are back from their visit to Israel. They told us all about where they went there, and also shared with us about a popular movement in Israel against speaking badly about other people. They played a fun game with us connected to this, and a guessing game connected to compliments.