{Coaster Challenge}

Whoo hoo! Energy and Forces is one of my favorite units of the year! 

The Twosies learned that heat, light, sound, and motion are all forms of energy. We experimented with the energy of the sun with solar ovens.

We made s'mores! They sure were yummy!

To study forces, we looked closely at roller coasters! 

We began by collecting some data from our class mates. Have you ever ridden a roller coaster?

 

 We then represented our data and discussed our results. Most of Mrs. Hilley's class has ridden a roller coaster!

For those that hadn't ridden a roller coaster...we went on a virtual ride!!!

Ahhh!!!

We then explored the history and workings of roller coasters. After lots of experimenting with ramps at different heights and cars on different surfaces, we felt prepared to take on the Roller Coaster Challenge! Using pool noodles and duct tape, students had to create a roller coaster track that would carry a marble through a loop without falling off! Check out the video and pictures of our hard work:

 

{The Twosies Lived Happily Ever After}

Our Fairytales Unit has taught us so much! The Twosies have learned all about the elements and history of fairytales. They have learned about the differences between the oral folktale genre and current fractured fairytales. We read many traditional, modern, and fractured versions of our favorite fairytales and compared and contrasted them. We were also able to look at how versions of the same fairytale changed based on the country/region where the story was told. Some of the Twosies even wrote their own!

 They conducted and reported their own research on knights, castles, dragons, and royalty. Through this research they were able to explore nonfiction text features, become familiar with many different resources including the internet, and learn about summarizing and notetaking. 

 Here are the groups' final products: 

{Mrs. Hilley Gets Slimed}

Ahhhhhhh!!!

Second Grade was one of the winning grade levels who collected
the most money for Relay for Life!

So that means...their teachers got slimed!!

Before

It was so cold!!

After

{Blue Ribbon Pep Rally}

We were so excited to be able to officially celebrate Malcom Bridge receiving the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Lighthouse School Recognition!

Second grade always goes above and beyond...

Each grade level wrote and performed a cheer. You can check out second grade's below:

The North Oconee High School Competition Cheerleaders came and performed for us as well!

It was such a great day celebrating all of the wonderful things going on at The Bridge!!

{Mini Microbiologists}

Microbiologist Dr. Walker and some graduate students from the University of Georgia came to share with second grade about bacteria. They Twosies rotated through four classrooms for a different bacteria focus. 

In our first rotation, we learned that there are good bacteria in many foods that we eat. The students got to eat yogurt in this rotation!

Next, we learned how bacteria form after we are born.

The third rotation allowed us to explore some of the infections that are caused by bacteria. We were able to observe different antibiotics working to kill off bacteria in a petri dish. We also got to watch a video of a white blood cell attacking a bacteria!

Finally, we got to swab a place on our body and spread our sample on a petri dish of our own! Dr. Walker took the dishes back to her lab and grew our bacteria. She later sent us pictures of our cultures. So gross and so cool!!!

{#DotDay16}

The Twosies loved celebrating International Dot Day!

International Dot Day celebrates the message presented in Peter H. Reynold's Book, The Dot, that everyone has the potential to leave their mark on the world. It all begins with being brave enough to start with just a dot.

We of course began the day by reading the book and discussing the author's message.

We also brainstormed and wrote about ways that we as second graders could make our mark in our homes, school, and community.

We later celebrated Dot Day with a STEM Challenge!

The students were given Dots candies, toothpicks, and 15 minutes to construct the tallest tower that they could.

When time was up, the teams had to take a step back. They were very disappointed to find that many towers fell shortly after removing their hands. The teams then had to analyze their structures and think about how they could improve upon their plan to ensure that the tower could support itself. (While eating their Dots of course!!)