HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

 The much-awaited time of the year has come. Grade 2s were excited! Apart from the costumes they want to show to their friends and teachers, they received treats, lots of them!

Happy Halloween everybody and enjoy the BREAK! See you all on November 2!

EGG DROP

 The highlight of our unit this week is the EGG DROP experiment we did in groups. In this experiment, the challenge was for the groups to ensure that the raw egg will not break when they drop it from the second floor down to the ground.

To do this, the Grade 2s were asked to plan and design a structure to prevent the egg from breaking when dropped from a higher place. The Grade 2s were provided materials such as soft small cushions, paper rolls, paper towels, tape, straw, plastic bags, and others to use for this experiment. They were also allowed to bring one material from home.

There were different ideas shown. However, ALL eggs broke.  Look at the pictures of our structures below and let us know why our eggs broke. ;)

Anyway, it was a good try! What is important is we had FUN and we worked as a TEAM!

How we express ourselves

 This year, we have a YEAR-long unit and that is How we express ourselves. The central idea is WE CAN EXPRESS AND APPRECIATE UNIQUENESS THROUGH ART. This unit runs in connection to our ARTS and MUSIC lessons. 

As part of understanding how they express themselves especially their emotions, each student chose a feeling/emotion and created an emoji of it. Afterwards, we did a silent gallery walk wherein they wrote down how they express their feelings which include the things they do when they are happy, or the words they say when they are grumpy, and so on.

Looking at their work, it is evident that we have a set of artists in the making.

Feeling the shapes

 Our unit is about the senses and the students connected this to Math when they identified properties of the shapes using their senses of touch and sight.

Oktoberfest 2020

 This year, Oktoberfest is celebrated in a simple way. The children don't actually think it was fun as it was entirely different from the years we had, but it also came form them that this is better than not celebrating it at all. 😅

Using Braille and Sign Language

 This week, we focused on our third line of inquiry - HOW PEOPLE CAN LIVE WITHOUT ONE OR MORE SENSES. 

We learned about the lives of Louis Braille and Helen Keller. We got amazed by their resilience and their intelligence as they used their other senses to understand the world around them. We learned about the Braille system and made our own messages using braille symbols. We used round stickers to create bumps that our fingers can feel. :) We also learnt about Alphabet sign language and finger spelled our names. We learned some basic ASL such as greetings, introductions, simple conversations, and others.

We are still working on signing the We Wish You a Merry Christmas song. We will include this in our Christmas presentation. :)

Is it TELLING or TATTLING?

 In one of our units, Grade 2 explored the difference between telling and tattling. We read the story, A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue and discussed the content focusing on the boy's behaviour in the story.

Then to ensure sound understanding of the difference, the learners sorted out scenarios into two: TELLING and TATTLING. The posters show that they understand them well.

Empathizing with people who are visually challenged

 Grade 2 students posted a wondering about how people who are blind can survive. To address this question, we had one learning engagement wherein they had to find their way from starting point to finish point blindfolded.

The experience was a good way to make connections and see how other senses are used to compensate for the sense that is not functioning well or not functioning at all. This learning engagement also made them understand the feeling of seeing only darkness and empathize with those who are blind.