French

I have really enjoyed working with the 2nd grade this winter.  Ms. Sparks will be taking over for the rest of the year, but I wanted to share a story we worked on together before Ms. Sparks took over.  The girls arranged the pictures in order to make a logical story and then narrated the story.  Each class made their own recording.  Can you spot your daughter's voice?

Art_The Grandparent Project

The grandparent project starts with a wonderful Native American story called Knots on a Counting Book by Bill Martin, Jr and John Archambault. It's a story about a blind boy who asks his grandfather to tell and retell the story of his birth. Each time he told the story, a knot was tied in the counting rope. By that time, the boy could tell the story on his own. There are other wonderful themes in the story but intergenerational relationships and storytelling are the inspiration for the second graders' own grandparent stories.

Next, the girls drew three sketches of their own memories with grandparents. They focused on showing with pictures the "who, what, where, when and why" of their stories. Then, they learned how to draw figures in different positions so that their characters can be in an action pose, sideways, turned backwards, or behind something. Second graders naturally begin to play with space in their drawings with overlapping, foreground, middle ground, size, and back ground, size and angles; this project allows them to make intentional choices to emphasize the relationship between her and her grandparent(s). Their final drawings will be done in chalk pastel.

Art_Balanced Relationships Mobile

Balanced Relationships Mobile

The ultimate goal of this project is to help students realize the importance of balancing

various relationships in their lives. Students explored the concept of balance by physical

balancing objects. They also studied mobile artists in order to understand how artists use

balance as a concept of their artwork. Then, students read The Incredible Book Eating

Boy by Oliver Jeffers to find out what they "want" to do and what they "need" to do in

order to create a balanced relationship. Students picked one or two of their drawings

from both "want" and "need" sections and recreated those representative images with

model magic clay. Students used knowledge acquired prior to this project to use warm

an cool (opposite) colors to color their clay work. The balanced relationship mobile enabled
students to reflect on their relationships and create healthy choices by balancing what they
want and need to do.

Zoo Exhibit Design Project

In second grade, students work in both art and computer science to design a zoo animal exhibit through the lens of the animal, zoo keeper, and visitor.  We began the unit with a visit from the Maryland Zoo Mobile!  The zoo keepers discuss what designers consider when creating exhibits for the animals.  Following the visit, students take notes in Book Creator.  This virtual notebook will be used throughout the unit.  Pairs of students have been assigned animals to research using teacher created resources Live Binders.  In the spring, we will take a field trip to the zoo to compare real animal exhibits to out designs and then make changes as needed.

                         *MATH GAMES* in 2nd Grade!