Taking Care of our Community

This week our class worked on a project that will benefit our entire school community. Over the winter, the mulch on our playground gets packed down. It needs to be turned over in the spring so that it provides a soft cushion under our play structure. In the past we have had volunteers come in during April vacation to work on turning the mulch, but this year the classes at Floral Street School took responsibility for our playground. We spent a half hour on Wednesday this week using rakes and hoes to turn over the mulch and pick up trash that accumulated around our playground over the winter. It was a hot day and we worked hard. We can be proud of the work we did every time we go out for recess this spring! The students were all happy knowing that the work that they did would benefit their friends in their school community.

Earlier this year we celebrated Random Acts of Kindness month at Floral Street School. Since cleaning up our playground was an act of kindness, students started talking about this again. Over this past week I noticed several students helping out a friend without being asked. Whether it was helping to clean up a spilled water bottle, helping a friend clean up a messy table, or asking a friend to play at recess-there were lots of acts of kindness going on. Our principal, Mrs. McCubrey, shared a video with us about random acts of kindness. We watched it during dismissal on Wednesday this week. The video shows the effect random acts of kindness can have on a community. The class loved it so much we watched it twice! If you click on the words "shared a video" above, you will be directed to the site where the video is found. It's only 5 minutes long, but it's definitely a video that will leave you smiling and shows the power of just one random act of kindness!

Science is AWESOME!

This trimester we are learning all about solids, liquids, and gases in science. We started out our study of matter by using books on solids, liquids, and gases to do some research and note taking. We used these notes to make some FANTASTIC posters explaining what we know about matter. These will be hanging up in our room after vacation, so be sure to stop by and take a peek. We also did some fabulous work explaining what a gas is, together with Mrs. Beall's class (liquids) and Mrs. Peterson's class (solids). That work is displayed on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. We have already noticed a number of students in our school stopping by to read our facts about gas!

This week we had two explorations in science that were particularly awesome! To learn about the properties of solids we were able to handle various density cubes made from lots of different materials-including aluminum, copper, brass, PVC, acrylic, oak, and pine. We touched and observed the cubes and together with our groups we came up with some properties we could use to describe solids. We also had a chance to use a balance scale to weigh the density cubes in order to determine which one was heaviest and which one was lightest. (Our predictions were pretty close!)

I think our favorite experiment this week was the day we made carbon dioxide. (You know a science experiment is well-received when the "scientists" clap when it is done!) Our goal was to show that a gas will spread out to fill up the available space, which in this case was a balloon. We also learned that carbon dioxide is denser than air because a balloon filled with carbon dioxide will fall to the ground faster than a balloon filled with air. Check out the pictures below and be sure to ask your second grader to tell you what they know about solids, liquids, and gases!

Here comes the carbon dioxide!

We couldn't believe how quickly our balloon filled up!

Pouring in the baking soda

Our gas anchor chart

Pouring in the vinegar

Attaching the balloon to the bottle

Here it goes again!

Dropping the balloon filled with carbon dioxide

TV Turnoff Week and the Read-a-thon!

This week is TV Turnoff Week at Floral Street School! Our goal is to help our students find ways to spend their time away from the TV. In class we have been brainstorming activities that we could do at home instead of watching TV. We have come up with some great ideas! Some friends suggested playing outside. Others suggested doing an art project. Several friends thought they would like to use this time to get more rest and someone even suggested building leprechaun houses! Of course many students suggested that we read, read, and read some more! That's a perfect suggestion because this week also kicks of our annual read-a-thon! The read-a-thon runs from April 8th to April 21st. Information on the read-a-thon went home in last week's communication folder. This year we are hoping to raise over $3500. This money will be used to fix the playground equipment. The students who read the most and the classroom that reads the most will receive special recognition, so get out those books and read! Even though vacation is next week, be sure to read every day so you come back to school ready to learn!