Germs, Germs, Germs!

It's cold season! There have been a few empty desks in our room lately, as well as several sniffles, sneezes, coughs, and sore throats. We've been learning about ways to keep ourselves healthy and to prevent bacteria and viruses from taking over. We did a project to help us discover the best way to wash our hands and rid them of any germs that could be lurking. The students were each given a squirt of lotion to rub into their hands, and then we coated their hands with glitter to simulate germs. We divided up into 3 groups - one group wiped their hands with a paper towel, one group washed their hands with cold water only, and one group washed with warm water and soap. The third group was the only group that could get their germs (glitter) to come off all the way, so we concluded that we should do that every time we wash our hands. Below are some pictures from our experiment!

It's cold season! There have been a few empty desks in our room lately, as well as several sniffles, sneezes, coughs, and sore throats. We've been learning about ways to keep ourselves healthy and to prevent bacteria and viruses from taking over. We did a project to help us discover the best way to wash our hands and rid them of any germs that could be lurking. The students were each given a squirt of lotion to rub into their hands, and then we coated their hands with glitter to simulate germs. We divided up into 3 groups - one group wiped their hands with a paper towel, one group washed their hands with cold water only, and one group washed with warm water and soap. The third group was the only group that could get their germs (glitter) to come off all the way, so we concluded that we should do that every time we wash our hands. Below are some pictures from our experiment!

Go Pack Go!!!

We have many Packer fans in our class! After the Packers won their first playoff game last weekend, many of us wore our Packer gear or green and gold to celebrate the win. We enjoy keeping up with the team, but we have also found many parallels between the Packers and our own learning community. For example, working hard, doing your best, never giving up, and being a team player are things we strive to do as a class. 

What Happens When Solids and Liquids Mix?

During our unit on Matter, we've been experimenting with many different kinds of solids and liquids. We've identified properties for both and compared and contrasted them. This week, we discovered what would happen when solids and liquids mix. Our conclusions were that some items, such as tin foil and cloth, did not change at all (besides getting wet). Some items changed completely, such as rock salt and peppermint candy. Some items changed a little, like chalk, raisins, cookies, and beans.

Welcome Mr. Davis!

Drew was our Child of the Week this week, and as a part of his special week he brought in his dad to talk to us about his job as a police officer. We had fun seeing his uniform and learning about what he does every day. He even showed us how to use his fingerprinting kit!



4th Grade Buddies

This month we met our 4th Grade Buddies in the computer lab to practice our spelling words. We used the Spelling City website to play games together, and we worked on a word search that our buddies customized for us using our own personal spelling list! 

Non-Fiction Reading

Our genre focus for the second quarter is Non-Fiction. We have been reading lots of non-fiction books and have learned many different text features associated with this genre. Recently we explored a type of non-fiction different than books, in the form of pamphlets, brochures, menus, maps, etc. We had so much fun finding out information from these materials, we forgot we were reading!

Radical Readers!

Our second graders have the opportunity to join a reading club every month called the Radical Reading Club. In order to join, students need to read 24 books per month. Members in the club enjoy a prize from the school library, a pizza coupon, and a reward activity. This month our reward was free time in the gym. Check out all our star bowlers!