Almost to Freedom

We read the story, Almost to Freedom.   Almost to Freedom is the story of a young girl's escape from slavery.  It is told from the perspective of her beloved rag doll, Sally. This story spawned a lot of discussion about he Underground Railroad and one of the most famous "conductors" Harriett Tubman.
We also discussed how a person's point of view can change a story significantly.  Ask your child to tell you how the story might have been different if it had been told from Lindy's point of view.

We read a biography about Harriett Tubman.  Then, we took the most important information out of the article and created our own mini biography.  Check out our work!

3-2-1 Blast Off!

Since space travel through our solar system has not yet been made available to schools and I don't have a Magic School Bus, I brought the solar system to us today. Student's/Astronauts had a blast traveling through our Solar System...virtually!  

I hung 11 cards around the school, one for each planet, one as an introduction to the solar system and one for returning to Earth. Students used our iPads to scan a QR code on each card.  The code took students to various links on the Internet to watch videos, read, and hear songs about our solar system.  As they learned, they had to record their findings in their Astronaut Log Book.  (I included the AR codes in the log book so you can see the links too when the book comes home.)

We also learned about the different phases of the moon...with Oreo cookies!  YUMMY!

The best part was eating the moon!

Thunder Cake

We have been hard at work at learning how to read step by step directions and to understand how each step is related and important to the final outcome.  On Friday, we analyzed the recipe for Thunder Cake after a week long book study of Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco.  Our analysis included making Thunder Cake.  We had great discussion about the importance of each step, what certain words meant, and even discussed equivalent fractions.

"How do I get this out of here?"

Steady with that vanilla.

Separate the eggs.

Separating the eggs is a dirty job, but somebody has got to do it. 

Expert mixers mixing away!

The secrete ingredient in Thunder Cake is tomatoes…yes I said tomatoes.  Tomatoes make the cake very moist.  You can't taste them, even thought some second graders, who shall remain nameless, said they could take them. If you are curious about Thunder Cake, check out the recipe below.  

Ahhh....it is a NORMAL week!

I don't think that we have had a normal week since before Christmas break.  Last week, the kids and I were reflecting on how off schedule we have been and how much we were craving a normal week.  Well, the normal week is here!  Boy could we feel a difference today.  Today was fun, educational, and best of all predictable!  We can not wait to see what the rest of the week has in store for us...yeah for normal!

Questions to ask your child this week?

Monday:  What number is greater 54 tens and 3 ones or 20+400+5

Tuesday:  What did George Washington Carver do for cotton farmers?

Wednesday:  Put these numbers in order from least to greatest.

400+20+2
48 tens 5 ones
387

Thursday:  How do you make Thunder Cake?

Friday:  Does Thunder Cake taste good?