Life Cycles & Memorial Day Assembly

Friday was a busy and exciting day! In the morning the second grade students attended a presentation by Hannah from the Museum of Science, all about Life Cycles.

 The students compared the life cycle of a mammal with the life cycle of a reptile. 

We got to meet one of the animals at the Museum of Science, a bearded dragon named Norbert. He is a yellowish-gold color to blend in with the sands in his native home of Australia.

Then, we learned about the life cycle of a frog.  We got to meet another resident of the Museum of Science, a Caatinga Horned Frog.  One of the second graders even got to dress up like a frog, going through metamorphosis. Fun! These little critters go through quite the change.

Last, we learned about the life cycle of the plant and got to see the largest plant in North America., the Giant Sequoya. The one that Hannah brought was just a little sapling but some of the pictures of the adult trees were amazing. We learned the seeds will only drop after a forest fire and the trees can live to be hundreds of years old. WOW!
What was even more fun was we got to pretend to be a Giant Sequoya growing in the forest.

After learning about life cycles, Hannah tested our knowledge with a What Am I? mystery challenge. She would show us one picture at a time showing each stage and we had to figure out what animal/plant it was. 

We had a great time learning about life cycles!


In the afternoon, we had even more excitement. The entire school participated in a Memorial Day assembly. This assembly was extra special because we had several veterans as special guests. The students did an amazing job and everyone was touched.

Watch our class and Mrs. Kenedy's class recite a Memorial Day poem

Here is a touching video of a song sung by the entire school

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY !

Butterflies!

On Friday, we said goodbye to our butterflies. The students enjoyed learning about the life cycle of the butterfly.

When our caterpillars first arrived they were only a few days old and very very small (about the size of our thumbnail)

They quickly grew and molted several times. Soon they were this big.........

One day we came to school and they were hanging in a J shape from a silk button at the top of their cup. They were very still and didn't move all day..........

The next day we found the caterpillars had molted a final time and were in their chrysalis. At this point they came out of the cups and were hung in the net.

We waited and waited and waited some more. We noticed the chrysalides were getting darker and the wings were starting to show. 
All of a sudden we looked and had butterflies. We were beyond excited!

Hopefully they will make a home in our beautiful courtyard so we can continue to enjoy their beauty. We love our beautiful butterflies!

D.A.S.H

For three Fridays before April vacation our class learned about blindness and visual impairments through the D.A.S.H (Disability Awareness Starts Here) program. Through a variety of activities they learned what it is like for a person who is visually impaired to navigate the world around them.  On the first day, the students learned about the eye. 

They also participated in a blindfold activity where they had to reach into a bag, pull out a common household item, and then try to identify it. Discussed were the challenges of identifying similar shaped items, like tuna and cat food.

In the second session, the students participated in two activities. Each student was paired with a partner who was their sighted guide. The guide, guided them down the hallway, ensuring they didn't bump into anything and then guided them at a "restaurant". At the :restaurant", the guide, guided them in pouring water and eating jello. This was quite an activity in trust and all of the guides did an amazing job helping their partners.

During the third D.A.S.H session, the students explored and used some of the devices people who are blind/have visual impairments use.

To conclude the D.A.S.H. program, the students had the opportunity to listen to a special visitor discuss what it is like to be blind. Mr. Andrew LaPointe showed the students some of the devices he uses on a daily basis. The students met his guide dog Shubert and asked thoughtful questions. They were a wonderful and attentive audience.

Thank you to all of the volunteers for making this wonderful program happen!