Philadelphia Zoo Fun!!

This week was our field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo.  Luckily, the weather cooperated and we had a great day.  We started our trip with a class called "Save Our Species."  We learned about how animals become extinct and that the beloved gorilla is one of them.

We had a lot of fun exploring and identifying the animals that we learned about in science.

This week our essential question was "How do we use money?"  One of our stories was "The Life of a Dollar Bill."  It showed how a dollar bill goes from the beginning of its life being printed to the end getting shredded. We also read about the history of money.  Did you know that people actually thought it was a good idea to use rocks as currency?  

In keeping with second grade tradition, we started reading Charlotte's Web.  To go along with this theme, the students were given a STEM challenge in science.  Each group was given the task to design a pigpen that Wilbur must be able to stand in.  They were very impressive especially the group that not only made a pen but gave Wilbur a gate to get in and out.

Have a great weekend!! Happy Memorial Day!!

Thank You

Thank you to all of the parents who took time out of their busy lives to come to Best of Heights Night.  The excitement on the students' faces while proudly showing their work off to you is priceless.  The students really do work very hard daily on the many things they do each week and they really do deserve praise for the things that they do.  While it is impossible to showcase everything, I hope you enjoyed what you did get to see.

This week in reading we talked about how we use energy.  We read stories about different ways to produce energy like from wind or from the sun.  We even read a story about a group of students that powered their laptops by riding bicycles.

We wrapped up our plant experiement in science.  We concluded that our plants grew the best if they had sunlight and water.  Check them out...what do you think?

We also had some fun learning about pollination in science.  Each student was given a "bee" and needed to go from flower to flower and collect pollen (cheese balls).  They were not permitted to lick or wipe off their fingers.  By the end of the pollination, each student's fingers were covered in "pollen".  This showed them how pollen is spread among flowers and how they stay pollinated.  

Our field trip to the zoo is coming up. Keep on the lookout for information coming home about the trip and the permission slip.  Have a great weekend!!