Archive for the ‘Second Grade’ Category
Week in Review
Apr
Here is a little bit of what we have been up to lately:
Language Arts:
Hailey has been busy reading “The Littles.”
Science:
We wrapped up our landform unit last week. We played this fun game from Around the Kampfire. We took turns spinning to see which land form or water form we would land on. Then we had to tell what it was called, if it was a land or water form, and then give an explanation of what it was.
Hailey had a great time playing the game!
As an ending project to our landform unit, Hailey mixed up some salt dough so she could create her own island.
Her island had to have 5 different land forms or water forms that we had learned about.
She included a volcano, a water fall, mountains, valley and a plain.
After it was dry, Hailey painted her island.
The completed island.
She drew a map of her island.
Then she wrote a little story about how she found the island and what happened after she discovered it.
This was a super fun unit! Most of the activities came from the unit at Around the Kampfire– and I highly recommend it!!
Other:
Hailey completed her first sewing project! She had a great time and is already working on her next one.
Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.
Week in Review
Apr
Here is a little review of a few things we have done recently:
History/Geography:
We have been loving using the Expedition Earth curriculum! We studied about China and had a great time building the Great Wall of China. We had an educational fair at our homeschool c0-op and decided to share the Great Wall of China for Hailey’s activity.
Hailey was so proud of her hard work!
Hailey’s poster display along with the Great Wall of China.
Science:
We continued learning about landforms in science.
Hailey made a little vocabulary booklet using one of the activities from Around the Kampfire.
Volcano page
Hill page
Mountain page
There are lots more pages and this has been a great way for Hailey to learn the definitions of each landform. Plus, she enjoyed drawing the pictures!
Other:
Hailey is working on her first sewing project.
Hailey recently had a gymnastics show.
She loves gymnastics!
Hailey also takes swimming lessons and she has become a very good swimmer.
Playing basketball during free time at one of her gym classes.
Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.
Review of Supercharged Science
Apr
I have been very surprised this school year to find that one of Hailey’s favorite subjects is science. When we started our school year we were only doing science a couple of times per week. The days we did not do science, Hailey was asking me when we could do science again. I found that I needed to plan extra science activities so that we had some science to do every day of the week. Science has never been my strong point, so I had to do a lot of work and research to find or create unit studies and experiments to use. My search for the right science curriculum has continued through the year, so when we were recently given the chance to review Supercharged Science I was really excited to check it out. We were able to use the e-Science Premium Membership so that we could find out what it is all about.
So, what did we think of Supercharged Science?
The first thing I did was check out what is available by grade level. There is a screen like the one above where everything is organized by grade.
If you prefer to look at things organized by topic, you can do that as well, and you will see a screen that looks like this one.
I looked at the grade level and picked 2nd grade. Then we could pick from Chemistry, Life Science or Earth Science as the topic to learn about. Hailey picked chemistry, which scared me a bit 😉 Here is a sample of some of the experiments we did:
We tried the Laundry Soap Crystals experiment. First we watched a video about it and then we did our own.
Here is our experiment all set and ready to grow some crystals.
We did grow some crystals…. but our pipe cleaner was too close to the bottom of the jar and became permanently stuck to it. There was no way we were going to get our crystal out! It was still fun to watch it grow though.
We also tried the microwaving soap experiment.
I found a bar of Ivory soap, that had been around for a few years and we microwaved it.
Our soap did not expand like the one in the video that Aurora showed. We have done this before and it has worked, so I left a comment on the experiment post and asked if it could be because we had used old soap. Less than 2 hours after I posted my question she answered and explained that it was probably because we used an old bar of soap which has less water vapor in the air pockets, which means it doesn’t expand in the microwave.
One of the other experiments we tried was the Rubber Eggs.
We put a hard boiled egg in vinegar and left it for a few days.
When we took it out of the vinegar- it bounced.
Hailey tried to cut through the egg, which felt very rubbery, and even though the shell was soft it was hard to cut through.
She finally got the shell off and it was soft and rubbery for a little while, but was it dried it got hard and cracked.
After the experiments there are also downloads available for worksheets. Hailey is not a big fan of worksheets, so we just had some discussion questions rather than filling out a paper. But, for those who like to have some written work- that is available as well.
There is so much you can do with the Supercharged Science curriculum! This post is just a small little snippet of what is available.
Here is what it boils down to for me:
Pros:
Hailey loved the experiments.
The experiment videos were short, they did not have long drawn out explanations, and they kept Hailey’s attention.
We had the materials to do most of the experiments that we wanted to try. (There are some where you will have to purchase items.)
Cons:
The website was a little confusing at first for me. It took me a while to figure out where everything is.
I received a lot of extra emails from the company (but you can easily opt out of those).
The program is a bit pricey.
Want to see more of Supercharged Science?
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Pinterest
Expedition Earth- France
Apr
Have I mentioned how much we love the Expedition Earth curriculum? It’s definitely my favorite part of the day!
This week we learned all about France. As always Hailey reviewed all of the other countries we have been studying on the map and found the new one as well.
We had a cheese tasting party.
We also learned that in France they like to have a bowl of hot chocolate and then the dip a variety of breads into the hot chocolate. We decided to dip donuts into the hot chocolate- that’s bread, right?!?! Hunter loved it!
Hailey definitely enjoyed her donut and hot chocolate too.
We built an Eiffel Tower
Hailey posing with the Eiffel Tower and pointing to France on the map.
Hailey loves when we read about the children from the country we are learning about. She gets out some paper and takes notes about the child- she just finds it fascinating to learn how they live.
We learned that a french scientist discovered how to make inexpensive soap, which in turn meant people could afford to buy it and use it. So, we had some fun making our own soap.
The finished soap
To end out the week, Hailey made some chocolate truffles. They were super delicious!!
Be sure to like me on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest so you don’t miss any of our fun activities.
