Today the children started their own market system without even knowing it!  Since several of them had brought in things(from nature only) to use building their fairy houses I let them know that they were welcome to share if they felt it was fair.  Wow! In no time at all, they were trading all sorts of commodities!  After, students got together with their groups and discussed their trades and weather they were fair or not.  These seven year olds had some very insightful thoughts about the process.  I’m excited to see how this evolves with our other lessons about needs and wants, systems, how people participate in a system, and how people’s decisions affect systems.

Here are some of the things that I heard out in the woods while the students worked and traded today:

"Look! Fairies!"
"Are those fairies or just flies." 
"I think we might need to rebuild." 
"Timber!" 
"Stop your complaining. I did all the hard work." 
"Jackpot! We found the jackpot!" 
"Some fairies or animals visited our house 
again and ate all of our food!" 
"We made a deal and traded some bark for seashells."
 "Dude, it has a whole in it!" 
"Whoa! Check this out!" 
"I like your fairy house! It's really nice!" 
"Do you want to make a deal? We have tons of bark. 
Do you have anything?" "We want to trade something!" 
"Come to our fairy house and see all the stuff we have." 
"Thank you."
"We have to build more on our house."
 "Look what I just traded guys." 
"Can you help me find some berries?" 
"We are just trading, trading, trading so much stuff. 
We're getting better "There are so many customers!" 
"We have leaves. Really great leaves!"
 "Found a mushroom." 
"We could use these for booster seats if there are any 
kid fairies." 
"It was fair, but we got lots of stuff for just wood."

And back in the classroom:
“It was all fair, but we got some really cool stuff for just some wood.”
I was able to trade for so much with only seashells.”
“We found some berries and then everyone got so excited and wanted to trade for them. We weren’t really thinking about it and in the end, all we had left were some sticks and stuff. all of our berries were gone.”

It is so hard to believe that we are at the end of the year!! I am amazed at how independent all of my students have become and how much they have grown academically and socially.  I will truly miss this group of second graders, but they are most definitely ready to become third graders.

Here are a few reminders and updates:

Report cards will be issued on the last day of school and will include next year’s teacher assignment.

Work will be going home pretty frequently these next 2 weeks, so be on the look out for work in different areas and be sure compliment your son or daughter on the commitment and hard work that he/she has put into this year.

We have several things planned for the end of the year in our short Camping Unit.  During this unit, we incorporate ideas, concepts, and skills that we have learned about throughout the year such as “needs and wants,” reading comprehension skills, scientific process, computer skills, writing, and more.  Ask your child daily what he or she did for camping.  They are having so much fun!

Dates to remember:

• June 14-S’MOREs
• June 17-Make trail mix
• June 18-Walk to Boscawen Public Library and ice cream at Alan’s (send in $1.50)
• June 19-Hike in back of the school & setting up “tents” in the classroom
• June 20-Last day of school & Field Day

Assessing the damage after Sandy.

Since Hurricane Sandy went through parts of NH, we were concerned about how our fairy houses held up.  Most of the students were worried that the high winds might have blew their house down.  As it turned out, most of the houses were still together, though a lot of rain got in and the students will need to do some home improvements if their fairy houses will need to hold up and the fairies will be able adapt to the climate changes of NH.

Yes, we are building fairy houses-or other mystical creature that might live in the woods!  The students are SO excited for this project!  Their task is to build a fairy home that will support and protect the fairy from the natural changes in our NH environment.

Students will also be writing about them and the process of building.

Today, students found a suitable place to build and are considering the natural resources that are available to them to build.  Then, they wrote about why they chose their place and what materials they have used to help the fairies adapt to the natural changes in our environment.

Today we learned more about the rock cycle and began inquiring about the changes in our natural world.  Students took digital pictures of the changes they saw outside.

Here are a few of their pictures:

PIC #1

PIC #2

PIC #3

PIC #4

We are beginning a new unit about change in our environment.  We began our inquiry by thinking like scientists.  First, we ventured out into our natural world to observe rocks, water, and soil.  We looked at how thinks were formed, what they looked, how they felt, and collected data on our findings. We collected rock samples to work with later.  Back in the classroom, students worked in groups observing the rocks closely with magnifying glasses and discussing what they noticed.  Then, they agreed on a way to group them based on the rocks’ properties.  After each group had grouped their rocks and recorded their data, we heard from each group how they chose to classify their rocks.  Rocks were grouped by shape, size, weight, and color.  After, students could go back and regroup their rocks in another way.  Most groups thought that color was most helpful in the end.

We have been reading some books about rocks and also watched a short video.  Students learned that rocks are made up of minerals and that some are harder than others.  The hardness scale rates how hard a rock is from 1-10. Rocks are also classified based on their properties.  There are sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks.  These rocks can change from one type to another over long periods of time.

Here are a few links to learn more about the rock cycle:

How Rocks Change-The Rock Cycle.

The_Rock_Cycle (8 minute video)

The_Rock_Cycle (2:40 minute video clip)

Rocks-Chapter 4 (Intermediate text)

Here are 2 photographs.  Can you tell where they are from and what kind of rocks they are?

Move the cursor over each picture to find the answer.

After exploring more about rocks, what have you found most interesting?