Our engineering challenge for this week was building the tallest free-standing Rapunzel Tower out of paper.  The tower needs to be able to have a braid of hair hanging down on one side.  They were allowed to any kind of paper they wanted.  It is amazing how quickly after first tests they realized that the base was going to make a big difference in this challenge. 

This week in science we are working on patterns in the sky.  Today we went used a model to see how the moon phases happen.  We used a ball to represent the moon, a flashlight to represent the sun and we each got to act as the Earth.  We rotated the moon around Earth and held the sun in a constant location and we observed all the phases in the moon in one full rotation of the person.

Reminder for Friday!

As a reminder, Friday, 3/28, is the final day to purchase your meal tickets for PTA's Family Movie Night scheduled for next Thursday, April 3rd.  The In-N-Out Burger truck will be parked at Cannon next week, cooking up hamburgers for all Cannon families to enjoy before the movie starts!  All of the details about this event are listed below.  You won't want to miss this fun family night!! 

• Date- Thursday, April 3
• In-N-Out Burger Truck parked @ Cannon - 6:00-7:30    75% of sales donated to Cannon PTA & 25% donated to local charity
• Meal Cost - $5 per person (burger, chips, drink) Purchase in advance by Friday, 3-28
• Movie Time - 7:30 pm - Disney's Despicable Me 2 - will be shown outdoors (weather permitting), so bring blankets and lawn chairs.  In event of inclement weather, movie will be inside.
• Concessions - popcorn & other snacks will be sold during movie - $1 each

Can't wait to see you all there!

Today in math we worked on selecting appropriate tools when measuring an object.  I did many silly measuring tool mistakes and they caught all of my mistakes.  Ex. Using a cup to measure length.  We looked closely at the ruler, yard stick and the tape measure then they got to practice using all of these appropriate length measuring tools.

Today in math we had a group challenge.  They were given a paper cup and they were told the team that got it to move down the table the most would win.  The challenge was they were not allowed to touch the cup with any objects.  The teams had a planning and testing time.  Then we did a first run.  They learned some strategies from each other and we did a second run.  Then we measured how far the cups went using craft sticks.  I tried to trick them by using different sized craft sticks but they told me right away when you measure you need to use the same sized objects.  So we fixed the problem and found our winner.

I hope everyone had a great spring break.  We jumped right back into our water cycle science lessons this morning with a visit from Mr. Adams.  He came to the school and demonstrated all the stages of the water cycle for the students through great mini experiments.  The kids had a great time and learned so much.  Thanks to Mr. Adams for coming to work with all of 2nd grade!!!!

We are so excited to invite you to open house.  The choir will perform from 5:30-6:00.  Then you will tour classrooms from 6:00-7:00.  Here is a sneak peak of some of the things the scholars are looking forward to sharing. 

Things to Share

*Story Patterns in imovie

*Dialogue Book in Bookabi on ipad

*Poem Book in ibooks on ipad

*U.S. Symbols Project in imovie if finished

*Historical Figures movie in imovie

*Historical Figures trailers QR codes in hall

*Great Wall of China Engineering Project on back counter

*National Holidays project on Reading Table

*Weather Jigsaw project on Reading Table

*Rock projects in Evernote.

*Rock Movies

*Make sure to stop by the music room

*Make sure to stop by the book fair.

Today in math we practiced all of our telling time concepts using a Nearpod party planning project.  They got to work with calendars and clocks to plan their party.  We had a great time.

Today in science we were looking at condensation and precipitation in the water cycle.  We reviewed that we learned that a temperature change causes condensation to occur.  Then they were posed with the problem of making rain happen.  They all knew that to make precipitation they would need a lot of condensation to happen.  So they decided that they would use hot water and ice to cause the large amount of condensation they would need for it to drop as precipitation.  We had success!!!