Today has been another busy day in 2nd Grade.  We finished our Lego Story Starter project and they will be bringing them home today.  They look amazing.  Then we finished our place value PBL today. project  They made the scoots today on laptops to help the 3rd grade teachers assess their students knowledge of place value.  They had to write the questions and then also provide the answer for the teachers.  Boy do I feel sorry for the 3rd graders.  These little smarties made those problems quite hard. 

Today we continued working on our Lego Story Starter for Thanksgiving.  We went into the media lab and finished our building.  Then took images for our story.  We imported our images and then started writing our story today.  We will get to finish our project.  The kids have really been enjoying the experience. 

Yesterday we started a writing project about the differences of the first Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving of today.  We are doing this project with Lego Story Starters.  We got with partners and one partner built a scene out of Legos of the past and one of the future.  Then they took many images using an ipod touch.  Today we will go into the media lab and use our builds to create a story.  We are really excited and I have to say some of their scenes were so amazing.  They added many details that really showed they know the difference between the two. 

Today was building day for our Marshmallow Shooter Engineering Challenge.  Their challenge is how far can you "shoot" a large marshmallow through a cardboard tube using only one breath of air?  They have to use a cardboard tube as your shooter, they they could modify it.  The shooter must launch the marshmallow the farthest distance on one breath of air.  Their goal is to build a shooter that shoots the marshmallow the farthest distance.  They could use tape and scissors to modify the cardboard tube as needed. 

Parents thank you so much for coming to see all of our work last night.  We will need your help for the next couple of weeks.  For our next STEM unit we will need at least one paper 1/2 gallon container and 1 2 liter plastic bottle per child.  Please start collecting these for us.  Thanks!!!!

We continued to work on using a force to set an object in motion.  Today we worked on using a pull to move the object.  We used a water bottle on the edge of the desk and then we attached a cup and added washers until we had enough pull force to move the water bottle.  Then we added mass to the bottle and saw that is required more washers to move the bottle.  We did this two times.  Each time the amount of washers increased as the mass of the object increased.  We concluded that as the mass of the object increased the pull force needed to set it in motion also needed to increase. 

Today in Science we worked on how forces can move objects.  We discussed it and Alexa made a statement we all agreed with.  "The heavier the object the more force it will take to set the object in motion."  Then as a class we set out to prove her statement.  We talked about how we had to keep all things constant in our test except the mass of the object to make sure we were proving the statement.  We were able to prove her statement.  Great job Alexa!!!!  Here is some video of them working.

Once again, our amazing partnership with Grapevine Church of Christ is offering an awesome opportunity for our families.  This Saturday, they are providing a FREE breakfast, and giving away coats, gloves, & blankets (all for FREE) to families in need.  They simply have to show up to receive these things!!  :)  

 

Please join us for 2 fun-filled Family Nights at Cannon this week!  Wednesday, 11/13 is Cannon Night at Spring Creek BBQ!  Please join Cannon families for dinner at Spring Creek BBQ in Grapevine from 5:00-9:00 pm and help PTA raise money for our school.  With each meal purchased (dine-in or take-out) a generous percentage is donated to our school!  The classrooms with the most students participating will win prizes from Spring Creek!

Also, we hope to see all of you at Family STEM Night at Cannon on Thursday, 11/14, from 5:30-7:00.  Your children have been working very hard on their engineering projects this fall and can't wait to share their work with you!  This is a hands-on night for both students and parents!  Don't forget to visit the Book Fair while you are on campus and get some early holiday shopping completed.

Today was a busy day in 2nd grade.  We started out our day celebrating Veteran's Day in our Friday Assembly.  We had a former student play taps on her trumpet and Boy Scouts led us in the pledge.  One of our students took part in the assembly.

Then we were so lucky.  One of our dads Mr. Adams came to teach us about the 3 states of matter.  He was able to bring 3 amazing stations so the kids could explore the states and changes that matter goes through.  Thank you Mr. Adams and Mrs. Adams for the wonderful experience that all of the 2nd grade got to experience. 

  Observing what would happen to a liquid when placed in liquid nitrogen.

Observed a cornstarch and water mixture to determine if it was a liquid or a solid.

Then they got to experiment with dry ice and water.  Then they placed a small amount of DMSO2 in a container and put it on a hotplate and made observations.

Then in the afternoon we had an engineering design challenge.  Our challenge for the week was how fast can your team build a pyramid out of cups without touching the cups directly with your hands.  You were given 6 cups stacked on top of each other and a long piece of yarn and one rubber band.  All groups were successful in this challenge.  It was interesting to see how some groups went with one worker and other groups and multiple people working at one time.  Some groups used the yarn and others did not.  All 4 groups were able to complete the challenge in under 2 minutes.  Congratulations go to the following group for completing the challenge in 52 seconds.

The children will be coming home with notes today about items they need to bring for their short film they are making to put in their sections of ibooks. 
We are also having a Veteran's Day Celebration for our Friday Assembly.  They are asking that all 2nd graders wear red shirts. 

We have been hard at work this week on our Thanksgiving PBL project.  We can not wait to present to the parents our class ibook about the First Thanksgiving.  Here are two short videos that children created for the PBL.

Cannon Elementary is sponsoring a food drive to benefit local Cannon families for the upcoming holidays.  We encourage you to bring in non-perishable items.  Each grade level will be responsible for certain food items.  We will collect the food items from November 4th through December 13th.  The Cannon administrative staff will distribute the items to Cannon families in need.
Second Grade is responsible for: cereal, cereal bars, and canned pasta.  Thanks for supporting our community.  If you have any questions call Mandy Coburn 817 251-5684.

This week in science we have looked at sound energy.  Today we explored vibration and pitch with many different stations.