2H Class Blog!: Dec. 11th News

As the snow has started to fall, you can sure feel the December excitement buzzing around SMS! Just ten school days left before our holiday break!

What we've been up to:

*Dyson Foundation: Ideas Box! Our highlight of the week, without question, has been the arrival of our "Ideas Box". The James Dyson Foundation partners with educators throughout the world to help bring engineering into the classroom. "By the time today's students graduate from college, the U.S. will need 1.65 million engineers!" The "Ideas Box" challenges students to find inspiration in everyday objects and develop ideas.

Even before discovering the contents of the box, these second graders had a lot of work to do! What is a design engineer? What do they look like? What do they wear? What kinds of tools do they use?

They then were challenged to match famous (but lesser known) design engineers with their inventions and the time period of when it was invented. This took a lot of great thinking and conversation (no, windshield wipers couldn't have just been invented in 2009!)

After this preliminary work, it was time to discover just what was in the Ideas Box. We were told it was one of James Dyson's inventions and we were sent a video clip showing the invention being used in an unusual way...

...which led to a great science talk filled with discovery!

Jame Dyson and his team improved the everyday fan by creating this blade-less air multiplier! He evaluated typical fans and didn't like how the blades made them dangerous and how they also collected a lot of dust. His new invention is very safe and easy to clean! With that information in mind, our design engineers went around the room evaluating current products and weighing the good and the bad for each.

On Thursday, we culminated week #1 of the Ideas Box by simply creating! Paying special attention to which materials work best for creating, students were allowed to work individually, in pairs, or in groups to design WHATEVER they could come up with!! It was incredible!!

Next week, our design engineers will be designing and creating a prototype to improve an everyday object. Talk with your child about what they might have in mind! We'll spend one day prepping and planning, another day building, and a final day sharing! I can't wait to see what they come up with :)

*Social Studies: We put the finishing touches on our Knuffle Owl book this week and are anxiously awaiting its arrival from the publisher! We'll enjoy reading our finished product this week, but you can enjoy a sneak peak:

*SMS Holiday Mission: In effort to make sure everyone has a happy holiday this season, our classroom is teaming up with Ms. Riley's Giraffes to provide holiday gifts for a local family in need. If you wish to buy one of the gifts listed on our Sign Up Genius, please have the gift wrapped and tagged with the child's age and gender. Thank you in advance for helping our community. If you signed up to contribute a gift, please make sure it is sent in by Monday, Dec. 19th. Happy Holidays!!

*Scholastic Book Orders: On Friday, December flyers from Scholastic were sent home. Each flyer came with a coupon valid for one free book with any $10 purchase. If you'd like to place an order, please place all orders by tomorrow, Monday, Dec. 12th, in order to guarantee delivery before our holiday break. If your order contains a gift, just let me know!

Stay warm! Have a great week!