This morning we began with work on Danny’s Mummies in the Morning follow-up project. We used the children’s dictionary to define pyramid and mummy. Danny worked to find the perfect pictures on the internet to insert into his project! He loved the picture of the Sphinx at the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. He had fun talking about what would happen if the sphinx were alive! Next, we began our enrichment unit on the Winter Olympics! We read some of a fact packet on the topic which included that the Winter Olympics are held every four years since 1924. They will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea this year. We found it on the map. We talked about how people all over the world would be sending athletes to compete. I showed him various countries on the map that have big teams in the games and we discussed how Americans will cheer for our country and Team USA. There are 102 events in the games. We learned about three of those events and watched videos from past Olympics of luge, ice hockey, and free-style skiing. We loved watching the free-style skiers do their tricks! Finally, in honor of Black History Month, we read a Florida Studies Weekly packet on African American History. We briefly reviewed the concept of slaves, Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver, Barack Obama, and Rosa Parks. I was impressed at some of Danny’s recall of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. from our discussions last month. We watched a Brain Pop Jr. learning video about Harriet Tubman. In the real photographs we saw of her, she was wearing a wrap on her head. In the first video picture of her, she was not wearing it. Danny asked, “Hey, where’s her hat!” We paused the video and I reiterated concepts for discussion throughout. Danny was very curious and interested in the work Harriet Tubman did to free slaves in the Underground Railroad. He scored 5/5 on the easy quiz. As with his science session, Danny was engaged and an active learner throughout our entire session. He was praised for his hard work and we discussed how good it feels to get work done and to do it timely. I was so very proud of him and shared our excitement for his amazingly positive day with his Mom!

Craig was absent today.

Yanuell began research on a new country today. He choose to learn more about Egypt which is included on his cruise. While reading a library book about Egypt, Yanuell found facts about the country including location, population, government, religion, money, etc. and wrote them on the quick facts page. He also wrote details about the Egyptian flag and glued a picture onto his flag page. Finally, a detailed map of the country showing the surrounding countries and seas was added to his binder.

Charlie and I reviewed vocabulary on his word wall. We looked over his homework together. We read in the textbook about the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment period. We learned about Galileo, Voltaire, Ptolemy, Copernicus, Newton, Hobbes and Locke. We discussed the new development of the scientific method, inventions, the foundations of democracy, and new scientific theories. We watched a short video about Galileo and about The French Revolution. I assigned the 3 part foldable graphic organizer for HOMEWORK.

We began a study of the Winter Olympics. Jayne shared that she knew a bit about the summer Olympics but wasn't familiar with the winter Olympics. We read some background information about where the Olympics were taking place and a bit about the history of the winter Olympics. We reviewed some key vocabulary: Olympics, Olympic torch, mascot, stadium. She created a flip book to remember the key vocabulary.

Henry completed comprehension questions on early explorers by answering questions and completing a crossword puzzle.

Craig worked on the Quiz today. He will continue in our next class. He took home notes again to study tonight as well.

Arianna created some hearts to welcome the Wainwrights back to our school! We reviewed and looked again at monuments and landmarks, decorating Arianna's room with pictures of Mount Rushmore and The White House. We read "Time for Kids; Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln!" and discussed President's day. We looked at two cute projects we will complete in our next class to celebrate both Washington and Lincoln's Birthdays. We looked at a map of Washington D.C. and Arianna started to answer questions, locating memorials.

Arianna and I continued to learn about the three branches of government. This is a complicated concept for second grade, but she seems to understand "the basics." We looked to the text and to BrainPop Jr. for clarification. Arianna completed the 3D foldable to use for recall. We analyzed the Pledge of Allegiance and defined words. We discussed goals and Arianna's goals for the week, which include working on learning more about the three branches of government and learning new related vocabulary words. We read more about the Constitution, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln and learned about "founding fathers" and "framers" of the Constitution.

Charlie and I learned more about world religions in history. We watched a short video comparing and contrasting religions and how they influenced world history. We reviewed his homework assignment together. Charlie chose Johannes Kepler. He needs to try again to complete it properly - a poster along with a written portion - which will be due on Monday. We also looked at the textbook and read about what next happened in history - the Age of Exploration. We began the year talking about this, especailly as it relates to pirates, so we did a quick review of this period to recall what we previously studied - about Columbus, Magellan, Portugese navigators, etc. We added new words to his word wall as well.