Hood Museum and Native American Artifacts

Ellsworth Kelly's Outdoor Sculpture

We posed like the statue we liked to call "French Fry Man!" 

We saw sculptures of color, line, balance and even movement.

Back in the studio we made balancing sculptures we connected together...

and  murals with colored tape.

Native American Artifacts

   
                                                                  Black Ash Basket
                                    

                  Last week I use this exploration as a beginning to our Native American culture study. We looked at Native America artifacts we had to think                                                         about three questions...

                  What is it?  What is it made from? What is it used for? 

                                         

Turquoise Jewelry and a leather cornmeal pouch.

A Ceremonial Staff

A  Cradleboard

Everyone enjoyed making guesses about the artifact's use.  All were sure this one was a snowshoe and were surprised to see it was a cradle! 
 We agreed all the artifacts were made of natural materials.

Hood Museum and Planting Tulips

By planting tulips, we are Citizen Scientists taking part in the Journey North study of plants, climate and seasons.  More information is on the Journey North link on this page.  

We needed to follow scientific protocols by planting only Red Emperor tulips in a site with good sunlight and away from foot traffic.  

We use a coordinate grid to help us find where our tulip bulb is planted.  

The other group cleaned out the back gardens and decorated with corn stalks and pumpkins.

Plant Hike and Learning with Math Centers

 WES and SME second grade classed joined Maggie Stoudnour on a hike to Southworth Park to explore plants.  Students participated in three activities:

• Collecting Seeds to stick on a seed bracelet
• Tree Identification and bark rubbings
• Field games

We were lucky to have a beautiful day for a hike!

Attaching a new seed to a seed bracelet. 

Lunch Break!

Math Center games are an engaging and exciting way to practice math facts.  Two days per week Mrs. MacGowan and Mrs. Winchester come into the classroom to do centers with us.

Make ten

Addition Facts Bingo

Doubles Facts Bingo

All School Hike

A hiking we will go...

What a beautiful day to hike!  Thanks to all the chaperones who joined us.

As we put our Three Sisters Garden to bed we have been studying plant parts.  We looked at different seeds and this week planted our germinated bean seeds and put them in our grow lab.

Literacy in second grade

During independent reading time we read "Just Right" books from our Browsing Boxes.

One writing project we are working on is making a class Tunbridge Fair alphabet book.

Tunbridge Fair

     We had a lot of fun at the Fair!  Thanks to all the chaperones who joined us.                                                                                                     

We harvested corn and beans from our garden to eat with our lunch.

In science we examined sunflower heads. We will save the seeds to dry for a snack     and to plant next year.

Look who else enjoyed our sunflower seeds!

Happy First Day of Fall!

Getting To Know You!

First Day Parade!  See our sunflowers in the background.

Writing and illustrating a response to a Back to School poem.

We read with buddies - the stuffed kind!

Everyone enjoyed exploring with pattern blocks!

We have a hatched butterfly and two presently in its chrysalis stage.
We used many reference books to learn about butterflies.

Marble Rollways

Last week we were excited to share our marble rollways at Community Meeting!

Later in the day first graders came to see how our rollways worked.

Bee Keeping and Pollinators Garden

Margot Maddock from Lyme N.H. came to share her Beekeeping experiences with us.    She brought some of the tools she used and parts of her hive.   

I got to try on the beekeeping suit!

Planting our Pollinators Garden.
Maggie Stoudnour came to talk to us about the importance of pollinators in our food supply as they supply about thirty percent of our food.  She told us for every third bite of food we take, to thank a bee or pollinator.

Last spring we were lucky to receive seedlings from The Upper Valley Pollinators group based in Hanover, N.H.  We planted them in a nursery bed.  This week we transplanted some of the overgrown plants in a larger garden bed next to the playground.

It took many hands to transplant our pollinator plants. 

On Monday we had a pollinated lunch of chicken tacos with fruit on the side.
Can you name which foods have not been pollinated by animals?

Answer:  Chicken and corn tortilla (corn is wind pollinated).
Thank you pollinators!