Second and Third Graders Have an Event-Full December!
The end of December was event-full – full of culminating events! Both our second and third graders presented their work to family and friends, with each event encompassing months of cross-curricular work and interdisciplinary units of study. We have a full round-up of the second grade’s Literary Lollapalooza and the third grade’s “From Colonies to Country” events!
SECOND GRADE PRESENTS A LITERARY LOLLAPALOOZA!
Speyer’s second graders embarked on a personal narrative exploration, going in-depth on the essential components of the writing process. Using a significant event in their lives as the main storyline for their work, the students moved through the writing process, learning how to add details such as adjectives, using their five senses as descriptive highlights, and adding dialogue to enhance their writing experience for their readers. Family and friends could review posters where the students displayed various documents that helped them revise and edit during the writing process journey.
As part of this interdisciplinary unit of study, students used their building and design skills to create a Lego artifact representing a scene or object from their narrative. They then transferred their stories to an app called Puppet Pals where they created a cartoon version of themselves and the plot.
While venturing through the writing process, the second graders were also participating in book clubs. The students reflected on realistic fiction books, focusing on character development using the digital portfolio, SeeSaw. They wondered about the storyline before they read the book and then, when they were done with the story, discussed how the characters changed, what they learned about the characters, and how they solved their problem. They also created an animated version of their book club characters using Chatterpix.
THIRD GRADERS STUDY “FROM COLONIES TO COUNTRY”
The third graders welcomed friends and family as they celebrated their “From Colonies to Country” unit of study, exploring the long journey to independence for the thirteen colonies. They began in September with an overview of life in the colonies, studying the relationship between them and King George III. What began as a mutually beneficial relationship quickly turned sour with the end of the French and Indian War. After making demands of the colonists to help pay the war debt, tensions rose and the seeds of rebellion took shape.
While learning about the events before, during, and after the war, the students looked closely at various perspectives from these events (including the use of propaganda by both sides) as well as different groups of people involved in the war. This helped them to see all the different sides of history instead of the one that is more commonly known.
The third graders brought this unit of study come to life in a variety of ways – presenting their process of learning what really happened via videos and posters with their takes on the use of propaganda, and a full presentation of their writing and creation of a re-written constitution after they “crashed” the constitutional convention.