What a fun week we had starting the quilt portion of our unit. We learned that quilts can be used for warmth, money and memories. We read the stories "The Quilt Story" and"The Keeping Quilt" and watched a movie on "The Patchwork Quilt". A special guest quilter came in and told us all about quiltmaking. Our own Mrs. Taccolini from the office came in and brought her own quilts as well as quilts made by her daughters. She told us how she learned to make quilts and all the fun and work that goes into them. She showed us quilts that were hand sewn and some that were machine sewn. The students enjoyed having her come in and are excited to start sewing their own quilt squares this week.
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Well, we have been having a great time seeing where we all come from. Our first project was to make a paper plate quilt which shows the countries in each student's background. This paper plate quilt is hanging in the hall. We then took the list of countries and working in groups, we found what continents each country was in. This was an interesting activity as the students were using the first of the reference books we learn about in 2nd grade-the Atlas. The students found that most of our countries came from Europe and they discussed among each other why that was so. They also thought it was perfectly logical that there was no one in second grade from the continent of Antarctica as we are not penguins. A graph of our countries is displayed in the classroom. The assignments on what we would bring to America as immigrants came out well and we will be displaying these in the classroom soon. The students learned about the symbols of America. The most important symbol to the immigrants being the Statue of Liberty. They brainstormed words that they felt went with America and these are displayed in our classroom.
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Our Science and Social Studies Units for 2009/2010 are...
Life Cycles
Maps
Native Americans
Quilts/Family Heritage
Simple Machines
Wellness
Extreme Weather
Marquette History