Monday, March 19, 2012

2nd Grade Projects

2/8/12~ Ronan had his first experience with public speaking when he had to recite a poem in front of his class.  He worked very hard at memorizing the poem (in Spanish) and practicing it in front of us at home.  He was very nervous, but he did an excellent job!  Part of the assignment was to create a poster that went along with the poem, Sobre el Mar (On the Sea).  His teacher and classmates then were able to ask questions and  critique him afterward.  I felt nervous for him, but he really impressed me with his ability to understand everything and reply using his Spanish.  
A few days later it was our turn to be in front of the class.  Each student is assigned one week where they are the Star of the Week (Estrella de la Semana)--Ronan had to bring in an item each day to share with the class and then on Friday the parents had to come up with something to demonstrate to the class.  We were able to do our presentation in English (thank goodness!), but we still had about 40 minutes to an hour of being "ON" with the kids.  Josh took on most of the project after he & Ronan decided to do a presentation on energy. (:  I got to be the assistant, which was just fine with me!
Josh talked about a few sources of energy (wind, solar, hydro..) and brought some props from work to help demonstrate how to generate electricity.
Solar Panels
Josh built little houses and wired them with lights and fans.  The kids got to turn the crank to generate power to the houses.  They all had a lot of fun with it!
Each kid also got to make a little motor using a battery, a magnet, wire, and a rubber band.
Whew!  We were sure glad when that week was over. (:  It was fun, but a lot of work too!

1 comment:

jillfuller13 said...

Of course Josh "built" the houses. I bet Ronan got lots of "cool" points from his classmates for having such fun parents! :)