International Inquirers: Finding Out About Our Senses

This week in Grade 2 we began looking into our senses a bit deeper. As we inquired into how our senses and sense organs work.

In order to be able to do some research on the computer, the students were introduced to a typing website called typing.com so that they can develop their keyboarding skills. We learnt about the home row keys, and made a connection (both physical and to our unit on senses) when we placed our fingers on the f and j keys as the students felt the raised line on the keys to help them remember where to place their fingers. This website will be one that they can use regularly as part of their homework, and will be featured in their homework grids in the coming weeks.

Today, the students began working in groups of three to research how one of the 5 sense organs works. Each group will be responsible for teaching the rest of the class about the different parts of the sensory organ that they researched as well as how that organ works and how it connects to the brain. We will continue working on these next week and should be ready to present by Thursday.

To help guide our inquiry, the students also added some questions that they have about the senses to our Wonder Wall!

We also practiced using our senses in a couple of activities. In class, the students used their sense of sight to look at and then describe a picture of an alien or monster that was drawn by a classmate. Their partner could only listen and wasn’t allowed to see the picture that their partner was describing, and had to try to draw the same monster/ alien. This gave the students a good chance to listen carefully as their partners needed to use many descriptive adjectives. Once complete, they compared the two images, and were told to focus on the positive things that were the same or correct about the drawings.

In PE, we continued with cooperative games. One game involved throwing balls at a ball in the center with four teams in each of the corners. The goal of the game was to knock the ball out of the center circle and into one of the other teams’ zones. It was a fun game that let the students work on their throwing skills and didn’t involve too much running so that we could try to avoid getting too hot!

We also started learning how to play a game called Goalball, which is played by blind or visually impaired athletes in the Paralympics. All players wear blindfolds and the game is played with a ball that has a bell inside and makes noise. Players have to try to roll it past the other team’s players and into a goal at the opposite end.

In math, we continued learning about 3D shapes and started learning how to draw some!