Camp What-A-Wonder at School - Day 4 and 5

Read more about day one here and day two and three here.  Below I will detail the activities planned for days four and five of our Wonderopolis inspired Camp What-A-Wonder.  Camp What-A-Wonder was a great way to keep my second graders engaged in learning the last full week of school.

Day 4 - Superific Science

#276 Does Matter Really Matter?

After reading and learning about the different states of matter we made oobleck in order to experiment with both a liquid and a solid at the same time.  We made it in the classroom and then carefully carried it outside to play with.

#327 What Makes Ink Permanent? and #317 How Do You Color Glass?

We learned what makes ink permanent since we used permanent markers to make our creations.  I also thought that these creations reminded me a bit like stained class, so we learned how class is colored.  My students especially liked the video that went along with that Wonder.  We used small scraps of white fabric, put them over a cup and attached with a rubber band.  Then students used permanent markers to draw designs on the fabric.  Students used bottles with rubbing alcohol to spray the fabric.  Easy and fun experiment.

#940 Why Do Some Drinks Sweat?, #454 Why Are Some Drinks Bubbly? and #295 Why Is It Called "Old Faithful"?

My students have been looking forward to shooting off our own Coke and Mentos geysers since I came back with my nozzle from the National Center for Family Literacy Conference. (Be sure to check out the video below that was shot during the conference with the EepyBird Guys.)  After learning what a geyser is and why some drinks sweat, we headed outside so all twenty four students could set off their own geyser.  This by far was the classes favorite activity of the entire camp.

  

Day 5 - Awesome Adventures

#12 Who Came Up With Chewing Gum? and #557 What Happens if You Swallow gum?

This was our last activity.  I had other planned, but because we didn't get to everything each day, we finished about all of the other activities on Friday and at the end of the day had our bubble blowing contest.  Several kids didn't know how to blow bubbles, so we worked on that first.  We learned about what happens to gum when we swallow it and then set out on our awesome adventure.  It was lots of fun watching and trying to decide who blew the biggest bubble.

#57 Why Do Bubbles Float?

We had planned on making our own bubble solution and spending time blowing real bubbles with pipe cleaners.

#756 Do You Like To Play Cards?

I purchased different sets of cards from the dollar bin at Target.  Students were going to get in groups and play Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy 8 and Memory.  We are planning on playing these the last day of school.

Camp What-A-Wonder at School - Day 2 and 3

This week in second grade we are having our own Wonderopolis inspired Camp What-A-Wonder.  The first day was spent creating crafts.  Below I will detail what activities were planned for the second and third day.

Day 2 - Team What-A-Wonder

Day two of Camp What-A-Wonder was our annual field day.  Before heading out to the high school stadium, we visited several Wonders to get us in the spirit.

#840 Why Do Your Muscles Cramp?
#561 Who Invented the High Five?
#291 How Many People Can Play Tug Of War?

Day 3 - Campfire Cooking

We used the campfire template from last summer's Camp What-A-Wonder to create our own campfires for Campfire Cooking Day.






#894 Can Food Be Art? and #258 Why Do Ants Think They're Invited To a Picnic?
We learned about how to create art using food before creating our very own.  We made ants on a log, which the class named rants on a log.  The students cut the celery using plastic knives and created their own snack.

#664 Who Was the First Ice Cream Man? and #92 Why Do You Get Ice Cream Headaches?
We enjoyed learning about who the first ice cream man was before their own.  Making ice cream in bag was a great, easy treat that didn't require any cooking.  We ended up doing the ice cream on Friday, because we ran out of time on the third day.  There are many fun and easy recipes for homemade ice cream on line.  We used a recipe that called for half and half, vanilla and sugar.

#582 Who Invented Play Dough?
After learning about the invention of play dough, we made something similar called "cloud dough".  All of the recipes for homemade play dough involved some sort of hot water or cooking, so I found a recipe for "cloud dough".  It wasn't exactly play dough, but nobody seemed to mind.  If I do this again next year, I will make this outside.  It made quite the mess.

Camp What-A-Wonder at School - Day 1

This is my last full week of school with my second graders.  I wanted to make it a fun-filled week of learning.  I had decided last summer when I participated in Wonderopolis' Camp What-A-Wonder that I wanted to incorporate something similar into my classroom this year.  Fortunately my teaching partner was excited to do the camp with me.  We have been planning the camp for several weeks.  A couple of weeks ago I created a Googledoc for parents to sign up to donate items needed for our camp.  This made for very little spending out of our pockets.

We borrowed a few of the themes from previous Camp What-A-Wonders at Wonderopolis:

Monday - Craft-A-Palooza

Tuesday - Team What-A-Wonder (field day)

Wednesday - Campfire Cooking

Thursday - Superific Science

Friday - Awesome Adventures

Day one was spent creating Wonder Journals for the students to use during the week to reflect on their learning.

Below are the Wonders we used and the Camp What-A-Wonder activities that went along with the Wonders for the first day.

#45 What Is a Totem Pole?
Students learned about totem poles and spent time making their own out of paper towel tubes and a free template I found on line.http://

#434 Where Does Sea Glass Come From?
After learning where sea glass comes from students used glass marbles (the kind with the flat side), Modge Podge, scrapbook paper, magnets and Gorilla Glue to make some fun and easy refrigerator magnets.

#659 How Do Dream Catchers Catch Dreams?
Students enjoyed learning about the history of dream catchers.  They then used cheap paper plates, yarn  crayons, markers and feathers to create dream catchers.

#904 What Is Pointillism?
We learned about pointillism earlier in the year, but used our learning, water color paints and q-tips to create our own priceless pieces of art.

 I look forward to sharing our camping experiences with you as the week continues!

May Wonderopolis #WonderChat

Please join the Wonder Team this Monday night, May 6th at 8:00 PM EST on Twitter.  We will be discussing Wonder Jars.  Do you have a Wonder Jar in your classroom?  Come share your ideas!  If you don't, come join the conversation.  We will be discussing easy ways to make Wonder Jars and different ideas to incorporate them into the classroom to extend student thinking and learning.

As the school year is coming to a close, I would like to spend some of the hour reflecting on how teachers have used Wonderopolis in the classroom.  Come share some of the ways you have used Wonder and Wonderopolis in your classroom this year.

I look forward to a WONDERful conversation!  Don't forget to use the hashtag #WonderChat.  See you Monday night at 8:00!