Second grade highlights Nashville's best

by the second-grade teachers 

Second graders presented months of research on the city through a mall, videos, and landmark replicas during Nashville Share Day on Friday, Nov. 11.
Melissa Sherman's class learned about Nashville's musical history through primary and secondary sources. Students went on field trips to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Ocean Way Recording Studio, and a Fisk Jubilee Singers concert. With partners, students chose artists or events significant to Nashville to research. Each partnership used a green screen app to record a newscast or puppet show. Then they presented their movies in a timeline.

Molly Darr's class studied Nashville businesses. Their driving question was, "What are some businesses of Nashville, and what can we learn about the cycles and divisions that drive those businesses?" To gain an overview of business concepts, we visited Ocean Way Recording. To answer their driving question, we created a mini mall to model the business experience. In small groups, students created their own businesses and participated in marketing, finance, operations, research, and development. As a part of research and development, they thought of business names, planned for inventory, created prototypes, and interviewed first-grade customers about what they would want to buy. In marketing, they filmed commercials, created slogans and logos, and created their own business cards. For finance, they calculated how much income they would have to make in order to pay off our expenses, including a bank loan for supplies, rent, and electricity, and make a profit. For operations, they ran a children's hospital, a sculpture store, a trading card-selling place, a dog supply store, a toy store, and a salon with newspapers to read. Students learned about the business cycle, too, and after receiving income from first grade and parent customers, plan to use their money to shop at each other's businesses.

Nabilah Rahman's class studied Nashville landmarks and got to visit the majority of the city's main attractions to get hands-on experience. They also learned about how their landmarks looked now and then in Nashville. Students learned how their landmarks impacted the city and described them in their poster brochures. In addition, they built replicas of their landmarks with cardboard boxes and papier-mâché. Students also made a short video as a virtual guide around Nashville.

Victoria Roca's class is studying transportation, and students will present their projects to parents and faculty at a later date. They have taken a field trip to Murfreesboro, Tenn. to learn about how the system of an airport works and to go inside a retired FedEx cargo jet. Students also took a short tour of Nashville using public transportation and hopped on the No. 7 bus downtown and then transferred to the Music City Circuit, which took them to Bicentennial Park. Students have been brainstorming questions after each trip. USN parent and transit expert Jim McAteer came and shared the history of Nashville's growth and it's "hub and spoke" road system with the class.
Back

More USN News

List of 3 news stories.

Archive

Contact

Edgehill Campus
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212

Phone:  615-321-8000
Fax:       615-321-0889 
Email:    info@usn.org

River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218

Resources

USN Mission: 
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.