This morning we listened to CeeLo's Christmas album and made ornaments for our families.  They were tough!  But my smarty-elves worked together to complete the task!

Videos

Rudolph

Snowmen at Christmas

B.Bears Christmas

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas

Santa Cookies

Ouch! You poked my eye!

The beautiful blue color is the retina.  You can see the clearish dirty cornea to it's' left.

The pinkish piece is the lens.  The jelly-like substance is the vitreous body from the center of the eye.  It helps the eye to keep it's shape.  The finger is touching the cornea.

Two sweet nursing students came from Iowa Central to help the kids dissect the eye.

The cow's eye dissection was the perfect ending to studying the eye.  Real life experience.  Students were so brave, all looking and touching. Little scientists!

And of course, Nurse Twyla.  Thanks for the gummy eyeballs Twyla.  What a weird treat following this activity!! :)

New use for books!

Hunter, Stef and Dol took a few minutes to construct a book tree today!  Holiday fun!

How many teeth do you have?

Guest Teacher

         

We had a special guest for math today!  Mrs. Brown from first grade stepped out of her classroom to come to 2nd grade to share her math ideas.  Students talked all day about how much fun it was to have her visit.

Students used their skinnies and bits or their blocks to represent numbers today.  What is the most efficient way to make 84?  Stef thought about it for a minute...and then was right on it!

                     

Making 84+23...and counting in a creative way~  

Dol was proud to share his thinking.

Dental heath...learning with Coke?

This morning students learned about baby teeth, adult teeth, plaque, and how to brush.  They practiced their great brushing skills (tiny circles-soft pressure) on chicken eggs that had been soaked in Diet Coke.  Quite a lot of scrubbing was required to get rid of the stains.  Not one egg came completely white again!  

Kind kids who know how to take turns.

Once plaque has formed on the teeth it is a lot like that Diet Coke, really tough to get rid of without some fancy dental tools!

 

Great Big Dreams

When you grow up, what do you want to BE?  This is a question you can surely remember adults asking you many times when you were young.  I was struck by students responding with careers that were helping others: teachers, doctors, police officers.  There were also the big dreamers who hope to become famous musicians and sports stars.  I love listening to their hopes and dreams.  Talking to kids about their future is so important.  They have great big dreams of who they will become now...we all need to continue to talk to kids about their big dreams for the future to help them become determined to make it come true!

Skyler and Stefany spent some time together on the carpet partner reading today.  Each week we make time for kids to read together.  They love helping each other sound out new words and share the responsibility of reading.  They model good expression and phrasing.  We so often talk about having kids read to their parents.  Don't forget, an important component of learning to read is listening to others model great reading.  Grab your favorite Christmas book and lay down by the tree tonight!

Dipper

Caring

We always start and end our assemblies with some
wicked dance moves.

Can you robot?

Brenda McVinua was our special speaker for the caring pillar today.  She spoke about how people have been caring in her life since she lost her leg below the knee 5 years ago.

For more about Brenda look at page 3:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/mcitems/mc6700-mc6799/mc6700-0411.pdf

Oscar was chosen as a Character Counts kid today!  His name appeared on the responsibility green star.  Oscar is a very responsible boy!!

Possum's Harvest Moon

Anne Hunter Studio

Ms. Cedar read the story, Possum's Harvest Moon this morning.  


Before reading, students all pretended to be a possum using it's defense....to play dead when a predator is near.

 

And They're Off!

Putting our measuring skills to work!  All students drew a picture of what this activity would look like.  They drew meter sticks, ramps and cars.  Each table raced a different vehicle & then measured in centimeters.  Students recorded distances in a data table and tomorrow will work on transferring that to a graph.  Great use of standard measuring tools!

Reading testing

The first week of December, I will be retesting all students on their reading.  I will look at their words correct per minute, accuracy & comprehension.  Please continue to encourage your child to read 20 minutes each night.  This can make such a difference in their reading abilities and confidence picking up a new book.  If kids would read that extra 20 mintues daily, it adds up quickly.....140 minutes each week, 700 minutes in a month, 8,400 minutes in a year! 

Turkey Talk

Students have been enjoying both fiction and non-fiction the last 2 weeks related to Thanksgiving.  They have learned fun new facts & heard hilarious turkey stories.  They have even made their own turkey disguises.  Bryan and Alan were reading Squanto's story together.   

Centimeters

Students have been learning about non-standard measuring tools and standard measuring tools.  They have used their hands (non-standard) and have now made their own meter sticks (standard) to measure items and distances in the room.  Next week, we will be racing cars with ramps and checking their distances and learning about the term median. 

A Bunch of Turkeys

Our PIE partners were here on Monday.  They surprised the kids with a fantastic turkey craft.  They are turkey door hangers, but the kids had another use for them....

Oohey Gooey

What does a real brain feel like?  Well, we're not sure, but we know how a Jello brain feels! 

Brainy Kids

We have completed our study of animals & their habitats and moved on to our growing healthy unit.  Students will learn about the following:

• the brain & nervous system
• the ears
• the eyes
• 5 senses
• healthy eating habits

They kicked off their study of the brain by learning that the brain has different parts.  They put together pieces of a brain puzzle.

A Very Important Day!

Parents, have you voted?  Your kids did! 

Obama vs. Romney?  Nope! 

The Duck vs. Ms. Langner was our election today! 

Students read the great book Duck for President and learned about the election.  Many students expressed interest in becoming president some day.  They watched videos of each REAL candidate and learned about their childhood.  Did you know that Mitt Romney's dad ran for president in 1968?  Students each made their own voter registration cards.
Time for Kids
Elections for Kids
Zoom Out the Vote

The kids worked together to brainstorm their thoughts on the qualities of a good president: 

• a great citizen
• take care of crime
• honest
• mjsical
• makes good decisions
• responsible
• they recycle
• makes smart decisions about money  (spend the money on good stuff)
• helper
•  cares about kids and education

The President

Last night, Dol, his mom, and dad all traveled to Des Moines.  Dol had no idea where they were going or who they'd see!  Their purpose was to see the President.  He was in Des Moines for a last minute campaign stop.  Dol says there were a bunch of people.  (20, 000 according to the Washington Post) He reports that President Obama talked about health care and donating money to the Red Cross.  
"I felt so excited," said Dol.  "I couldn't really hear that well because there were a bunch of people cheering.  I feel proud having seen him."  No matter what your party affiliation is, seeing a president is a significant event in your life.  I am SO happy for this smart young man to have experienced this.  He will remember it forever. 

Washington Post Politics

The Mayor Comes to 2nd Grade!

How lucky are we? 

The Mayor of Storm Lake, Jon Kruse, was a guest reader in our room today.  He read the story The Relatives Came.  Our PIE partners, The City of Storm Lake send us a guest reader once each month.  Thank you Mayor Kruse for coming to our school today!

Notice....Tinkerbell is listening too!

 

 

Hic or Treat

Character Counts



                                  



Teachers performed funny skits to teach us about what responsible kids look like.  Mrs. Lange!  Responsible kids do not throw fits at the lunch table!!  Mrs. Knapp, slow down & be a good friend!  :)





New reader in our room!

Miss Cedar is our student teacher!  She will soon be a UNI graduate looking for a full time teaching position.  We are having fun learning new things from her!

Thoughts on Homework

Homework: 
1. Word Journeys
2. Poetry
3. Read aloud take-home books
4. Read personal books




I spoke with many families at conferences about the importance of studying Word Journeys words each night.  Take the time to sort and spell each day.  Fridge pages come home every Monday, or in some cases stapled to the test on Fridays.  Hang it in an important spot all week & practice, practice, practice. 



I don't send additional homework home with students, however they already have a lot on their plate.  They are checking out take-home books & repeatedly reading poetry to increase their fluency and comprehension skills. They are supposed to be reading their own personal books for fun.  I do expect that kids practice their Word Journeys at least 3 times each week.  This would amount to 30-60 minutes of "homework."  Please encourage your child to keep at these daily activities.  They will make a tremendous difference in their reading!

Yum....oranges!

What are those ants doing?  We added an orange...they went CRAZY!

Fun Moments on a Rainy Day



We started our day thinking about smart ways to estimate a group.  Then we counted by 5's and calculated leftovers to get our total.  We will chart and graph our findings as a class.



Ugh.  Rainy days mean no outside recess.  Adventures to Fitness to the rescue!  We climbed, ran, & jumped while learning about Yellowstone National Park.  Bison stampede!

Katie van der Linden, Buena Vista County Naturalist brought her turtle in today to help us learn about habitats.  Perfect this week, we are learning about our goldfish habitats.