Thursday, January 24, 2013

Field Trip

The First and Second Graders went on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry today. Please ask your child about what s/he learned and saw.

Our visit included watching the movie "Born to Be Wild" about elephants and orangutans. The kids loved it! We also had a chance to walk around and view a variety of exhibits. We saw cars, trains, baby chickens, tractors, tornadoes, and so much more! I think everyone was exhausted when we loaded the bus to head back to school, including our wonderful parent chaperones.

Unfortunately, I lost my camera at the museum today, so I do not have any photos from the trip. If anyone has any photos that they would like to see posted on this blog, please email me (foyleolu@gmail.com), and I will happily add them. (Thank you!)

Here are some pictures (courtesy of one of our chaperones- thank you to Claudia's mom!):

inside a tornado
electricity

group shot

looking at the baby chickens

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Focusing on Nonfiction

This week during Read Alouds, we focused on nonfiction texts... and not just any nonfiction texts, but books about American History. We read about three very important United States symbols.

Monday the students learned about the American Flag.
--> It has 50 stars, one for each of the fifty states.
--> It has 13 stripes, one for each of the original thirteen colonies.
--> A man named Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner (our national anthem) about it. 
The flag in our classroom

Our read aloud

Tuesday, we moved on to learn about the Statue of Liberty.
--> A man named Frederic Bartholdi modeled the statue after his own mother.
--> The statue was a gift from France. It was so big it took over 200 crates (boxes) to ship it to the United States.
--> The Statue of Liberty is in New York Harbor.
--> Liberty means Freedom!
We even borrowed Miss Debbie's miniature Statue of Liberty!

Wednesday, we learned about another important U.S. Symbol- The Liberty Bell.
--> The Liberty Bell is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
--> When it came from England, it had a big crack, so the makers had to make a second one, which also later cracked.
--> It is also a symbol of freedom for our country.
Liberty Bell read aloud, miniature Liberty Bell (from my summer travels), and craft.

It's fun to learn about the history of our country! The students are asking all sorts of great questions during our discussions too.

Tomorrow we're going to compare the past and the present with a read aloud about Alexander Graham Bell and his invention of the telephone.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

What's the Matter?

This week 2nd Grade has been learning about 3 states of matter:

1. Solids
2. Liquids
3. Gases

We read a book about the states; we brainstormed examples of each state of matter; we discussed their shapes and sizes. Then, today we made pictures out of Cheerios to show how the molecules look. Check out our project:

our "jars" to fill

our "molecules"

Look at the differences!

The solid molecules are packed tightly together. That is why solids keep their shape.
The liquid molecules are further apart, so they have more space to move. They move slowly, but that is why liquids change their shape to take the shape of their containers.
The gas molecules are the farthest apart and have a lot of space to move around. That is why gases fill the room (or their container).




Here are some examples of the states of matter:

*Solids: block, brick, desk, Cheerios, pencil, carpet
*Liquids: oil, water, milk, juice
*Gases: bubbles, air in a balloon, hydrogen, oxygen

Next week we'll discuss how states of matter can change and also the physical properties of matter.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Welcome back!

Welcome back!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a restful break. It's been great to see all of the students. They seem happy to see each other and eager to get back into the school routine.

Thank you for helping your children with their Reading Logs over the break! It is so important for them to read every day. Thank you also for bringing them to school on time. I am pleased to see their smiling faces at 7:45 every morning. It makes for a smoother start to the day.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Posadas Pictures

I was flipping through photos on my computer when I realized that I did not post the photos I took from our school's celebration of the Posadas. Gracias a Senora Ronk for putting together two wonderful videos, one which featured the third graders acting out the Posadas story and the other which included interviews with various students about Christmas traditions.

We enjoyed delicious tamales before the videos. Afterwards, Mr. Morten played his guitar and led us in a few Christmas carols.

Here are some photos of the students enjoying their tamales:







Here's a little video clip I took of the Christmas carols:


I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing break.

*Please encourage your children to read every day and complete their reading logs!
*Remember to take your children to church on the weekends!

See you all on Monday, January 7th!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for attending the Saint Ann Christmas Program! Here are a few photos of the students dressed up for the occasion:




I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas holiday! May the break be restful and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing you all in 2013! I am counting the blessings in my life this holiday, and your children definitely are near the top of my list.


*Reminders*

*Friday, December 21st is the last day of classes for 2012. Classes resume on Monday, January 7, 2013.

*Please take your child to church every weekend.

*Make sure your child reads every night and completes his/her reading log. This is the only required homework the students have over the break, so it is very important that they do it. (I told them they could skip Christmas on their log!)

*I sent home an additional optional packet for the students to complete over the holiday. It has word searches, grammar, art, and math activities in it. I hope it will be fun and educational for them.

Friday, December 14, 2012

A Christmas Guardian Angel Activity

This morning, we met with our Guardian Angel class (6th grade) to make angel Christmas tree toppers out of paper plates. The students worked well together, and the angels turned out great! The only materials we needed were paper plates, coloring supplies, scissors, and a stapler (we also used glitter and glue for something extra special). Check out some photos from this morning:






Also, if you missed the video of some of the children signing "Mary, Did You Know?" check out this blog post from earlier in the week:
http://secondgradecrusade.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-video-and-some-photos.html



Finally, please keep the community of Newtown, Connecticut in your prayers. The school shooting was a horrible tragedy. One of my friends shared a good resource for how to talk with your children about the recent event: http://www.nasponline.org/resources/crisis_safety/terror_general.aspx
Please visit the site if you are able. I think it will be helpful.



Enjoy the weekend. Please remember to take your child to church on Sunday (or Saturday night).
Also, THANK YOU to parents who ordered books from the last Scholastic order. They came today, and I sent them home with your children.