Roller Skating Rocks!

Mr. Holloway's PE class has us rolling (and in some cases crashing!) all over the place. We are getting better, but some of us are discovering that roller skating isn't as easy as it may look.

More Chicks

We cannot say this was the greatest hatch we ever had. Out of 36 eggs, only 7 hatched. We did have some problems with our new egg turner, so we are blaming part of our poor hatching on that.

However, the chicks that hatched were as cute as can be and are all now happily living on farms near Moundridge!

Chicks!

We are proud to announce that our first chick hatched on March 31, 2009! He/she is a banty chick and is quite a peeper!

There are a lot of eggs in our incubators right now, so we hope to have many more announcements to make and pictures to show you. Most of our chicks are due to hatch next week. The banty chicks have a faster development and therefore have begun hatching.

Stay tuned for more chick news in the near future!

Maps Unit

Our class is learning about maps. We are studying different kinds of maps and their purposes, symbols on a map, using map keys and the compass rose, etc. Near the end of this unit, we will use play dough to make our own 'maps'.

We began by looking at a variety of world maps, both flat and the globe. We compared and contrasted - found similarities and differences - between these two kinds of maps. We discussed how the flat map is easier to take places with you, but doesn't give good perspective on how the world really looks. The globe is a true picture of where things are on the planet, but isn't very portable!

Be sure to ask your students about the different maps we are using...we've even used some treasure maps!

Potato Day

Just before spring break, we enjoyed a theme day in 2nd grade. We learned a lot about potatoes! We read that potatoes originated in South America and that they come in many colors, even purple!

2nd graders were given the opportunity to taste BBQ, sour cream and plain potato chips and then vote for their favorite flavor. We made a graph with this data and discovered that BBQ was the overwhelming favorite in 2A.

These pictures is of our Potato People on Parade art project. The only rule for this project was that ALL of the paper had to be torn, not cut. Some of us found this to be pretty frustrating!

Seussical the Musical

On Monday, March 2nd, we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday. 2nd graders had a BIG part in the celebration that day with two performances of "Seussical the Musical". They had put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this day and it showed. They were very entertaining and had a good time doing it!

Future Firefighters?

Last week's Reading Street book brought us the story Fire Fighter! by Angela Royston. We saw lots of books about firefighters and their equipment.

Mrs. Helms' husband let us borrow his turnout or bunker gear for a day. (Thanks, too, to Hannah's dad, Mike, who let her share one of his helmets.) We had the opportunity to try it all on and feel for ourselves just how heavy (and hot!) their gear can be.

After trying it all on, we went outside to hear the P.A.S.S. device that firefighters wear. Be sure to ask me WHY went had to go outside to hear this device's sound.

Enjoy the pictures of these (possible) future firefighters!

Math Measuring

One of our math lessons this week had us measuring things around our classroom using some unusual measurement tools. We have been using tape measures and rulers, but on this day we used Base 10 cubes, longs, and even pattern blocks as our tools.

The students were given the task of finding things in the room that were nearly the same size as their measurement tools. They found that it wasn't as easy at it first seemed!

Kauffman Museum

We enjoyed our trip to the Kauffman Museum! (There are many more things to see in the North Newton museum, so be sure to take advantage of those free passes they gave us!) Second graders focused in on three exhibits that day. 1. Pioneer/Immigrant life 2. Animals of the prairie 3. American Indians

At the Pioneer exhibit, we heard the story of an immigrant woman and her family who came to this area for religious freedoms. We also were able to tour a log cabin much like Laura Ingalls and her family might have lived in.

The Animal exhibit was a hit because we passed around several animal skulls and pelts. The docent talked to us about the diets of several of the animals and pointed out how their teeth and jaws are shaped based on what they eat.

The American Indian exhibit had many interesting artifacts. We saw what Indian children of this area would have worn and some of their toys as well. We saw a very unusual brush made from the quills of a porcupine!

Kansas Day Power Point

Hello everyone! Last week, in celebration of Kansas' 148th birthday, we did many fun activities. One project we have been working on for a while now is our ABC's of Kansas Power Point/Book. The kids worked hard to find just the right picture to represent Kansas. All students made two pages, and some even made three.

You should be able to view our PowerPoint presentation by clicking on the following link. If you have any problems, don't worry! We also printed each slide to make a classroom book and you can see it when you come for Parent Teacher Conferences this month.

http://www.slideshare.net/helmsm/slideshows

YUMMY!

Mrs. Jana McKinney from the McPherson County Extention Office does a wonderful program in which the kids make thier own loaves of bread and learn some of the science behind it.

We all know Kansas is famous for its wheat and wheat makes flour, so as part of our Kansas Day activities, 2nd graders spent Monday morning baking bread!

We mixed wheat and white flour together because wheat flour has whole grains and whole grains are good for us. Yeast, salt, butter, sugar and warm water were all added and stirred. After all of the ingredients were mixed, the kids split the dough with their partner and kneaded the dough. Then, it was 'put to bed' to rest and raise. After our bread had rested, we woke it up and shaped it to go into the loaf pans.

As our bread dough was raising, Mrs. McKinney showed us how to make bubble bread from the same bread dough recipe. The pinched the dough into balls, rolled it in melted butter then cinnamon and sugar. After recess, this was a warm, sweet treat for us to enjoy!

Enjoy the pictures!

Day 100!

It's hard to believe that we have already been together 100 days! We celebrated the day with lots of 100's activities. We didn't have 100 things to do today, but it sure seemed like it. In fact, there were so many things to do that we are going to have to continue our activities into day 101!

We began by having a scavenger hunt around the classroom. Students were looking for 50 numbered stickers. As they found a colored dot sticker, they had to come back to their teammate and color the space on a hundreds grid to match the color of the sticker. This was a challenge because the whole hunt had to be done very quietly. If you shouted out a number and color, one of the other teams might try to 'steal' your answer!

For a math activity, students sorted out the 100 items the brought to school. They were asked to divide their 100 items into 2 equal groups, groups of 10 and we even used the items to make a variety of arrays.

Finally at the end of the day, we enjoyed our 100 day snack. The kids were given a variety of snack items (Cheez-Its, marshmallows, pretzels, M&Ms, etc.) and asked to count out 100. After everyone had counted, we combined them all together to make a 100 day trail mix for everyone to enjoy. We ended up with 1,200 items in our mix!