January 16, 2012

Week of January 16, 2012

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.  Many wonderful things are happening in our room.

 Language Arts:  We are really enjoying our literature book, Little House in the Big Woods.  The students are learning a great deal about what life was like “in the olden days”.  I would like to thank Sam for bringing in a real butter churn to share with us.  It was wonderful letting the kids see such a wonderful piece of history.  Although we didn’t use an authentic butter churn, we did create butter in class today.  It sure was tasty!  The kids didn’t think it would taste very good, but they all agreed that they wanted more.   Try it at home.  Simply pour a pint of heavy cream into a jar, seal the lid tight and shake, shake, shake.  Before long, you will have tasty butter.  They’ve also learned how Pa preserved meat and Ma’s routine for completing her chores.

Riggs:  We continue to build our spelling list every day.  Please continue to work with your child on his or her spelling words so that they are successful on their daily test.  They are expected to spell the word correctly, mark the words, and use their best Riggs handwriting.  Their words this week are:  grief, guilty, fluffy, swell, dwell, account, frost, study, studies, district, eagle, scalp, crush, mourning, morning, use, use, used, using, usable, death, and stood.  Check the Second grade website to get all of the markings for these words.

Science:  We have many budding entomologists in our classroom.  The student presentations were absolutely wonderful.  The kids did a great job on their projects.  Last week, we studied how some insects were helpful and others were harmful.  We even went on a mini-fieldtrip to look for “bugs” around the school property.  The kids loved walking to the Chandler Prep garden.  I heard many happy remarks (“ooh”, “aah”, “wow”).  This week, we are learning about the characteristics of arthropods and how to distinguish an insect from an arachnid, a crustacean, and a myriapoda.   Your children will be happy to tell you all about them.  We will be learning the external and internal anatomy of insects and compare some of their anatomy to our own.  Some of our classroom “guests” will be arriving soon.   More information will follow.

History:  Our “young” soldiers went to war and fought the British during the American Revolution while the “young” women stayed behind running the farm.  They learned that the paper money paid them by the government had no value when they went back home to their farms and families.  When they tried to pay for food and supplies with that money, they were told that only coins would be accepted.  They learned about Shays’ Rebellion.  The students were then allowed to create their own cities and rules.  They soon realized that there was no unity between them and that many problems arose from not having a central government in place.   Therefore, they sent delegates to represent them in order to form a unified nation.  We discussed “compromise” and found out that it means both sides must give a little to come up with a “fair” plan for all. 

As you can see, we are very busy.  Stay tuned for more.  It is going to be an exciting quarter.

Mrs. Winkler