Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Look Who's Watching!

An icy cold package was delivered to our classroom the other day! 


Look what Santa sent to us!


Our very own classroom elf! Inside the box was a letter from Santa, our elf friend and a DVD of the movie!


 Yes, he's watching us closely with those big blue eyes and reporting back to Santa! The children all hope to be included on the nice list, of course. I'm sure they will be!

Before he can work his magic and escape from the box, he needs a name. The class brainstormed some ideas. Tomorrow we take a vote. Some of the children's favorites include:

Jingle
Jack
Gerald
Snowflake
Mike
Gizmo
Zip
Buddy

Which will it be? I can't wait to announce it!

Stay tuned for more elf adventures and some field trip photos!



Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Turkey Time!

Well it's turkey time! In second grade, that means it's time for lots of fun projects and learning activities with our unit on life long ago. It's also a time for us to think about what we are truly thankful for! This year is off to a fantastic start. I am thankful every day for the blessing of these adorable children and for all of the support from each of you! 

We've been reading the chapter book, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The students also enjoyed the pilot episode movie for the old TV series. These are great stories that tie into our theme and upcoming field trip to the Troy Historical Museum. There is an entire series by this author. You may enjoy checking out the next one from the library to read together at home. 


The students completed many graphic organizers and writing pieces on the topic of Thanksgiving. We also did some creative writing and learned about the parts of a friendly letter with our Dear Tom Turkey letters. These will be on display at conferences.


This cute project is our November bulletin board display:


The students were asked to write about three embarrassing moments when they felt like a turkey! 




I have to say that these were just so much fun to read! I had to hold back the giggles. :)

A special thanks goes out to all of the families who sent in items for our corn soup feast! Here are the students with "Ma" Palma imagining to cook over the hearth.






The kids actually loved the soup and gobbled it all up. They were begging for the recipe to make it at home. Here it is!

Corn Soup

1 pound browned ground sirloin
torn spinach leaves
2 large cans of chicken broth
onion
1 cup of long grain wild rice
2 cans of corn
salt and pepper to taste

All of our ingredients were sent in cooked, so we just added it to the kettle to warm. Our little pilgrim children even set the table! 

We also churned our own creamy butter, using heavy whipping cream and a dash of salt, for Miss Mary's famous cornbread muffins! Thanks for baking for us mom! :) Miss Mary has been helping me serve up Thanksgiving feasts for many years now. She agreed this group of kids enjoyed it the most! They were all so polite. You would be proud!

After our mini-feast, we worked on our turkey casserole rice bag project. I hope you will enjoy the recipe, the funny poem on the back and discover a new way to be creative with the leftovers!











Earlier in the month, we did a whole unit on scarecrows.  Here is a cute craft and acrostic poem that is on our other bulletin board! 


It was a great November!

There is so much to look forward to next month! My head is spinning with thoughts of glitter and paper scraps everywhere but it's all worth it in the name of good Christmas crafting fun! Here's a sneak peek at our sparkled up Santa letters that we mailed to the North Pole! Santa should have them in plenty of time to be sure to add all of our little children to his "nice" list!







This Santa is dressed in a tank top~ all set for his tropical vacation after the holidays! Smiles!


 I think I see that this student asked for a butler! Kids say the funniest things! I truly have the best job in the world!
Enjoy a wonderful holiday! 



Tuesday, November 19, 2013

October Activities

"It was the best party ever!" Thanks so much to our crafty, clever room parents and volunteers for helping to make this Halloween celebration one to remember! Here are some cute pictures from Halloween and our October thematic units!

Our door was mummy wrapped! The class loved it!