Mrs. Crull's Second Grade Class

Cookie Islands

2010-02-26T15:45:00.004-05:00

This afternoon we made "cookie islands" in class! We have been learning about geographic features in social studies, so we used what we have learned, and our creative imaginations, to construct an island out of a cookie and lots of sweets.

Here are some pictures of the kids eating their cookie creation. On Monday we will become topographers, and make maps of these new found lands! :)

Everyone's cookie islands!

Cool Websites

2010-02-24T09:39:00.006-05:00

Here are some cool websites that we have been using in class to learn more about animals.

Enjoy!

This has a list of all the "creatures".
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Animals/CreatureFeature/

This has lots of animal videos. Click on the topics on the left to get to the videos you want.
http://video.kids.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/

This is the cool blue whale tracking and tagging game you played.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/content/kingdom-of-the-blue-whale-3302/tagging-tracking-interactive/

Have Fun!

Christmas Poems and Recipes

2009-12-17T16:24:00.007-05:00

This week we have been working on a special projects for our parents. For part of it, the kids had to write a Christmas poem. Below are some of the ones that I thought were REALLY good! I didn't help them very much on these.

Christmas is fun every year!
Singing out for all to hear.
It is very easy,
But I smile very cheesy.

By Andrew

Christmas is fun,
And I don't want it to be done.
Christmas is here!
It's the best time of the year!

By Ryker

On Christmas Eve, you go to sleep,
You might hear Santa's reindeer leap.
The Christmas music and candles are pleasant.
In the morning you'll see your presents!

By Abby

On Christmas Eve, you hear the clock.
It's time for bed, it went tick-tock.
When I woke up, I was not forlorn.
All the presents were here on Christmas morn.

By Lauren

On Christmas Eve, we go to sleep,
In my bed I'm counting sheep.
On Christmas morning,
My mom and dad are still snoring.
I try to wake them up
But they make me shut up!

By Evan

Christmas is almost here,
So give a big cheer!
People are so spinny,
The hear something coming down the chimney.
Candles are light.
The sun is bright.
Someone is coming,
With lots of loving.
Hanukkah has past,
Christmas is last.
Everyone cheers,
For the big year.

By Samantha

On Christmas Eve we go to sleep,
In my bed I hear a peep.
I hurry to see, what it could be,
But there was nothing to see.

By Hannah

Also to go along with our project, we made up recipes for a Merry Christmas. Here are a few. :)

1 cute puppy
6 cousins
6 presents
1 baby Jesus
a best mom and dad
2 cool sisters

Mix with love and share the joy. Have a happy holiday.

By Marie

1 nice sister
1 cute dog
2 super cool parents
1 sparkle Christmas tree
5 super cousins
2 cute and funny movies
1 fun family
1 cool new pair of PJs

Mix them together. Make joy, love, and fun.

By Olivia

1 family
20 presents
1 golf cart
3 cookies
5 cousins
1 tree
2 parents
1 sled
1 choo choo train going around the tree

Mix it up and enjoy the fun.

By Luke

3 little dogs
2 loving parents
7 big presents
1 funny movie
5 fun cousins
1 baby Jesus
2 big brothers
1 bright star

Mix it up in one jolly holiday.

By Grant

There's more to come!

2009-12-15T11:41:00.001-05:00

Here are my sweet kids infront of our tree in the classroom. I hope to work on updating the blog over break! :)

Science Web Sites

2009-10-21T16:16:00.008-04:00

Today we worked on food chains and webs, and the jobs of producers, consumers and decomposers. To reinforce these science concepts, the students went to various web sites that helped them put their knowledge into action. Everyone really enjoyed all the activities, so I told them that I would put the sites on the blog for them to do at home.

Enjoy!

Science Chapter 2 Sites - All About Animals

Drag, drop and sort animals into the 5 animal types. There are 5 games to do in different habitats. AWESOME game!

(Under Animal Classification Section)

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/gamesforkids.htm

Cool! Seek and find animals in different habitats. They are not as obvious as you would think!

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/seekandfind/indexseekandfind.htm

Carnivore, herbivore, Omnivore sort

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/animaldietgame.htm

Science Chapter 3 Sites - How Plants and Animals Live Together

Fill out the food chain and sort the animals.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/science/living_things/food_chains/play_popup.shtml

Picture example of a food chain vs. a food web

http://www.sciencebob.com/questions/q-food_chain_web2.php

Chain Reaction – build food chains and test them out

http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/frogs/chain_reaction/play_chainreaction.cfm

Pond, arctic, and meadow food chains – simple and easy

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/food/food_menu.html

Food chain drag and drop that gets harder and harder. Shows the food chain in action and adds decomposers.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/foodchaingame.htm

Producer and consumer game

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/games/producersconsumersgame.htm

Our Class Book

2009-10-19T16:20:00.002-04:00

Here are some of the pictures we took today. During this short week, we are going to work on making a book about our school and class. When it is finished, we are going to send it, with our letters, to Robert Munsch.

We all hope that he will like it, and write us back! It would also be cool if he included some of the pictures on his website!

Germs! Germs! Germs!

2009-10-12T11:09:00.003-04:00

How have you been feeling? Here at NPE, a lot of kids (and some teachers) have not been feeling so great lately. Because of this, we took some time this morning to thoroughly disinfect our classroom with Clorox wipes and Lysol. We also read the book Germs! Germs! Germs! together and discussed how to keep germs away. After wards, we made "NOT WANTED" posters and "germs" that we hung in the hallway to remind kids what they need to do to keep from getting sick from germs.

I hope everyone gets to feeling better, and is able to return to class soon! :)

Larry Batson's Wildlife Program

2009-10-08T11:26:00.000-04:00

This morning we had the Larry Batson Wildlife Program. His programs are always really good and very informative. He said that this is his 31st year coming to NPE! Wow! That's a LONG time! He also told us some VERY sad news. His baboon, named Dolly, that he always brings, passed away around Christmas time last year. She was like a child to Mr. Batson and his wife. There is good news though, they decided to adopt another Baboon, and they were able to do so at the first of the year. The new baboon's name is Elizabeth, and she is 9 months old now. We were SO lucky, because he brought the baby baboon with them today! She was SO cute! She was also VERY wild and CRAZY! She jumped ALL OVER THE PLACE! We all enjoyed the program!

Here are some pictures from this morning.

Mr. Batson has a new website that he told us about, it is http://www.larrytheanimalguy.com. Check it out! :)

Robert Munsch Read Aloud

2009-10-07T11:44:00.000-04:00

To go along with our Robert Munsch author study, we have been working on reading various Munsch books with lots of expression and fluency. This week, we put our reading into practice by reading to 3 kindergarten classes. Below are pictures of the kids reading to the kindergartners, and them with the books they read aloud.

Fire Safety Program

2009-10-07T11:32:00.000-04:00

This morning we were lucky enough to not only have the Sugar Creek Firefighters come and talk to us about fire safety, but we also were able to walk in and look inside a real fire truck!

Bubble Gum Graphs

2009-09-29T15:35:00.000-04:00

Today we made bubble gum graphs and solved problems related to the information on the graph. I let the kids choose what their favorite gum flavor was out of the 5 flavors I brought for them to choose from. Here were the results:

Cherry 2

Strawberry 1

Sour Mania 10 *

Watermelon 8

Original 1

*Sour Mania would have been higher, but we ran out of gum.

Here are some pictures of our great bubble blowers!

They must have a lot of "hot air". :)

Parts of a Plant

2009-09-25T15:51:00.000-04:00

Instead of just studying the basic parts of a flowering plant, I decided to have the kids learn all the detailed parts of a flowering plant. The best way to do this, is to do it "hands on" with real flowers. Yesterday we went to the computer lab and went to various websites to learn about the parts of a plant (websites are on one of the posts from yesterday). Today we looked at and dissected flowers to find all these parts. To be honest, I am not the best botanist, so we were all learning together. :)

Here are some of the kiddos looking at their flower with a magnifying glass. We also moved our desks around today just to do this project. If it were up to the kids, they would stay this way.

Here are some flowers and inside parts close up.

This is a sheet that the kids used to identify the parts of the flower.

Funny Guys!

2009-09-24T16:20:00.000-04:00

Today during inside recess, some of the boys in the class came up with this. I thought it was cute and sweet, so I taped them and told them that I would put it on the blog. :)

Riley, Kade, Grant, Ryker, Andrew, and Bennett,

YOU ROCK!!!!! :)

What a day!

2009-09-24T16:17:00.000-04:00

Today we did a lot! From book review writing to picture taking to cookie making to plant site surfing, we had a rather busy day! Check out all the pictures of the things we did!

See you tomorrow!

Plant Websites

2009-09-24T16:08:00.001-04:00

Today in the computer lab we went to some cool plant websites. Below are links to the websites the kids liked the best.

Enjoy!

This is the harder parts of the plant site.

http://www2.bgfl.org/bgfl2/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/plants_pt2/parts.htm

This site is on seed dispersal.

http://www2.bgfl.org/bgfl2/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/plants_pt2/dispersal.htm

This site is on seed growth.

http://www2.bgfl.org/bgfl2/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/plants_pt2/growth.htm

This site is where you figure out the types of roots and whether you can eat it or not.

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/root/rootfac.html

Mmm, Cookies

2009-09-24T14:53:00.000-04:00

As you know, we have been studying the author Robert Munsch. Yesterday we read the book Mmm, Cookie by Robert Munsch. After reading the book, we talked about book reviews, and wrote a book review over Mmm, Cookies. Today we finished rewriting our reviews, and made Play-Doh cookies to go along with the book. At the end of this post, there is a book review over the book Mmm, Cookies.

Ask your child about what happened in the book, and why we made Play-Doh cookies. Also ask them why Mr. Munsch used the words play clay instead of Play-Doh.

A book review of Mmm, Cookies.

Do you like to play tricks? In Mmm, Cookies by Robert Munsch, a boy plays a trick on his parents with some play dough.

The book Mmm, Cookies is a good and funny story. In this book Christopher makes a special recipe to play a trick.

If you like to play tricks on people, read this book to see what Christopher does. The book Mmm, Cookies is an amusing and wonderful story. Anyone would love this book.

By Abby

Picture Day!

2009-09-24T14:44:00.000-04:00

Today was PICTURE DAY!!!!

Here are some pictures of the kids getting their pictures taken! :)

The pretty girls! :)

The Handsome Boys! :)

Purple, Green, and Yellow

2009-09-21T15:18:00.000-04:00

Today we read one of my favorite Robert Munsch books, Purple, Green, and Yellow. In the story, a little girl named Bridget wants coloring markers, and by the end of the story she makes a big mess! I started typing a little summary of the story, but I thought it would probably be better to have your child tell you about the story! :) SO, long story short, we used permanent markers to draw all over our hands and arms today! :) Well...actually...we colored on ourselves while wearing rubber gloves, but it sounds better, and crazier, the other way! :)

Here are the little artists at work!

It was so funny today because once the kids were finished, many of them put their glove on and did their work with it on. :)

Here are Simon, Riley, Marie, Hannah and Rachel, with their glorious gloves.

Here are Andrew, Matt, Alyssa, Olivia, and Jake with their masterpieces.

Here is the colorful work of Bennett, Jacob, Michaela, Evan, Luke, and Samantha.

Last but not least, the colorific work of Kenzie, Abby, Grant, Lauren, Haley, and Kade.

Once everyone was finished, they voted on who they thought did the best job coloring their hand. The winner was.........HALEY!!!! :)

And second place goes to.........MICHAELA!!!!!!

Everyone did a great job, and had lots of fun!

CEO Work

2009-09-14T15:38:00.000-04:00

Today we worked on rounding to the nearest ten. To test their knowledge of this skill, I had them use a chalk board and do "CEO work". This is where they wrote their answers on the chalk board while they had their feet on their desk like a big powerful CEO. :) They enjoyed it, and they also did very well on their rounding!

Next up, rounding to the nearest hundred and thousand!

Lunch in the Room on Friday

2009-09-11T12:36:00.000-04:00

As a reward of reading Reading Counts books and passing tests on them, I let the kids eat in the room on Friday every time they have passed 5 books. This is a big deal, because they also get to watch TV. They usually watch The Price is Right, or I let them choose an educational video. Today we were lucky enough to be able to watch The Disney Channel! :)

Kade, Luke, Michaela, Samantha, Evan and Haley were able to eat in the room today.

Rachel had won a price from Mr. Kern for getting Dragon Pride tickets, so she ate in the room too and chose Kenzie to join her. :)

Good job kids! :)

Patriot's Day Program

2009-09-11T09:27:00.000-04:00

Today we observed Patriot's Day, by attending our school's Patriot's Day program. Before going to the program, we briefly talked about why we observe this day, and what happened 8 years ago today.

At the program, we sang a few patriotic songs. Below are 3 video clips of the kids singing.

This is a clip from the school singing, "America the Beautiful".

This is a clip from the school singing, "It's a Grand Ol' Flag".

This is a clip from the school singing, "Yankee Doodle". I wish I had gotten the response from the kids when they said we were going to sing Yankee Doodle, because they all yelled with excitement! :)

Handprints

2009-09-09T14:22:00.000-04:00

One thing that I love to do with the kids in my class, is to make their handprint, and then do it again at the end of the year and see how their hands have grown. On Tues., we read about how things change in their social studies book, so it was a perfect time to make their handprints and talk about how their hands will change by the end of 2nd grade.

Here are some pictures of my blue handed friends. :)

Types of Sentences

2009-09-09T14:16:00.000-04:00

This week we talked about different types of sentences. We learned about sentences that are questions, statements, commands, and exclamations. These are words that they already knew, so I challenged them to learn the other BIGGER words for these types of sentences. We talked about question sentences being the same a interrogative sentences. We discussed the word interrogate, and how it can help you remember what interrogative means. We also talked about how exclamation sentences are the same as exclamatory sentences. And then, we had a little fun with sentences that are statements. They learned that statement sentences are the same as declarative sentences. You can hear the word declare in the word declarative. We talked about how some people who want to "declare" something important, may stand on something that makes them taller, and yell their declaration out so that everyone can hear it! So of course, we had to all try this! :) Everyone stood on top of their desk and "declared" something VERY loudly!

Here is a picture of everyone declaring something.

Here is a video of everyone declaring something. :)

The Children's Museum

2009-09-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

There were very few pictures that I took on our field trip to the Children's Museum a couple of weeks ago. They said that we could not take any pictures in the exhibit, and I forgot to take any pictures until we were leaving. :(

The First Day of School

2009-08-13T16:03:00.000-04:00

Well, we have now survived 2 whole days of school!

WOW! What an accomplishment! ;)

Here are some pictures from the first day of school.

Here are our beautiful young ladies. :)

Here are our handsome young men. :)

Here the kids are with all their stuff waiting patiently for instructions.

After spending most of the morning and afternoon putting stuff away, labeling things, and listening to me talk about all the things they need to know about my classroom (which I'm sure they forgot most of ;-), I let them take some time to enjoy their new surroundings.

Here is our traditional first day of school pictures!

What a WONDERFUL class of kids! :)

Welcome to my class blog!

2009-08-08T14:47:00.001-04:00

I would like to welcome these students to my class:

Matthew B, Luke C, Marie C, Evan D, Lauren D, Alyssa D,

Andrew G, Bennett H, Grant H, Jacob H, Hannah H, Michaela J,

Samantha K, Ryker L, Kade L, Simon M, Olivia M, Rachel O,

Abigail R, Haley R, Riley W, and Mackenzie W

I am very excited about this school year and all the things we will be doing and learning!

Through out the school year, I will be updating my class blog so that students, parents, friends, grandparents....whoever, can check in and see what we are doing. This was a fun and helpful way for me to keep everyone involved last year, and I am looking forward to continuing it this year.

Take some time and check out the postings from last school year.

I look forward to meeting you all on Wednesday!

Love,

Mrs. Crull

What I've been doing this summer!

2009-08-08T14:16:00.000-04:00

I have had a very busy summer! It has gone by WAY TOO FAST!

Here are some pictures of the highlights of my summer.

We put together a swing set for our boys. It took a long time to finish, and we still need to put the top shade piece on. Brannon and Alex have really enjoyed playing on it this summer. Do you have a swing set? Wasn't it fun the first time you got to play on it!

The other big project this summer was a concrete porch. We are still putting on the finishing touches (like a fire pit!), but be LOVE spending time outside on it. It is SO nice to eat lunch and dinner outside. Do you and your family eat outside in the summer?

The boys and I had a great time going on "adventures" this summer too. There is a big vacant area by our house that we like to ride our bikes through. We also like to climb the big hill that is there. The last time we went, we had a picnic at the top! Another place we enjoyed going was Falls Park in Pendleton. We cooled off by playing in the creek there. Have you ever gone a crazy "adventure" where you use your imagination?

The best part of summer is spending time with my family and friends.

I hope you had a great time with your family and friends this summer! I can't wait to hear all about it when school starts!

Our Classroom

2009-08-08T13:00:00.000-04:00

Since we are not having the ice cream social, I thought that I would let you see our classroom here! :) I know that it's not the same as walking around in it and touching stuff, but it will have to do until Wednesday. ;) The desks are not set up how they will be when school starts. I needed to get them in some sort of order, instead of clustered in the middle of the room.

See you Wednesday!

Sorry the pictures aren't too clear. I took them with my phone. :)

Last Day of School!

2009-08-08T12:41:00.001-04:00

Here are the pictures from the last day of school. We all had a blast eating pizza and tearing down Mrs. Crull's room!

The classroom BEFORE I cleaned up the mess!

The classroom AFTER I cleaned up the mess!

I will miss you all! Check back here whenever you want to reminisce about old times, or see what my new class is doing! :)

Have a great summer and school year next year!
(ya, I know...I am posting this right before school starts, but I do hope you had a good summer! :-)

Picnic Pictures Part 1

2009-08-08T12:36:00.000-04:00

After the Awards Program, and our class reception, we all went outside and had a class picnic! It was a BEAUTIFUL day! We all had a great time! My husband and boys were also able to come.

Here are some pictures from that special day.

I am so blessed to have a supportive family who loves spending time here at NPE. We love being a part of the lives of my students and the community!

Picnic Pictures Part 2

2009-08-08T12:26:00.000-04:00

I think I have a picture of my class in this tree every year!
Poor Tree!

My WONDERFUL class!
I'll miss you all! :)

Scrap Books

2009-08-08T11:45:00.000-04:00

One thing that I have been doing for a couple of years, is to have my kids make a scrap book. All year long we keep our writing projects, drawings, pictures I have taken, and so on, in a folder. Then at the end of the year, I laminate everything and bind it for them to take home on the last day of school. This year, I did it a little differently. After the awards program, I had a little reception for my kids and their parents to come back to the classroom and get their Reading Counts awards and scrap books. This was an awesome experience, because in the past, I didn't get to see the joy the scrap books bring to the kids and their parents. It was really cool seeing everyone sitting and looking through their scrap books, and remembering all the fun times we have had, and how far they have come in a year.

This was my favorite memory of this year! :)

Brannon's Day at School

2009-08-08T11:26:00.000-04:00

On one of the last days of school, Brannon came with me to school to practice what it will be like to go to "big school". He will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Thank you to all the sweet kids in my class who spent extra time playing with Brannon, and just being his friend! That means a lot to me as a teacher and a Mommy! :) He had a ball that day and felt so big!

The Night at the Museum

2009-08-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures I took of everyone who came to see The Night at the Museum. We had fun! I just wish I had taken more pictures! :) I plan on doing this again in Oct.? when Where the Wild Things Are comes out.

So watch and see when we plan on going and you can join us! :)

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

2009-05-19T20:20:00.000-04:00

Class/Family Night to see:

Night at the Museum:
Battle of the Smithsonian

When: Friday, May 22 @ 7:00
Where: Kerasotes Theaters on Washington Street
Dinner: McDonald's (New Pal) @ 5:30ish

Don't forget this is not a school sponsored trip; just something that I thought would be fun to do together. All families will be responsible for their own dinner and tickets to the movie. :)

Please let me know if you plan to attend so that we can all try to sit together! Also, since this is opening weekend of the movie, we should probably be at the theater no later than 6:30.

See you Friday! :)

Our Top 3 Insects

2009-05-14T11:15:00.000-04:00

This morning, our rookie entomologists showed off their insect "discoveries" and read about them to the class. Everyone did an EXCELLENT job on their insect creations!

Here are the top three insects the class voted to be the best.

#1 - The Wacky Yellow or Green Inflatable Intertube Bug
Discovered by Evan

#2 - The Weezle Beetle
Discovered by Gabby

#3 - The Brickbug
Discovered by Matthew T.

This afternoon

2009-05-13T14:56:00.000-04:00

And the rain came down...

With all the rain this afternoon, we had an early recess (we had spent about 2 hours in the computer lab after lunch finishing up our insect project...they did an excellent job!).

Below are the kids who were very excited about putting together all the "puzzle piece game thingy"! Good job!

After recess they watched an episode of Prehistoric Park that about insects that lived back in prehistoric time. They/I love the Prehistoric Park series! It is made by the same people who made the Walking with Dinosaurs series. Thanks Brannon and Alex for letting us barrow it! This is one of their FAVORITE things to watch.

Here are the kids watching the movie. They were completely engrossed in it! :)

Here is the insect I created. It is called the "Idea Sucking Fly". Unfortunately, we seem to have an infestation of them in our class at times! ;)

Insect Creations

2009-05-13T14:44:00.000-04:00

We have been studying insect. (this is one of my favorite units :-) We have learned what makes an insect an insect, how insects adapt to their surroundings, what kind of life cycle do different insects go through, etc. One activity I always do with my class is to create an insect. I encourage them to be creative! I told them to think about things that happen at school, home, or even the bus, that you could explain by creating an insect that did it. For example, "What causes all our things that we tape up in the hallway to fall down?" or "What causes every one's pencil led to break off in the pencil sharpener?" Yesterday they wrote about their insect (where it lives, what it eats, who are its enemies, and 3 interesting facts) and typed everything up on the computers. Today, they created their insect using all kinds of things, from sticks and pipe cleaners to aluminum foil and googly eyes. They all turned out REALLY well!

Here are some pictures of the kids making their insects.
I am going to have the kids choose who's insect project is the best, and post the top 5!

Insects

2009-05-12T16:04:00.000-04:00

THE INSECTS ARE COMING!!!

Color Survey

2009-04-24T13:52:00.000-04:00

I gave the kids a color survey to see how different colors make them feel, or what they associate with different colors. These were the interesting results. :)

Red = hot, love, and warning

Pink = happy, love, and spring

Orange = hot and fall

Yellow = happy, spring, and summer

Green = money, nature, and spring

Blue = cold and calm

Purple = good and calm

Brown = nature and fall

Black = bad and hate

Gray = sad and winter

White = cold and white

Other interesting findings on the survey were that no one thought that these colors were associated to these things. (does that make sense? :-)

Red is not a calm color.

Pink is not bad or cold, or associated with hate.

Yellow is not associated with bad.

Green doesn't make them feel sad, bad, or cold, and it is not a warning color.

Blue is not associated with the word hot.

When it come to seasons, these are the colors they think of.

Spring = pink, yellow, green

Summer = yellow

Fall = orange, brown

Winter = winter, white

Personal Flags

2009-04-23T14:41:00.000-04:00

This week, we read a story in our reading book about the American flag. To go along with the story, we learned about flags and made our own flag. We first looked at the 12 main types of flags. Some of the names of these flags are the tricolor vertical flag, bicolor horizontal flag, quartered flag, and bordered flag. Then we discussed colors, and how certain colors symbolize certain things or make you feel a certain way. Bright colors like yellow and orange can symbolize happiness. Blue and green are calming colors. Earth and nature can be symbolized by brown and green. We put our knowledge of flags and symbolism to work by looking at various flags in books and discussing what their different parts mean. Then we were ready to create our own flag about ourselves.

For this project, the students had to choose a type of flag, use at least 3 colors that would symbolize something about themselves, and include 1 symbol on their flag. Then they wrote about their flag and what each part symbolized. I was amazed at what a wonderful job all the kids did on the flag project!

Earth Day Shirts

2009-04-21T16:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we worked on coloring special Earth Day shirts that we are going to wear tomorrow for Earth Day. They were also watching the movie Fern Gully while they were coloring. That's why some of the kids have that glazed over "I'm watching TV" look on their face. (You know... we ALL do it! :-)

Goop

2009-04-14T20:02:00.000-04:00

To wrap up our chapter on the properties of matter in science, I thought that it would be fun to have the kids make goop. Goop is a weird substance that, when done right, is both a solid and a liquid. It is really cool. My class made it last year, and it went pretty well. The recipe calls for both white Elmer's glue and starch. Unfortunately, this year things didn't go as well as last year. All we did was end up making a big sticky goopy gluey mess!

Here are some pictures of our "experiment". In the end, they had fun.

And on a Friday before a holiday, that's what counts! :)

It was so messy and runny, that I had to have the kids stick their hands in their cup and they had to be walked, with me holding the cup, to the bathroom to wash their hands.

Chinese Jump Rope

2009-04-14T19:53:00.000-04:00

What goes around, comes back around.

When I was in elementary school, I remember using a Chinese jump rope. Last week when Chloe brought in her Chinese jump rope, it really brought back memories. Here are some pictures of the kids jumping. The girls even coxed some boys to join in!

These kids can jump!

Cookie Islands

2009-04-14T11:14:00.000-04:00

Before Spring Break we made cookie islands. Since we were finishing up our study of landforms, maps and map keys, we used our knowledge for this activity. I gave them a cookie and a variety of candy to make their creations. They had to have at least 4 landforms. Once they were finished making their island, they had to name it and make a map and map key of it. Everyone had a delicious time, and all of the islands and maps turned out AWESOME!

Here are two examples of the finished product.

Chloe and Matthew...the candy is to go on the island, not your face! ;)

Here are all our islands!

Mrs. Crull, Tyler

Angelina, Cameron

Megan, Gabby

Jade, Matthew K.

Claire, Sydney

Matthew T., Allie

Evan, Emma

Ryan, Chloe

Corie, Noah

I hope I matched up every one's cookie island with their name. :)

Crazy Sock Day

2009-04-14T11:08:00.000-04:00

This week is National Library Week. To celebrate this, the librarians have come up with special "dress-up" days. Today was CRAZY SOCK day!

Here are the kids with and without crazy socks!

Pictures of the Class

2009-04-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

Awhile back, Sharon True came in and took some pictures of our class. We really needed a new picture of the class, since we hadn't had a new picture taken since the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Thank you Sharon!

The Children's Museum Field Trip

2009-04-02T12:34:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Children's Museum. Here are some pictures from the field trip. I tried to get at least one picture of everyone. I had a group of my own, so there are a lot of those crazy critters! I think we all had a great time!

New Picture

2009-02-16T00:26:00.000-05:00

Since all of you are SO good at reminding me about things I sometimes forget, I have something for you all to remind me to do...

TAKE A NEW CLASS PICTURE!

The picture at the top of the page is so old! It is from the first day of school! Look how much you all have changed! I think that Tyler, Matthew K. and Chloe have changed the most from the beginning of the year. What do you guys think?

Valentine's Day Party

2009-02-16T00:17:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures I took at the Valentine's Day party on Friday. I think that everyone had a great time. Thank you Sharon for putting together fun parties this year! Thank you also to all the families for sending in all the goodies throughout the year too!

As you can tell from the picture, we definitely weren't lacking in the area of sweets!

Chopstick relay

Friday Work

2009-02-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

Every Friday, we do our spelling test and "Friday work". Friday work is independent work that each student is to complete by the end of the day. They always have a book to read on their own, a WKST to go with the book, and 4 - 5 other WKSTs. The point of this is two fold, 1) since I have 3 spelling groups, this gives those students that are not taking a test something constructive to do with their time while they wait to take their test, and 2) the WKSTs they are to complete are on skills we have been working on or that they need repeated drill and practice on (i.e. computation - addition and subtraction with regrouping).

I try to be a very laid back teacher and let the kids do what they need to do to understand things or get their work done (as long as it is not a distraction to others). If that means standing, they can stand. If that means not wearing shoes, they don't have to wear shoes (about half the class seems to take off their shoes as soon as they get to class). Whenever the kids are doing work, I usually always (unless it's handwriting or a test) let them sit where ever they want (this usually means on the floor with a clipboard). On Friday's, there always seems to be a different vibe about doing their work. Maybe because there is more to be done at one time, maybe it's the freedom of managing their own work and time, I don't know. But every Friday they want to move their desks. Sometimes it's just a few kids, and other times its almost all 18 kids, and the classroom looks like someone just threw 18 desks and chairs in there and said find a seat. :) This last Friday was one of those days, so I took a picture of my silly kids!

I love you guys!

(Has anyone noticed that I seem to really like using brackets? Aren't they called brackets? I wonder if there is a grammar rule about when and where you should use them? I probably should find out since I seem to be so fond of them!)

Looking Back at the Past - Sewing

2009-02-15T23:38:00.000-05:00

For the past month, we have been doing a unit on quilts and looking back at the past. We have read many books, like The Patchwork Quilt, The Josephina Story Quilt, Miss Rumphius, Peppe the Lamplighter, The Rag Coat, When I was Young in the Mountains, and The Coat of Many Colors. All of the books had something to do with either looking back at the past, and the way things use to be, or the importance of quilts as a necessity or story telling devise. To go along with this unit, the student working on embroidering a pillow. Everyone did a GREAT job at embroidering. It always amazes me how some kids really get it (especially some of the boys!) and do an outstanding job!

Here are some pictures of the kids sewing away last week! :)
You all did a GREAT job!

Snow Drifts

2009-02-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

Today at the end of the day I went out to the playground area and took these pictures of the snow drifts. I couldn't believe how high the snow was! I guess we won't be going out to recess for awhile. :(

Whatcha doin?

2009-01-30T12:18:00.000-05:00

Well, we have been out of school for 3 days straight! I have been doing a whole lot of nothing! What have you been doing? If you email me some pictures and write a couple of sentences about what you have been doing these past 3 days, I'll put them on the blog! :)

rcrull@newpal.k12.in.us
and
rebeccacrull@gmail.com

Please send them to BOTH of the email addresses. I don't always get stuff that is sent to my school address.

I can't wait to see what you guys have been doing!

I FINALLY did it!!!!

2009-01-27T19:58:00.000-05:00

Well, can you believe it? I FINALLY updated the blog! I had to put the pictures from today on it! And whoever said that I hadn't updated it since Halloween was wrong! ;) Hopefully I will do better...maybe not, but you never know. :)

Enjoy!

P.S. Did anyone else play in the snow when they got home?
I did! :)

Let it Snow!, Let it Snow!, Let it Snow!

2009-01-27T19:36:00.000-05:00

Well, today I think we made some cherished school memories! Before the kids had to leave for the day, I decided that it would be fun to "catch snowflakes". I gave all the kids a piece of black construction paper so that they could see the snowflakes better. We all had SO much fun! They "studied" snowflakes on their paper, their coats, their noses, and most of all, their tongues! Thank goodness I remembered to go back and get my camera, because I was able to capture this fun and exciting experience! (Academically speaking...we did this because we just finished reading about, and discussing, the water cycle, the 3 forms water takes, and the four types of precipitation - rain, hail, sleet, and SNOW.) ;-)

Didn't your Mama ever tell you not to eat snow?! I know your teacher didn't! ;-)

I love this picture of Emma!

Matthew K...were you going to walk home? ;-)

As a "side note", every time we could possibly have some sort of "frozen" precipitation, Mr. Meyerrose blares the song "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow", and has his class sing and dance around the room to it. This is his end of the day "Snow Dance" on those wintry days. Since we are getting so much snow tonight, I guess they finally got the hang of it!

Hat Day for "The Hat"

2009-01-27T19:27:00.000-05:00

We did a short author study before Christmas on Jan Brett. Jan Brett is an AWESOME illustrator and author. Some of the books of hers that we read were, The Mitten, Armadillo Rodeo, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Hat. On the day we read The Hat, I thought it would fun if we had a hat day. Below are the kids and some of the crazy hats they wore.

Jan Brett also has an incredible website. Here is the link to her website: www.janbrett.com

Snowflakes

2009-01-27T19:19:00.000-05:00

Before Christmas, we made made snowflakes and decorated them with glitter. Very messy, but a lot of creative fun! We then strung them on yarn and then hung them from the ceiling in our classroom. Everyone has been very impressed with how well they turned out. I figure that we can leave them up until at least Spring Break. :)

Here are some pictures of a couple of kids decorating their snowflake. I'm sorry that I don't have pictures of more kids, but I forgot to keep taking pictures of all the groups.

Mmm, Cookies!

2008-11-13T22:16:00.000-05:00

This week we started an author study on one of my favorite authors, Robert Munsch. We have been reading his books, listening to him read the books (via his awesome website), and doing different activities related to the books. Today we listened to the book, Mmm, Cookies! We used this book to talk about and practice writing book reviews. The students will be writing a book review of their favorite Robert Munsch book next week. There will be more to come about that later. :) In the book Mmm, Cookies!, the main character, Christopher, finds play clay and makes "cookies" out of it. Then he tries to trick his family and friends into eating his play clay cookies. As a nice reward (and break) from all the writing the kids did today on their book reviews, we made our own play clay cookies. Here are some pictures of the kids and their play clay cookies.

Ask your child about the interesting conversation we had about why Mr. Munsch, the author, used the term play clay instead of play dough in his book.

Election 2008

2008-11-04T20:18:00.001-05:00

Today we were able to go down to the polling site at NPE. The inspector for the site was nice enough to walk the kids through the process of casting a vote. They were able to see where you sign in to vote and check out a real ballot. He also showed them how people with disabilities vote. There is a machine that scans the ballot and reads it to them. Then all they need to do is touch the screen to cast their vote. Then he showed the kids how a voter puts their ballot into the scanner to cast their vote. They also talked to us about absentee voting. I was very impressed that the polling inspector took the time to talk to the kids on this exciting day!

After we came back to our class, we had our own election. Allie was our registrar, and each child came to her and told her their name. She checked their name off the class list and gave them a ballot with each candidates name and picture on it. The students then went to a mock election booth to mark their ballot. Lastly, they dropped their ballot into the ballot box. The whole second grade participated in this election activity today.

Once all the votes were counted, the results were:

John McCain 44
Barack Obama 40

Recess

2008-11-04T20:14:00.000-05:00

These are some pictures I took of the kids out at recess about a month ago.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T22:56:00.000-04:00

Friday was quite a day in Mrs. Crull's class! We had our Halloween parade and party! The mom's and dad's did a great job planning and helping out in the classroom to make our Halloween party a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from this exciting day.

The little guy is my son Alex who came to walk in the parade. My other son Brannon was there too. Every one's costumes were great! We had Princess Pheona, skeletons, ghostly ghouls, Batman, Darth Vader, a knight, a pirate, a veterinarian, a Granny, and more!

Allie's baby sister was there as a ladybug, and we saw Noah's new baby sister dressed as a bunny!

I was dressed as a "fanatic sports fan". My boys were dressed as Ironman and Optimus Prime. I'm glad Princess Pheona chose Shrek instead of this evil looking guy! Sorry Ryan! :)

Here's our class! Dressed and ready to go!

Parade Time!

Now it's time for some Halloween treats and Bingo!

Catwoman Corie, Darth Vader Matthew, Miss Green Outfit Wearing (not sure what you really were :-) Chloe, Mr. Incredibly Snaggle Toothed Evan, and Dark Knight Jacob were looking good!!!

I thought maybe "Miss Behaving" (ya right! :-) Emma and "Major Flirt" (really :-) Chloe would make a good picture. Gabby, I LOVE your costume! You would make an excellent veterinarian!

Last but definitely not least, Matthew T., our visiting GRANNY! I couldn't believe you chose to wear a dress! :) You crack me up! And Matthew K. and Corie...don't you know better than to pick on a poor old lady! ;-)

Candy Corn Pictures

2008-10-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

Today we started the chapter book, The Candy Corn Contest. The teacher in the book brings in a jar filled with candy corn, and the kids are to try and guess how many candy corns are in the jar. As we read the first half of the book today, we ate candy corn and peanut butter kisses (I was surprised how many kids liked the peanut butter kisses!). As we were reading, I came up with the idea to have the kids make Halloween / spooky pictures using candy corn. Here are some of the pictures the kids made. I thought they all turned out neat. :)

Noah - Nice Halloween person

Matthew T. - Cool Bat!

Sydney - I like her two trick-or-treaters

Chloe - Spooky Ghosts

Angelina - Smiley Jack-O-Lantern

Allie - More "Booooorrific" Ghosts

Scary Stories

2008-10-28T21:19:00.000-04:00

Today we wrote scary stories. We started out by looking at the picture of the haunted house. Then we brainstormed words that they might use in writing a scary story about the house. Next, I wrote a scary story of my own as an example. Finally they wrote their own scary story. Many of them sound the same because they took some ideas from my story. Everyone did an EXCELLENT job on their story! These are a sampling of some of the stories that were written.

Scary Monster Faces

2008-10-28T21:07:00.001-04:00

To go along with our scary stories, the kids made scary monster faces. Here are some of the faces they made. :)

Megan's face is so cool! I love her month the best! It's VERY creepy!

This is Ryan's out of this world alien face! Nice job!

Matthew K. did an AWESOME job on his werewolf face!

Gabby's face is the "cat's meow"! It is purrrfect! ;)

Emma's mummy face is a "wrap"! She worked very hard on it!

Evan's monster face took a lot of time and has a lot of details. Nice face monster man!

Corie's monster face has creepy eyes! It's monsterific! :)

Bat's at the Children's Museum

2008-10-25T23:04:00.000-04:00

Over fall break I was able to see a really cool program at the Children's Museum! It was on bats. They said that they do it every year, so if you remember it next year, you should ask your parents if they could take you. They talked about bats and brought 4 different kinds of bats to show us. They also walked around the room so that everyone could see them close up! They brought 2 small bats and 2 large bats. The two small bats were the dog face bat and the little brown bat (I think). The large bats were both fruit bats. One was the same kind of fruit bat that the book Stellaluna was written about. The other bat was the largest kind of bat there is, a Malaysian fruit bat. It was really cool and big. I think that they said that its wing spand is 5 feet. That means that when their wings are completely spread out, the length from wing tip to wing tip would be 5 feet! That is taller than most of you!!!!

I hope you enjoy the pictures! :)

Look...It's Stellaluna! :O)

This is the Mayalasian fruit bat...the largest kind of bat!
Aren't its feet cool. They really do look like our hands! The lady just walked around with the bat hanging from her arm like a purse. Her 2 daughters that were in 2nd and 3rd grade were there helping her.

Candy Probability

2008-10-08T06:48:00.000-04:00

This week we are learning about probability. On Monday we discussed the concepts of certain, impossible, possible, likely, and unlikely, and how they relate to probability. On Tuesday we did 2 probability activities. The first activity had to do with candy and the second activity had to do with socks. Obviously the kids liked the candy activity the best! :) The students were divided into 6 groups of 3. Each group was given a brown bag with 10 colored candies in it. There were 6 orange candies (some groups had red because there wasn't enough oranges to go around), 3 purple candies and 1 white candy. They took turns pulling candy out of the bag and had a data sheet that they were to use tally marks on to keep track of the colors they pulled. They did this 20 - 30 times. In the end, they were to see that the orange/red colored candies were picked the most and the white candy was picked least. Unfortunately, some groups tally charts didn't follow this rationale. But this lead into a discussion that this was just a small sampling, and that if you were to do this 100 or 200 times, you would have had a more accurate outcome. Everyone had fun with the activity, and it was a great opportunity for me to take some pictures of the class too! :)

Star Spelling and Star Handwriting 9-25-08

2008-10-01T16:01:00.000-04:00

Star Spelling
Claire
Allie
Chloe
Emma
Tyler
Matthew T.
Cameron

Star Handwriting
Allie
Chloe
Sydney
Megan
Corie
Emma
Evan
Matthew T.

100% on Dictation
(this doesn't happen a lot)
Allie

Grandparent's Breakfast

2008-10-01T09:47:00.000-04:00

It was so nice to meet some of your grandparent today! Here are some pictures from this morning.

Connor Prairie Field Trip Part 1

2008-09-30T22:18:00.000-04:00

Last Friday we went on our first field trip of the year to Connor Prairie. We had a beautiful day and everyone had a great time! Here are some pictures that I took. I apologize that I did not get pictures of a wide variety of students. Every field trip this happens, I get lots of pictures of the same kids because we end up being at the same places at the same time. So, please forgive me if you don't see yourself.

And were off! Here we are riding the bus to Connor Prairie.

This was really cool. These are seeds from a plant called a puff of love. The plant has these puffball like sacks on it. Inside the sacks are seeds, and on each seed is a heart. If you look real close, you can see the cream colored heart on the brown seed. I got a couple of seeds and I am going to try and plant them. We will see if Mrs. Crull can actually make something grow from "scratch"! :)

This is Chloe, her mom and Jade petting a calf. This year they had a lot of people and things out for us to see and do.

Here is Gabby looking at the cute baby chicks.

Connor Prairie Field Trip Part 2

2008-09-30T21:55:00.000-04:00

Here are Tyler and Jade "riding" a horse.

Angelina, Sydney and Evan in the candle dipping area and Ryan and Evan deciding where to go next.

Lunch Time!
Angelina brought cookies for everyone. Thank you Angelina!!! ;)

Connor Prairie Field Trip Part 3

2008-09-30T21:38:00.000-04:00

Here are Evan and Ryan pumping up water from a well.

Thanks to Chloe's mom, I have this "wonderful" picture of me walking on the stilts. ;) Actually, when I was in 5th grade, I had to walk on stilts for a school play that I was in. I remember practicing all the time on them so that I wouldn't fall during the play.

Tug-a-war anyone? Jade, Chloe, Evan and Ryan were up for the challenge!

The field trip is over and we're ready to go back to school...or maybe not. :)

For those of you who were wondering what we did in class after we got back from the field trip...a whole lot of nothing. We just enjoyed being a small class of 11 kids! It was really nice and quiet!

Bubble Gum Graphs

2008-09-30T20:00:00.000-04:00

Today we did one of my favorite activities that we do during the year. We picked our favorite bubble gum flavor, made a graph with this information and then solved problems about the information on our graph. We also blew a few bubbles. :)

Here are some of our best bubbles. Can you find Mrs. Crull? ;)

Here are the results of our bubble gum flavor poll.

Original - 2
Watermelon - 3
Sour Mania - 5
Strawberry - 4
Island Punch - 6

More Picture Day Pictures

2008-09-25T22:05:00.000-04:00

These pictures are my attempt to be "artsy". :) I thought they turned out pretty cool.

These are Gabby's new shoes. I thought they were SO cool!!! This picture was taken while she was getting her picture taken.

Right before we left to go back to the room, I looked at the kids standing by the wall and thought their feet looked really cool all lined up. It actually took awhile to get them to look like this (you know...second graders move around a bit!), but the picture turned out cool in the end!

Picture Day!

2008-09-25T21:52:00.000-04:00

Today was PICTURE DAY! Here are some pictures that I took today. :)

Look are our beautiful young ladies and handsome young men. :) They look so nice!

Here they are practicing their smiles while they waited patiently for their turn.

Noah's ready!

Matthew T. and Angelina are being posed by our photographer. Matthew...you forgot to put your teeth in for your picture! ;)

Star Spelling and Star Handwriting 9-19-08

2008-09-22T17:56:00.000-04:00

Every Friday we have a spelling test. I take 4 grades on this one test. I take a spelling test grade, a dictation grade, a spelling test handwriting grade, and a dictation handwriting grade. To help encourage the students to do their very best, I keep a list on the board of those students who have "Star Spelling" and "Star Handwriting". To be on the "Star Spelling" list, a student needs to get 100% on their spelling test (just the front, not the dictation part). To be on the "Star Handwriting" list, a student needs to get an E on their handwriting on their spelling test (only the front of the test, not the back). An E stands for "Excellent", and is like getting an A on their handwriting. I had planned on listing these outstanding students on the blog each week, but I am just now getting around to it. :)

September 19, 2008

STAR SPELLING
Claire
Chloe
Sydney
Corie
Angelina
Emma
Matthew K.
Cameron
Matthew T.

STAR HANDWRITING
Allie
Chloe
Sydney
Corie
Emma
Evan

Last week I talked to the students a lot about trying hard to use their very best handwriting on all their work. We talked about how your handwriting is a reflection of you. I am very proud of all the students and how much their handwriting improved over the past week! Let's keep up the good work!!! :)

Testing and Masks

2008-09-06T13:57:00.000-04:00

The end of this week at school was a little crazy. All day Thursday and Friday we had someone pulling the kids out to do two reading tests. The first test was the Diebels test that they have been doing since kindergarten. The second test was a new test that figures out the reading level of each child. This test takes a long time to administer because the students have to keep on reading passages and answering questions until it gets too hard for them.

Since I had so many students coming and going, we couldn't really do a lot. So, on Friday afternoon we decided to do an art project. It actually started out being something totally different, but as the kids started cutting their paper, we all noticed that they looked like faces. The more I looked at them, the more I thought they looked like Aztec or Mayan tribal masks. So, I looked online to show the kids what one of these masks looked like, and challenged them to try and make their picture into a tribal mask. They all seemed to enjoy this last minute art project. They also enjoyed trying to make mustache's for themselves to wear with the scraps. :)

Here are four pictures that I thought turned out great!

By Evan

By Gabby

By Claire

By Matthew T.

By Noah

Tongue Twisters

2008-09-06T13:27:00.000-04:00

This week we wrote tongue twisters. We started by reviewing blends, then I gave the kids a sheet to work with to write six tongue twisters. I chose six blends and made word banks that included words that started with each blend. This activity always ends up being harder than the kids expect. I reminded them that the key to a tongue twister is to make sure most of your words start with the same blend. When they use a lot of "filler words" that do not start with the same blend, it isn't a tongue twister anymore. I then had them choose their favorite tongue twister, rewrite it and draw a picture to go along with it.

Here are four students that I thought did a great job on their tongue twister and picture.

Here are the rest of our classes terrific tongue twisters! :)

Brad's brother Brian brushed Brooke's nice brown braid.
-Claire-

Drew dragon dreamed of wearing a dress.
-Matthew T.-

Brooke brought brown bread.
-Allie-

Brooke had brown bright braided hair. Brick brought broccoli.
-Angelina-

Drake drank a dry drink.
-Sydney-

Stubborn Stephanie stood like a statue.
-Emma-

Stubborn Stewart stepped onto the stage.
-Ryan-

Slick the seal can slap and slip.
-Gabby-

Clever Clayton closing the closet.
-Corie-

Brad Brooke brought brown broccoli bread.
-Matthew K.-

Drake dragged a dry drooly dragon wearing a dress!
-Jade-

A fly flew into Flo's flavored ice cream.
-Noah-

Drake's drill drip dried.
-Megan-

A Few Pictures of the Kiddos! :)

2008-09-02T21:23:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures that I have taken in class over the last couple of weeks. If you don't see yourself, I promise to get everyone's picture on here! :)

Silly picture from the first day of school.

Corie and Gabby's tanagram creation.

Matthew K. reading in his favorite spot. ;) Matthew, I hadn't realized until now that you do seem to always be reading in this same spot in the room. :)

Chloe, Cameron and Angelina taking Reading Counts quizzes. The kids are doing an AWESOME job reading books and passing Reading Counts quizzes on their books! Keep up the good work! :)

Gabby, Sydney, Megan and Jade reading during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time.

These pictures are of kids working on their centers.

Sydney

Ms. Kost and Jacob

Ryan

Kid's Work

2008-09-02T20:10:00.001-04:00

Here are the two things that I have up outside our room. The first is an "apple glyph" that we did. A glyph is a picture that is made by answering a series of questions. Some of the questions for the apple glyph were, "If you are a girl, color the apple red; and if you are a boy, color the apple yellow" or "If you like pizza, color the pencil's eraser pink; and if you do not like pizza, color the eraser yellow".

Here are tall he "Marvelous Maps" the students created. :)

Creative Maps

2008-08-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

Last week we read about maps and map keys in our social studies book. After looking at and discussing the maps in our book, we came up with some maps of our own. The students were to make a map key with at least 5 map symbols in it. They had to use those 5 map symbols in their map. They had to stick with a theme for their map that used to create their map title and street names. These were just some of the wonderful maps that the students created.

Jade's Colorville

Emma's Color Town

Matthew K.'s Dino Town

Noah's Sugarville

Jacob's Evil Town

Rural vs. Urban

2008-08-20T15:12:00.000-04:00

To go along with the story we read in reading (Iris and Walter), and our social studies unit on communities, we talked about what the words rural and urban mean. Afterward, the kids drew pictures illustrating a rural/country community and an urban/city community. I then let the kids choose which ones they thought did the best job on their pictures. These are the four pictures the class thought were the best.

Everyone did a great job!

Sydney

Chloe

Corie

Evan

The Principal's New Clothes

2008-08-20T14:49:00.000-04:00

This week we read the book The Principal's New Clothes. It is a cute book that goes off the "Emperor's New Clothes" story line. One of the things the kids did with this book was to make new clothes for Mr. Bundy, the principal in the book. These 5 kids were very creative in their clothes designs!

Cameron

Corie

Megan

Gabby

Claire

What a Great Week!

2008-08-20T14:39:00.000-04:00

We have had a great week this week! The kids have really worked hard at learning and following the new rules and procedures. Each day I am adding more to our daily routine. Today we were finally able to get into our new reading text book and read the story Iris and Walter.

Ask your child about the differences between a city, suburb and the country. Also have them tell you about the words rural and urban.

Coming Soon

2008-06-16T01:35:00.000-04:00

School starts on Wednesday, August 13, 2008.
I look forward to meeting everyone!
Have a great summer!