Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed

Once again, our week was full and running over.
On Tuesday afternoon we had our last session with Ms. Cheryl.  We learned a lot and were sad to say "So long," to her and the cute puppets.  We wrote a nice thank you note showing our appreciation for the visits.
Every chance we got we practiced our songs for Mass, our seed dispersal lesson and our square dance song, "Oh, Susannah."
On Thursday we celebrated the birthday of an Indiana pioneer, Johnny Appleseed. One group listened to a couple of good books about Johnny, while the other group rotated through four apple stations.  Then we switched.  We were very full of apples and cider by day's end.

There isn't much our dear teacher loves more than smiling interested faces (with mouths full of apples)!

 Wow, what an absolutely amazing job second grade did during Mass on Friday. It was as well done as could be and Mrs. Paris was so proud of everyone and so thankful to the Lord for blessing us during this service!

 

Mrs Paris was gifted with a mum for her birthday and the class was gifted with another from the Beach family.  Since we knew the day was just going to get hotter, we went out early to get them planted. 

A very large crayfish (crawdad)  was found and brought to school to share. That is the biggest one we've found, but alas, we needed to release him (her?) to get ready for winter.  Winter is coming, right?

Our friend Fred, talked about a hundred's array and we learned a new way to write 100 using scientific notation.   

We are about to come the end of our pioneer books and are looking forward to our next unit on raptors.

Our blueberries have nearly disappeared, but the plump grapes are taking their time losing matter.  We discovered this week that apples, with some technology, can dehydrate in just a few hours.

Most of us are about finished with our India stitchery and worked this week on Australian Aboriginal Dot Art. 

We've made maps of our neighborhood and Floyd County and will move onto Indiana this week.

Ever learning and growing.

In the Garden

Another very warm and very busy week in Second Grade.

Our little pigs are finished and everyone had to make an appointment with the vet to get a flu shot.
We are going to create an adventure book about our very own pet.

Some of our parents met on Wednesday evening to see how to help us out with math.  We've got a ways to go in learning addition and subtractions facts. Those of us who participated received math games and dice.

 Our school camera was most cantankerous last week, so we don't have many pictures of our Pioneer Adventure.  Here our little pioneers are learning how important quilts were to the pioneers and tried our hand at quilting.  We learned that in addition to keeping them warm it often was a community project and a way to show artistic creativity and to use up every scrap.

 Our Preschool was gifted with monarch caterpillars and it was time to turn them loose. They were so very kind to let us see the big release, as they wanted to set them free in our little school garden. Mrs. Paris was hoping to have future monarchs, so dug up some milkweed, about ready to pop out all over with seeds, to plant close to the garden, in hopes of future monarch food.

Yep, about like chiseling concrete.

This garden has really turned into an act of service as we carry water and carry water and carry water, but look at how pretty it is.

All week we've worked on our Mass parts for this Friday.  What a big job for second graders!

Ms. Cheryl came again to share with us about coping skills.  Overall, Mrs. Paris thinks we cope pretty well.

Another week of learning and fun.

Westward Ho

We donned our hats and started heading west from Pennsylvania to Indiana. Will we stay?  Go on to Oregon?  Those are very hard questions. We are being wise and learning all about life on a wagon train.
We are reading a variety of books about the hard lives of pioneers.  Some of our very own ancestors came here to Floyd County as pioneers.  Some of us have asked questions and learned about how life was different for our grandparents.
Some of us read Johnny Appleseed, while one student played the part of Johnny, the others questioned whether what they read was truth, or a tall tale. In another group, we took turns being the main character, Olivia, and the others asked us questions about the trip. A last group was hoping a little cat made it to Oregon.
We are going to  make our own little wagon and fill it with all the important things we're learning about for a successful trip.

Ms. Cheryl came and we talked about all the things wise people stay far away from!




 

Coming home is a small cardboard bank. Sweet Sister Loretta visited from the Archdiocese to share how filling this bank will fill children's bodies with clean water and food, as well as provide them with school supplies.








 


We say, "Fill it up!"
 First Quarter Service Project
Sister Loretto, of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis Mission Office, visited SMKCS yesterday to tell our students about the The Missionary Childhood Association (MCA) and kick off our first quarter service project! MCA was founded in France in 1843. Its purpose is to encourage all children to be aware of the needs of children living throughout the world and support them both spiritually and sacrificially. Today the organization is in 110 countries and helps make Jesus known to children all over the world. Under its banner “children helping children,” monies raised through schools like SMKCS are directed towards self-help programs involving the building of schools, the provision of health and nutrition programs and medications, and teaching and learning resources. Each student is receiving a little box for monetary collections benefitting MCA. Thank you for encouraging participation in this very worthy cause in your home! We hope that every child is able to fill their little MCA box in order to help children across the globe.

In stitching, we are learning an India art style called Kantha.



  There is a lot involved in stitching and bit by bit we are learning how long to cut the yarn, how far to pull, how to used a needle threader, and how to make a running stitch.  We were so excited to make a picture instead of a line.




 
Math was so very tricky on Thursday.  We were practicing with ten frame cards.  The objective was to move items (cutest tiny erasers) from one ten frame to another to make ten. When you have a ten, you can add so quickly.
We enjoyed a very special visiting Aunt, all the way from California.
 
 She did a science lesson with us about pollinators and all the parts of a flower.
 

 

We also got to taste honey from different flowers.  


Even in the heat, we headed out for a creek visit today.
Thankfully, the shade makes the creek the best outdoor place to be.
Oh wow, look at what we found in our Fairy House.
 

Color us over moon with some evidence of visitors to our shelters.
And our wood fort.  So cool.

 We've never found such tiny, beautiful wings. It made us question if fairies are deciduous like trees. If in fall, they lose their wings, hibernate for winter, then grow new ones in spring. Certainly sounds reasonable.

 Contemplating what those letters could possibly mean.

All this talk about pioneers wasting nothing and using all their resources made us wonder if our fairies could use this snail shell to carry water, cook or use for jewelry.

Some of us thought another creek shelter was in order and worked up quite a sweat making it.


We have about melted trying to keep this garden watered.  We are going to spend the day out there in October, teaching all the other classes about seed dispersal. There are poems to learn and songs to sing and actions to match our songs.

It is a big job to do mass parts when you are in second grade.  We've been reading a very hard scripture from Haggai, and are learning those hard words.
I will soon be bringing home a paper that says what I will be doing in our September 27 Mass.  If I have any speaking part, I need to practice every day.

Wow, what an incredibly busy week of learning, learning, learning, experimenting, questioning and to wrap it up- Game Day, hurrah!

Grandparent's Day

And a good time was had by all.
Though an heroic effort was made, sadly a couple of sweeties were missed. Hopefully there will be another time to grab a grandparent picture.

 

Finally, we have letters ready to wing their way as far as Africa and California.  Writing addresses on envelopes and writing letters are arduous tasks in second grade. Even folding a paper in thirds is hard sometimes, but looky here- Success!

 We just never have enough time to be one with the creek.  Today, we got to spend almost an hour there.  Mrs. Paris loves the cooperative work, the building and the imagination and ideas flying. It makes her smile.

This surely did not feel like a short week. Come on weekend!