Best Week Ever!

Thankfully, we all returned happy and healthy from fall break with a need to spend some time in the creek.  We found all sorts of interesting things.
 

 
 

 











 We are creating some very fancy houses in this Fairy Village.

 

 Mrs. Paris went to Vermont and brought back some yummy treats to share with us.

We started our unit on Birds of Prey and began new books this week.  We are learning how to write an exciting opening for our paragraphs, even though it is a  non-fiction book.

We've changed up Spark Stations a bit and are enjoying some new activities.

We are learning about South America and Christopher Columbus.

Our long awaited field trip finally arrived.  We had the best day ever !  We rotated through eight different stations, learning all about pioneers.
We square danced, played hopscotch, marbles and kick the can!

 

 We found out what school life was like in a one room school house.

 Father Steve was so very kind to fill in for our pastor, who had a funeral, and teach us about the first priest and churches in Floyd County.

 Mrs. Paris' daughter shared about plants and medicines in pioneer times.

 We had yummy snacks like beef jerky, dried apples, dried fruits and nuts.

 We watched a real woodworker, working on a handmade chair.

 We learned about farm animals and lanolin.

 Then we had a fried chicken lunch with pie.  We were blessed with beautiful weather and wonderful array of parent helpers.
No time to rest as Friday was our day being teachers in our beautiful little garden.  We did such a great job sharing our knowledge of plant cycles and how seeds are dispersed.
Get ready for a bunch of pictures.

This was Mrs. Paris' favorite picture. So. Much. Joy!

 It just seems unreal that the tiniest seed could produce such a huge plant.

 

After this wild week, next week is going to seem kind of boring. Nah, we'll find a way to make it exciting!

A Wild Ride to Fall Break

Today we wrapped up our unit on Pioneers.  We were all sad to see the end of Mr. Tuckett, but Mrs. Paris told us Gary Paulsen wrote more books about him if we are interested. We read so very many books the past three weeks and wrote them in our journal as we practiced properly capitalizing titles.

Mr. Abel came to visit on Tuesday and shared some exciting science lessons with us.  We had just studied matter and could answer a lot of his questions.

 

Wednesday was so, so hot, so we went out to water our garden first thing, then went to play awhile and say, "So long," to the creek.  Mrs. Paris is amazed that we have kept that garden alive.  We also practiced our parts for the lesson on seeds we will give the other students.

What a big day on Thursday. First we did our STAR assessment and really impressed our teacher with how careful we were.  Then we finished pioneer rotations, did some marbleizing with shaving cream, paint and paper.  

Our afternoon was spent enjoying the beautiful birds presented by Hardy Lake Raptor Rehab.  That assembly kicks off our study of raptors when we return from break. We saw a red tailed hawk, peregrine falcon, turkey vulture, owl and a bald eagle.

 

 

Lastly, a few of us went out for the blessing of the animals with Fr. Bill.  He visited us this  morning and gave us quite a fright with his great retelling of Saint Francis and the wolf. I will have to tell you all about it.

 

 

 

 
 
 And if you don't have a pet to be blessed, find a stick.
 
 Happy Fall Break !!!!!!

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.