The Rose Theater

Our field trip to the Rose Theater was simply amazing!  We began our day by watching the show "Tomas and the Library Lady".  The story involved a young boy whose family worked as migrant workers.  While his family is working in a small town in Iowa, Tomas discovers the library and the love of reading.  In this true story, Tomas then grows up to be a great writer and advocate for education -- including being the Chancellor at the University of California.

After eating lunch we went to the workshop  part of the day.  While we were in the workshop we learned that an actor uses three tools to act - voice, body, and imagination.  Students used all three of those to create a dinosaur, a car, and a computer -- with only their bodies!  You can see some of the kiddos above and their dinosaur they created. 

The final thing we had the opportunity to do was to take a tour of the theater and see all of the behind the scenes things like dressing rooms, under the stage, lighting areas, and backstage.  It is an incredible building full of nooks and crannies galore.  They have a simply AMAZING costume collection that can be rented out - you should definitely check it out. 

We are grateful to Rose Theater and to the art grant that allowed up to visit there.  I'm sure the kids would love to go back and take in another play if your family is looking for a great family night out.

Our M.V.P. Meredith

My name is Meredith.  I am eight years old.  I am an only child.  I love animals.  My pets are Terra, the cat and Cake, the goldfish.  My favorite sports are swimming, volleyball, and a lot of others.  I love playing the piano for my teacher.  At school I love seeing my friends and reading.  

Our M.V.P. Allison

On January 17th I read in front of the PTO.  It was so much fun.  I read about the dentist pulling my teeth.  I had to get my teeth pulled on Thursday, November 21st, 2012.  I don't like when they pinch your lip.  It BURNS!! Thank goodness I got it over with.  I can't wait until I get braces.  I think they're pretty cool.  Other than the dentist pulling my teeth, I had an awesome week. 

100th Day – 1913 Style

 

 

This 100th Day of School is one that the kiddos will surely remember, as it required a bit of time travel – all the way back to 1913.  The students did research to learn what life was like in 1913 and then came to school prepared to learn just as students did then.  As you can see from our photo, they came up with some amazing period costumes to wear and even brought authentic lunches to eat in our little one room schoolhouse (no cafeterias back then!).

Our school day was vastly different as well.  They enjoyed participating in a spelling bee, recited poems from memory, practiced their multiplication facts for 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s orally, and enjoyed a special 1903 story written by Beatrix Potter.  It was difficult NOT to use the technology that surrounded us in the classroom – no ipads, smartboards, or markers on this 100th Day – just pencils, papers and crayons.  We even uncovered the blackboard to utilize it!  At the end of the day we enjoyed a Social Hour and played games popular in 1913 – marbles, charades, Cupid’s Coming, and Snap.  They had a blast learning some new games and to top it off we enjoyed the brand new invention of 1913 – Oreo cookies!

During our math survey,  the class overwhelmingly voted that 2013 was better than 1913…and this teacher has to agree.  It is very tiring standing in front of the room lecturing all day, though it was kind of cute to see them stand and push in their chair before responding to a question.   I can honestly say that I believe that education has learned a lot about how children learn best these past 100 years.  I am fairly certain that rote memorization and children that are seen and not heard is not the best we can do for kids.  And while they LOVED the Dunce Cap on our historical day – I can guarantee that shaming children is NOT the way to get them to improve their behavior.  But I can say that they were VERY well behaved all day!

Enjoy our photos of our amazing day!

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Our M.V.P. Annonymous

I have a loose tooth.  I really, really want to yank it out!  But my teacher says I can't.  I want it to come out because it gives me a toothache in my mouth.  I think when it comes out I will get another $1 from the tooth fairy.  Last time, I got $3!

Homework Party!

 

The snow day may have interfered with our holiday party, but it didn’t get in the way of our homework party!  All of December the kids worked hard on turning homework in.  They knew there would be a party but that was all… then on the Wednesday before break (which ended up being our last day due to the snow day) we had our scheduled party.  Each student was given a Christmas tree (sugar cone) and green icing.  Then they received one scoop of candy “ornaments” for each homework assignment they had completed.  The end result was some fabulously decorated trees and some sugar-hyped kiddos!  A special thanks to our parent helpers, Mrs. Koehler and Mrs. Miner, and to the Rees Family for the ornament donations.  What a fantastic way to celebrate homework responsibility and to send the kiddos off for their winter holiday. 

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Our M.V.P. Jonas

     Guess what? Some surprising things happened at my dad's birthday party.  Let me tell you the story.

     We were at my grandma and grandpa's house.  The weather said that it was going to rain, but nobody thought it was.  So everyone was playing outside games like running through a bounce house or playing kickball.  Some people were racing or playing football.  I was playing football.

     I went to get a drink and my tooth was really loose.  I wiggled it a couple of times and it popped out.  I went to tell my mom but I couldn't find her.  I saw my dad so I told him. Then I said my mom and I went to tell her.  She said, "That's crazy!" 

    It was getting dark and people started leaving.  Me, Eli, Seth, and Meredith went to the bounce house and tried to run through it without being seen by the grownups.  They were putting up lights on the trees so people could see. 

     Then I felt a drop come down.  I told my dad, "It's raining!"  He didn't believe me.  Then he said, "It is raining."  He and my grandpa opened up the giant garage door so that we could go inside.  Dad's friends started playing music. I told my dad, "I told you it was raining." 

Balance and Motion

For the past 8 weeks our classroom has been studying balance and motion in science.  Students have learned about what it means to be balanced and how they can effect balance using counterweights.  They studied a variety of toys that work using motion -- from spinning tops to whirling zoomers and rolling wheels and cups -- they have played and learned!  All of this learning and experimenting ended with a culminating activity this past week - building a marble rollercoaster.  Students applied what they have learned and created a classroom sized roller coaster for a marble to navigate.  It was amazing to watch as they processed their failures and discussed how they would adjusted their coaster to make it work.  You could certainly see that they understood the concepts of force, motion, and gravity. And honestly, how fun is it to build a rollercoaster??

Students experimented with shorter coasters first to see how they would act.

Groups then assembled all of their tracks together to create one LONG class coaster.

Our Elf On The Shelf

Reading a book on the bookshelf.

Christmas Joy decided to play teacher and list our objectives for the day!

Christmas Joy, our classroom Elf on the Shelf, has been keeping us on our toes!  We begin our day by finding where he has settled in after his nightly trek back to the North Pole.  Some days he leaves us messages - which is fun - and other days he is just hanging out watching us.  I wonder what he is telling Santa each night?  Is our 2nd grade TEAM on the nice list or have a few migrated over to Naughty???  Only time will tell because we have asked Christmas Joy and he's not giving the info up!

Hanging out by the Smartboard!

Making friends with Albert the Potato Head (and borrowing his specs!)

Our M.V.P. BilliJo

This picture is a picture of me in my swimsuit and necklace.

That is me, my brother, my other brother, and my sister.

This is a picture of me at my house.

This picture is a picture of me wrapped in toliet paper.  It was our fall party and I was being made into a mummy.

This is a picture of me and my mom and I was really little and I was wearing a wig.

Our M.V.P. Sophie

    Guess what?  On Monday we got a surprise.  As soon as Mrs. Kunkle announced that Santa left us a package from the North Pole we were going crazy and wild.  After we went wild Dannika went to the office to get the package. 
    She walked back to our classroom and said "Wow, this package is really cold!" 
    Mrs. Heath said, "Yes, it is supposed to be cold.  It is from the North Pole."  "Class calm down." said Mrs. Heath. 
    Then we all sat on the carpet and Mrs. Heath began to open it.  When she opened it we found a letter and there was still something in the package.  Mrs. Heath found an Elf on the Shelf!
    When we wanted to look for the name everyone decided that we would name it Christmas Joy.  It was Mya's idea. 
     Christmas Joy has been reallly funny for the past four days.  And he has written us two notes in a row.  Today he was really funny because he brought back some candy canes and hung on the screen behind the smartboard. 
     From now until Christmas Eve Christmas Joy will be in our room.


   

Christmas Joy...Our Classroom Elf

Something very strange happened in our classroom today.  Mrs. Borden came in during writing and told us that a movie had been delivered to her box and all of the 2nd grades were instructed to watch it.  We were all quite perplexed, but put it into the computer and watched away.  It was The Elf on the Shelf Movie! 

After the movie the other classes left and we began to go on with our day.  All of the sudden the speaker in our classroom came on "Mrs. Heath's Class?"  squawked Mrs. Kunkle's voice over the speaker.  "I just had a package delivered for you guys -- from the North Pole."  Boy did our classroom explode at that news!  We sent our daily captain, Dannika, down to the office to collect our package.  And guess what?  It was from Santa and it was ice cold!! 

The kids just knew it would be their very own Elf and it was!  He came with a letter explaining that he was there to watch over our classroom and report back each night.  Just like The Elf on the Shelf that some of you have at home, our elf had to be named and he can't be touched by human hands or he'll lose his magic.  After much deliberation, we decided on the name of Christmas Joy.  I can't wait to see what happens with our Classroom Elf over the next few weeks.  Welcome to Hickory Hill Christmas Joy!

Kindness is the Best Gift

We've come to my favorite time of year...the holiday season.  You often hear that the season is all about giving instead of receiving, but when and where do our kids learn this?  How do they learn the joy of giving?  This year we are going to practice giving gifts of kindness and see how good it makes us feel.  Each day during December the students will be asked to write compliments to the student(s) of the day.  These compliments will be written on our new schoolwide, student-to-student, Pawsome cards.  These cards allow students to recognize the positive action of their peers.  We will continue to work on being Respectful, Responsible, Safe, and Active Learners each day as we practice giving gifts of kindness in the form of our kind words.   

Whose School Supplies Are Those Anyway?

My second grade team came in to class on Friday to find green strips taped on our school supplies around the room.  Each strip told what the item was and who it belonged to.  For example:  This computer belongs to Mrs. Heath.  These crayons belong to Luke.  This stapler belongs to George.  Etc.

 The student's job was to 1) find each of the 16 strips and then 2) record them on their sheet using the proper possessive noun - such as Mrs. Heath's computer, Luke's crayons, and George's stapler. 

 They did an amazing job with both of their tasks and it let them get a few wiggles out as well. I'm afraid the wintry wiggles have just started so I'll need to pull out some more fun, engaging ideas to keep them on their toes!

Our M.V.P. Jonathan

Jon is sitting here, looking at me.  He has NO idea what he wants to say in his blog post.  That's pretty silly since he had all day yesterday and half of today to think about it!!  :)

"Hmm.." he said.  "Ha, Ha, Ha..."Jonathan laughed when he saw what I was typing.  "Gummy bears?" he finally queried.  "Good, I'm all done." he said.

Goodbye!