Friday, November 30, 2012

High SIX of the week

 We had a busy week!  Here are the top SIX events of the week:

6.  We started learning about healthy eating.  Here is a link to the My Plate guide for healthy eating.  Choose My Plate  We talked about making healthy food choices, the food groups and why we want to eat foods with nutrients.

5.  We continued to learn about air.  We did an experiment in which we made a water fountain.  Some of us got pretty wet!

4.  In the library this week Ms. Zbacnik read us Moonshot by Brian Floca.  If you would like to read more click here for a link to Ms. Zbacnik's blog post about this book.

3.  Ms. Anderson's mom came to meet us.  We had many questions for her.   She was on her way to volunteer with Ms. Tyrer's class.


 2.  We started learning about Geometry.  There is a lot of vocabulary!  Do you know what a nonagon is?

1.  A.'s dad came to give us an up close look at the gear firefighters wear.
He also reviewed fire safety.  Thanks for a great visit!








Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Read In !



Today we had our first Read In !  It was super fun.  We read for an hour!  Everyone brought special books to read from home.  We had a snack of goldfish, apples and bananas.  We listened to a story by Cynthia Rylant and watched Owl Moon by Jane Yolen on bookflix.  It was an awesome day!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Reminders

Here are a few important details for this week:

- Wednesday is an Early Release day.  We will be having lunch at school. 

- Wednesday is our Read In!  Please have your child bring something to drink as a special treat.  They may also bring a stuffed animal to school, as long as it fits in their backpack.  Lastly,  they may also bring a special book from home.  Thank you!

- I will be sending home the moon phases calendar.  Please find the moon as often as possible and record what it looks like.  Here is a link to the moon phases for November and December.
Moon Phases

Thank you and have a wonderful week!


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Making Butter !

Here are the directions for making butter as told by our second grade class.

Materials:  Empty jar, heavy cream and salt

Step 1:  Pour the cream into the jar.  It should be about half full.

Step 2:  Put a little bit of salt in the jar.  Put the lid on tight.

Step 3:  Shake the jar up and down for about 10 minutes.

Step 4:  Keep checking on it.  There will be a little liquid around the butter when it is done.

Step 5:  Stop shaking.  Pour out the liquid.  Don't let the butter fall out.

Step 6:  Rinse the butter under cold water.

Step 7:  Pour out the water.  Don't let the butter fall out.

Step 8:  Eat the butter on bread or a muffin.


That's it!

We tried the butter this afternoon.  It was delicious!  It tasted homemade.  It did not taste like the butter you would buy in the store.

Next, we will begin to write our own "How to..." pieces!  We can hardly wait!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

High Five for Wednesday!

The finished product
Today we had a BIG day!  Here are the top five events:

5.  We made butter!  We are learning about writing "How to..." pieces, so we read and followed the directions for how to make butter.  There was a lot of shaking involved.  Then, we wrote the directions in our own words.  It was very fun to make and we will try it on crackers tomorrow.

4.  We took the Math MAP test.  We did a great job, stayed focussed and did our very best.


3.  We had our special guest, C.'s grandmother, come and read with some kids this afternoon.

2.  We read Grace for President and learned about the electoral college.  We also learned there has never been a woman president.

1.  We got to play the xylophone in music.



Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Read-a-Thon


During the month of November we are having a Read-a-Thon at Brimhall!  As an entire school we are trying to read 1.5 million minutes.  Students and staff are keeping track of the minutes we read each day at home and classroom teachers are keeping track of minutes read in school.
Happy Reading !

As a part of the Read-a-Thon the Second grade will be having a Read-In  the morning of Wednesday, November 21st.  We will spend the entire morning reading, listening to stories, watching Bookflix etc.  Students can bring one thing to read with such as a stuffed animal or pillow.  They can also bring a special drink, no pop please.  We will also enjoy a special treat.

Please be sure to send the blue Read-a-Thon calendar  to school every Tuesday.  

Keep up the good reading everyone!

Here is a video made by a Brimhall volunteer, students and staff to promote the Read-a-Thon!
                                                          Read-a-Thon Video

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

We went to the Library and . . .

We listened to Duck!  Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  It is about a drawing that looks like a duck and a rabbit depending on how you look at it.  This book used speech stems to tell the story.  The two people telling the story disagreed about whether the character was a duck or a rabbit.  In the end they compromised and looked at the drawing from the perspective of the other person.  We liked this story because the illustrator changed the surroundings of the drawing to try and convince us that it was a duck or a rabbit.