Christmas Dinner

On Monday, December 19th we had our annual Holiday Dinner.  Mr. Hudspith served a tray of crackers to those waiting in line for hot lunch. The lunch tables had red tablecoverings and were decorate with holiday ornaments.  Colorful lights hung from the ceiling and Mrs. Irons played the piano.  This was my first Lakeview Holiday Dinner and it was a great time-I was very surprised when everyone started singing while Mrs. Irons played a favorite song.

Christmas Around the World in Germany

On Thursday and Friday we visited Germany.  We learned about

Christmas trees and about the shopping and celebrating done in the villages.  On Thursday we used our ipads to make a tree out of tangram pieces using the app Tanzen.  Then everyone had to transfer their completed puzzle to one on paper.  This was a challenging project that really made them think!!!

On Friday morning we made a tasty Christmas tree! Some of the students ate their tree so we took pictures of all of them.  Everyone also got a copy to bring home.

Christmas Around the World

Welcome Aboard the Holiday Express! All of our flights leave from gate 219 at Lakeview.  We travelled to Mexico on Dec. 5th and learned about Los Posados and read Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie DePaolo.  Then we made our own verson of the Flower of the Holy Night. 

We travelled to Isreal and learned about Hannukah on Dec. 12th.  We read stories about the Festival of Lights and played the dreidel game.  A recipe for potato latkes was sent home for families to try.  I haven't heard that anyone tried them.  Let me know if you try it and like them.

On Dec. 13th we visited Sweden for St. Lucia Day.  We found Sweden on our travel maps and then enjoyed cocoa and cookies while the girls wore their crown of candles and the boys wore their star boy hats. Cassie is our oldest girl so she was chosen to serve the goodies just like the oldest daughter in Swedish families.

 

Grinch Day

2nd grade staff looking "Grinchy"!

Today was Grinch Day in 2nd grade. We read the story and came up with lots of adjectives to describe the characters. Then each student wrote five Grinchy similes. Here are some of them:
The Grinch was as.... green as grass
                                 mean as a lion.
                                  scary as a ghost.
The Grinch's heart was as.....small as a rat.
                                            creepy as an octopus.
                                            tiny as a bee.
The Grinch's heart grew as....giant as an elephant.
                                             big as Santa.
                                             loving as me.




In the afternoon we talked about how to make someone who is feeling grouchy like the Grinch grin again. Some of their ideas were to give them ice cream, take them to the beach, take them to school and teach them to be happy, and to just simply grow up!  They put their ideas on their Grinch characters they made.

Science

Enjoy watching what your children did for sciece this week.  They had to think like engineers to solve a problem.  They had to make a plan and draw what their solution would look like.  Then they had to choose materials, build their design and test it.  After testing they had to reflect and decide what they could have done to make their design work even better.  The movie we made with the ipad was too long and I had to send it in parts.  I apologize for that and will continue to try and find a way to put up a longer movie.



The iPads Have Arrived

 

Excitement was in the air yesterday as our iPads were revealed.  Mrs. Niebuhr came to Lakeview and spent time with each 2nd grade class.  She explained how to take care of the iPads and taught us how to use them. She taught everyone how to take a picture.  Today we are going to try to set our picture as the background.  We are also planning on learning how to use some of the apps.  Yesterday we worked on our math facts and today we will be counting money. 

Thank You Veterans!!

 Matt Larson

Matt is the father of Gretta who is in our class.  He joined the army when he was just out of high school.  He served as a military police officer. He was stationed at an army base in Texas and also spent three months in Saudia Arabia. He shared his uniform with us and expained the pins on his coat.  He brought pictues of his work in Saudia Arabia. He also shared about the cloths that people in Saudia Arabia wear on their heads.  Different colors are worn to show their status in society.



                        Amber Yaw

Amber is a para educator here at Lakeview Elementay.  She served in the National Guards for seven years.  She talked about the time she spent in Kosovo.  Her roll there was as a liason for the people of Kosovo.  She would spend time talking to the people about their fears during the war in their country.  Amber told the kids about the differences between schools in America and in Kosovo.  I think we are all thankful for Lakeview. 

The End of Second Grade

Click on the link below to see our end of the year video!

The End of Second Grade

Pioneer Reader's Theater



Last week we worked on a reader's theater about a day in the life of a pioneer family.  After much practice we were ready to perform.  We presented our play seven times to eight different classes in kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. Everyone did and excellent job!!


The animals in the barn:
horses-Lainie, Anthony, and Sean
pigs-Jack, Nichole, and Bowman
chickens-Maddie, Kalyn, and Jamison



Our narrators Angelo, Makayla, and Laura.







The children-Caden (John), Josie (Mary),
Lily(Clara), and William (Charles).

 

The family-Zoe (Grandma), Phuong (Grandpa),

Ashton (Ma), and Miguel (Pa)



Home Grown Salad

Laura with the bowls of lettuce and radishes.

Early this spring Mrs. Nelson planted seeds with the kids.  They used ice cream pails and planted lettuce, carrots, and radishes.  They have been growing for quite a while here at school and at Mrs. Nelson's house under grow lights.  Today we picked the lettuce and pulled the carrots and radishes.  Everything was very small but tasted pretty good!  The carrots and radishes were just tiny roots but actually tasted like ones that were full grown.  Thank you Mrs. Nelson for sharing your knowledge of seeds and plants.

End of the Year Fun!

This was just too funny not to post and share.  Caden and Jack let the girls put pigtails all over their heads.  It makes me laugh everytime I look at it!!

Hats Off to Relay

Thank you for all of your support for the Relay for Life!  I am sure that we have all been touched by cancer in some way and you obviously understand the importance of supporting this cause....Sibley raised over $400-WOW!

Field Trip Reminder

Just a reminder that the second graders will be taking a field trip to the Freeborn County Historical Museum on Wednesday, May 25th.  We are planning on having a picnic lunch that day.  The cafeteria is not planning on serving us that day so rain or shine your child will need to bring a lunch to school that day.  Hopefully the weather cooperates and we'll be able to eat on the picnic tables at the museum.  If it is raining we'll eat lunch in our rooms before we go. 

Hats Off to Relay!!

On Friday, May 20th students and staff are invited to wear hats for a small donation to the Freeborn County Relay for Life.  Every year millions of cancer patients around the world lose their hair during chemotherapy and other cancer treatments.  Wearing caps and hats are their badge of courage as they battle this disease.  Please let your child participate in this event as we honor the courage of all cancer patients. The suggested donation is $0.25 to $1.00.  The donation is small but if we have everyone participate we'll help raise a lot of money.  Thanks for your support!!

Young Playwrights

We have a group of students in our class who wrote their own play.  First, they worked to cerate a script based on the Junie B. Jones book series.  The story line of their play was Junie B. having a sleep over.  The friends play a few jokes on Junie B. who can't figure out who is to blame.  After writing parts for all of them they made props and had rehersals during Daily 5.  They performed the play for us this morning.  Lainie played the cook, Maddie was the mom, Laura was Junie B. and Ashton and Josie were the friends. What a great idea girls-it was fun to watch!

A Fleet of Boats

One of our vocabulary words this week was fleet.  William found a great book at the library about making paper boats.  He asked if we could try making boats. He let me borrow the book to try creating a few things.  I found one that I could make and this afternoon we made our own fleet of boats.

Beautiful Flowers!!!!

Well, on Thursday morning I got called to the office.  I was a little scared because I have never been sent to the office before.  I really thought something bad was going to happen.  My hands were shaking and my heart was pounding.  What a wonderful surprise I had when I got to the office....a beautiful bouquet of flowers!  There was a big card with them that was signed by each of my kids.  I felt so special.  As I came back to class the lights in the room were out which I thought was a little strange because the kids were suppose to be playing a morning meeting game with Mrs. Nelson.  As I walked through the doorway they all started to clap....another surprise.  As Teacher Appreciation week comes to a close I am so thankful to be working with this group of students.  It's been a great year and I'll miss them next year as they move on to third grade and I pack up to move to Lakeview.  Thank you for allowing me to work with your children this year-it's been my privilege.

Three Billy Goats Gruff

This afternoon we had a special reader's theater performance of Three Billy Goats Gruff.  Miguel, Jamison, and Sean have been working on this presentation with Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Bowron.  They did a fabulous job and read with great expression.  They made the setting themselves and used stick puppets for the characters.  Jamison was the "Mean Old Troll", Sean was the "Big Billy Goat", Miguel was the "Medium Billy Goat", Mrs. Nelson was the "Small Billy Goat" and Mrs. Bowron was the narrator.  I'm proud of you boys!!!