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.