Holiday Party

We  had an amazing last day today! Our holiday party was filled with fun, yummy food, and a relaxing pace.  I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday break! I'll see everyone when school resumes on Thursday, January 2nd!!

Gingerbread Houses!

We made Gingerbread Houses this afternoon!  After reading and comparing numerous gingerbread books, we finally made our foam houses. We also enjoyed some candy as we constructed and glued our masterpieces together!  They will dry overnight and come home tomorrow!  Here are some photos from our amazingly fun afternoon!

Nutrition Unit

We have spent the last three weeks learning all about good nutrition!  We followed the adventures of Little D, a very unhealthy dragon, who needed the help of the Royal Food Family.  We learned what the five food groups are, how each group helps our body, and what foods are part of each group. We also talked a lot about how exercise and sleep help keep our body healthy.  Here are some photographs from our unit!  (You can see that we REALLY love reading books!)

UMS Holiday Sing Along

Today was our annual UMS Holiday Sing Along assembly!  It is my favorite gathering of the year!  We sang many favorite songs like "Ruldolph", "December In Our Town",  "Frosty" and "Deck The Hall".  We even had a few friends that played air guitar during the song "Rockin' Old St. Nicholas"!  Ms. Mutz always does an amazing job!!  Here are some pictures from our assembly!

CHS Chorus Concert

Today we were visited by the CHS Chorus!  They entertained us with many wonderful holiday songs, and even a few that weren't holiday related. The students were In awe of all of the amazing voices and they sat motionless through the 30 minute concert!  It was a great way to showcase what can happen to UMS students if they keep up their singing!  Here are a few pictures from our assembly!

Food Play Presentation

We traveled to MBS this morning to see a nutrition assembly called "Food Play". The play dealt with a boy who was trying to make the juggling team but he had some very unhealthy habits.  His Coach gave him great advice on how eating healthy and exercising help his body and will ultimately help him perform better and make the team.  The kids were an amazing audience (even after a bus snafu that had us arrive 20 minutes into the performance). This was the perfect assembly to compliment the nutrition unit we are in the middle of!  Here are a few photos from our morning!

Gingerbread

We have been busy reading lots of different Gingerbread books!  We are comparing and contrasting each book we've read.  We are learning about Venn diagrams and how charts can help us organize our thinking.  As a culminating project, we are hoping to make foam gingerbread houses the week before vacation!  Here are some photos of our learning!

Crockpot Spice Cake

After many weeks of hard work, today we worked as a team and made a spice cake together in the crockpot!  Everyone had a turn either adding an ingredient or mixing.  The smell was delicious and everyone was excited to try our cake!  I'm happy to report it was delicious!

Here is the recipe:

One box of cake mix

1/2 cup of applesauce

1 1/3 cup of water

3 eggs

Pam spray

Spray the inside of your crockpot with Pam spray.  Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and beat with a mixer for one minute.  Pour the mixture into the crockpot and cook on high for 1 1/2 -2 hours or until done.

Model Class

We had a school wide meeting today and Room 9 was the "model class"!  We demonstrated how to sit criss cross applesauce with a calm listening body!  Look at how amazing we look!

Research with Mrs. Flanagan

A new Common Core skill for second grade is research so every Friday, we have been learning how to do research with Mrs. Flanagan.  We decided to focus on owls for our first topic and we have learned so many amazing facts in just three short weeks!  We have talked about how various nonfiction features like the table of contents, index, glossary, and captions make finding information easier.  Today we talked about "summarizing" the authors message and putting it in our own words.  This is a tough skill that we will continue to work on all year.  In the coming weeks, we will start to do some research online as well as continue to use books.  Here are some photos from today's research session!

ECHO Science Center

We had a great field trip to the ECHO Science Center today! We learned about the animals that inhabit the lake and how they adapt to survive to their environment.  We had a 45 minute presentation on animals, then we broke up into groups and explored the center.  We had a scavenger hunt to keep us busy and we enjoyed lunch with friends. We had an amazing day and learned a lot!