We made butter!

Students were skeptical that we could make our own butter.  But after our discussion about how hard it used to be to gather baking ingredients in the days before supermakets, I thought it would make a valuable point.  The characters in Thunder Cake milked the cow to churn butter, gathered eggs from the hens, picked strawberries from the patch, etc.  For our butter, we did not milk a cow - but that would have been something!  We poured heavy cream in a container and shook it until the fat clumped together to form a solid lump of butter.  It took about a half hour of shaking, but we acheived success!  And amazed students!

Remind 101

I'm joining a new service for teachers that will allow me to send one-way text messages to parents for important notifications.  If you'd like this service, please click on the link below and follow the directions with your cell phone.  I plan to use this service to remind parents about bake sales, field trips, the spring program, etc.  I will be sending home more information in this week's newsletter.

https://www.remind101.com/join/33430

The Life Cycle of a Plant

Currently in science, we are studying the life cycle of plants.  We have learned that the parts of a plant,  the flower, fruit, and seeds, help a plant reproduce.  We are trying to grow our own plants from bean seeds - no luck yet.  I think they know that we still have snow on the ground and are refusing to sprout!  Until then, we created our own garden in the hallway.  Students used our new I-pad minis (donated by Mr. Aronson to Lemmer)  to research a vegetable that they learned about in the book, The Vegetable Alphabet.  With a partner, they looked up pictures of the plant to learn how it grows, from root to seed.  Then they made a diagram with cut paper and labels.  I just hope that someday, in the not-so-distant future, the snow will leave and we can really plant!

Click here to see the Bill Nye - Plant Life Cycle Video

Reading Recipes

Before spring break, we read the story Jalepano Bagels.  It is a story about a family bakery.  To celebrate coming back to school, I decided we should read a recipe and do some cooking!  Instead of allowing 21 kids to knead bread, like in the story, I thought it would make more sense to make a recipe we could complete right in the classroom.  Pancakes were perfect.  One group of students was in charge of reading the recipe and making sure we followed it correctly, one group measured and stirred ingredients, one group cooked the pancakes, one group served, and one group did clean-up.  Some chose to customize their pancakes with chocolate chips or craisins.  While measuring, we reviewed fractions too.  Hands-on lessons are always the best!

Counting Money

We are working very hard on counting money in 2nd grade.  Most of our work with money is in the form of word problems: making change, totalling amounts, using different coins to represent the same value, etc.  Any work parents do at home with this concept would be greatly appreciated!