Happy Holidays and Goodbye to a Friend

As we've been preparing for the holiday season with fun stuff like our concert, caroling, baking cookies, and game day, we've also had heavy hearts knowing that we would soon be saying goodbye to our friend, Jaxson.  We are excited for him knowing that he will be moving to another state with his family.  He will get to have a new house, a new bedroom, and a whole new classroom of friends to meet.  We are also sad to see him go because he is a good friend to all of us.  We are so lucky to have known Jaxson and his family and we wish them the very best in their new surroundings.

The following pictures highlight a few of our holiday happenings.  We hope you enjoy them. 

Merry Christmas from Mrs. Deile

Sharp-dressed kids wait for the Elementary Concert



We're baking a list and checking it twice




Mallory, Luke and Jaxson wait for cookies to come ouot of the oven



Grandma Linda's crew decided to go heavy on the butter!  YUM!



Sonia's crew



Camryn and Mom share a hug




These kids all want to wash dishes again when they get home!




Blankets, Pillows and a Movie



Isaac, Jaxson, and Luke play Headbanz

Kylie, Camryn, and Emily

Blanket girls

Healthful Snacks and Using the Food Pyramid

Students took some time to study the five food groups outlined in MyPyramid, a guide for healthy eating.  We talked about serving sizes and number of servings.  We also discussed the fact that exercise is a part of MyPyramid in order to keep a healthy balance.  We made a list of the students' favorite healthful snacks.  We discussed that these snacks may be considered healthful for different reasons.  Here are some snacks that made the list:

grapes
apples
apple slices with peanut butter
crackers and cheese slices
string cheese
a bowl of cereal with milk
baked tortilla chips and salsa
toast with peanut butter, cinnamon, and bananas
carrots
banana
a boiled egg
applesauce
a sandwich
pears
leftover hotdish

Happy snacking!

Good bye to October

As we say goodbye to October, second graders have been busy counting by 10's, 5's, and 2's.  They have been telling time to the half hour and counting dimes and pennies.  They learned a fun card game called "Make Ten" which they use to practice addition facts with the sums of ten. 

After reading various stories about hermit crabs, they created art projects depicting a home for a hermit crab.  It was fun to use all the different types of art materials to create these collage habitats.

Recently, second graders had their first experience participating in NWEA tests on the laptops.  We will take these assessments again in the spring to help track our progress.

Halloween

 

Second Graders in their Halloween costumes

On Halloween day we were treated to a play put on by the 6th graders.  After lunch we showed off our best moves at a Halloween dance and costume parade in the gym.  Later in the afternoon, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked to the Nursing Home for  trick-or-treating among the residents' rooms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely Ladybugs

Thinking of warmer days

Jackson and Herman discover the hundreds of ladybugs under the trees on the playground.

King Rylan shows his catch

Camryn is proud of her lovely ladybugs

Jackson wonders what we will do with our ladybugs

We released them under this beautiful tree to live another day

A Fraction Kind of Day

In math class this week, students practiced how to shade one half of an object and fold common geometric shapes in half.  They created art projects with this concept.

Jackson folds his rectangle in half during math class.

Camryn, Dustin, Rita, and Rylan work on their fraction art projects.

Check out coolmath.com for fun math skill prctice.

Mrs. Deile's cool new bunch of second graders!

Line up for a slice!

Rita, Kenady, Jackson, and Emily

17 new second graders enjoy watermelon at the end of a hot August day.

Awesome Autumn

Foliage Tour

We took a beautiful fall walk around the school grounds this week to learn some of the names of the trees in the area.  We discussed their leaf shape and color, their bark color, and general tree shape.  We collected leaves of various shapes for use in an art project.  It was fun to create leaf rubbings by putting a leaf under a sheet of paper and rubbing a crayon over the top. 

A New Country

We read several stories this week about people leaving one country to move to another.  We discussed these questions.

What would be the best thing about moving to a new country?

• new friends
• different house
• new foods
• get to see a new area
• explore a new culture

What would be the hardest part of moving to a new country?

• packing, moving
• don't know the language
• new foods
• miss your friends
• fitting in

Favorite books of the week:

• The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric
• Room on the Broom by Julia Donalson

Picture Orders

Return picture orders Thursday!

Scholastic Book Orders

I will be sending in book orders at the end of the week; so remember to get those book orders turned in.  Make checks payable to Scholastic Books.

Chilly September Mornings...

Our morning recesses in September have us snuggling down into our cozy jackets to stay comfortable while the beautiful afternoons have us shedding layers in the warm sunshine.  Everyone should bring a jacket for those chilly mornings; plus, sometimes the weather simply changes on us in a heartbeat. 

This week we read Meet Rosina which told about a girl just about our age who attends a school for the deaf.  It was interesting to use some of the signs from American Sign Language.  We learned that each language may have their own sign language as well. 

Trying to remember subjects and predicates is a tough job.  We had fun acting out predicates (the "action" part of a sentence) this week in language class.

A fun way to practice spelling words at home is to access the website Spellingcity.com .  On that website, search deile for the teacher name then find the list that goes with the current story.  The story for Sept. 17-21 is My Name is Yoon.

The Bugabees

Food Allergies

Camryn's mom, Brenda, was a guest reader in our classroom last week.  She read a book entitled The Bugabees, Friends with Food Allergies, which told about some friends with various food allergies.  It is so important that we revisit this issue often to remind all of us how to maintain a safe environment for our friends.  Wishek Public School has a strict "No Nuts/Tree Nuts" policy in place that we must always respect for the safety of our students.  Second graders can also help by stopping in the bathroom as they enter the building each morning to wash their hands thoroughly with warm soapy water.  This will ensure that any nut oil residue is removed from our hands before entering the classroom. 

Brenda brought along a new product for the kids to taste.  She brought sandwiches made with Wow Butter.  I believe it is a soy-based product that smells and tastes similar to peanut butter without the nut allergy side effects.  It is safe to bring Wow Butter in a school lunch.  It even comes with stickers that a child could put on his lunch box to show that he is using Wow Butter and not peanut butter.  Wow Butter can be found at our local grocery store.

Two weeks smarter!

Welcome to Mrs. Deile's Blog

Welcome to the official first post of my new blog.  I'm not very adept at using this yet, so keep an eye out for changes as I learn more and more. 

We have finished our second week of school and are off to a great start in second grade.  We are getting faster and faster at finishing our work as we continue to brush the cobwebs away from the summer. 

We will have some homework most nights of the week; however, Fridays are ALWAYS homework-free in second grade!

Science

We are excitedly watching some of the lima beans sprout in our window gardens.  It is a bummer to find out that not all seeds sprout, but fun to watch the changes in the ones that actually do! 

Camryn brought in two frogs for us to observe today.  We hope they are not traumatized by all the noise and action in our classroom!  We made projects about the frog life cycle.  We read some cool books about frogs to learn more about how they live.  Our favorite frog book was called The Wide-Mouthed Frog.

We will be swimming  on Friday.