Happy Fall!

Wow!  Last week was very exciting with lots of activities.  We started Monday off with a special guest!  Drew Taylor invited his mom to come to our classroom.  She entertained us by telling us two fun Halloween stories.  We got to meet Perky the Pumpkin, and he is still hanging on our wall all ready for Halloween!  We also got to listen to Drew play his violin!  That was really awesome!  The kids were really impressed and were excited to know that they can take orchestra through the school when they are in 4th grade!! 

I also want to thank all of the parents that attended Parent/Teacher Conferences last week!  It was so nice to visit with you about your child's progress in 2nd grade.  It has been a fantastic year so far!  Thank you for all of your hard work in encouraging your child to read at home and practice flashcards every night!

Mrs. Taylor

Mrs. Taylor telling a cute story!

Drew playing some music on his violin!

All about Bats

Katie, the BV County Naturalist, taught us all about bats!

Animal Research

Jack is doing research on his animal, the peacock!

Natalie and Kain are sharing animal information

Molly and Gerardo are researching...Wow! Hard workers!

So proud of Lupita!  She is learning English and working very hard!

We completed our "Animals and their Habitat" unit with an Animal Research Project! The kids were excited to be able to pick their favorite animal to research!  They chose books from the classroom, library, and did extended research on computers.  Wow, it was amazing to watch them navigate on the computers to find answers to their questions!

Field Trip!

Friday was a windy, but fun day for our class!  We went on a field trip to the Prairie Heritage Center AND BV County Park in Peterson!  While we were there, we got to see and do so many things!  See all of our fun pictures below!

 Digging for fossils!

 Snake activities

 Gerardo is learning about bugs and reptiles! 

Aysia and Isabel are looking at how snakes slither!

Ernesto is being attacked by a snake!  Wait... it's only a snake made out of a paper plate!  Way to scare the teacher, Ernesto!

Goldfish

We are having so much fun with our new Science unit!  Last week, we brought 8 goldfish into our classroom and placed them in aquariums.  Students got into groups of 3 and have been studying the body structure and needs of their goldfish. They are recording their findings in a special Science journal.  Today, they added elodea (a green plant) to their aquarium to give more oxygen to their goldfish.  Some of the goldfish decided to take a bite out of the elodea and the kids thought that was pretty funny! Check back to hear about more Science fun!  We start ant farms next week!

New School Year

Welcome back everyone!!  It's going to be a great year! We have so many fun units planned including a new Science curriculum with lots of hands-on activities!  Make sure you check back often because you might see a picture or video of yourself working hard in 2nd grade!

Simply Electrifying!

Wow!  On Friday, Mid American Energy sponsored an awesome assembly on electricity!  We were lucky enough to have the Science Museum of Iowa send a scientist to present information about the different types of electricity, famous scientists, and how to be safe around electricity.  We even got to see a pickle being "fried" from the inside out!  Ethan got to experience a hands-on activity!