Wiki Space

Please check out the Festival of Trees and our December stories. Go to the Atlantic web page and check out the class web sites. Then click on R2G2. We have written December stories. If your child's story is not there, he or she will have a January story.

Back to School

We did lots of different things over Thanksgiving vacation. Caleb watched Planet of the Apes. Darien made a snowman. Riker played some games and had some people spend the night. Noah went to his friend's birthday party. Destiny went to her grandma's house. Abbie had her real birthday. Alexis' family went to her great grandma's because it is their tradition. Emma got to play her uncle's guitar hero. Maura went to Ohio and missed a day and half of school. Sarah got a present and she practiced a Christmas play. Colissa went the night with her grandma and grandpa. Connor got a new lego bionicle.

Exotic Animals

We saw an alligator that was 4 feet long, and we saw snakes. There were some corn snakes. The corn snake was really sassy and had bit the owners before. The alligator slid across the floor. Some people were a little frightened by the alligator. One snake weighed 100 pounds. Lots of kids in our classroom got to hold the 16 foot reticulated python. There was also a raccoon. It's name was Thunder. There were lizards and iguanas. We saw a big spider. It was a tarantula We saw tortoises. One was little and the other was big. We saw skinks. They look like a lizard. It was fun.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our Thanksgiving Meal

We got to eat in our classroom today. We made place mats and little Pilgrim people. They are neat. We all ate in Mrs. G's room. We chose what friends to sit by. A few people brought their lunch. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, bread and butter, jello, pumpkin pie or harvest bar, and whip cream. It was wicked awesome to eat in our room. The meal was great to eat. Everybody had a good time.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Science in Mrs. A.'s Room

In Mrs. A's room we have been learning about habitats. In different habitats, certain animals live. We are finding out whether they are cold or warm. We are finding out where they are located. We are finding out about the food that is available. We're putting our new science stuff in our folder. We have a new booklet.

It's Friday

Today one of our students gets to see Shawn Johnson. Our room has a new desk arrangement. We have boys on one side and girls on the other. Friends are sitting by friends. Someone is going to a birthday today and tomorrow. Some people from this class are going to the same birthday party. We have friends coming to stay the night from Omaha. Some of us will stay home for the weekend. Some are going to their dad's. We watched movies during recess called Wishbone and Arthur's. Some will use their computers after school. Some will play with brothers and sisters after they do their homework. Lunch was tasty today. Yesterday Sam got the white hat. On Wednesday Caleb got the white hat. Have a good weekend.

Thank You

Thank you to the parents who volunteered to send snacks while we took the Basic Skill tests. Thank you for buying good and yummy snacks. The snacks are very, very good to eat. Thank you to the students who brought the snacks to us. They were very, very healthy snacks. We had snacks two times a day. We all liked them. We had skinny and football looking snacks. Some chose to eat the snacks and some chose not to eat the snacks. The parents went to stores to buy the snacks. Mrs. G and Mrs. R had snacks too. Some people are going to bring snacks tomorrow. The cookies were good. Once we had a drink. The crackers made some us thirsty. We had breadsticks and cheese. Cupcakes are coming tomorrow.

Basic Skills Test

Today we had more Basic Skills tests. They were about listening and science. We had to listen very carefully to stories and then choose the best answer. On the science one, we had to also listen and choose the best one. It talked about plants, temperatures, and lots of other things. We had to work carefully.

Basic Skills Test

We took tests for the Basic Skills. We have special books to use. We have to fill in circles of the correct answer with special pencils. Today we did the Social Studies part. There were many pictures. Some problems were easy, some were medium, and some were hard. There were lots of hard ones. Second graders through eighth graders take the tests. On Monday we took the reading part. We had to read some by ourselves. We have to try our best. Some think it's fun. The computer checks them so we can scribble out of the circles. We're taking them during our reading time. We're back to our blogs. Our projector wasn't working for a few days.

The Long Weekend

Have a great weekend. See you on Monday. Dress warm.

Voting

We had an election at our school. We had jobs to do in the election. Lots of classes came to vote. We had a secret ballot box. Several students were photographers. They took lots of pictures. Some people were registers. They checked names off. There were jobs to hand out the ballots. After they voted, they got a paper that said they voted. On the ballot there were pictures of the candidates. Yesterday McCain won in our election. John McCain had 174 votes. Barack Obama had 158 votes in our election. Barack Obama didn't win our election, but he won the real one. We had lots of fun.

Halloween Safety

Today we had an assembly about Halloween Safety. We should always go with an adult. Wear something bright or a glow stick. You can bring a flashlight. Always cross the street with your mask up. That will help someone see you. Don't go to houses that do not have their lights on. Always have someone check your candy.

Halloween Party

We will have our Halloween Party on Friday morning. I'm sure we will have a good time. We have some mothers coming to help us. We are going to save dressing up in costumes for Friday night when we go trick or treating. Remember don't go to houses when they do not have their light on. Some people might be gone. If a stranger asks you to go with them, say no. Don't tell them your name or where you live. Bring a flashlight or a glow stick when you go trick or treating. Some people will stay home to give out treats for awhile and then go trick or treating. There will be lots of scary and silly costumes on that night. Don't forget to say thank you for the treats. It's rude if you don't say thank you. Have an adult check your candy before you open it and enjoy it. Don't eat all your candy in one night.

Today's Guidance

We watched a movie. The movie was about safety. The movie was called Safe Side. In the movie there was a "don't know" dog. If a stranger comes to you, don't tell them your name. If you're playing a game and a stranger comes up, yell for your mother. If a stranger drives by or a car drives up, don't let him make you go with him. If you are afraid at a store, go to a worker. Don't answer the door if are alone. Make sure your door is locked and don't answer the phone. Don't be tricked by strangers with candy. Strangers can be nice or mean. Don't go with strangers. When a stranger comes close to you, say no and run. If you don't know them, yell and run away. Try to have a parent or guardian around you.

Super Students

Today we have our Super Second Graders' Assembly. We will announce them at 2:45 this afternoon. Several students have been really trying to follow those directions right away and to be good listeners. They have also tried to be nice to all of their classmates. There will also be a "white hat" going home today for coming in quietly after the noon recess. I'm hoping that there will also be a 4-Star winner. Mrs. S. has been gone this week and she usually announces the 4 Star winners. I'm hoping someone will help out. Please check to see if your student was one of these students.

Science in Mrs. D's Room

We are learning about the food groups. The vegetables help you see. The fruits help you get healthy. It has vitamin A in it. The milk group helps you to have strong bones and strong teeth. The milk group has calcium. The meat group has protein. Peanut butter is in the meat group. It has protein in it. That's why it is with the meat group. The wheat group gives you energy. We also learned about Sickie Steven. Someone in our class must have been a Sickie Steven. We are learning about germs. Germs have friends and enemies. Best friends of germs are those people who forget to wash their hands and pick their noses. Enemies of germs are those people who wash their hands with soap and don't pick their noses. You should wash your hands with soap for about 45 seconds or more. The soap doesn't let the germs hang on. Also dry your hands. Our school nurse read us the book called Germs, Germs, Germs. If you fall down and get hurt, wash it with water right away. Put medicine on it. It might get infected if you don't clean it. Sorry people, but infections hurt us. Always cover a sneeze and when you cough. I hope all of our class stays healthy -- not Sickie Steven.

Making Our Writing Book

Starting out, we had a blank piece of paper and scissors. We used different colors of paper. We got to choose from stickers and different things to cut out shapes from. We took the words that we made on the computer and glued them on the paper. The words were: September, Writing, and Our Name. We put a lot of thought into it. We will glue an October story on it soon.

Ronald McDonald

He did magic and juggled sticks and three balls today. He had really big shoes. He's the most famous clown we have seen. He changed a ribbon into a sword. He's cool. He made a big flower from a little one. He talked to us about friendship and not being a bully. Try to be nice to others. He was very funny. He had a helper called Matt and he followed Ronald's directions. A third grader came up and he pretended to be a bully. Then he was the hero.

Free Blog Day

Maura is having a bad day, but it's getting better. Connor and Sam played football at recess. Abbie's Grandma and Grandpa are coming today. Baylee, Abbie, and Darien played catch the football. Colissa is playing cub scouts and spying on them. Caleb may earn a badge in cub scouts. Noah and Destiny played together at recess. Maura and Sarah played Star Wars. Noah learned how to go fast on the monkey bars. Connor is having friends over after school for a sleepover. We hope that everyone gets to participate in the special recess. Alexis played football and was injured a little.

More Reading

Abbie had to do a comprehension test today in reading. It was over the Mixed Up Chameleon. Maura has to keep track of the books she reads. You have to write down the genre, the title, and the author. We also have to write about the beginning, middle, and ending. Connor's group read The Mixed Up Chameleon and they finished The Leaving Morning in Mrs. D's room. Sam is making word cards and putting them into sentences. Riker's group has workbooks to do with different pages to do. Destiny's reading group is divided into different groups. In Darien's group, they read George and Martha books. We have a birthday today. Treats are coming soon.

What's Going on in Reading

Emma's reading group is reading silently. Connor's group is reading the Mixed Up Chameleon and talking about characters that change and don't change their feelings. In Sam's group on Wednesday or Friday, they do games on the computer. Destiny's class does AR tests in their room or in the library. In Sarah's group half the class goes to Mrs. D's room. They are also reading the Shoeshine Girl and the Leaving Morning in that room. The groups have to switch. In Abbie's group, they are making slide shows on the computer. The slide shows are about the presidential election. In Colissa's group, they read a lot. In Caleb's group, he is sorting words and pictures according to vowel sounds. In Noah's and Riker'sgroup, they are reading about the Enormous Turnip and learning about the turnip.

Tuesday

What a busy day. We worked in the computer lab making our October scrapbook page. Tomorrow we will do some writing on our 5 Finger Planner.

Tips for Doing Your Best

These are suggestions from my class: Don't make noises or sounds, Try to be quiet, Try to be a good listener, Follow directions the first time, Try to stay quiet in your seat, Bring your homework back, Try to be here on time, Don't push others, Don't make fun of people, Do good things when no one is looking, No put downs, No fighting, Don't annoy people, Don't trip anyone, Try to ignore others when they are bothering you, and keep your hands to yourself. We're hoping everyone brings their homework tomorrow so we can have a happy dance. We have not had one yet.

Special Recess

Today we will have a special recess for those students that have done their best to: follow directions quickly, be an active listener, and to be nice to each other. Lots of us will have an extra recess today. Sadly, not everyone will get an extra recess today. Those students that were told several times to follow directions right away, to try to be a better listener, and to be nicer to others will not get the extra recess today. Hopefully, they will do their best for next week when we do this again for our students. I'm hoping that we have EVERYONE next week. Have a good weekend!!!

P.E.

The first thing we played was Catch the Leader. We played soccer today. Connor was the goalie on the team. Two people kicked the ball really high and accidentally hit the ceiling fan. We had a substitute. He told us to call him "coach." We did 4 count Murbies. Our class did crazy eights, push-ups, and stretches called hang stretch. We did some running. Our teams' names were one, two, and three.

Science in Mrs. D's Room

We are studying about our bones. We are learning about the royal food family. All of us listened to the teacher read us the story about the royal food family. There was a dragon with blue, red, purple, green, yellow, and brown on it. The dragon's name is Little D. We watched a movie about milk and foods that are made out of milk. In Mrs. D's room we read about food. Healthy food keeps our bones healthy.

A Long Weekend

Riker went to the YMCA and spent the night at a friend's house. Darien went to his dad's house. Abbie played with her presents from her brother's party. Emma went to grandma's house for two nights. Maura went to Des Moines to see Walking with the Dinosaurs. Destiny and Connor lost their teeth over the weekend. Noah stayed with his dad all weekend and went bowling. Sam went to Council Bluffs and he got a new football. Caleb went to his cousin's great grandmother's house. Alexis stayed up last night and watched tv. Colissa went to God Squad and tasted apple butter.

Friday

Today Riker received the white hat. He has been working very hard in math this week. He gets to wear it today and then take it home. Next week we will all be working on following directions and good listening. Those people that are good listeners and follow directions quickly will get to do something special. I'm hoping that it is everyone in our class!!!! Have a good weekend. We will not blog on Monday since there's no school for the students.

Thursday

Today Mrs. R. did not choose the topic. It was a free blog choice day. These were our ideas. This morning we had art. In art, we got to free paint. We got to paint butterflies in art today. Noah painted a funny picture. Sam played Star Wars during recess. Alexis and Colissa had fun playing Star Wars also. Alexis played a princess in Star Wars. We had pretend swords when playing Star Wars. Maura and Sarah played detectives today. Some others from our class played Star Wars too. Nathan and Darien played basketball. Darien and Destiny used basketballs to pretend they were bowling. Baylee and Abbie played football. This morning Connor and Alexis were playing football. Today at lunch we had rainbow sherbert. It was hot today. We had a lot of fun today.

Apple Activities

We talked about apples today. We made a Johnny Appleseed hat. The hats look like pots. We kind of look funny in our Johnny Appleseed hats. We also did apple math problems. Also we did a Scholastic News on apples. We watched a movie about apples and how they get from the orchard to the store. We did a sequence page on apples. We had a good apple morning.

The Apple Orchard Field Trip

We walked around and looked at the trees. He told us how many apple trees were in his orchard. He told us about the different kinds of trees in his orchard. New trees had a fence around them to protect them from deer. We found a caterpillar and Colissa got to hold it. We got to pick and eat an apple and drink apple cider. The cider was delicious. We ate a Chieftan apple. There were Jonathan, Chieftan, Golden and Red Delicious apples. He thought he could plant 100 trees in one day. We watched polish and sort the apples. We had lots of fun.

Apple Orchard

Tomorrow we will go to the apple orchard. Please wear old socks and comfortable shoes. Don't forget a jacket because it may be cool in the morning. We will do a lot of walking. We'll ride a bus to Griswold because that is where the apple orchard is located. We might see how they make apple juice or apple crisp. We may get to pick and eat one. We will have lots of fun. We will see lots of apple trees and apples there. Some times there are lots of apples on the ground. There will be red, green, and yellow ones. On Tuesday we'll tell you what we did there. Talk to you later. Thanks to my class we are now proofreading Mrs. R's mistakes.

Super Second Graders and 4 Star Student

Today we announced Super Second Graders and 4 Star Students. Some of us know the 4 star students. Each second grade class had one 4 Star Student. Each second grade class had 2 Super Second Graders. They need to be good listeners, follow directions right away, be polite, bring their homework every day, and to tell the truth. Also they need to be trustworthy even when the teacher is not looking. In our room, Sarah was 4 Star Student, Sam and Abbie were Super Second Graders. We're hoping to have many more. Have a good weekend. Go Trojans!!!

Tech Day

We used Print Shop today in the computer lab. We made a headline. Our name and the word writing had to be a headline. We could move the headline up and down and side to side. We could also stretch the headline. We could delete it. We could also choose the size we wanted. We could make the words funky, big, small, and cursive. We printed the headlines to use in our writing book we are going publish. There were lots of pictures to choose. They were neat, cool, and cute. We could insert pictures, change sizes, and delete them. After we deleted a picture, we could bring it back.

Plant Hunt

Yesterday we saw plants. There were a lot of leaves. There were green, black, red, and yellow leaves. We took 2 leaves inside. We took the leaves home. We found a bush. We saw red, pink, yellow, and white flowers. Mrs. R. had a cactus inside. Several people saw a praying mantis and spider outside. We saw trees. One tree had no leaves. It was fun.

White Hat

Today Mrs. Riggs gave a white hat to Maura. It is a big white hat which tells what you were doing well on it. Maura was waiting quietly and patiently. She gets to wear the white hat and take it home. Once a week Mrs. Riggs will give a white hat to a student. She is looking for good behavior, listening, following directions, and doing your best. You never know when she will give a white hat to a student. You may get more than one white hat during the year. Be on the lookout for your student to bring home a white hat.

Special things happening Monday

It is Monday. We have had a good weekend. Today is the first day of fall. We had P.E. like we always do on Day 2. This afternoon we will also have Guidance and a special guest. Our guest is Mrs. S. who will come tell us more about plants. Maybe she will tell us about why some plants get planted new each year and why some others, like trees and rosebushes, come back year after year.

Some news about Friday

It is a beautiful, hot day. We got to stay outside extra long this morning because it was so nice! Everyone had fun. A lot of us played football. Some people did cheers and others played basketball. One person jumped rope. Today we have Mrs. O. for our substitute. She used to be the second grade teacher in Mrs. D.'s room. She was the teacher for some of our brothers and sisters and uncles--and even some of our parents! It will be a great weekend. Some of us are going to the zoo and some people are visiting friends or having company.

More Science

We eat plants. There are a lot of different kinds of plants. On celery we eat the stem. Broccoli is a flower. We eat flowers sometimes. Watermelons and pumpkins start seeds. Then they grow vines and flowers. Then we see watermelons and pumpkins. If you open a pumpkin, there are lots of seeds. Watermelons have lots of seeds too. Pumpkins are fruits. Be careful and don't water the plants too much. It's hard to be a flower. They start out as a seed. Sometimes birds eat seeds. Plants don't survive because sometimes people accidentally mow them. Other times people might step on them. They cannot survive if they have too much water or sun. Tomatoes are a fruit. Plants need space.

Science

Today we learned about seeds. Lora came yesterday and today. We played a game about seeds. We had to find out if a seed would survive. It needed several things to grow. Seeds need water to grow. Some of the seeds did not survive. Some seeds explode when they open. Touch me not flowers throw their seeds. If seeds are too close together, they won't grow. Seeds can grow by water. Deer can eat seeds and plants. A coconut is really a fruit. Coconuts have juice inside them. If they are smashed in a flowerbed, they won't grow. You can eat sunflower seeds. We will check on the plants that we planted. Some of the plants have begun to grow.

Math Game

Today we did a math game. It was called Give a Dog a Bone. We had to find a bone on the hundred's chart. It was a blank chart. The numbers were underneath. We had 1 minute to find 10 numbers. The first time we did it, we scored four or five. Our best score was 6 bones. Here's the web address: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/DogBone/gamebone.html Have fun.

Science

Today we planted seeds. They are called Brassica plants. First we put soil into our containers. We put 3 seeds in each container. We then added some more soil on top. We put in a large tray. We will water them and watch grow.

Guidance

In Guidance we talked about being absent. You should send a note or call to tell the school you will be absent. In Guidance we learned not to stay home watch our favorite show. Sometimes we go with our family and miss school. If it is raining, don't just stay home. We talked about not pretending to be sick. We talked about good reasons to be tardy and bad reasons to be tardy. Don't oversleep. If you are tardy, stop and get a note at the office. If you're late, check on the board to see which special class we are at. We'll finish up on Monday with the rest of the class.

Reading Classes

We are in different reading groups. In reading we learned about the Eiffel Tower. We're learning our sounds. We got to silent read. We have book bags and use them for silent reading. There are 4 books in each bag. We practice our spelling. We read chapter books. Teachers read us books. We have the odd and even group. We have fun in our reading class. We're reading about an egg in our reading class. We get to free read under our desk. We are reading books by Steven Kellogg. We have different groups and different books. We read a book about an attic. There are 4 groups in our reading class. We got to write on the white boards. We read Henry and Mudge.

Fund Raiser

A person told us about prizes we could win. You could win an alarm clock. Part of the alarm clock flies around the room. You can win some really big prizes. Mrs. R. and another person participated in the Washington Olympics. They had to do jumping jacks. They shot nerf rockets. They had to throw 3 stuffed moneys in a bucket. The other player won. They played music. You have to sell stuff to friends and family. Don't go to people you don't know. We want to raise this money for our school. When we earn money, we get to use it to go on field trips.

Tuesday

Today was a very busy day. We had "tech" day in the library. We practiced writing our name on the computer. We found the shift, delete, and space keys. We had to write our name two times and move the text box around. We also had an assembly. We'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Using Our Manners

Today we share our picture and sentences about when we use our manners. Abbie uses her manners when people give her things. Caine uses his manners at his birthday. Sam asks if you are hurt when someone falls down. In the winter, Alexis says thank you if someone gives her a present. When Tyler's brother falls down he says sorry. When Nathan's mother gives him ice cream, he says thank you. Maura says please and thank you. When Destiny broke her mother's computer, she said she was sorry. When Darien broke his dad's screen, he said he was sorry. Connor says hi to people in the hall. Sarah helps people on the swing. If Colissa drops something in the morning she thanks the person that helped her. When Camilla and her brother bump into each other, she says excuse me. We will practice our manners all year!!!

Music

Today our special was music. We played a game. We had to hide and sing. Six all together had to sit in the hall for part of the game because they had to hide. We had to shut our eyes as part of the game. We sang today. We talked about music symbols and patterns. We sang One, Two, tie my shoe. We sang a song about growing up. The teacher tricked us. We had a lot of fun. We did motions. We made them up. We sang a lot of songs.

Gym

Today we had PE. In gym class we pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, and we ran. To start the pull-ups, we had to stand on a chair. If we couldn't do the pull-ups, we had to do push-ups. We did the shuttle run. You start by running to get an eraser, then you go back down, and get the other eraser. Last, you take both erasers back. The person that is not running is the timer. We also do toe touches, sit and reach, and v stretch. We also did stations. We were in groups of 4 when we did our stations. The last thing we did today was to run for 3 minutes. We got real "SWEATY". Our teacher said that on Tuesday we will be running around the track for 5 minutes. The students should try not to walk around the track. Next week we will also take our fitness test.

The Library

Today Mrs. Dickerson talked about choosing a just right book. We should do the 5 finger test before we choose a book. We should do this with a page of words- not pictures. If a word is too hard we put up a finger to tell that we didn't know that word. If all 5 fingers are up, then to book is too hard for you. If three fingers go up, then it's just right!! If no fingers go up, then it's probably too easy for you. We can check out a book once a day. We can have 2 books out at a time. We need to keep the book for at least 2 days before we return it.

Labor Day Weekend

Nathan went camping and rode bikes later. Abbie went fishing. Destiny's dad played frisbee golf. Chamilla had to pack since they are moving. Alexis went to a state park where there was some hills. Noah had a friend come over to his house. Sarah went to put-put. Riker stayed over at a friend's house and went to football game. Colissa went to a friend's and to Lewis. Darien had watermelon over the weekend. Tel went to a friend's house and played. Tyler drove a tractor with his grandpa. At a tractor pull Tyler got first and third place. Maura went to a birthday party. On Saturday, Caine had friends over and on Sunday went to Adventure Land. Connor played video games. Sam also played video games. It was a busy weekend!!!!!

First Week of School

We have had a lot of fun. We had math. We also did Partner Math. Sixteen students from our class have passed a level. Alexis was stung by a bee. We had Art. We blogged. Some time today we will have a fire drill. We're hoping we have comments. Have a good weekend. We won't talk to you until Tuesday since Monday is Labor Day.

Meet Our Class

We have 8 girls and 12 boys in our class. Sarah is part German. Abbie is part Irish. Riker was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Tel was born in Atlantic, Iowa. Maura likes to do crafts. Destiny likes to play video games. Caine has a dog named Susie Q and he is in Cub Scouts. Kolton plays Playstion. Noah is part Indian. Alexis has lived in California and Iowa. Colissa likes to play Nintendo. Sam's best friend moved to Montana. Connor likes Star Wars. Caleb likes to play t-ball. Emma was born in Hawaii. Camilla was born in Iowa.

Telling the Truth

Today Mrs. Riggs read a story about telling the truth. We wrote about telling the truth. It is hard sometimes to tell the truth. We listened to music about telling the truth. It takes two to tell the truth. We drew a picture about when it was hard to tell the truth. We colored the picture. We shared our sentences and our picture. We are going to try really hard to always tell the truth even when it's hard. Telling the truth is good.

Tuesday

We said the Pledge this morning. We had P. E. this morning. We ran in P. E. We did stations. We did pull - ups and push - ups. We read a book about a school. In math we did graphing and Partner Math. We had to write numbers to make our goal. We had to draw and write about our family. We had goldfish as our snack. Maura brought it. We finished coloring a picture today. We are working on a word search. We're working on a Safety at School sheet. We had a good lunch. With our lunch we had ice cream. We've had two recesses so far. We've had fun. Nobody got hurt at recess today, but we had some problems we work out later. It's getting hot and sweaty. Have a good day! See you tomorrow.

First Day of School

We had a morning page to color. We said the Pledge. We learned about our class. We learned about math and did a math page. The math page had a bee on it. We had a story about Amelia Bedelia. We took a tour around the school. We had music this morning. We wrote our names with the mimio pencil. We had two recesses. Connor fell on the cement. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

Back to School Night 2008-09

I would like to welcome everyone to our room. Last year our class blogged almost everyday and really had a good time. We would pick a topic and then students would add their thoughts. During this time we would also talk about the sequencing of their ideas, choosing a better sounding word, and proofreading Mrs. Riggs' typing. We loved when relatives, friends, and neighbors would comment on our blogs. We had several people from Atlantic comment as well as from several states. Please check our blog and give us your comments.

Have a great year!

I just wanted to tell all my former second graders to have a great year in third grade. Always try to do your best. I hope you had a chance to read some good books and practice counting money during the summer. Don't forget to stop by and say hi to me. I hope you enjoyed your summer. Tell your mom and dad hi for me also. Have a great year. I hope you will try to read our blog during the school year and write some comments. Our new second graders will also learn how to blog. See you in the fall.

Last Blog

We have had a pretty good year!! These were some of the things we will remember about our year in second grade. I remember Camp Read A Lot. We made lots of things in Camp that were fun. We had two caves. Some of us brought stuffed animals. We made arts and crafts too. We had a Reading Carnival. We got to shoot hoops. If we won or tried a game, we got a prize that we got to keep. Lots of people had at least 90 tickets. There was a fishing game with numbers 1, 2, and 3. Lots of moms and dads helped. Each game cost 5 tickets. We had a concession stand where popcorn and juice cost 1 ticket each. We went to the zoo in April. We had to walk a lot. It was a really cool day. It was fun at the zoo because we could see lots of animals. At the zoo we had lunch. We also had a Buy-Sell Day. For Buy Sell Day we had to have a poster to show what we were going to sell. Buy Sell Day was kind of like the Reading Carnival where we could earn tickets. You could sell that you made or didn't want. You could even sell homemade food. Our last activity was the picnic. The picnic was at Sunnyside Park. It was really fun at the park. There was a whole bunch of stuff there. They have new playground equipment. We could snack all we wanted to in the afternoon, but not in the morning. We even got to share food. It is called Sunnyside Park, but it wasn't a very sunny day. You could bring toys to Sunnyside. Some people played football and some people kicked a soccer ball. It was a little foggy when we got there. Some people had races and played tag. Mrs. Riggs' and Mrs. Garrett's classes were the first to arrive. Some of the buses were so full, some of the teachers drove their cars. Have a sunny summer. Don't let rain ruin your vacation. Have a fun summer vacation. Have a great, great, time in summer. Have a swimming summer. Have a cool summer. Have a great year. Have a hot summer. We're soon to be third graders!!!

Ice Cream Party

We are trying to earn points for our ice cream party. Some of us are working very hard!!!! Some of us need to try harder. We need to stop talking right away when directions are given. We need to work on listening by stop talking, turn to the person, and look with our eyes. Some of us need to make better decisions about our behavior. Lots of us are really trying. Some of us won't be having homemade ice cream because we have forgotten our homework too many times, are silly when we know we shouldn't be, and haven't always told the truth. Mrs. Riggs is really hoping that we can have homemade ice cream!!!

Weekend

Some of us had lots of chores to do. My mom and I went to Sunnyside Park and played frisbee. Some kids went to graduation parties. Some people went to church on Sunday. Some of us had to plant tomatoes, sweet corn, and strawberries. We also went fishing. Some of us went to see Narnia 2. Some people went to Lake Anita for camping. Camping at Littlefield was fun for some of us. We also caught lots of fish. One person went to an airport to get their mom. She went to NY city. Some people might have went golfing. One other person went to Storm Lake. One person went to Lake Anita to go camping. Mushroom hunting and boating was done at Lake Icaria by one person. Some people planted flowers and mulched them. Some people stayed up late past 12:00 on Saturday night. Lots of people went outside to play with their friends and cousins. One person went to a graduation. During the graduation he went to a friend's house to ride bikes.

More Countries

Today we went to Mrs. Daugherty's room. She taught us about Ireland. Ireland is the country of the fairy, giant, and leprechaun. She said that most Irish last names start with O or Mc. In Mrs. Riggs' room we are learning more about Japan. In Japan they eat sushi and other sea animals. We just finished watching a movie about Japan. In Japan some people worship an emperor. In Japan you get to rent a dog for an hour or two. Some houses are so small, that there is not enough room. In Japan they make wishes when they ring a bell. We have one more country to go to and it's Russia.

Culture Week

This week we are learning about different countries and their culture. Today we went to Mrs. Dreher's class. She talked about Brazil which is in South America. In South America there is the Amazon Rain Forest and River. We read the Umbrella book. The kid in the book wanted to see all kinds of animals in the Amazon Rain Forest. In Brazil they speak Spanish. It was a funny book. Jan Brett was the author and illustrator of the book, The Umbrella. Jan Brett's pictures are very nice. In all of her books she puts pictures to show what happens. There are animals in the book that talked Spanish. I think she has a good imagination for ideas and pictures. In the book it showed a baby tapir. Brazil takes up about half of South America. Across from Brazil there is a big river.

Ooops

We have been so busy that we haven't had time to blog for a couple of days. Tomorrow we will have our Career Fair. We will learn about different jobs. In the afternoon we will go to the YMCA for our fun swimming. We think we will be able to go down the slide and be in the deep end if we have passed the test. Don't forget to bring your swimming things.

Reading Carnival

When we quit on May 22nd. To earn tickets, you must be a good listener. Mrs. Daugherty's reading class got 20 tickets today. If you are not listening, you may lose tickets. If we are not good, we don't get more tickets. If we are good, we can get 3 more tickets. Sometimes we can earn 1 or 2 tickets. We will spend our tickets on games. One of the games may be 4 square. There will be a concession stand at the reading carnival. We don't know what kind of food and drinks will be at the concession stand. There will be 18 different games there. Most of us think the carnival will be fun. If you pass your goal, you will earn more tickets. Some of us have to read 3 chapter books to earn 30 more tickets. The highest amount of tickets you can earn will be 98 tickets.

The Zoo

These were our favorite parts of the zoo. Riley liked the Rain Forest. Corey liked the polar bears. Shelbi liked the puffer fish when it was eating the other fish. Cody liked feeding the fish. Jessica liked the swamp under the Dessert Dome. Luke liked when he got to see the lions. Nicole liked the aquarium. Emily liked the Rain Forest also. Austin liked the leopards. Micalee liked the white alligator. Zeke liked the jungle area. Trey liked when the gorilla chased the other one eating the carrot. Ethan liked the aquarium also. Heather liked the Desert Dome. Cooper liked the white tiger. Grace liked the nursery. Gavin liked the cave. Cale liked the giraffes. We all liked the zoo!!!

Tuesday

Yesterday at SPLASH we learned about honesty. We learned not to pretend to drown because that takes the lifeguard away from helping others. We went over to the YMCA rules. We got to do bobs in the water. You should have your whole head underwater. We also played a different version of red light, green light.

Monday

Today we are going to SPLASH. We will learn water safety. We will also work in a classroom first. Then we will quickly change, shower, and go to the pool. Today we didn't earn 10 points for homework. So far we have had pretty good listeners. Mrs. Riggs is hoping for 15 points for that by the end of the day.

Second Grade Reminders

On Monday, April 21st, 2008 we will need to bring our swimming things. We need them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We will also need them on Friday, May 9th. Also our zoo trip is on Monday, April 28th. We will need a sack lunch for that day even if it rains. We are working on bringing our homework, having no recess problems, and listening. If we get to 300 points we get to make homemade ice cream. If we bring our homework back, we get 10 points. If we have no recess problems, we get 5 points. If we are active listeners we get 5 or 15 points. If we have no problems and remember our homework, altogether we could have 35 points. If we get to our goal fast, we might get two ice cream parties. We'll tell you how many we earn tomorrow.

Thursday

Hi,
Sorry we haven't blogged for awhile. Our server has been down for two days. We are finally back on line. This afternoon Mrs. Garrett and Mrs. Riggs will be explaining a new activity. We will blog about it tomorrow. We'll tell you the important information.

Monday

Today we are working on our camp stories. These will go in our writing book. We had tech day and we used Print Shop for our pictures and headlines. We are gluing things in place. We also had a leftover snack again. It was smores. They were good.

When My Dog Was Sick

My dog was sick. She has a bladder infection. She had it but she got it again. I feel bad for her. I hope she gets better. We give her some medicine. I love her very much. We try to help her get better. It is hard to help her. By Cooper

Blogging

We blog almost everyday. It is fun!!! We like to blog. We have blogged many times. Many of us participate. We work hard!!! We have blogged too many times to count. I love to blog. By Ethan

Camp Read A Lot

Camp Read A Lot was really fun. We got to make a dragon fly, pop up book, bear, and spider hat. I will tell you the steps to make the dragon fly. You have to have a paper dragon fly. Then you color it. There are two flaps by the head. You fold them down and glue them. Then you do that all over again. I wish it did not end. At the end we got candy. By Zeke

World War II

In WWII Hitler was bad. He executed 2 million Jews. The Americans didn't like that. He had a strong army. So did the Americans. We were helping the British. The Germans had tanks called the Tiger. The American had tanks call Cats. The Germans had one of the strongest aircrafts in the world. One of them was called the Me262. It was the fastest airplane in WWII. The Americans best airplane was the P51 DMustang and the P38 Lightning. Then the Americans had the strongest bombers in the world and they were called B29. The Germans were called the Nazi's. The Americans were called Allies. The Germans did not like the Jews. I like to read about World War II from books. By Luke

World War II

First Day After Camp

Lots of people like the helpers a lot. Everything is back to normal now. Some people are missing the snacks. Some people miss reading about Little Soup. Little Soup's Hayride was funny. In Chapter 10 his pants fell off!!!! Most of us miss camp a lot. Most people think that people don't want to quit camp. Everybody said that camp Read A Lot was the best week ever. Some of us miss the activities. Lots of us want to keep Camp going and have our snacks. Today we will write a camp story for writing and then finish up on all activities. After that we will have a snack and then center time.

Last Day of Camp Read A Lot

Today is our last day of Camp Read A Lot. We had snacks today during the movie. We watched the rest of the Parent Trap movie this morning. We had 5 1/2 days of Camp. Today is our day to have lunch in the campground. Our menu is hot dogs, buns, chips, and cookies. One person has to eat a hot dog for someone that is gone and missed out. It will be a yummy lunch. We will do activities today. Our snack this morning was trail mix. Some will be estimating that we will be finishing our pop up books. We will finish it in the campground. We have done a lot in Camp Read A Lot. We made a paper bear and a spider hat. We also made binoculars. Hopefully we will have a dragonfly hunt with our binoculars. We wrote and illustrated a jar story. Today will be fun. It's sad that Camp Read A Lot is going to end. We have had a lot of fun in camp. Have a good weekend. Mrs. Garrett's and Mrs. Riggs'

The First Two Days of Camp Read A Lot

We have read books in the campground with our flashlights. We're also making a creepy spider hat. We wrote a story about something that fit in a jar. We're on Chapter 4 and 5 in Little Soup's Hayride. On Monday we ate owls. We had smores yesterday afternoon. We're running out of time so we'll talk to you tomorrow.

Camp Week

Today is our first day of camp. We went into the forest for a little bit this morning for Reading. We are reading a book called Little Soup's Hayride. Soup's real name is Luther Wesley Vinson. He was playing a harmonica with his nose. They want to do their own hayride like the men. They find a coaster wagon in the landfill or dump. They are pushing the wagon up a steep hill. They are putting 18 boards on top of the wagon. They will put hay on the top of the boards. We will read chapter 4 and 5 tomorrow. We need to say goodbye since we see our helpers coming. Talk to you later.

Eleanor Roosevelt

She was born in New York City in 1884. Her real name was Anna. They called her Eleanor because her mother's name was Anna too. Her father called her little Nell. Little Nell jumped off a boat when she was only two years old. Her father caught her. When she got older she was 5 feet 9 inches tall. Anna liked horses. She even had her own horse. Its name was Captain. Once she went to school in London England at Allenswood. There her friends called her Tottie. Her wedding was on March 7, 1905. Anna's third boy had a weak heart and died shortly after he was born. Later she became First Lady. She had her own newspaper column. It was called My Day. In 1948 she helped write the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By Emily

Williamsburg and My Sister's Birthday

I will start with Williamsburg. It was a long trip. On Thursday, the water park was great. On Friday and Saturday it was terrible. My sister's birthday is today. She is 5 years old. This is a present for her. I love my 5 year old sister. By Cody

Heather's Birthday

Today is my birthday. My birthday is so busy. I have to go to church. I have a feast too. In church I get to wash the priest's hands maybe. After the feast I will have my party. Most of my family will be there. All of my cousins on the dad's side will be there. Even my cousin, Natalie, will be there. There will be lots of food and pop. There will be cake too. It will be a chocolate cake. There will be chocolate and vanilla ice cream. I bet all my cousins will be there to eat the ice cream. Then I will open my presents. I will let my cousins play with my toys if they want to. I really want a Hanna Montana present. Maybe I will get to celebrate Easter with my mom's side too. I bet my grandma will eat all the chocolate ice cream. She is a big chocolate fan. By Heather

Dogs

Dogs are nice and mean. Dogs are nice in a lot of ways. My dogs' names are Fred, Buster, and Maddie. My dogs' ages are 7, 8, 11, or 12. I like dogs. I love dogs. Dogs are little and big. Dogs are cool, good, and bad. By Grace

Reading

In reading we do lots of things. We do Word of the Week. We also do vocabulary words. We read in reading. Reading is fun to do. By Nicole

Ireland

Ireland's capital is Dublin. I am Irish. Some people in our class are Irish. My family is mainly Irish. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day because he was kind to other people. Ireland is really small. Some leprechaun messed up our desks. It is part of Great Britain. Almost everyone wore green. It looked like spinach today. People say 4 leaf clovers mean luck. I don't know why there is so much green. By Gavin

St. Joe, the Last Hockey Game

In St. Joe I had my last two hockey games of the season. Luckily, I'm going to a hockey camp for the weekend only. I won't see you guys so much. I wish I could see you guys some more on the weekend. I hope I will see my favorite hockey players there at the camp. By Cooper

Recess

Mostly everybody likes recess. My friends and I play horses at recess. Emily is Felicity and I am Penny. The other Emily is Patriot. We like playing horses. I am glad the weather has been nicer this week. Recess is better when it is warmer outside. By Jessica

Famous Person

In Mrs. Riggs' reading group we are working on a famous person. I'm going to be George H. Bush. Other people might be Johnny Appleseed. At the end of March or the beginning of April we will dress up like them. We are learning a lot about our famous person. Here are a few things about him. George was born on June 12, 1924. He was born in Milton, Mass. By Cale

Summer

Summer is not that far away for us getting out of school. When I get out of school we will meet new friends at the new school year. Then we have summer. When we are on spring vacation this April, I will not be here. I will be in St. Louis because my dad and I will run a marathon. That's what I am doing this vacation. By Riley

Famous Person

A famous person is when we get to tell a few facts about our famous person. My famous person is Shaquille Rashoaun O'Neal. We get to type a story about him or her on Stationery Studio. We also get to make a power point about him or her. Parents will come and look at our power points. We get to put sound on our power point. Since I know about my famous person, I will tell you something about him. He was born March 6, 1972. He is famous because he is a good basketball player. We will get to dress up like our famous person in April. I like the famous person activity. By Austin

My Family

My family is nice. My brother has been sick for about two weeks. He has had a bad cough for a long time. Sometimes my dad has to go to work in Beatrice, Nebraska. I miss my dad a lot. My mom has to go to work some times too. My friends and cousins come over some times. My brother and I go to school if we are not sick. If we are sick, we have to stay home. My mom and my dad have a water bed at home. All of us meet friends and cousins. We read at home sometimes. We live on a gravel road. We live in Marne. Some moms and dads come to our house sometimes. We have to use manners at home. by Micalee

Piano Concert

I had a piano concert. It was the second time at the honor's concert. It was really fun. I have to play in Oakland at a concert next weekend. I hope I have fun next time. I saw Emily's name on the list. See you after school, Mom. by Miranda

California

I went to California on summer break. We went to the mountains. Then we went swimming. I got to ride a motorboat. It was fast. Then I got scared. By Shelbi

Science

We switched groups. Lots of science was cool. I got to make a pinwheel. Everyone's pinwheel was colorful. I think everyone liked science. We are still doing science. Science is fun.
By Corey

Specials

Specials are something we go to in the morning to exercise, sing, or draw pictures. We all like our specials. We have PE in the mornings. Sometimes we have gym class to get ourselves warmed up. We run for 3 minutes. Some people think 3 minutes seems like 100 years. We exercise and we play hockey. Today we had a relay race and we had to flip tires over and roll them back. We do lots of things in PE. Some people like PE as their favorite special. One of our favorite things to do in PE is to play basketball.

Tuesday

We have had a busy two days in writing. We have been talking about nouns and adjectives. We will try to add more adjectives to our writing. We will start our February story on Wednesday. Hopefully we will remember to put more adjectives in the story. Adjectives let us know more about the story. Also we will be assigning more people to be responsible for individual blogs.

Zeke's birthday

Today, Friday, 22, 2008 is Zeke's birthday. Zeke will be bringing treats to school. They will be cupcakes. Our class hopes Zeke has a great birthday. Zeke hopes he gets good presents for his birthday. Zeke is so excited for Friday. By Luke, Zeke, and Austin

P.S.
We couldn't blog on Friday because the server was slow. This is our Friday's blog.

School

We are almost done being called second graders. We are good in P.E., Art, and Music. All of us are close to having a complete good year. We are all interested in our new way of blogging. We enjoy being almost third graders. We are good in school. We love school. We are all good at school subjects. We have lots of projects in the school year. We are going to do fun things this year. Last year we got to pull weeds. Everyone likes school. By Grace, Miranda, and Heather

Important Letter

We are going to change Mrs. Garrett's room into a campground. There will be a green note in our gold folders. One of the rooms will have all of our desks in it. The other room will be a campground. We need small tents ( about 4 ), Christmas trees, and small picnic tables. We would like parents to bring some supplies and be helpers in our campground. Check out the letter. We will tell you more later.

Tech Day

Today is our tech day. We are going to the library to make our February word art. The students may choose which word art they want to use. They may choose any one. They will need to think of a word to go along with February. They will write both words. They will also need to find a picture from the clip art section to put on this sheet. After Mrs. Riggs checks it, it will be printed. It will go with our February story and go in our scrap booking book. Since there is a substitute teacher for Mrs. Garrett, Mrs. Garrett's class will watch us work for a little while. We will show them how to insert the picture. Some possible words to go with February are: fantastic, amazing, glittery, funny, Valentine's, awesome, fabulous, fun, coolest, warm, famous, freezing, and fast.

Kansas City

I had hockey games on Saturday and Sunday. My hockey team was in a sport's competition and I played four games. I think that we got in first place I hope. I got to go swimming and I got to play pool. I threw a coin into a little pond. After that I went swimming again. My team ate a big dog which is a foot long hot dog. By Cooper

Valentine's Party

Yesterday we had our Valentine's Party. Everyone thought that the Valentine Party was very fun. There were several cool Valentine boxes. We played a guessing game. We tried to guess how many chocolate kisses were in a jar. We played 2 games. We played heads up -- 7up. It was really, really fun. Lots of us got cool Valentines. We ate some of our candy when we were reading our Valentines. The candy was very delicious. We found hearts around the room. We all said thank you to the people. We had a snack. It was a cookie. One person was sick on Valentine's Day. The person that was sick was Grace. Lots of moms came to help. One person went to the library because they don't celebrate it. We can't wait until the weekend.

Reading Time

We go to different reading groups. Reading is about going to the classroom and doing reading work. Some of us did workbook pages today. Mrs. Riggs' had their spelling test. They also do Word of the Week. Our Word of the Week this week is mandible. A mandible is your lower jaw or jawbone. One student brought a real mandible from his mom's office. Another thing Mrs. Riggs' group does is work on a famous person. Also we read for about 10 minutes in the beginning of the class. Mrs. Daugherty's readers have their test on Friday. Some people are reading good books during reading. Mrs. Dreyer's class read Dear Mr. Blueberry and we sent him a note. Also in her class, we are going to see what floats and what doesn't float. Also we did fun things because it was Valentine's Day. The people that go to Mrs. Dreyer's class are Cody, Nicole, Micalee, Trey, and Corey. In Mrs. Dreher's class we do guided reading. Some people may be reading books about monsters. We all think school is cool.

Almost Valentine's Day

We are getting ready for Valentine's Day. After we are done blogging, we will get out our containers if we brought one. Then we are going to pass out Valentines. If a person does not have a container, they will put them in a sack until they bring their container tomorrow. If they didn't bring their Valentines, then they will bring them tomorrow. We will have our party tomorrow afternoon at 1:30- 2:30. After that we will go to a different room to hear a Valentine book. We think Valentine's Day will be a fun day. There will be some moms at our party to help us. We don't know which moms are coming. We are all excited for our Valentine's party. We might have pop and snacks on Thursday. We all hope that we have delicious snacks. Some of us wonder what kind of Valentines we will get. Have a happy Valentine's Day. We might do Valentine crafts. We all think Valentine's Day is very cool. One of us does not celebrate Valentines. Some of us decorated our boxes really cool. Some candy might be the same. We hope you have a good Valentine's Day. I hope everyone has fun with their Valentines. I hope the Valentine books are really good.

Abraham Lincoln

Today is Lincoln's birthday. He was a good president. When he was at the Ford Theater, he was shot. The Civil War was because of slavery against no slavery. The Southerns had slavery. He was buried in Springfield. He ended slavery. John W. Booth shot Lincoln. In 1850 his son, Eddie, died. Booth was killed by government troops. He was a poor boy that later lived in the White House. By Cody and Gavin

Writing

We have writing . We sometimes get to pick our sentences. Writing is fun. We have written tons of stories. We have fun writing. In writing we have 4 steps. One of them is pick a title. Another is write your story. Another is edit it yourself. Then Mrs. Riggs edits it. Then you write it on nice paper. By Nicole, Jessica, Emily

No School on Wednesday

On Wednesday there was no school because of the snow. Some people stayed inside on Wednesday. On Wednesday some people were happy because of school being canceled. One person went on the computer and made a penguin on Club Penguin. Another person was still sick. Some people went outside and went on a sled ride. Maybe they went to Sunnyside. Others shoveled the driveway and other places. Others stayed inside by their fireplace to get warm. Some people pulled snow off their rooftop because it was so heavy. It looked like a shovel, but it wasn't. Some played a High School Musical game. Lots of people read for Book-It and Read - A - Thon. Some went to their grandma's. We all had lots of fun on Wednesday.

Gym

In gym we run for 3 minutes. We play dodge ball in gym. We also play 2 wall kickball. Gym is our favorite special. We recently played 2 wall kickball. Snakes in the grass was a game we played. We think gym is fun.
By Cale, Corey, and Ethan

Fun Days at School

We have lots of fun days at school everyday. In October we got to wear our costumes. November was fun because we got to make a scarecrow. December was the most fun on earth because we got to open presents. We will watch the movie called the Little Giants. We ate our lunches in Mrs. Garrett's room. We just got done with the movie. Some of the time we do centers and watch a movie. The movie was great and funny. All of us liked the movie a lot.
By Micalee, Riley, and Shelbi

Student Blogs

Friday will be our first student written blog. The other students are also busy working to write a blog. I'm anxious to read them. Look for your student's blog. Check with them to see when they will be in charge. Have a good day!

100 days of School

I have 100 books. I would like 100 puzzles. I wouldn't like 100 brothers. Having 100 baby brothers or sisters could really be a problem because they could make a gigantic mess. In 100 years I would like to be in heaven. In 100 years the world will be very cool. The strangest thing will be earthquakes. I can lift 100 giraffes. If I had 100 dollars I would spend it on a lot of toys. I wish I had 100 pieces of legos. Then I would build a gigantic lego house. We are now going to plan some of our blogs and then do a math puzzle. Then we will put puzzles and legos together.

Blogging

The students in our class may volunteer to write a blog by themselves. They may work with one or two partners. They will choose their partner or partners and choose what they want to write. They will write about something that happens at school. They will pick the date that it will be written in our blog. They will need to write about 7 good sentences. Make sure you read our blogs to see who our student bloggers will be. Have a good day.

Weekend Plans

Tomorrow is the weekend. Some people are going to sleep overs. There's a birthday party. Some people may be going to their dad's or grandma's in Omaha. A couple of people may have friends over. One of us might go on a hunting trip with their father and brothers. Some of us might be helping people do chores. Tomorrow some people may go to Cedar Rapids and play hockey. That same person's mom will come down to their house. If it's warm tomorrow, some may put on their warm clothes and go sledding. Some of us may have swimming lessons at the YMCA. Others may build things out of wood. One person will go ice fishing with their dad, uncle and cousins. Relatives may also be visiting. One person is going to call a cousin to say happy birthday. Some people may be writing a story and a song. Have a "jammin" January.

Burr

It is cold outside. Lately it has been really freezing outside. The title really explains the weather. The low was 18 degrees below zero. Make sure you wear coats, snow pants, snow boots, gloves, hats, and scarves. Hopefully no one has frost bite. It's probably not a good idea to go sledding when it is this cold. We hope you get bundled up for this weather. Outside on a thermometer it said it was about minus 14 or 15. Last night it was the coldest day of 2008. Some people thought it was so cold out that they didn't want to go outside. Some people can't believe that it would be like summer in Texas when it is so cold here. It would be good weather to be a popsicle. Have a snowy day. We all hope we don't get frozen.

It's Friday

It's Friday and I hope you have a good day. Tomorrow is the weekend. Some people may have friends over on the weekend and maybe a sleepover. We are all glad that it's Saturday tomorrow. Some people are glad that it is Friday so we can sleep in on Saturday. We get a 3 day vacation because the teachers have a meeting on Monday. There will be football on the weekend. Some people have to go to CCD and church. On Monday it is Martin Luther King's birthday. Some people may be going to their grandma's house or the boy's high school basketball game. A little bit before time for blogging we checked out books. On Friday we have homework. Some people are going to play on the weekend in the snow and make forts. Have a great weekend!!!!!

Physical Education

Physical education is another name for gym. We played Poison Ball and we were sweaty. Some of us were so hot we thought we were in a desert. Some people like Poison Ball and some don't. We had a lot of points in Poison Ball. We played catch the leader. We did cals. We do lots of things in gym. Most of us worked our hardest in gym. Sometimes we play basketball with a team of 3 or 4 people. One person got hurt in gym and bent their thumb. We ran for a very long time. Some people had to run 4 laps. It's really fun playing Poison Ball in gym. If we don't play catch the leader, we run from 3 to 5 minutes. It was so much fun in gym. Have an icy day.

Music Program

On Monday night we had our music program. That was last night. Mrs. Dreyer's, Mrs. Dreher's, and Mrs. Riggs' classes were the first one on stage. The other 3 classes went after us. They were Mrs. Daugherty's, Mrs. Garrett's, and Mrs. Ambrose's classes. Ms. Brown said we did a terrific job. Ms. Brown said that we could see our program on tape. Mrs. Dickerson taped the program so we can see it some time. Some parents video taped us. Many people wore their best clothes. Everyone looked good for the program. We sang some neat songs. We all sang our best. I hoped that all the parents thought we did a good job. At the next concert we hope that the audience doesn't shout so loudly when we are singing our best. We hope they encourage us before we perform, not when we are on the stage singing. It was fun. Have a good day.

Music Practice

We will have to be at our program at 6:45 tonight at the Middle School; and we will start at 7:00 pm. Our program is tonight. We hope we make it in time for our practice. One song is "Trot Old Joe." One of the songs in our program is "All Around the Brickyard." I hope all the parents like our musical. We need to wear dressy clothes for our program. After our program we will go to our parents. One of our songs is called Engine, Engine, Number 9. We hope everyone sings their best. We hope our parents like it alot. We have several songs. We hope everyone has fun at the music concert. We will sing with Mrs. Dreyer's and Mrs. Dreher's classes. Have a great day today!

Semester Time

We have an early out so teachers have time to work on report cards. We get out 3 hours early. School was fast today. Some people have to go to their sitters today. Some people may have a friend over. Today was fun. Some of us are working hard as we can. All of us are going to miss our friends and teachers. I hope everyone has a good weekend. Some people may be doing arts and crafts today. We are all happy that we are dismissed 3 hours early. We hope that all parents remember to pick us up early. I hope everyone has fun today. Today we didn't have lunch. Mrs. Riggs has a lot of work to do Someone has a wrestling tournament. Some of us will be really busy today. Have a nice day. Have a good time. See you later. We have to go.

Tuesday's Guidance

On Tuesday Mrs. Stickler talked about self-discipline. We are working on self-discipline. Self means yourself and discipline means to punish. We need to STOP, THINK, and ACT. We have a sign that says STOP, THINK, and ACT. One of the words for self-discipline is habits. We went over to Mrs. Garrett's for Guidance. We mostly always go to Guidance in Mrs. Garrett's room. When someone asks you to do something wrong, you tell them no or walk away. Don't be their friend. We also talked about how you can get punished. One person was gone. Guidance is really, really fun. Sometimes when we go to Guidance we watch movies. She talked about our cautions. Self-discipline means you discipline yourself. In Guidance we always learn something new. We all wish you a happy year. Have a snowy, snowy day.

Ooops!

Yesterday we forgot to do our blog! We all forgot about our blog yesterday. We were busy with Guidance. In Guidance we learned about self-discipline. We're very sorry we forgot. We also had to write our December stories. People who are finished, got to do centers. There are two or three people done in our class right now. We hope we don't forget again. We like to blog. Today we will try to have two blogs. We hope everyone gets done with their December stories today. Some people worked on their story this morning. Have a great, great, day. Have a nice week.

End of Semester

The 11th of January is half way through school. Also on the 11th some of us might get a sack lunch. Some of us might go to Minnesota for a vacation. It feels good to be almost half way through second grade. It's amazing that we are almost half way done with school. We will be done with school in May. It will be fun to be done with school. Some of us might think that there will be 1000 days left of school. We're all going to miss our teachers and friends. When summer comes we will have more time for video games and movies. We will have time to run in the sprinkler. School is getting harder since we are closer to becoming a third grader. Some of us really don't want to get out of school or last forever. Have a good week and year.

Dazzling December Stories

We are writing stories. We have special titles. We are working hard on stories on our Christmas break and how Christmas went. We have a list of words that will help us spell better. Some people have a little written while some have a lot written. Some people want their stories really long and some want them short. Some might be chapter stories. We also illustrated a picture. It's been fun so far. Everyone is writing a story. Mrs. Garrett's class came into our room for directions and to work. Mrs. Riggs said that our stories may be on our web site. We are going to edit our stories. We're going to get done with our first draft of our stories today. We hope Mrs. Riggs likes our stories. Have a great day,month, and New Year in January.

Christmas Vacation

A family received a Wii from Santa and played it during vacation. Another family received an aquarium and fish a few days later. A family got a big crib, new doll, and ten cars. Some people got video games or Guitar Hero 1, 2, and 3. One person received an American Girl and learned to how to play spoons. Some people received mp3 players. Moon shoes were received by others. Some people received I penguins for their I pods. Another person received an air hockey game and then went to Cedar Rapids. One of us received a doll house. One person received a pogo stick and a scooter. Another person's mom had to write a note to Santa because Santa forgot to bring something. Another person received a gigantic keyboard. Someone received a WWII game with a joystick. I hope everyone had a fun Christmas vacation.