Wearing Purple for Epilepsy

Today we wore purple for everyone who suffers with epilepsy. Sixty-five million people world wide have epilepsy.  One in twenty-six people in the United States will develop epilepsy in their life.  A third of all people with epilepsy have uncontrolled seizures.  Please help  by donating to the NH epilepsy foundation to help support those like my nephew Seth who suffer daily from seizures.  Tomorrow we are chewing gum for epilepsy.  Half the money raised will go to the NH Epilepsy Foundation.

 Wearing purple in Mrs. Weaver's class earned all purple people a popcorn treat tomorrow.  Yum!

Wearing purple to support Seth and everyone else who suffers with epilepsy.  

Working with fourth graders on our writing

Thank you Mrs. Beaudet's class for listening to our stories.  We enjoyed reading our stories to you and finding out what you liked or thought we should change. We can't wait to hear your stories.

Alex Comes to Second Grade

We always enjoy Alex coming to our class and reading his books to us. Today he picked a fun leprechaun story, "Leprechaun on the Loose" to read to us. He is a great husky in training. Thanks Alex for visiting us and reading your book.

Royalty in Room 210

We enjoyed our study of England for the multicultural event at school. During this project we researched five monuments in England, were sorted into Royal families, made crowns, painted with tea and read books written by English authors. We loved reading Paddington and made our own Paddington Bears. We also read many of Roald Dahl's books including Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and The Giraffe, The Pelly, and Me.  Thank you to all the families who came out last week to see our projects.

Guest Reader/Author

On Friday we had guest readers come and read to us.  We had the mayor, superintendent, a teacher, and our last guest reader is an actual author.  Johnny Beaudet came to read his first published book Sammy's Adventures.  We were so excited to hear his story about Sammy's adventures on the Iditarod trail.  We also got three of his illustrations before they were finished so that we can color them ourselves.  Thank you everyone for coming in to read to us.  Thank you Johnny for sharing your new book with us and we wish you luck with your project at school.

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day we all created our Dojo monsters for our Valentine Box.  We had fun creating our own Dojo monsters. We recycled old boxes and paper to create our works of art.  We had a wonderful day and enjoyed spending time showing our creative side.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas From Room 210

Gingerbread Houses

We enjoyed creating our gingerbread houses with graham crackers, frosting, and LOTS and LOTS of candy.  Thank you to all the parents who sent in these treats to make our houses.  Fun STEM project today.  Mrs. Dzujna and I also had fun making our own houses.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

For our fluency assignment in December we learned the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  We partnered with a friend to be able to read our section fluently.  We practiced with each other and then read to the teachers.  Next we were able to go around the building to find a special place and a person to read our stanza of the poem to.  After we all read our stanza Mrs. Weaver put all of the clips together to make one poem.  It was so much fun watching all of our stanza's come together.

Early Gift from Santa

      

Santa was looking for our wonderful class and stumbled upon Mr. and Mrs. Dzujna's house.  She knew Mrs. Dzujna would be sure to bring us our gifts.  Mrs. Dzujna read us the letter he left for us and then we each were able to pull out our special gift.  So glad we were all on the good list this  year.  We enjoyed spending time with our bears in class before taking them home.

Mrs. Dzujna reading our letter

Cajun Night Before Christmas

In December we listened to the story Cajun Night Before Christmas and then worked on a STEM activity of building a flat boat like the one in the story.  The children worked in groups and were given a specific amount of money to buy materials.  They completed a list for the store and bought the materials they thought they would need.  We quickly found out clay is not a good item to purchase because it made a mess when the boats went in the water.  YUCK!!  The children added weight to their boats to see who's boat could hold the most cargo for Santa.  We had a lot of fun and learned about what items floated the best. 

             

The STEM Tower

On Friday we completed a STEM activity in groups of 4 and one group of 5. We each got 40 connectors to build our towers. As engineers we had to make a plan.  Then we needed to build a base by working together.  If Mrs. Weaver caught us working together nicely she gave us more connectors.  After 15 minutes Mrs. Weaver said stop and then she measures our structures.  The highest structure was from the purple table and they had one that was 23 centimeters tall. It was lots of fun building our towers.  We hope to build it again.  Enjoy our video of our STEM activity.

Lilly Heads to Disney for Halloween

Our friend Lilly went on an adventure to Disney for Halloween.  We are excited to hear how her trip is going.

Hi Mrs. Weaver
I have been so busy doing all kinds of fun stuff with my family. We are at my grand-pa Jacks and Nana's in Leesburg Florida. We were at Disney first. I went on tower of terror at Hollywood studios and loved it. I will see you soon. Miss you
Lilly
  

                  

                      

     Lilly with her favorite characters from Frozen.          Lilly and her brother with Mini Mouse.


Mrs. Weaver,

We had fun at Disney and we went to a festival and I got my first henna tattoo with my mom.
I had so much fun!
Lilly

Cool Tattoos

I am so glad Lilly and her family were able to take this family vacation and discover Disney World. Family time is always meaningful and priceless.  Our children grow up so fast its nice to watch them grow and discover the world around them.  But a little silly time in Disney I am sure was had by the Gula Family.  Glad it was a wonderful trip and I will be excited to hear all about it when Lilly returns.  

Pledge to Read

On October 21st we joined millions of people  for the world's largest shared reading experience. Everyone read the book "Bunny Cake" by Rosemarry Wells. Since we have been working on cause and effect I decided to use this book for some extra practice. Then since the children just finished our solids, liquids, and gas unit I decided a perfect cake would be a bunny jello jiggler cake. With lots of whip cream we all enjoyed a yummy piece of bunny.

Adventures in the garden

On Friday, we spent some time in the school garden getting it ready for winter.  I was so inspired I decided to spend some time in my own gardens and get them also ready for winter.  The children were definitely dirty and full of earth.  They enjoyed pulling up weeds, old plants, and adding new dirt to the raised beds.

                  
                Digging up weeds                                          More digging!!


                      
                     I have the best helpers.                           Owen working with first graders.
                                                                                           What a great leader.

Where is the Word is our friend Sarah?

Sarah and her family took a trip to Disney and are sharing their experiences with us.  We will follow Sarah's adventures.  I have never gone to Disney or Florida so I am enjoying this trip through my student's eyes.

Dear Mrs. Weaver and Friends:

On Monday Pike's Dad picked us up at 4:00 in the morning and took us to the airport. I went on my first plane ride. It was fun but it hurt my ears when we landed. We went to Downtown Disney and went shopping. We ate dinner at Planet Hollywood and got cups that light up. I love my bedroom here! It is pink and purple and has a big pink bed and princesses everywhere. It is fun to swim in the big pool and go on the waterslide. I'm having fun!

Love,

Sarah

Dear Mrs. Weaver and Friends:

On Tuesday we went to Disney World. I went on Splash Mountain. It had a big drop at the end. I went on Big Thunder Mountain. I didn't like it. It went too fast! I met Belle. She is pretty! I did not go on Space Mountain! We saw fireworks and parades. It was fun! We stayed at Disney world until midnight.

Love,
Sarah

Dear Mrs. Weaver and Friend,

On Wednesday,  we took the day off. We went out for lunch and swam in the pool for hours. I went on a big waterslide. It was a twenty foot drop and shoots you out at the end. I dunked my Dad. My Dad calls me sharkbait. We had a relaxing afternoon.

Love,
Sarah

Dear Mrs. Weaver and Friends:

On Thursday, we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. I saw Harry Potter and took a ride through the castle and played Quidditch with him. It was a ride. It was a little scary. There were spiders and dragons and scary ghosts. It felt like we were going really fast but we were really only moving a little. I saw how wands pick wizards and I tried butter beer. It was a really sweet soda drink and I didn't really like it. I went on an adventure with Spiderman it felt real and scary but it wasn't real. It was awesome! We went to Jurassic Park and saw the dinosaurs. It was really a log flume ride and I got really wet! We had a good day!

Love,
Sarah

Dear Mrs. Weaver and Friends:

On Friday, we went to SeaWorld. We saw a dolphin show. It was so cool! There were divers that jumped from way up high into the water and they put their feet on the dolphins' noses and the dolphins pushed them through the water. It was a story about a girl and she swam with the dolphins and other divers did too. I saw Shamu and Baby Shamu. Shamu is a huge killer whale. Baby Shamu is a lot smaller. They can jump way out of the water. I really liked the show. I went on a carousel twice. My brother and I climbed way up high on ropes. I didn't like that because I was up way too high but I had to climb down. We visited penguins in Antarctica. It wasn't really Antarctica but it was cold! We made a picture with our handprints and Dad's handprint was a shark, Mary's was a dolphin, mine was penguins, Kolbe's was an orca and Mom's was a sea turtle. My sister Ali was a baby sea turtle. We had a great day!

Love,
Sarah

Twas the night before school and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.  Well maybe  I was stirring thinking about my new students and hoping my last year students would remember what I taught them and have a great first day.  I was up earlier than I had intended so I spent some time drinking my cup of coffee and reading my last book on my summer list.  When at last it was time for the children to get up, breakfast to be on the table, and lunches packed.  Where, oh, where did my summer vacation go?  And finally it is that time and my students are eagerly entering the room and have no idea what to do.  This is the moment I do believe all teachers wish they had looped with their previous years class.  The new children quickly learned where things went and what to do.  Morning Meeting was a great time to learn about who my children are and what their attention span is at this time.  Soon after lunch, because most of August we were in an Arctic chill, now that we are in school it is 95 degrees in our classroom.  The day ended and I received many hugs and saw wonderful Facebook posts describing the wonderful day their child had in second grade.  So onto planning and preparing for day two which would just so happen to be the second day of second grade which we all know is the BEST!!  However it was then that I realized it was going to be even hotter on day two.  Quick to thought I looked through my freezer to be deeply disapointed all the freeze pops were gone.  I guess they went during summer vacation.  Plan two was to get on Facebook at persuade one of my moms to send in freeze pops.  Yes it is day two and I am already calling in favors!!  Don't judge me!!  I wasn't able to shop since I was in my PJ's before 6:30pm.  Might I remind you it was 95 in my classroom and I was dripping wet.

Second Day of Second Grade

Today started off very well in the Weaver household as my husband and I prepared nice healthy lunches for our two children.  It was perfect and we were done in no time.  Teamwork!!  I took that thought all the way to my classroom.  The kids knew where to put their backpacks, began working on the Morning Meeting Door, and were ready to go over their answers.  Morning Meeting was great and we played Hot and Cold with a new stuffed husky that was a gift from one of my new students.  We found out how to choose the perfect rock, found our own personal special rock, and then wrote a paragraph about our special rock. Soon after lunch we were all dripping wet again from the heat but I have something cool and refreshing planned for science.  We are learning about solids, liquids, and gas so we began with ice cubes.  All we needed to do was put it in our hands and we had liquid almost immediately.  The children were making wonderful puddles all over the tables.  I had one student that was blowing on his ice to watch it melt.  We did need to heat water up in the microwave to create the gas.  Then it was time for freeze pops and watermelon provided by my amazing moms that I do believe felt sorry for us.  The children were all refreshed and ready to learn about bucket filling soon after snack.  We sang the song "I'm a Bucket Filler" to get ready for music. One more day and our first week is in the books as a wonderful first week of school.