Butter Making

Dana visited again today! Today she talked to us about respectful and safe field trip behavior for Friday. Then she dressed up a friend from Mrs. Mandigo's class to teach us more about cows.

Yup, he had jersey skin, an udder, ears with a tag to identify him, hooves, eyes on the sides of his head, a snout that was really low, a rough and long tongue, and a fly-swatter tail. Ask your child about the parts of a cow!

After we turned a kid into a calf, we got to make BUTTER! We used heavy cream and shook it up in a jar. Of course there was a song to go with all of that shaking...

 

It was a lot of work, but really worth it! Check out that butter!

 We poured the butter out of the jar and into a strainer. Then we moved the butter around so that the butter milk would separate from our creamy butter.

 After our hard work, we got to drink some apple cider and enjoy our butter on crackers!

 

Dairy in the Classroom

We had such an amazing experience when Dana visited our classroom this week!

She showed us her morning routine and we connected with many of the products she used and foods she ate.

Where did all of the products and foods come from? We sorted them into piles: Farm, Natural World, Store, and Factory.

We discovered that even if we bought something from a store, it might have been made in a factory, and the materials came from a farm or the natural world! Ask your child about different food/products and where they might have come from.

Before Dana left, she read a book to us about farming and we enjoyed a deliciously local snack: cheddar cheese and apples.

We'll see her again next Tuesday for another lesson! Stay tuned.... :)

Writing Partners

Every Thursday, we share our stories with a partner. We offer compliments, ask questions, and listen to each other's amazing stories! Through the sharing of stories, we inspire each other to write new things!

Word Work

We have been learning to spell sight words! We have practiced them using: Fancy Shmancy words, Tip Top Typing, Rainbow Words, and Blue or Red. We have more choices coming, but for now...ask your second grader, what is his/her favorite word work activity?

Exploring with Materials

We have been exploring with new materials! Ask your child what s/he likes to do with each material.

  

Updates via Email

Did you know you can be emailed whenever the blog is updated? Check out the right sidebar and type in your email address!

PS: If you subscribed last year - you have to subscribe again. Subscribers to "Miss Snyder's Blog" didn't carry over to "Mrs. Burns' Blog". Sorry! :)

We Are Readers!

This week we opened up parts of our Book Nook, looked in our book bins, and enjoyed reading together.

Then we began Read to Self (reading independently). We brainstormed what kids would be doing during Read to Self and what teachers would be doing. We also practiced choosing where to sit while reading.

Our big focus in reading right now is building stamina. This week we discussed what stamina is and timed our reading to check our stamina. On Friday, we read for 22 minutes without getting tired or giving up! Ask your child more about the process of building stamina (When do we stop the timer? What is the expectation during Read to Self? How do you read your books? What books are in your book bin?)

What does Read to Self look like and sound like? Check out the videos below...