Thursday, Nov. 17

by: Drew

Mrs.Johnson's class came over and we worked on math problems.Then we went to practice our play.then we went to pe.We had to go to the Fittness arcade.After pe we went to the bathroom.Now were copying homework.Were reading Goonybird.Were about to go out side.Then we will go to Mrs.Johnson room.After that we will go home!

Wednesday, November 9

by Aidan

This moning mrs jonise class came over mrs Bruno read us A book called A is for America.We did are vose tread.

Tuesday, Nov. 8

by: Carson

Mrs.Jonshns class came over and we talked about if we liked the feild trip.we did
We did centers.We did the Da nuber.We lernd about the costoitshon.This week it is fainly normle.We ate snack.And we are about to go to pe.We did math magion.
We did dibles.We lernd what the pleage algents means.We have a play coming up.

Thursday, November 3

by: Emma

This morning Mis. Johnsoes clas came over.we to

Thursday, November 3

by: Emma

October 28, 2011

by: Sarah
Today we finisht our moblls and panted them. We had parents helpt us.

Tuesday, 10-25

by: Kesler

This morning mrs.Johnsons class came over and we did math.Some people went to the Ampatheater.We also did centers.We read Gooney Bird Greene.We are about to go P.E.

Friday, Oct. 21

by: Alaya

Today we got to pick the good citazent and we picked Emma beacause she is quite in the hall way. this morning Mrs.johnsons class came in.

FROM THE TEACHER: Mrs. Johnson's class got to begin placing clay on their mobiles today. They did a super job. Mrs. Bruno's class will start next week. It's not nearly as easy as it looks! Have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 20

by: Gabby

this morning mrs.jonsons class came over.then we came to mrs.jonsons class.we did water colers.we where silent reading.we went back to mrs.brunos room.we rote an autumn thing.we got back are sicence note book.

Wednesday, October 19

by: Maddie

This morning Mrs Jonsons class came over and we talked about balence. We did someing tob

Tuesday, 10-18

by: Peyton

Some friends went to Mrs.oconners room.And some people went to pain primary singers.And some people went to the amptheather.Mrs.Jonhsons class came over.We made some cards about fall and halloween.We are going to bring the cards to the nursaing home.We did new math stuff.We are starting to learn about weight.We got 10 compaments.

Friday, Oct. 14

by: Millie

Today Miss Jonsens class came over.We went to do an art project with Miss Scot.We played to new math games.We read Gooney Bird Greene.Today is Emmas b.day.

Wednesday, October 12

by: Thomas

we did branching. we found words out of halloween.

Thursday, October 6

by: Fred

Tody mrs.,s Jonsen class came over.We got to watch anamal cam"s! After that we observd the anamal"s. And did word problims.But,we didin"t get to cinter"s.

Wednesday, October 5

by: Ethan

these morning mre jonsens'clas came over.we did sentrs.we worked on spase vocbulary.we got are clas posters.

Tuesday, Oct. 4

by: Kamden

some peple went to

Busy, Busy Day

The kids didn't have time to blog today. We our regular craziness of "early Monday," plus a special meeting with Ms. Lacy and a special visitor this afternoon. So, the kids were too swamped to sit and blog.

We did introduce subtraction of 2-digit numbers using branching today, and I was thrilled with how well they took the things they already knew about branching and applied them to this skill. They're really a smart class!!! Way to go, guys!!!!

Friday, Sept. 30

by: Lauren

Today some poepol went to Mrs. Murreys room to do solos and that was Peyton and Millie.Alaya got picked for good citizen .Her frands sade she has ben lisoning.Alaya has ben a good frand.Mrs Jonses class came over.

Thursday, Sept. 29

by Jackson:
This morning Mrs. jousens class came to viset us. we started are hunred branching. lerned more abuot the sorler sistem, sun and stars. Some peple got exter reess.we learned about the spinle cord and brain in P.E.

Wednesday, Sept. 28

by: Drew

This morning some people went to mrs. Muries room.And some people went to mrs. Oconners room.

Monday, Sept. 26

This morning we went to the computer lab and took a DIBELS Math test. It was hard!!! Then, Mrs. Lincoln came in and did a creativity experience with us. We headed to Mrs. Johnson's room and did spelling sentences and a water cycle reader's theatre. After heading to PE, counselor, and recess, we ate lunch. We came back into the room for a surprise. We made an edible water cycle! YUM!!!!!

We are very excited that we will FINALLY be going to McWane tomorrow!!

Friday, Sept. 23

Congratulations to Aidan, our good citizen for this week!!! His friends say he's nice and always good in the hall. Aidan is a good friend. He's always well-behaved. Other teachers even tell Mrs. Bruno how kind and respectful he is.

This morning we put our spelling words in ABC order. Then, Mrs. Johnson's class came over and we discussed maps and globes. We found the US on our continent. We learned the names of all seven of our continents by singing The Continent Song.

We took a timed test and continued to branch numbers with addition today. We have gotten very good at it! Mrs. Bruno even gave us a challenge problem with hundreds digits, and we did GREAT!!! We'll focus on the hundreds place next week even more.

In science, we wrapped up our weather unit by reviewing our chapter and journaling in our notebooks.

Our homework this weekend is to read more books for the September Reading Program!!!

Thursday, September 22

Our morning work was to complete a fun sum-of-the-digits worksheet. Mrs. Johnson's class came over and checked that math sheet with us. Then, we read a science book about weather.

During math, we practiced branching numbers again. Half of us went to meet Mrs. Bruno at the round table. The other half will meet tomorrow. We're slowly, but surely, getting the hang of this branching!!!! We practiced our math fluency with Math Magician. Carson had the most-improved score this week! Way to go, Carson!!!

Today in science, we discussed different type of storms: hurricanes, tornados, thunderstorms, and blizzards. We looked at pictures of the Metrodome's roof caving in last winter. Because we don't see snow often, it's hard for us to imagine it creating tons of problems.

Much more calm day!!!

Today has been more calm and kind of back on our schedule! Yea!

Lauren got to go to Pump It Up today for being a high seller in the fundraiser. She said she had lots of fun!!!!

Mrs. Johnson's class came over, and we worked on word problems. Then, we read our math magazine and answered some problems. During our regular math class, we worked on branching. I think that most people really liked it!!! They were sad when we had to stop.

In science, we discussed weather tools and looked at some that Mrs. Bruno had. We talked about thermometers, anemometers, and rain guages. We also discussed hurricanes and tornados and how to stay safe during these types of weather.

CRAZY, CRAZY Tuesday!

Tuesday mornings are already crazy. We send some folks to Ms. Lacy, some to Mrs. Murray, and some to Mrs. O'Connor. BUT, that was only the beginning of our abnormal day!

Our class went to the computer lab for IXL today. We did some number sense and addition skills. We came back and tried to do math, but turned right around and had to go to the eye screen. The kids got confused and thought we were going to ICE CREAM!!!! I had to disappoint them and say no! :(

We cut out math manipulatives today to help us with our addition of two and three-digit numbers. We worked on Math Magician.

In science, we continued our study of weather by looking at today's clouds!! YUCK!!! We're definitely in the precipitation stage of the water cycle!!!

Monday, Sept. 19

This morning, Mrs. Johnson's class joined us to watch Winter: The Dolphin That Could. We enjoyed seeing the real-life footage of Winter and how she survived her horrible ordeal.

For science this morning, we got to go outside for cloud observations. Different students saw different types of clouds. Kesler saw a cumulus cloud. Gabby saw cumulus, as well. Cirrus clouds were seen by Kamden, Emma, Aidan, and Lauren. Maddie, Sarah, Carson, Drew, and Jackson saw stratus clouds. We'll continue making observations over the next few days (weather permitting).

In math, we began adding and subtracting three-digit numbers! We are so cool!!!!

Friday, Sept. 16

We started this morning with a fire drill. We read some books when we came in. We watched a movie about the water cycle and weather.

Congratulations to Gabby!!! She's our Good Citizen for the week. Her friends say that she is super nice and never mean. She shows good character all of the time! She's kind and thoughtful! We're proud to have her represent our class!!!

We worked on our triangular relationships again today, followed closely by fact families. We're getting pretty good!! We also did something new called Number Decomposition.

We recorded our water cycle songs. They are on our Ustream site, if you would like to see them!!!!!!

Have a good weekend!!!!!

Thursday, September 15

We didn't have the opportunity to blog yesterday because we were having our fall pictures made during our blogging time.

Yesterday, we went to the red hall computer lab for the first time to do IXL Math. We worked on counting money and telling time. Mrs. Bruno wants to see what we do and do not already know. In science, we talked about solids, liquids, and gases and how they can change from one form to another. A real life example of that changing is called the water cycle. We learned how water evaporates, condenses, and precipitates constantly.

Mrs. Johnson's class visited us and worked on Math Magician. In math today, we worked on math facts in triangular relationships. Together, we listed all possibilites for the number ten, then wrote all of their fact families. Individually, we got to choose our own numbers and put them into triangular relationships. Today for science, we learned some water cycle songs. We're going to sing them tonight at the nursing home, and hopefully put them on the internet tomorrow.

We can't wait to share pix from our nursing home visit tonight!!!! : )

Tuesday, 9-13

First thing this morning, some of us went to Paine Primary Singers, some to the amphitheater, and some to Mrs. O'Connor. The rest of us felt a little lonely, and we watched the video of Mrs. Bruno visiting Winter.

Today, we took a hard math test that everyone in second grade has to take twice a nine weeks. We knew we wouldn't do great, but we plan to improve as the year goes along.

We finished our solids and liquids today. We journaled about what our favorite and least favorite parts of the unit were. We'll begin focusing on solids and liquids in our environment.

Monday, Sept. 12

This morning, we opened our day by reading "September 12th: We Knew Everything Would Be All Right." It was a book written by first graders after September 11th.

Mrs. Johnson's class joined us this morning, and we took our math test. Mrs. Bruno taught us a new addition/subtraction strategy called the "Nine Shortcut." We went to Mrs. Johnson's room and read a passage and completed a response sheet.

Friday's Blog

For our last day of Husky Pride Week, Brody, Peyton, Millie, Drew, and Savannah said the pledge and sang the Husky Pride song.

Drew is our Good Citizen this week. His classmates say he's shown good character, he doesn't play too rough, he's quiet in the hallways, he's nice to others, and he's not mean to others!!! Way to go Drew!!!!!

It's been a very busy morning. We had our timed test this morning on the "Make 10" strategy. Then, we worked on "liquids" word problems. We learned two new games today. "Roll and Count" helped us with our number sense, and "The Popcorn Game" is a way to choose a partner to check your work. We had so much to do in math that we weren't able to get to science.

We've also had lots of discussions about 9/11 and the Twin Towers. The kids had great questions!

We had our third compliment party. That crazy teacher of ours made MAYONNAISE COOKIES!!!! She didn't tell us what was in them until AFTER we tasted them!!! She was scared we wouldn't try them.

Thursday, September 8

Emma, Sarah, Thomas, Carson, and Aidan said the pledge today. The quote about knowledge today was, "The next best thing to knowing something, is knowing where to find it." Paine Primary Singers practiced with Mrs. Murray today.

During reading intervention time, the rest of the class stayed with Mrs. Bruno. We practiced the "Make 10" addition strategy, then talked about the upcoming movie "Dolphin Tale." Mrs. Bruno discussed the differences between the facts of what really happened and what the movie will portray. Mrs. Bruno visited Winter at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in July and can't wait to show us real video and pictures of Winter. Go see the movie on September 23!!!!

The class worked on Math Magician and wrote in our math journal. Our science focus moved from solids to liquids today. We'll be exploring liquids and their properties tomorrow!!!!

Calmed-down day

Today we are back to a normal schedule. It's refreshing!

Gabby, Alaya, Kesler, Maddie, and Creedon said the pledge on the intercom this morning. They also read a quote about knowledge, our character ed trait of the month. "Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes" by Peter Drucker.

A few of our friends visited the amphitheater and a few visited Mrs. O'Connor. The rest of us stayed and discussed solids and liquids and what we might find at the arctic!

During math, we put numbers in order from least to greatest and then from greatest to least. We also built towers with solids, then measured them to see which group built the tallest tower. We graphed the measurements and saw that Drew and Lauren had the tallest "solids" tower. We also did Math Magician! Yea fact practice!!!

CRAZY DAY!!

We are SOOOOOOOOOO sad!!! We didn't get to go on our field trip to McWane!!!!! We are hoping to reschedule it!!!

Our class is the Husky Pride class of the week, so we get to send students to Mrs. Schmitt's office each morning to do announcements. This morning Jackson, Lauren, Kamden, Ethan, and Fred said the pledge. They also quoted Mark Twain with a remark about knowledge. "The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so many things that aren't so!" Knowledge is our character trait for the month of September.

We had a seriously, crazy day!!! We didn't even get to school until 10:00. We were only here a precious few minutes before leaving to go to PE. From PE we went to Counselor. We got out late, had indoor recess, and headed to lunch. We finally made it back to our classroom, only to have abbreviated afternoon classes. The class packed up and headed home.

We hope we have a more normal day tomorrow!!!!

Friday, Sept 2

Take a look at our good citizen for the week . . . Ethan!!! Ethan has the best attitude about EVERYTHING. He's always willing to help, and he sets a great example for the other students in our class. We're very proud of him!

Today we got the chance to visit the book fair. If we didn't bring money, we can still bring it next Wednesday and shop.

We started our very first written timed test today. It was on doubles and doubles + 1. I hope we did well!!!! We did some word problems that had to do with our science unit, solids and liquids. Then, we observed some solids and told about their properties. Properties are the things that we know about an object based on our senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, and tasting). We had lots of fun with that!!

We can't wait for Labor Day! The class will go to McWane the day we come back!!! YEA!!!!!

Book Character Dress Up

Today, we participated in Character Dress Up Day! We were looking at everyone's clothes, and we were excited! Two different people dressed as Harry Potter. Thomas found out someone else was dressed up as one of the Scooby Doo characters. Lauren found out that Millie dressed up as the same character she did. We took turns making our pictures outside the room. It is evident that we all like different books.


Ethan liked Math Magicican. We used subtraction today. Today, we also, worked word problems in a more "grown-up" way. We were just given the word problem, without boxes for illustrations, model drawings, number sentences, or complete sentences. We had to rely on our brains to remember all of the steps!!!! We practiced our doubles + 1 today in a new way. A CD called out a number, we doubled it, and added 1. We played the Jumping Game before snack. Millie liked doing the Jumping Game.

Tuesday, 8-30

This morning, three of our friends went to the amphitheater, three went to music, and three went to Mrs. O'Connor's room. One person is absent, so that only left ten of our friends in our room. So, we had silent reading time. : )

We worked on Math Magician. Today was the first time that we've practiced subtraction. We used place value dice to make two different 3-digit numbers. Then, we decided which one was larger and put the correct symbol in the equation. Our word problems were about our reading story characters, Frog and Toad. We learned a new way to model draw, called part-part-whole. We can use EITHER way that we prefer to model draw.

We also completed a Social Studies paper to see what we remembered from our first unit.

Alaya liked the math game today. Lauren liked the Social Studies sheet. Ethan favored Math Magician. Kesler enjoyed Social Studies the most.

Tomorrow is storybook character dress up day!!! Look out for pictures of our characters!!!!

The Start of a New Week

Early Mondays are always a little crazy! We worked on comparing numbers today in math. We built numbers with base 10 blocks to see which number was bigger. We reviewed what >, <, and = symbols meant. Then, we practiced sketching two numbers and determining the bigger number. Eventually, we moved to just seeing two standard form numbers and putting the correct symbol between them.

We also worked on our Harcourt Reading Assessment for Mrs. Johnson.

We got to have our compliment party today. We drank KoolAid. We're starting over with our compliment board, in hopes of another party soon!

Put all of that with PE, lunch, and recess, and our day was over fairly quickly! We'll have another good day tomorrow!

It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to this week's Good Citizen, Millie! The class voted her Good Citizen because she's been quiet in the halls, she is a good friend to others, and she's helped others this week.

We had a few minutes of silent reading time this morning before beginning morning work. Mrs. Johnson's friends came for a visit early this morning, and we discussed what each morning will look like beginning next week. We'll have both classes in here doing handwriting, math, or Famous Americans, while Mrs. Johnson has reading intervention. We discussed maps this morning, highlighting a map key, map symbols, directions, compass rose, and locating things on a US map.

In math, we played with the place value dice with a partner. We did Math Magician and the Jumping Game. Our newest skill is being able to play "I Have..., Who Has...?" Today, we used place value cards, but Mrs. Bruno has "I Have..., Who Has?" cards for time, money, addition, subtraction, and more. We were excited that Miss Brown played our games with us today!

Thursday, Aug. 25

We've been having some MAJOR Blogger issues since an update was pushed out to our TCS computers. We would type our post, but then it wouldn't publish to the page. I finally contacted Blogger and found out what to do. So, now we should be back on track.

Over the past three days, we've learned the Jumping Game and the Show That Number Game. In the Jumping Game, Mrs. Bruno gives a math problem and we JUMP the answer. It's a great way to practice our math facts. We also learned a new dance. We needed some dessert after The Burger Dance, so we learned the Ice Cream and Cake song! :) Yesterday, Mrs. Bruno introduced us to some apps that were great for learning. She also emailed those home to our parents.

This morning we learned to play 'Da Numba. It's another great way to have fun and practice math facts at the same time. This game has a link on our class website. Millie passed a level for us!!! Yea, Millie. We also worked on Math Magician today. It was Alaya's group's turn, and she found out that she really liked it. She seemed surprised! We worked on "one less, one more" and "ten less, ten more" today, as well as "hundred less, hundred more." We also got our 10th compliment on the compliment . . . which means 2nd COMPLIMENT PARTY (if we don't lose it like we did yesterday). In PE, we jump roped. Caroline got hit in the head.

We read more of the Boxcar Children today. We learned that they were headed to the dump to look for treasure. (Mrs. Bruno, the germophobe, is gagging!!!!)

We also learned that our parents can watch us from the classroom everyday.

Monday . . . back to work!!!!

Gabby liked learning about expanded form in math, and she also liked our game with the hundreds chart. She says she was pretty good at it! Alaya liked switching classes today! Carson wants to know why it's so cold in the school. Emma enjoyed reading "I Like Being Little." Creedon liked when Mrs. Bruno read "Nate the Great" during morning duty. Kamden liked the hundreds chart, as well. Millie liked getting a compliment toward our compliment party because we were working diligently. Sarah liked being in our room! Fred says he needs a little improvement with his hundreds chart game. I bet he beats us all before it's over with, though! Millie liked having our class' name announced over the intercom for being the best second grade class in the lunchroom!!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Friday!!!!!

Congratulations to Savannah for being our very first good citizen! Her classmates say she is good citizen because she has great self-control, she's been really good, she knows how to stand quietly in the hall, and she's had the most compliments in the class so far.

This morning we finished our spelling sentences for Mrs. Johnson. We have started over today, working towards our next compliment party. We are reading The Boxcar Children and really enjoying hearing the trials of Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. Right now, they've just found an old boxcar to live in. In Social Studies, we discussed the differences between cities and suburbs. We determined that our closest city is Birmingham, and that our community of Trussville is a suburb!!

The PTO fundraiser is beginning. We can't wait to earn some prizes. We glued our names on our self-portraits and hung them for our parents to see next Monday night.

We're excited about the weekend!

Thursday, Aug. 18

We finished our self-portraits this morning, so we will hang them up soon! Millie wasn't too thrilled with the math that we did today. (Mrs. Bruno is going to get her!!!!) Jackson was glad we had a special library time yesterday so we could check out books!!! Gabby really liked math today. We began using our notebooks for the first time. Drew is excited that we're about to head to art. Creedon liked being introduced to Math Magician. He's going to practice at home!!! Kesler wants to do another self-portrait. Millie liked the self-portraits and base-10 blocks. Emma liked the self-portraits, as well. Sarah liked math. Aidan likes being with Mrs. Bruno. Alaya is excited about art. Lauren likes being with Mrs. Bruno. Thomas liked gluing his "Me Bag" stuff on his self-portrait. Fred is excited about our upcoming field trip to McWane.

Wednesday, August 17

We had our first compliment party today!!! YEA!!!! We worked on word problems in math and built numbers to 1,000 with base 10 blocks. In Social Studies, we talked about neighbors and neighborhoods, as well as communities.

Tuesday, 8-16

Today, after checking Husky Pads and morning work, more of our friends shared their "Me" bags. We only have a few left! We had our Caught Being Good tickets handed back out to us. Some of us read from the classroom library. We used our Base-10 blocks to build numbers. Miss Brown helped us with that. We did a few word problems. In social studies we talked about the groups we belong to (family, school, church, sports, etc.). We learned how to do word studies in our notebooks We've gotten TONS accomplished today!!!!!

First Monday of the Year!!!!!

Today is the first Monday we've been in school. We had an exciting morning doing an addition math sheet. We did all of our class-changing before PE today. We had the opportunity to meet a new student aide named Miss Brown. (Drew said she's very pretty!) She'll be with us each morning, as she learns what it's like to be a teacher. She's a high school student trying to determine if education is the career for her. This morning, we worked with Base 10 blocks, learning to build numbers. We also worked on sketching those numbers. We also worked more word problems.

In Mrs. Johnson's room, we edited sentences and read our first basal story. We'll have our first real homework tonight! YEA!!!!

Fun Friday

We finally finished our math assessment. I was surprised how many students didn't want it to be over. They actually liked it!!!! We finished our Chrysanthemum activity by dividing our names into consonants and vowels, giving each a value, and adding them up! No one's name was worth as much as Chrysanthemum's name! We began a conversation game where we each said something about ourselves and then asked someting of a neighbor. We're going to finish up with our homework over the weekend. Mrs. Bruno said that, if we get all of our work done today, we might get to learn a new dance!

Emma said she liked using the Time Tracker today. Kesler enjoyed finishing the math test. Kamden liked doing the math test. Alaya was excited about it, too. Millie did, as well. Aidan was excited that we started math word problems today! Yea!!!!

Thinking Thursday

Today we continued our math assessment. We had to recall how to do word problems, count money, and make bar graphs. We learned about Mrs. Bruno's Time Tracker. We also started a fun activity with our book, Chrysanthemum.

Thomas said he had fun today. Aidan wants to do MORE math. He was sad that we stopped. Carson is itching to get out of our room and to Mrs. Johnson's room. (Mrs. Bruno is crying about that statement!!!) Fred is ready to start science. Alaya liked our math morning work! Sarah liked our Burger Dance song break. We needed our rear ends out of our seat after that assessment!!!! Gabby is ready for the bell to go home. Millie can't wait for PE.

We're such big kids!

We changed classes for the first time today!!! It was so exciting! I got to see each class and started a beginning-of-the-year math assessment. We also read Chrysanthemum. We'll do a math activity with that story tomorrow! I'm enjoying getting to know your kids!! They're precious!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Welcome to the first day of second grade!!!!! We'll blog each afternoon we have time to let you know what we've done during the day!!!

Alaya says she liked everything. Millie liked our "I Wonder" poems after reading Wemberly Worries! Kesler liked our First Day of School Packet. Lauren liked everything. Kamden liked being with her whole class. Drew didn't like his recess injury caused by the zipline. YUCK!!!!! Thomas enjoyed meeting new people, eating cookies, and recess. Gabby liked hearing the Monster story. Jackson enjoyed recess!!! Peyton liked Wemberly Worries. Sarah enjoyed HER BIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTHDAY!!!!!!! : ) Savannah liked her name cookie!!! Emma did, too!! Carson liked the tic tac toe math sheet.

I think the favorite of the day, however, was the thing that had the least to do with school. As is typical in our crazy classroom, we had to end the day on a crazy note . . . doing the Hamburger Dance. You'll have to get your child to demonstrate our 30 second dance!!!!!

Lots of Water Under the Bridge

It's been a long time since we've posted an entry. A month, to be exact. Lots of things have happened during that time. Mrs. Bruno's class would like to reflect on the past four weeks.

We had spring break a couple of weeks ago. Some of us went to Orlando, some to the beach, and some to the mountains. Others visited with family and logged lots of books for our March reading program!

We've learned about the moon's phases and how it goes through a cycle. There are eight phases that occur over about 29 days. We've been observing the moon each night and recording it in our moon journal. Over the last few days we've had so many clouds and storms that we haven't been able to see the moon. We know, however, that the moon is still there, even though it's not visible. The moon orbits the Earth, while the Earth orbits the sun. We've also learned about the moon's craters, caused by meteors. We love studying space, and we think it's the best science unit so far!

We are also working on a space project. We're split into bunches of different groups to study different aspects of space. There's a group studying Project Mercury, the project where America got animals and people into space to orbit the Earth. One group is studying telescopes. The biggest land-telescope is in Puerto Rico. The largest space-telescope is the Hubble Telescope. We watched a video of the new spacecraft that will replace the ending shuttle program. We saw some short videos of the Challenger and Columbia disasters. We also looked at a powerpoint that put the size of Earth into perspective for us. It also showed us how little the sun, our star, is compared to other stars in the universe. We also discussed the eight planets in our solar system.

March is also Youth Art Month. Our class made yams to celebrate. John Patrick made Admiral Yambar. Daniel had a yamburger and fries. Caroline's yam was a porcupine. Owen made a yamamma! Samantha's yam was a sea lion. Raya had a yam dog. Bella had a fashion designer yam.

Book Character Dress Up Day

WE CAN'T BELIEVE WE DIDN'T TAKE PICTURES TODAY!!!!

Today we dressed up like characters from some of our favorite books. We had Flat Stanley to Fancy Nancy and everything in between. Unfortunately, Mrs. Bruno forgot to take pictures to post to the blog.

What we DID manage to do was make commercials for our favorite books. Those who wanted to do so posted those commercials on Ustream. Check out our site at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jennifer-bruno to see those commercials! Mrs. Bruno even dressed up like a crazy book character. Check it out!!!!

Happy Friday!

Today was a special treat for us!!! High schoolers from Mr. Bond's engineering class introduced us to simple machines. We know that machines are supposed to make work easier, but we actually experienced it today!!!!! We're very grateful that Mr. Bond's class took time to come and teach us about simple machines. Here's what the class had to say about our visitors, as well as other things that happened in class today!

Jonathan said that we got to learn about famous Americans. Evan learned how to do a math problem to determine his famous American's age when he died. He also sketched his famous American to decide what his poster would look like. Jacob enjoyed learning about simple machines in the gym this morning. Elliott's favorite simple machine was the wheel and axle because he liked racing. Jay's favorite one was the pulley, where children lifted him on a machine. Robert liked that one, too, because he liked being able to lift a high school student. Emily's favorite station was the lever center. She liked it because she saw that using a machine to lift a person was easier than picking up the person by herself. Kaylee liked the nail center. It showed how a wedge made work easier. Kendall liked the inclined plane center because she found it easier to push the crate up a ramp than to try to lift the weight straight up! Jonathan liked the lever center, as well. Lilley liked the screw simple machine. She learned that the bigger the handle, the easier it is to use. She learned that a screw was just an incline plane wrapped around a cylinder.

We brainstormed about all of the simple machines that we use daily and don't even recognize. When Mrs. Bruno had her ankle reconstructed last year, her students had to push her up the handicap ramp in her wheelchair to take her to lunch. The ramp is an inclined plane. When we play on seesaws, we're using a simple machine called a lever. We use pulleys to take things from the ground to the top of our treehouses. We use nails, which are wedges, to hammer things together! If we chop wood with an axe, we're also using a wedge. When our parents pulled us in little red wagons, they were using wheels and axles.

Also, congrats to John Patrick for the best estimate of how many books would be sold at the book fair. He won $25 worth of books!!! Yea, John Patrick!!!!

Thursday, Feb. 17

Thursday was a very full, but fun, day. We crossed curriculum a lot in math and science, using our science investigations of solids and liquids to help us study our math fractions unit.

Caroline liked her fraction homework where we colored parts of geometric shapes. Daniel liked helping Mrs. Bruno out by separating solids. Mrs. Bruno needed a soup mixtures of beans, rice, and cornmeal separated back out into the five original ingredients. The challenge was finding the right tool to separate each item because picking out by hand would have been gross and taken hours!!!!! In Mrs. Johnson's class, Elizabeth wrote poetry about the ocean, which holds the largest amount of liquid in the world. Samantha enjoyed putting solids into liquids and seeing what happened. Bella had so much fun this week and learned lots about solids and liquids!!!!

Properties of Liquids

Today we did experiments with liquids to test their properties. We looked at fabric softener, cooking oil, plain water, colored water, liquid soap, corn syrup, and detergent. We tested to see if each was colored, transparent, viscous, bubbly, translucent, foamy, and/or opaque.

Kaylee learned that liquids take the shape of their container. Evan learned about properties of liquids like viscous, translucent, transparent, foamy, and bubbly. Robert learned that gases will take up any amount of space that you'll let it. Gases have volume that changes. Kendall said that the volume of liquids stays the same, no matter what container you put them in. Jacob learned that a solid has its own shape.

Ellen said we used bottles to look at properties of liquids. Elizabeth learned that sometimes liquids are viscous and stick to the sides of bottles. Caroline says that liquids take the shape of their containers. Samantha found out that solids stay the same shape unless they undergo some type of change. Owen learned that a solid can turn into a liquid and a liquid can turn into a solid. Daniel learned that liquids can be different colors.

Valentine's Day

What a Monday! We had a full of science, wrapping up our study of the properties of solids and moving to the properties of liquids. We constructed towers made from solids, using what we knew about them to see who could make the tallest one! Then, of course, we had our Valentine's party, too! Here are some of the students' thoughts about the day!

Ellen thought the Valentine's party was great! We made ladybug tic-tac-toe boards and ate yummy ice cream and cookies!!!! Elizabeth said that Phoebe's babies (the hummingbird we watch via live web cam) fledged today!!! We wish them the best of luck!!!! Eli says that he learned you must look at different properties to determine what a liquid is!!! Caroline enjoyed building the towers!

February 10, 2011

Mrs. Johnson's class shared their thoughts about the day:

Kaylee says it was a special day today because we got to do math centers again. Morgan was excited to get to practice Math Magician. Elliott was today's Math Magician "king." Ellis liked the centers we did. Evan liked the day because the centers were fun. Carter liked the symmetry activity because he got to create a symmetrical cow face. Lilley is excited that our snow was "real" snow instead of ice like last time. Robert said today was fantastic because he enjoyed drawing a symmetrical snowman. Jay enjoyed the centers!!! Allie liked learning a new vocabulary game on the Wii!!! Kendall had an amazing day because she learned new things in class like making lines of symmetry! Brady said today was a blast because he got to play Math Magician. Jonathan liked today because each person got to go to each center.

Geometry

Geometry has been so much fun to teach the last couple of weeks. We've had lots of hands-on experiences, and the kids are learning lots while having a blast. Here are a few of their thoughts.

Ellen says that geometry is the best part of math so far! John Patrick liked making 3-D shapes from paper today. Owen thinks geometry is the most fun math we've done so far!