Cookbook Purchases and Donations

 The class was thrilled when our items arrived last week!  For items that we need, the class ordered new pencils, glue sticks, and individual pencil sharpeners.  Items they wanted were a few new books for our classroom library, journals and blank books for writing, sticky notes, and a new cushion for reading.  The students are writing up a storm in their journals and blank books.  I've seen the class writing about their friends, favorite sports, family, and fiction stories in the white blank books.  We also delivered our donations.  The class had voted on two places: the Preston Food Shelf and the Chatfield Nursing Home.  We typed up a letter describing the purpose of our donation and signed it.  The Preston Food Shelf donation was sent in the mail, and one of our sweet 2nd graders has an aunt that works at the Chatfield Nursing Home so he was able to deliver it in person!  Thank you again for all of your support in this project for the students.  So many great lessons for these kids in this economics unit!

Taste Tester #4: Hazel's Good Old Fashioned Pancakes and Oaklynn's Monster Toast

 This sweet 2nd grader was busy in the kitchen this weekend!  Her family made Hazel's Good Old Fashioned Pancakes and added blueberries.  They look delicious!  Then she made Oaklynn's Monster Toast.  What a fun recipe! Thank you so much for sharing your pictures with us!  

A Scientific Method Activity: Growing Gummy Bears

 The students were so excited to get started with science now that it is 3rd quarter!  We kicked off science with learning about the scientific method.  We learned that scientists often start with a question, make a hypothesis, carry out an experiment, and analyze the results. 

Our question was: How can we make gummy bears grow?  The students made a hypothesis given 5 options.  We soaked the gummy bears in plain water, sugar water, vinegar water, and lemon water.  There was also the option that the type of water wouldn't make a difference.  The class was pretty split across the board on their predictions.  

We measured and weighed the gummy bears before and after soaking over night.  Our result was that the vinegar water grew the gummy bear the most!  The class discussed other liquids they might try if they were to do this experiment on their own.  They brainstormed ideas of 4 different sodas or 4 different juices for example.

Taste Tester #3: Mrs. Howard's Mexican Beef and Rice Skillet

 This sweet 2nd grader tried Mrs. Howard's recipe from the cookbook, and it was a hit with the whole family!  I loved that she even got involved with the cooking by cutting the peppers!  Thank you so much for sharing, and I'm glad you enjoyed the recipe!  It's perfect for these cold days!

What is an Adjective?

 We have been learning about adjectives all year long.  We know that an adjective describes a noun.  We've been using adjectives to describe different characters we've met in the stories we've read.  Recently we used adjectives to describe ourselves.  We started the lesson by brainstorming adjectives about one of our sweet girls and then stuck them right to her!

The students then made an adjective person to describe themselves.  They used adjectives such as smart, kind, fast, cool, athletic, funny, creative, and so many more.  Second graders, you are the sweetest!

Paying Back the School and Planning our Purchases

 When we returned back from holiday break we took care of paying back the school for the printing supplies for our cookbook project.  We asked Mr. Semmen to come to our classroom so we could share with him about our cookbook sales and pay back $61.60.  The school generously donated back $40 of that!  That now left the students with $300 to spend on what they need, want, and to help someone! 

After discussing and voting, the class decided to spend $100 on needs, $100 on wants, and $100 to donate to someone in need.  I'm so proud of your 2nd graders for making a generation to someone in need! The class brainstormed different organizations to donate money to.  They ultimately decided to donate $50 to the food pantry in Preston and $50 to the Chatfield Nursing Home.  

They also brainstormed many ideas for needs and wants.  They decided to spend about $50 on classroom supplies of pencils, erasers, glue sticks, and individual pencil sharpeners.  $50 will be spent on new books to add to our classroom library that they picked out.  About $100 will be spent on their wants of a new cushion for reading, individual journals, individual blank books for writing, and a pack of sticky notes for each student.  Items should begin to arrive next week!

Final Cookbook Sales

 We had a fantastic 2 weeks of selling cookbooks for our economics project.  Our final numbers are in.  We sold a total of 140 cookbooks and made $321!  This was possible due to many generous donations!  Our first step is to pay back the school for the printing supplies.  We have to pay back 44 cents for each cookbook sold.  This equals out to $61.60.  After paying back the school, we are left with $259.40.  With that money, the class will make decisions about what they need in our class, what they want, and who they'd like to donate money to in order to help someone in need.  Thank you to all of our customers and those who donated.  It's great to see former students come back each year to buy a cookbook because they remember selling cookbooks in 2nd grade.  We will keep you updated on our purchases!