Our World Travels!

We had so much fun traveling around the world, visiting other countries to learn about their customs and traditions. We got to learn about Canada from Silas. We traveled to France and got to have Lily's mom as our tour guide. We learned about several African countries from Adam's dad. We even got to go to Ecuador with Graham's uncle who was born there! We also traveled to Italy, Germany, and Australia. Our last stop was Mexico, where we got to have a Christmas Fiesta, complete with a pinata! What a way to celebrate!

All I Want For Christmas is...

All I want for christmas is my two front teeth, or maybe acouple bottom teeth...or maybe a big tooth on the side...This was one of our favorite songs this season for reasons quite obvious! We had a lot of fun!

We have tons to be thankful for!!!

This year as we got ready to celebrate Thanksgiving we learned about the pilgrims and Indians. We even got to see some real Indian things! We also made our own 'Sweet Dream Pie" after reading a funny story. But the best part was when we got to share our latest stories about our "Most Thankful Thing." We scanned our pages for the story, then taped our voices reading the text. We invited the parents to a special Author's Celebration on Tuesday and got to see all our stories in the "Movies." It was a great day!

The lastest great science experiments!

Taos taught us about how germs travel through the air when we cough. Yuk!

Hannah taught us about how cats are able to clean their fur with their rough tongues. Cool!

Adam taught us about the distance between the sun and all the planets in our solar system. Wow!

Katie showed us how to explode a film canister into the air with water and alka seltzer! Amazing!

Emily showed us why she could 'magically' hold a cup upside down without the water leaking out. Very courageous!

Lily did an incredible experiment where she put Ivory soap into the microwave and it literally grew!! Our eyes grew too!!!

Graham showed us how adding soda to vinegar makes it explode like a volcano! Woa!!!

Good Bye Miss Wagner! We'll miss you!

After 4 great weeks having Miss Wagner in our classroom as a BYU cohort student teacher, we really grew to love her. We'll miss her a lot. We loved doing PE with her and having us teach us different lessons in reading and language arts. Good luck in your next teaching experiene Miss Wagner!

Cashing in our money!

After nearly a month of earning pennies for all kinds of things, from great behavior and wonderful work to simply being incredible students...we got to go to the Olsen Market and spend our cash! We had a great time making decisions on what to spend our money on and then got to do some great math as we added up our tab.

A couple more great science experiments!!!

Anika taught us about why oil separates from colored water.


Brandt taught us about static electricty!

Happy Halloween!

What a fun Halloween we had!!! We experienced some 'real' witches brew, paraded around the school to show off our amazing costumes, and had a great party that our room moms planned for us. At the party we got to play "Toss a hat on a Pumpkin", Halloween Bingo, Halloween Pictionary, and also got to feel some gross 'mad scientist' eyeballs and things. It was pretty spooky and wild...definately tons of fun!

We welcome Graham to our class!

This week we got a new friend, Graham Lopez. We were so excited to have him join our class on Monday and hope that he's enjoying it. He is sure a great addition to our class.

This past week has been "Red Ribbon Week." We've celebrated our decision to always keep our bodies safe from drugs and alcohol. We also had spirit day and had everyone in the class wear their school shirts, so we got glow-in-the-dark fangs from the PTA. It doesn't get much better than this!

Some more great experiments!

We have had some incredible experiments lately! Wow! The things we're learning about are so fun! One thing we've discovered is that science sometimes seems like magic, but it can all be explained through the process of science. Isn't science fantastic. My camera was out of batteries for a couple of the experiments, but we'll have to get them next time around. It's a good thing we get two chances to do an experiment! It's simply too much fun for only one chance!

Thanks for a fun birthday!

What a surprise! Maizey's mom brought in donuts before recess and I got a special hat, princess sash, and a wonderful card from the best 2nd graders in the world! It made my day!

Buckled up for a Safe Ride!

The PTA sponsored Green Ribbon Safety Week this week and had the highway patrol bring a special seat belt demonstrator machine to school on Friday. It was so fun to get belted in and experience a 'safe' 6 mile per hour crash! We would never want to do it without seat belts!

Science can be a 'hair raising experience'!

We love Thursdays and our student science experiments! This week we learned from McKenzie that putting soda into some vinegar in a crinkled up soda bottle can actually take out the crinkles! Then Maizey explained how hair gell works and styled Eli and Jared's hair! Wow! We loved it!

Thundercake!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I'veposted on our blog. With my son's wedding and some other crazy things going on, I've been burning the candle at both ends. Hopefully things will start to settle down a little now. We've been learning about weather for the last week and have really enjoyed studying clouds and charting what the weather has been doing. After a pretty big storm a while ago we read a wonderful book: Thundercake by Patricia Polaco. Since then the children have been earning class points to have our own "thundercake' in class. Yesterday they met their goal!! So today we got to eat it! You'ld have thought that we'd won the lotery. The kids were so excited! They loved trying it, even though it had tomatoes in it! Then, of course they wanted the recipe. So I said I'd put it on the blog. Here it is...

Thunder Cake!
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together one at a time: 1 cup shortening 1 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla and

3 eggs, separated ( blend yolks in. Beat whites until they are stiff, then fold in.)
1 cup cold water 1/3 cup pureed tomatoes
Sift together: 2 1/2 cups cake flour 1/2 cup dry cocoa 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt
Mix dry mixture into creamy mixture. Bake in two greased and floured 8 1/2 inch pans at 350 degree for 35 to 40 minutes. Frost with chocolate butter frosting. Top with strawberries. ENJOY!!!

Our delicious Enemy Pie?

Enemy Pie!

We had a great week last week as we learned about friendship for Social Studies. Our favorite activity definatly was reading the book Enemy Pie and then making - and eating- our own pie! It was pretty strange looking, but these guys ate it anyway! now we're guaranteed to be the best of friends all year long!

Adam Belliston had a birthday and turned 7 on Monday! He was our first birthday for the year, so we got to try out our new 'birthday band' on him. It was a lot of fun - and actually didn't sound half bad either!

We filled up the treasure map again and got to pick a name again. Our latest "Pirate's Pick" is Emily Balls! Congratulations! Thanks for being such a great example to the class!

We're off and running!!!

We're now 8 days into the new school year and it looks to be a great one. We've got 23 in the class this year: 12 boys and 11 girls! It's a lively and fun group that are anxious and ready to learn. We've got a pirate theme going for the year and have already filled up our pirate treasure map. Our first "Pirate's pick" on the map was Olivia Salcido. Congratulations, Olivia!

We've been having a lot of fun getting to know each other and make new friends. I'm so impressed with how friendly and nice this bunch is to each other. It makes teaching a lot more fun! We look forward to some great adventures this year!

Ready or not...here comes school!

I can't believe that summer is coming to an end. It seems that school just got out and I'm already setting things up for this next year. Although I hate to see the summer end, I must admit that I'm ready for a change...I'm ready to trade my gardening gloves in for rulers, pencils and crayons. I've just gotten my class list for the year and am excited to see these new 2nd graders! I love all the preparation stuff that we teachers get 'into' the couple weeks before school. It's fun to set things up and imagine the many different personalities and dynamics that this new year will bring. So...bring it on. I'm ready! Well, not ready in the 'physical' sense, but ready for the new challenge and adventure!

Banana Split or Bust!

We did it!!! We passed off our fast facts and earned all the parts to our banana split!!! Yea! We can't wait until we get to 'cash in' and eat it!

Good Bye Mrs. Powell...We'll miss you!!

Tuesday was Mrs. Powell's last day in our class. We're really going to miss her. She's been such a great teacher and a lot of fun. We do wish her luck as she graduates and looks for her own class to teach in Idaho. Thanks for all you've done for us!