Another Christmas surprise....

We were very fortunate to have a very special guest come read to use today! It is very rare that your school Principal gets to come hangout and read a story to you....well our awesome principal did just that! Thanks Mr. Daniels!!! 

Christmas visitors...

The last few weeks we have had a few guest readers in our class. We have had the opportunity to have Bro. Jeff Paxton from Dover First Baptist, Bro. Micah Williams from Dover Church of Christ, and Mrs. Taverner the High School Principal. We have loved each and every story! There are still a few readers to go...be sure to watch for pictures!!! :)

Christmas Traditions

This week the whole Second Grade is looking at how Christmas has changed over the years. We have found many traditions that have carried on from the old fashioned Christmases to modern day Christmas today! We are looking at some traditions that are completely different and some traditions that are the same! So here is our questions for you...we are wanting to do some online research through our blog!

1. What is a tradition your family does every year?

2. Do you celebrate Christmas as Christ's birthday or something else?

3. Do you draw people's names for gifts?

4. Do you put up real Christmas tree or an artificial Christmas tree?

5. Do you have a tall or short Christmas tree?

6. Do you wrap your presents with brown paper or colored paper?

We hope you will share some of your family's favorite Christmas traditions!

Very Special Guests

This week we had two very special guests visit our classroom! We loved each of you and are so grateful for these cool experiences!

On Tuesday, Mrs. Brown from the Dover Times had the opportunity to come visit us in our classroom! Coolest experience YET! We had such a good time telling her all about our classroom and our class blog. Ms. Race invited her hoping to get more community involvement in our blog! We are excited to see what comments are to come in our future! Thanks Mrs. Brown...you are pretty awesome!

We had so much to share! 

We made the FRONT PAGE!!!!! 

Next, since we have been talking all about vegetables this week, Mrs. Race, our teacher's mom, brought us some homemade vegetable soup to try! Most of us liked it but some of us weren't too crazy about the vegetables! Thanks Mrs. Race! 

Food

This week we have been reading The Ugly Vegetables. In this story, the little girl tells about her mother growing a garden of Chinese vegetables. The mother then made a soup from the vegetables that supposedly would make your belly laugh it was so good. A few of us have enjoyed different vegetables we have gotten at Mulan's or New China. It makes us wonder if these are the types of Chinese vegetables the mother grew in her garden? So here is something we would like know....

1. What vegetables do you like to eat?

2. Have you ever eaten Chinese vegetables? 

3. Do you think Chinese vegetables are really ugly or did the author exaggerate the title? 

4. Do you have any good recipes for cooking vegetable soups?

We know we are suppose to eat vegetables but...we are wondering where can we find these real Chinese vegetables? Do we just find them at the chinese restaurant or does a grocery store sell these unique vegetables?

The Great Kapok Tree

This week we are looking into why author's write. We have discovered three main reasons: to entertain, to inform, or to persuade. We just finished reading The Great Kapok Tree and discovered that Lynn Cherry wrote to inform us all about what is happening in the rain forest. Did you know that the rain forest is being slowly cut down? So here are looking at ways we can help save the rain forest and our great WORLD!

Pick up litter 
Replant trees once they have been cut down
Recycle paper, bottles, and cans 
keep our yards cleaned up 
Conserve our water
tell people all about the problems in the rain forest 

What can you help us do?

Bats...Bats...BATS

Guess what we are learning about this week....wait for it.......wait for it.....BATS! That is right, we are learning all about those dark, creepy, night time creatures. Well at least that is what everyone thinks about them...our goal this week is to figure out just what bats are up to these days! So here we go again...we have the questions and we are hoping that YOU have the answers! So...

1. Why do some bats eat fruit for dinner?

2. How do bats have babies? 

3. Why are most bats misunderstood today?

4. What is a bat's prey?

5. Do bats have bones?

Now...we only hope you can help us answer these!

Signs of Winter

The Legend of the Persimmon: 

This morning we learned all about the seed of a persimmon. Did you know the seed has helped people determine the outcome for the winter to come. We learned the seed can have 3 different shapes inside.

Fork- The fork represents a mild winter 

Knife-The knife means the winter will be full of ice! 

Spoon- The spoon represents shoveling out lots of SNOW! 

....What did we find this year in our persimmon?.....

You guessed it, we found that this year our persimmon showed a SPOON! We are hoping for lots of snow. We also took the time to see what the Farmer's Almanac said about winter here in Arkansas. Guess what, it completely agreed with our persimmon. So here we go...getting ready for a cold winter to come! BRRRR....

Help us out...if you have cut open a persimmon please share what you found! 

Jellyfish

This week we are studying all about the life of jellyfish. We have found that jellyfish are quite the interesting animal...they actually have no brain and no heart! WOW! Who would have guessed that an animal living out in the deep blue sea has no brain! So here is what we are wondering...

1. How do jellyfish live if they don't have a heart?

2. Can a jellyfish still sting you if it is not alive?

3. How does a jellyfish breathe?

4. Can jellyfish survive on land and water?

5. Why have do jellyfish have tentacles?

We would love for you to help us answer these questions. Also, if you have any pictures or videos please email to Ms. Race at amber.race@doverschools.net

Sea Turtles

This week we are learning all about different types of sea turtles and their habitats. We have discovered that sea turtles are very fascinating animals! Did you know that sea turtles can travel the ocean for 20 years in the current and then make their way back to the same beach they were born on to lay their eggs?! How cool is that!!! We are hoping for a little help from you...

1. How do sea turtles meet each other? 

2. What is the smallest type of sea turtle?

3. How do sea turtles sleep?

4. Why do momma sea turtles leave their eggs?

We are hoping you will be able to share with us some of these answers and possibly some more cool facts. We are looking for neat websites to look into and pictures to share with others! Thanks for you help! 

-Ms. Race's class

WOOT WOOT WOOT....3 day weekend!

Labor Day weekend!!! 

We are so excited because we all get an extra day off this weekend! Ms. Race's class just wants to wish everyone a very happy Labor Day weekend! Please be extra safe and enjoy the hot summer days! Also, Ms. Race is a little excited because this weekend kicks off college football....GO HOGS GO! 

WOOOO PIG SOOOIE! 

-Ms. Race's Class 

New school year...new adventure!

Welcome back!

A brand new school year is starting up in Ms. Race's class with all new students! We are so excited to share with you some new questions, ideas, and adventures. At Dover Elementary our mascot is the Dover Pirate, so this week we read some of David Shannon's books all about Pirates. Guess what we learned, our pirates are totally different then Mr. Shannon's pirates! 

We brush our teeth...his pirates have green teeth!

We all take a bath everyday....his pirates don't take baths at all! 

We wear and change our socks...his pirates don't even wear socks! 

We change our clothes all the time..his pirates wear the same thing day after day!

Some of us have to change our little sisters' and brothers' diapers....his pirates don't even know where to begin!

We talk like normal people...his pirates have their own pirate language! 

We live on land....his pirates live in a ship in the big ol' ocean! 

We read books and bedtime stories...his pirates don't read at all! 

We did however learn that his pirates just like us.....GO TO SCHOOL! 

Do you have any cool pirate books or pirate stories to share with us?

We are way behind...

We apologize it has been so long since we have blogged. We are nearing the end of school and things have been quite busy!

Dr. Seuss

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not!" -The Lorax

This week we are looking at the great adventurous stories told by Dr. Seuss. Today we read The Lorax and discovered  Dr. Seuss wanted us to care and make a difference in our world! So here we go on our journey to see what difference we can make! 

Differences: 

1. Plant a tree, somewhere in the world! 

2. Recycle: Don't throw those things away that we can reuse! 

3. Plant a garden/flowers: us your plants to create oxygen and food for the table! 

4. If you cut down a tree, don't forget to replant! 

5. Keep your lights off when you are not using them. 

6. Take shorter showers! Use less water! 

7. Instead of always getting a new water bottle, don't be afraid to REUSE! 

 

 We are making a pledge this week to help out our environment! We want to challenge each of you to take this HUGE step and make a difference! 

Seahorses.....

Who knew horses lived under the sea....

This week we have been learning all about seahorses. We have discovered they are very interesting animals! Just a few facts about seashores we have learned...enjoy!

Facts:

1.Daddy sea horses carry the eggs for the female in his pouch near his belly button. When the sea horses are born, there are generally about 1,500 babies! 

2. In the morning the male and female horses dance with each other every morning. Even if she has to leave, she still returns home for a morning dance! 

3. Sea horses are so small....we unfortunately can't ride them. :( However they only grow to be no bigger than 14 inches tall. Some are even as small as 2 centimeters! 

If you have any cool facts, pictures, websites, or videos we would LOVE to learn more! 

-Ms. Race's class

Fairy Tales

"Once upon a time...."

We are finally back from Christmas break! This week we are learning all about fairy tales. We have found that fairy tales are stories we have all heard since we were little. We found several characteristics today while reading "Mei Ping" a Chinese Cinderella story. So here is our question for you...

1. What characteristics have you discovered about fairy tales?

2. What fairy tales have you heard?

3. Why does the character of most fairy tales find friendship with talking animals? 

 

We hope you find a wonderful fairy tale to share with our class! 

 

-Ms. Race's class