Freedom Week

Freedom Week Sept. 21-25th

This week we are looking at different symbols of our country! So far today we focused on the United States Flag. We learned the flag has 13 strips (7 red and 6 white). These stripes represent the first 13 colonies! If you notice there are also 50 white stars on a blue background. The 50 stars all represent the 50 states! (That's right...Arkansas has its very own star!) We plan to look more into other symbols but today we really focused on the flag and our Pledge of Allegiance. We have decided as a class that we realize many boys, girls, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, wives, and many more have sacrificed their loved one so that we could have freedom. Freedom to come to school, wear what we want, eat what we want, drink what we want, go to church, not go to church, and so much more! We want to first of all say THANK YOU to all the men and women present day, past, and future who have served or will serve our country! Our words could not say thank you enough! 

Here are a few questions to see if you can help us out:

1. Does anyone know which star belongs to AR on the flag?
2. How many stars were on the first American Flag?
3. Can anyone share a neat war story or memory of time during the war?
4. If you had to give up one freedom...what freedom would you be willing to sacrifice?

Welcome back!

Today I am sitting down with my new Third Grade class!!! That's right I no longer teach Second Grade, instead I got to move up with a great group of kiddos to 3rd Grade. So here we are....starting a brand new adventure! Here is a little catch up of what we have been learning in our second week back at school!


Science: 
Last week, we got to do a science experiment with Meal Worms! (P.S. Ms. Race did not enjoy having all those meal worms in her room but she survived!) We even got the chance to get them out and play with them! We measured them in length, counted their legs, and now we are waiting on them to cocoon and become a black beetle. A few of us have had the chance to take ours home so we are watching from home!

This week, we dove right into the Animal Kingdom! We are looking at vertebrates and invertebrates. Here is your question to answer....

Are there more vertebrates or invertebrates??? 

(Feel free to comment below if you know the answer) 

As we learn more this week we will try to get you posted but here are a few fun educational questions for you to see if you can answer and we don't have the answers....

1. How long does it take a Meal Worm to cocoon?

2. If there are more invertebrates or vertebrates...how many more of the one with the most are there in our world today? Is there a big difference in the number of each?

3. How long is the average Meal Worm?

4. How many different types of vertebrates exist?

5. How many invertebrates are cold-blooded?

We hope you are able to help us out! Please come visit our blog weekly and check out what we are learning!!! 

Have a great week! 

Spiders, spiders, and more spiders

This week we are learning all about spiders. Now, Ms. Race absolutely does not like spiders so we want to learn as much as we can just to see her cringe. Here are a few questions we want answered....

1. How many eggs can they lay at one time?
2. How do jumping spiders jump so high?
3. How many spiders come out of one egg?
4. What do they catch in their webs?
5. What do spiders eat?
6. How do they shoot webs?
7. How do they eat their prey?
8. How big is a tarantula's egg?
9. Why do people not like spiders?
10. Why are they afraid of humans?

11. What are natural predators of spiders?

Please share cool websites, videos, or pictures of spiders with us!

 

Jellyfish

This week we are diving back into the ocean blue to learn all about jellyfish. We know a little bit about them such as, they can sting you, they can kill fish, and their sting can be very dangerous for humans! Although we know these things...we want to know more!

1. How do jellyfish eat?
2. Can jellyfish live on land and water?
3. How many babies do jellyfish have?
4. Do they also scratch you when they sting?
5. What do jellyfish eat?
6. Can a jellyfish see? Do they have eyes?
7. Are jellyfish different colors?

We hope you have some cool pictures, videos, or websites that will help us discover these answers. 

Ms. Race's class 

Sea Turtles

This week we are learning all about sea turtles. We get the chance to dive into the ocean and find out what they are all about. Now, we know a little about sea turtles like...they live on land and water, sea gulls enjoy them sometimes for breakfast, they can lay lots of eggs, and they can eat fish sometimes. Although we know quite a bit, we plan to learn a whole lot more this week. We have a few questions we want to know if you can answer! We would love to see pictures, websites, or even cool videos all about sea turtles so please share with us.

Questions: 

1. How long does a sea turtle live?

2. How much does a sea turtle weigh?

3. Exactly how many eggs can they lay?

4. What does a sea turtle eat?

5. Why does the mother sea turtle leave her eggs?

6. Which oceans does the sea turtle live in?

7. What hunts a sea turtle?

Please share cool websites, pictures, comments, or videos! 

Thanks, Ms. Race's class 

A new class...a new beginning!

This school year has already started and we are ready to rock and roll! After talking with my students here are a few things we hope to learn this school year....

1. Sharks
2. Building things- engineering
3. How to get four jobs in one day
4. Hyenas
5. How do things/objects fly?
6.Jellyfish
7.Building a vertical wall and tearing it down
8. How to build ships
9. Building a transformer
10. Barbies
11. Math
12. Penguins
13. Spiders
14.Sea Turtles
15. All the poisonous spiders
16. Rocket launchers
17. Catching sharks
18. Honey Bees
19.Elephants
20. King Cobras   

EXTRA EXTRA READ all about it!!!

This week we are learning all about sequencing of events. So we decided to take a look at the newspaper and how it was made. Now the interesting part is we are looking at the newspapers from the 1700s. WOW times have changed!!!!!

Then:
*The printer made words by pulling individual letters and forming them into words.
*When they printed a page they had to hang it up to dry before passing it out.
* 240 pages printed per hour
*They had to have a TON of patiences!!!

Now we have noticed that newspapers today have color, pictures, and cartoons. We have requested for a guest to come visit us this week. Hopefully we will be able to share more information once our guest teaches us!

Monarch Butterflies at risk..

This week we have been learning all about cause and effect in our literature. However, today Ms. Race received an email with an article stating that Monarch Butterflies are dying out and dying quickly! So we wanted to know what caused this to happen?! Why is this happening, why are the Monarchs disappearing when they are one of the most beautiful butteries found in Arkansas and many other states. Well here is what we discovered....

Cause: Americans have created a new poison that kills out weeds. Well here is the problem, we want the weeds gone from our roadsides, fields, and farms. So we have started using a new poison that eliminates these weeds. Sounds good right?! Wait, here is the problem, when we kill out the weeds we are killing out Milkweed. Milkweed is the number one thing butterflies eat and how they survive! We discovered Monarchs get a special poison from the Milkweed that helps them fight off their predators.

Effect: The Monarch Butterflies are dying out in massive numbers! We need to see what we can do to help them!

Here are a few ideas:

Jocelyn- "Why don't we just replant the milkweed in a different location?"
Libby- "Why don't they make a weed remover that kills all other weeds but leaves the Milkweed?"
Landon- "Why don't they put a barrier around the milkweed?"
Presten- "Why don't they cut a large area of grass and plant milkweed specifically in that area?"
Jakob- "Why don't they find a new location where there are no crops?"

Bees...

This week we are learning all about bees. Bees are actually pretty cool insects. We learned there are 3 types of bees in each hive. 1. Queen Bee- only one queen bee in each colony. 2. Workers- all the female bees 3. Drones- all the male bees.

Here are some cool facts:
1. During the winter, the drones are expelled from the hive and left to survive on their own.
2. The queen bee lays about 2,000 eggs A DAY!!! She can lay up to 2 million eggs in her lifetime. She lives about 4-5 years.
3. About 80,000 bees live in a colony.
4. If the queen bee dies, the workers pick one female bee and feed her a special food called "royal jelly."

We now have a few questions for you...

1. How many species of bees are there?

2. How do you tell two different kinds of bees apart?

3. How do they make their hives?

4. Why do some bees borough?

5. Does the honey keep the hive together?

6. How many colonies of Bumble Bees are left?

7. How big or small is a bee?

8. Are wasp, hornets, yellow jackets, and bees related?

Japanese Culture

This week we are reading a story called How My Parents Learned to Eat. This story is all about an American sailor who married a young Japanese girl. Now here are a few things we have noticed:

1. They seem to always sit on the floor.
2. They sleep on the floor.
3. They eat with chopsticks all the time!
4. They also eat sukiyaki and tofu.
5. They drink their soup instead of eating it.
6. They wear kimonos.

Now these are a few things we just discovered through our reading and the pictures. Here is our question for you.....WHY? Why do they always sit on the floor? Why do they sleep on the floor? Why do they drink their soup instead of eating it? We are just very curious as to WHY!!!!??? We hope that you have some cool culture facts to share with us all about the Japanese culture!

 

Sukiyaki

Tofu

California Drought

We have recently discovered that California is in some big trouble! They are currently experiencing one of the worse droughts they have seen in over a hundred years. Lakes, reservoirs, and rivers are all dried up! Farmers are suffering from lack of water, produce, and income! So here are some of our discoveries...

Problems:
*crops die
* fewer vegetables and fruits
* higher prices
* little to NO water
* long time without water
* wildfires
* Seems to look a lot like the desert

Ideas to help: *Take vacations to California and carry water along for others!
* Run a pipe to transport water
*store water in containers and bottles for transportation
* Use airplanes to drop water
* plant large gardens here in Arkansas to donate vegetables
* Transport water to the lakes
* Use freezer trucks to transport excess snow and ice to California 

Creatures....

We have been taking time to create our very own polar species using Google! Here are a few...

We had to come up with diet, predators, habitat, and specific characteristics. 

We are back...

It has been a little while since we have been on our blog. We are so sorry but we have been very very busy! As you know, we worked so hard last time we blogged learning all about penguins! Well you would be completely amazed at what all we really did discover! (Don't worry pictures will hopefully be coming soon!) Now it is a new week and a new idea...so here we go!

This Sunday is Dr. Seuss' birthday! One of the greatest children's author ever...well in Ms. Race's opinion. In honor of a Dr. Seuss we would like to know.....

1. What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? What is your favorite part in that story?

2. When did Dr. Seuss begin his writing?

3. Do you like any of the Dr. Seuss' movies?

4. Can you give me a detail from your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

5. Have you ever tried.......green eggs and ham????

Penguins...

This week we are diving into the cold waters to find a very interesting animal! We are learning all about penguins this week. Penguins are actually pretty cool animals. Here are a few facts...

1. The daddy penguin carries the egg on his feet to keep it warm! 

2. Some penguins live in the South Polar region. 

3. An enemy of the penguin....is a sea lion! 

4. Penguins are cold-blooded animals. 

5. One penguin always keeps guard to assure it safe to enjoy lunch! 

Now it is your turn to tell us what you know! 

1. How fast can a penguin swim?

2. Why do they live in cold places? Where all do they live?

3. Do they have trouble with land animals or only sea animals?

4. What kind of food do they eat? Just fish?

5. How many species of penguins exist today?

Happy penguins! Please be sure to send us some cool websites! 

Sea Horses

This week we are diving back into the shallow waters of the ocean! We are learning all about sea horses. We have so far discovered sea horses are very interesting animals....they definitely have some unique things about them.
Here is just a tid bit of what we are have learned today:

1. The dad sea horse actually carries all the eggs! There can be hundreds of eggs at ONE TIME!!!
2. Each morning the sea horses dance first thing. 
3. The mom sea horse still makes the eggs but she passes them on to daddy! 
4. Once the babies are born, the mom and dad both leave the animals to survive on their own! 
5. Sea horses can camouflage themselves in the water!

These are a few of the things we have learned. Now it is your turn!

1.  What part of the ocean do they actually lay their eggs?
2. What are the enemies of the sea horse?
3. What types of food do sea horses eat?
4. Do sea horses migrate? Or do they live in one spot forever?
5. Why in the world are sea horses so small? 

Signs of Winter...(Part 2)

The last several months many people here in Dover have been shocked by our winter weather....NOT US!!! If you look back to October 2nd, we blogged about the persimmons we opened during the fall. Many of us opened several at home and connected with family members that had cut open persimmons. We had mostly spoons and a few knives. Remember...those spoons are all about the snow! Here is just a little tidbit of information that will help show the accuracy of our persimmons...

November 2013: Over Thanksgiving break we had 2 days with sleet falling from the sky. 

December 6th-December 10th- Dover was out of school due to several inches of snow in our area.

January 6th- THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES WE HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN DOVER!!!  

January 8th- January 11th Sleet and freezing rain started falling fast so we went home early...we were out of school for the rest of the week due to lots of ice! 

Old Man Winter sure is bringing us some cold weather...what more will we face? Can you help us try to predict our weather for the upcoming months of February and March...we can have a little fun and see who is right!

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!