Welcome Back!

Hello new students and families! I'm sure you are enjoying this amazing summer weather. We are so lucky to have several weeks left.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our classmates who celebrated birthdays over the summer.

Adi

Arianna

Danny

Olivia

Zachary

I've been working in our classroom, taking care of our class frogs and having lots of fun with family and friends.

Here's Blue and Jay. I recently bought them a new tank. They are pretty excited about it.

There are letters at the top of the page for you and your parents and a supply list. If you'd like to stop in the day before school starts to look around and drop of your supplies, I'll be in our classroom from 2:30-3:00 on Sept. 5th.

I'm excited about our school year together. I know it will be filled with friendship and discovery.

See you soon!

Mrs. Holm

 

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Learning Outside the Classroom

Today we welcomed artist Rob Surette to Shaker Lane. He shared his amazing talents and inspiring message during an hour long presentation. He truly is a remarkable talent. Learn more about him at www.AmazingHeroArt.com

There's a lot to explore right outside our door! On a recent sweltering day, we packed up our backpacks with learning tools and headed outside, away from the steamy classroom. Students worked together to observe, measure and discover.

 

 

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Happy 100th Valentine's Day or something like that.

I really thought we'd have a chance to celebrate these two events on separate days this year but Mother Nature had other ideas. Oh well, the more the merrier!

February 14th started out with a surprise at the entrance to the second grade hallway. "Glamma Holm" welcomed students through the big 100. There were some young ins and some 100 year olds.

Once our day was underway, we delivered Valentines then found objects that measured 100 cm and weighed more, less and equal to 100 pennies. It was interesting to discover if 100 inches was more or less than 100 cm.

Mr. Faherty checked in on us old timers.

Whoa! Somebody flipped out!

We represented 100 in many ways. We painted, drew, colored, built, jumped, blinked, wrote, exercised and assembled!

Our Kindergarten Book Buddies joined us in the afternoon to exchange Valentines.

Even our class pet frogs got Valentines!

Everyone showed a lot of HEART today.

I can't wait for the next 80 days!!!

 

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Global Play Day

This was the second year Shaker Lane participated in Global Play Day. I hope it's the beginning of a long tradition! Smiles and imaginations were at an all time high. Our classroom was a buzz with Beyblades, board games, a veterinary hospital, a restaurant, a full service salon and a craft studio!

First we made the food, then we opened the restaurant. Customers were very generous with their tips!

There were a lot of good sports who visited the salon!

Mrs. Hutchins was one of our customers!

The day offered something for everyone. We even had time to play outside. Our art, music and P.E. Teachers gave us free time in their rooms too!

It's amazing to think that children all over the world were engaged in play at the same time as we were!

What a wonderful world.

 

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Learning by Doing

We earned certificates (and kudos) for participating in the Hour of Code.

Learning to code was both challenging and fun!

We welcomed Ms. Atomic A from Smarty Plants for an in house field trip. We learned how plants drink water through their roots and stem through the process of CAPILLARY ACTION. We learned about photosynthesis and removed the CHLOROPHYLL from leaves. We dissected a seed and found an embryo inside.

Here we are after performing reader's theater versions of the folktales we read as part of our Journeys lesson.

 

 

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Fall

Fall is a time to...

DISCOVER

A few brave parent volunteers helped us measure, describe, weigh, estimate, carve, and count seeds. In our sample of pumpkins the smaller ones had more seeds.

HAVE A LITTLE FUN

Here we are in all our spookiness on Halloween!

LEARN

As we study rocks, we learn that weather and water cause them to break down over time. It's amazing to think of sand as millions of tiny rocks.

VOTE!

We learned about citizenship, registered, and participated in the voting process.

CREATE!

The best way to learn about animal homes is to recreate them. We developed a true appreciation for the skill and patience these animals have. Here we are building bird nests.

BE CURIOUS AND CREATIVE!

How would you like to have lobster or eel for Thanksgiving this year? If it was 1621, those would be on the menu. We read about the first Thanksgiving and represented the feast.

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