Mrs. Janson visited today to teach us about horses. This was a favorite topic for many children in the room! Several excitedly shared stories about their experiences with being near or even owning horses. We learned about horse vocabulary and even made our own feed sacks to represent what a horse needs in it’s diet. The food, of course, was for people! The children decided that they were as hungry as horses while eating the snack!
Want to learn more? Click on the horse below to play horse games!
Today in math, we played an online game to compare numbers. I promised the kids that I would link the site to our classroom blog tonight! Thanks, Daniel for reminding me!!
Click HERE to play!
Today we began “watching” the book, Olive the Other Reindeer on Tumblebook Library. We did not get a chance to finish the story! There is a link to Tumblebook in the Language Arts section of my blog. I have also attached a link below:
Login: sd228
Password: books
Happy Reading!
TumbleBook Library
Simply defined as the unselfish giving and sharing of resources, time, and talents with others. Southwest families donated items to Hillcrest Home during the month of December. I am amazed at the generous spirit of giving that all families have shared with the elderly residents. Thank you for making the holiday season so much brighter!
On Monday, we were visited by Firefighter Bob and Firefighter Brett from the Geneseo Fire Protection District. They talked to us about the importance of keeping away from candles and lighters as well as reviewing that we should, “Stop! Drop! And roll! if our clothes ever catch on fire. They also showed us the ladder truck and let us see their equipment. Photos from our visit can be found above under the “Fire Safety Pics” tab. You will notice that the students were able to touch the firefighters while they were wearing their equipment. They stressed the importance of never hiding during a fire. The children were able to hear how the firemen’s voices changed when they were wearing their masks and air tanks. Everyone got to see for themselves that there are “good guys” in those scary costumes – There is nothing to be afraid of!
Chamber music and karate. Yep. You read that correctly. Our school was treated to a fantastic performance that included drums, bass, cello and martial arts. Dave Eggar has performed and recorded with artists such as Pearl Jam, Coldplay, Josh Groban, The Spin Doctors, Bon Jovi, and Hannah Montana, among others. Our visit was part of a two week residency with the Quad City Arts’ Visiting Artist Series. There will be a public performance at St. Ambrose University’s Galvin Fine Arts Center on Saturday, September 24 at 7PM. The performance is free, and donations will be accepted at the door.
Friday was an exciting day for us! We were visited by Miss Illinois, Hannah Smith. She talked to us about the six pillars of character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. We also had a guest reader visit our classroom! Mr. Ryerson read us a funny story about dust bunnies that rhyme! Ask your first grader to tell you about Bob…
On Friday, Southwest students created an American flag using handprints. Each student wrote a word describing a hero on the hand. While September 11, 2001 has different significance to the children than the adults, even the youngest of students seems to understand that the world changed on that day.
We learned about apples when Mrs. Janson visited from the Henry County Farm Bureau. See the page at the top for photos from her visit!
We have been learning about the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies. We have learned that life cycles are called just that, because, like a wheel, they go around and around. Ask your child to describe the life cycle to you. Click the link below to watch a video clip of a monarch coming out of its chrysalis.
Monarch butterfly metamorphosis
