Helen Keller & Braille

Helen Keller was not born blind and deaf.  She became blind and deaf as a result of a childhood illness.  She lived in a silent and dark world until Annie Sullivan was sent to be her teacher.  Annie certainly had a big job to carry out.  Annie needed to find a way to calm Helen who was a great fit thrower!  She needed to find a way to help Helen know about the world.  God blessed their relationship, filled Helen with knowledge, and the two ladies were friends for the rest of their lives!

The students have been learning about Braille.  Today they made the letters for their initials on a small piece of paper.

The students will be using a Braille letter chart this week.  We will be glad to show you what we have made every day!

Our New Friend

Mrs. Mueller is a kind, patient, and helpful member of the St. John congregation.  She has volunteered to visit us in our classroom once a month to read to us.  Today she brought an interactive book called, "Press Here." We started out sitting pretzel legged and ended up getting comfortable as we giggled and clapped our way through the book.  Mrs. Mueller even wore a pin that went with the book!   All of the 2nd grade students & Mrs. Mueller truely enjoyed their time together.

Sound Travels

We had a presentor at school today to help us understand how sound travels.  He also demonstrated the effect pitch has on sound vibrations.  He used our recorded voices, a beat we created, and the unique noises a few of our students created for him.

The presentor also demonstrated a larger version of candles impacted by the sound waves as they traveled from his microphone and his keyboard to a small speaker.  As the sound waves traveled through the speaker they showed vibration by the way the flames rise and fall.  When sound waves get "bunched up"  the rise and fall of the flames resembles mountain peaks with valleys.

skimming, scanning, looking, & searching

Sometimes learning is difficult to watch.  Learning sometimes means struggling through the process that becomes part of our being.  Hopefully the struggle of skimming, scanning, looking, and searching through Religion History - Unit 3 can take place in your house with an abundance of patience!!!

You might guide them to the correct story and then...Please show them a word to "scan" the page for. Let your student do the searching.  They are fantastic kids trying to come to grips with a new skill. Allow them guide you to the correct story too and see if they can tell you a word to "scan" the page for.  If we walk them through the process throughout this semester of school they will gain a skill that can last them a lifetime.  If we do this task for them they will continue to struggle to glean information out of materials in the classes they encounter.  This is not about the Religion Grade it is about mastering a new concept.

Maybe the title of this blog should have been Learning to Breath!  As adults it is hard to watch the learning struggles of our children.  We want to fix everything for them, but if we guide, breath, guide, and breath they will master those new skills!  

And oh the joy of seeing their success!!!!!  

Friends and Bears

The people at the Cosmo took a moment to tell me how much they appreciate our students!  

They like the manners of please and thank you!  They complimented the way the students work to support each other! They even talked about how they will clean up the theater instead of waiting for someone to take care of their trays and garbage!  YES, INDEED WE HAVE A FINE BUNCH OF YOUNG PEOPLE AT ST. JOHN SCHOOL!!!!  Yes, Indeed they do hear you and listen to you as you provide them with examples of how to live each God given day!

Keep inspiring your children!!!

Snowmen, Seussical, & Schools

We had Art with Mrs. Germain today!  She is teaching us about perspective.  This means looking at something in a new way.  Our project is creating a snowmen perspective.  It has us laying on the ground and looking up at our snowmen.  The finished creations will be done using craypas.  They will even be hung up in a unique way to give everyone a "new point of view".

Our Art teacher is talented, creative, and patient!

Musical Practice started today!  We will be gathering together with all the students at St. John a couple times each week. Mrs. Brietwisch led us through the first two songs.  The Seuss song and the Horton song are fun to sing. The Horton song has a jungle beat that we can't get out of our heads.  The best part of musical practice is being together and learning it with everyone!

The story we are currently reading in our Language Arts Series is about going to school.  Students are found all over the world.  They are all taught reading, writing, and geography.  Some students do not attend school in a building like we do and some students wear uniforms.  No matter where they go to school all students practice friendship, manners, and kindness.  Where did you attend school? Where did your grandparents go to school?  Did they learn to read and write in German?  

Adding 2 Digit Numbers & Spelling

We are learning to vertically write numbers in place to add with regrouping. 

   1

   24

+ 39

   63

Always start adding from the right side, which is the pennies column.  We bring the dime from 4 + 9 = 13 to the top and place it over the 2 in the tens column. Make sure you begin counting with the dime you placed at the top….

1 + 2 = 3 and continue  3 + 3 = 6  The sum (answer) is 63.  You may also need to place cent signs after each number depending on the problem.

THIS BECOMES A HARD TASK when one of the numbers is a single digit.

3 + 28 is more difficult then it looks.  Students tend to line up the 3 with the tens column instead of the pennies column.

   3

+ 28

   58

This is not correct and is very hard for students to see.  The true answer occurs when the single digit is placed into the pennies column.

   1

     3

+ 28

   31

3 + 8 = 11, The dime is placed at the top above the empty space.  Adding continues at the top of the empty space with 1 + 2 = 3.

The sum (answer) is 31. 

SPELLING WORD LIST (long e spelled ea or ee)

free, teach, teeth, please, beach, wheel, team, speak, 

sneeze, sheep, meaning, weave, eat, read, between, reason