Our Circus

The day began with the Lord and our 1st Graders teaching us about hats.  We spent time learning about our "Christian hat."  Mrs. Keinath showed us a baseball cap with Luther's Seal on it.  Our real Christian Hat is invisible and can only be seen through our actions.  We also celebrated Perfect Church Attendance, Perfect School Attendance, and 2nd quarter Reading Awards. We continued our learning in the classroom and then went to have some Valentine's Day graphing fun with our PreK buddies.

Mrs. Hahn was a bit surprised to see this particular picture displayed on the big whiteboard in our classroom today.  You might be too!  However, your students can tell you why we are wearing masks. Technology gave us a way to show eachother what we looked like.  The masks are a part the items that will change us into circus animals.

The blog contains some compound words.  Please try to find them together!  You can also reply to the blog with some new compound words that you know or have found somewhere else.

Our Buddy, His Cats, and a Message

We got a chance to write back to our Trucker Buddy, Jerry, today.  We told him about the snow hill, Christmas lights, Christmas gifts, Large Cats, Chocolate, and Valentine's Day.  The students had a special salutation (good-bye) for him that applies to our part in the musical.  We wonder if he can guess what it means!

We are working on the song for the church service that begins an incredible week of celebration for 

Lutheran School Week.  The 2nd and 3rd graders enjoyed using gestures to help them remember the words.  The students are probably not ready to sing it to you yet, but then again we did have a lot of fun and it is a catchy tune!

Here is our Braille message to you.  Clues can be found in the sample project your student brought home today.  The blank cells are spaces.  The message is three words long!  Good Luck!

If you need help your student can give you more clues a letter at a time.

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!!!