Field Trip: Kennebunk Animal Shelter

Today, we visited the Animal Welfare Society to deliver our collected donations and the dog treats we wrapped. When we first arrived, our tour guide, Garrett, made sure we knew the rules about how to behave around the animals.

First stop...the lobby, where we saw small animals like kittens, birds, hamsters, and guinea pigs.

Next, we visited the dog kennels. Boy, were they happy to see us and get their treat!

 Then we got to visit in the cat rooms. We were happy to snuggle and pet these cuties!

There was a lot of purring and giggles!

It was hard to leave these little sweeties! But we had work to do before we headed back to school.

We got to help make "enrichment" treats. Our guide called them puzzle boxes. We smeared peanut butter on the inside of empty cracker boxes and cardboard tubes then filled them with treats. We sealed them up so the workers could pass them out to the dogs later. These puzzles boxes help to entertain the dogs so they aren't too bored while they are waiting for their "forever families" to come and adopt them.

The tour guide's dog, Dougie, enjoyed licking the peanut butter off our hands!

Thank you Kennebunk AWS for allowing us to come for a visit and help out!

Thanksgiving Class Party

 We had a fun game of Thanksgiving Bingo!

 Then we got busy making our rubber glove turkeys!

These were stuffed with cheerios and fruit loops, then we added eyes, a beak, feet, and a gobbler!

...and our finished product! So cute! Thanks to Mrs. Vocal and Mrs. Collins.

Pumpkin Life Cycle Activity

 Welcome to Mrs. Waugh's pumpkin patch! Since we learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin on our field trip last week, we decided to compliment our learning with this activity.

On one side of the vine you will see the words describing the sequence of the life cycle and on the other side is the matching picture.

Field Trip: Wolfe's Neck Farm

 We arrived at the farm. Wolfe's Neck is an awesome non-profit farm beside the ocean! Our guide, Julianna, memorized our names and then made sure we knew the rules.

We loaded up on the wagon to go to the field to pick our own pumpkins!

Once we got to the field our guide made sure we only took a pumpkin that we could carry ourselves. Good plan!

 Time to learn the pumpkin's life cycle by acting it out! We learned some big words, too, like pollination and adaptation!

Finally, it was back to the barn to visit the animals. We saw goats, pigs, and chickens. We got to walk inside the chicken coop and give them some feed. 

It was a very cold morning but we loved visiting the farm! 

Once back in our classroom, I surprised the kids with hot chocolate!

Cupcake Apples!

First and second grades got together to decorate cupcakes to look like apples!

 First, we chose red or green frosting to spread on the cupcake.

 Then, we added a pretzel stem.

 Next, we stuck a green gumdrop leaf next to the stem.

 It was hard not to lick our fingers!

 Finally, we were allowed to eat them!

 So yummy!

It was an apple-y kind of day!

Our art project yesterday was very simple but turned out so beautiful! We made apple sun-catchers!

Animal Adaptations

 

Second grade did an amazing job on this assessment! We have been learning about the different adaptations that animals have. In this assignment the children were asked to draw a summer scene on one side of their paper and a winter one on the other. When they were done they were to place their drawing of a ptarmigan using its adaptation and place it in the correct scene.

Can you find the ptarmigans??

Four Legged Visitors

We have had a couple of interesting visitors to our classroom this week! On Monday, one of my students brought in a container with two salamanders! Today, another student brought his pet guinea pig, Brownie, to spend the day in second grade! Besides my love for animals, this has been great because we are learning about animal groups and other cool topics about animals in Science right now. Nothing better than the real thing!

Here is a shot of our butterfly tent which houses our two swallowtail chrysalises. The second picture is a shot of one of those chrysalis. Isn't the camouflage amazing? Another interesting fact about the swallowtail is that if you get a late caterpillar, it will probably stay in its chrysalis all winter and not hatch until spring. I wonder what we have? Late or early?

In Social Studies, today we talked about different kinds of resources we can use to research a topic. This was particularly cool because one of my students brought in a seed pod to show us. He let us cut it open to find the seeds. We then got really curious about what plant it was from and what it was called. So we used our resources! Believe it or not the internet didn't help and we resorted to asking a another teacher if she knew what it was. She produced a plant and seed book that helped us identify the pod! It was a "wild cucumber"! And that my friends is how to use your resources! Perfect life lesson to accompany our school lesson! Love it when that happens.

Great Start!

We've had an awesome start to the 2013 - 2014 school year at Greater Portland Christian School!

Our school has had a face lift and looks great!

In second grade, we are hatching two Swallowtail butterflies. The first should emerge from its chrysalis any day now and the second in about a week or so. I will post pictures! I am extra excited because I usually hatch Painted Lady or Monarch butterflies, so this is a new species to me!

I'm learning to blog!

Today, I have been to three awesome classes. My favorite was learning to blog and setting up my own blog!

2012 100th Day of school!