We had an "owlsome" time!

We have been learning about owls and food chains this week. We found out that owls swallow their prey whole, but their stomachs cannot digest the bones and fur. After eating, owls will cough up a pellet. 

On Thursday we dissected some owl pellets. 

Students pulled apart the pellet to find lots of hair and bones! 

They used bone charts to figure out what their owl ate. 

Syndee and Logan begin pulling their pellet apart.

Ben and Kyle are working hard!

 Kayden and Giovanny are showing off some of the bones they found!

 Cameron holds up what we think is a rodent hip or leg bone.

Brooklyn looks cute as ever while dissecting!

Josalynn and Alyvia work together to find bones in that hair! They used tweezers and sticks to help. 

Students were allowed to wear gloves, but most of the kiddos ended up ditching the gloves so they could dig in easier!

Connor and Alexis show the skull they found in their pellet.

Aiden is dissecting while Sebastian is studying a bone chart.

The wonderful Jamey Pavey from Shelby County Soil & Water helps Nadia and Delaney identify their bones.

Here is part of a rodent skull we found. If you look closely, you can see the bottom jaw and the little teeth on it.

We tried to use charts like this to help us identify what bones we found.

The students had an absolute blast in the Science lab! Two students who were absent will be dissecting a pellet next week so I will post pictures of their Science adventure soon!

Have a great weekend! :)

Reminders:

-Students have school next Monday and Tuesday. There will be no school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Happy Thanksgiving!!

-PLEASE PLEASE send in donations for our soldier care packages. I know it is a time of year where many different groups are requesting donations, so I really appreciate your help with our service project. 

Nov. 18-22

This Week In...
Math: Mental subtraction; Two-digit addition and subtraction with/without regrouping
Reading: Compare and contrast; Summarize
Language Arts: Verb tense- past, present, future
Science: Owls; Food chains

Homework:
M: DEAR Log, Math Practice 7-2, MClass Math
T: DEAR Log, Math Practice 7-3, MClass Math
W: DEAR Log, Math Practice 7-4, MClass Math
Th: DEAR Log, MClass Math
F: Get behavior card signed and return on Monday; Finish Family Turkey project and bring to school on Monday, November 25th

Reminders:
-Grandparents' Night is tomorrow from 6:00-7:30pm 

-Send in donations for our Christmas care packages! These packages will be sent with student-written letters to troops who have to spend the holidays overseas. Contact me if you need a list of suggested items. Thank you for your support!

America, helping others, and MORE!!!

We've been growing pumpkin plants! (and a couple bean plants!) We also are conducting a seed experiment. In each finger of a plastic glove, students placed a different seed (corn, bean, watermelon, marigold) with a wet cotton ball. We taped them to the window so they could get sunlight. Now we are waiting to see which seed grows fastest!

Classroom Buddies

We went on an autumn nature walk with our 4th grade classroom buddies. Buddies had a list of various items from nature that they had to collect together. We had a blast and only got a little lost on the trails once!

Our November Mystery Reader was a Marine who read the book America's White Table. It is a story about the table that is set in military chow halls and formal events to remember those who are POWs or MIA. After we read the book, students got to set the table. Each item on the table represents something.

We learned about American symbols this week. Students read about the bald eagle, Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, White House, American flag, and Mount Rushmore. Then each student made a page about their favorite symbol to go in our class book. 

We've had quite the patriotic week! Students are also working hard to finish their letters that we will send overseas to service members who are away from home on the holidays.

Cameron is wearing our X-Ray Glasses to edit his letter. 

When we wear the pink glasses, we are looking for punctuation mistakes. 

Delaney, Connor, Kyle, and Sage (Ashton and Alyvia in the background) are working on their letters. 

  Madelyn helps Logan with his letter writing. 

Josalynn and Aiden are hard at work!

Alexis is using our American symbols chart to help her draw a patriotic picture to go with her letter.

What are YOU having for Thanksgiving dinner????

We did some persuasive writing last week. Students wrote in the point of view of a turkey. They had to plead with the farmer and give him reasons why he shouldn't eat turkey for Thanksgiving. Some reasons we came up with-- Chicken tastes better; Vegetables are healthier; Pigs are fatter and will give you more food; If you eat me, I'll tickle your belly from the inside; If you try to eat me, my army of turkey friends will take over your farm and eat your Thanksgiving feast!

Hanging under the turkey writing are our Halloween stories. These came home today. Be sure to read your student's spooky story!

We also talked about how it is important to use verbs that have MUSCLE! Why use a boring verb like eat when you can use devour or gobble instead?  

Check out some of the serious muscle-man faces!

Alyvia, Connor, and Alexis

 Brooklyn, Kayden, and Nadia

Syndee and Madelyn

 Delaney, Aiden, Ashton, and Ben

Sebastian and Kyle

On Tuesday we helped Mrs. Forthover's Life Skills class with a project. They made dog bones on Monday to give to people who have dogs as pets. Our class helped them decorate and assemble the bags. The two classes worked together first at stations and then on an assembly line. What fun!

Last but not least--- A reminder to send in donations for our Christmas Care Packages that will be sent to troops overseas. We've almost filled a box, and if you've already donated THANK YOU! Let's see how many more boxes we can fill! Last year the 2nd grade collected enough to mail 16 boxes, divided among 4 different troops. Let's try to do even better this year! 

Thank you for your help with this amazing service project!