Prehistoric Native American Artifacts

Local collectors of arrow-heads, pottery, and other Native American artifacts had their collection donated to the Southern Ohio Museum after they had passed away. Charles and William Wertz had collected more than 10,000 pieces of prehistoric Native American objects from the west side of Scioto County during their lifetimes. This extensive collection became "The Art of the Ancients" exhbit at the Southern Ohio Museum. It is one of two permanent exhibits at the art museum. The collection consists of not only arrowheads, but necklaces, bone fish hooks, tools, games, and effigy pipes crafted in a variety of animal shapes. (An effigy is a likeness or representation of an object.) The pieces in the collection have been dated by the Ohio Historical Society as ranging in age from 1,500 to 8,000 years old. During our visit, the children had an opportunity to view first hand and learn more about the Native Americans who inhabited our area thousands of years ago. The photos above show the children as they are viewing the artifacts and after our visit, just outside the front doors of the museum.

A Virtual Trip to Plimoth Plantation

2D students joined other students nationwide to enhance their understanding of the First Thanksgiving and life in the first permanent English settlement, Plimoth Colony, in the year 1621. The live webcast from Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts lasted slightly over one half-hour. The children heard Wampanoag natives and the Pilgrims speak about their daily lives. The children compared and contrasted the daily living of the two groups of people.

The interactive webcast gave students opportunities to ask questions and gain a deeper understanding about this special American holiday. While the interviews were going on, another part of the screen allowed children to witness the daily living activities of Wampanoag natives or Pilgrim peoples in the woodlands or right in the midst of Plimoth village, respectively. At the same time, survey questions appeared near the bottom of the screem which each classroom voted upon, submitted the majority vote and then, within minutes, the nationwide results of the survey were posted. (If you double click on the photo above, you will see just how this interactive field trip worked.)

This virtual experience engaged students and sparked conversations and learning moments about this special annual holiday, its significance to our American traditons, and how the various cultures in our country have both embraced and influenced this uniquely American holiday.

The Southern Ohio Museum

Today was the class' first visit to our local art museum. Each year children in Mrs. Dengel's second grade make several visits to the art museum to view the changing exhibits and to view first-hand the various techniques that artists use to create their art. Children also begin to think differently and use art terminology such as, foreground, middle ground, and background. They distinguish between still life, landscape, seascape, and a portrait. In addition, the students learn to recognize different media that artists use. The museum visits not only help the students to become art literate, but the visits also help the children become greater critical thinkers as they begin to evaluate art.

On this first visit, the children viewed an exhibit called "Construction Zones". They saw a variety of artwork, including two-dimensional art hung on the walls, sculptures, and a huge installation which can be seen in the background in the photo above. The children actually were allowed to crawl through this latter piece of art. In addition, they all received hard hats to wear during the tour and to later take home. The interactive installation and the hard hats made it an exciting first visit to the museum for all the children.

School Spirit

Our high school athletes and cheerleaders know how to stir up school spirit. The football players came to school to not only motivate them to come to the game, but they also spoke to the students about always doing their best in their school work and in their behavior in order to play any sport when they get to high school. The cheerleaders got the student body roused and ready for the game, too, by involving the entire student body in all their cheers. Finally, the football players and cheerleaders led everyone in singing the school's fight song to inspire all to come to the homecoming game which is scheduled this evening. Judging from the looks on the children's faces, the elementary students, particularly the second graders in this photo, are ready to cheers their athletes on to a victory.

Following the pep rally on the school parking lot, the football players and cheerleaders visited the children in their classrooms to inspire them even further in their studies and good behavior, as well as, encourage them to attend the homecoming game.

Fighting Fires, Smokey, and Seeds

The children's visit to Shawnee State Forest began with forest ranger Josh showing them the heavy equipment that rangers use and the protective gear they wear while fighting a forest fire. The children even had a chance to try out a huge hose from the fire truck, with the help of Ranger Josh. The boys and girls quickly realized that the high water pressure and the weight of the hose make it very difficult for a novice to handle. After learning about the equipment that forest rangers carry with them and how they use that equipment, Smokey the Bear made an appearance and greeted the students. Mrs. Dengel took a photograph of everyone with Smokey, including Ranger Josh and our bus driver, Mr. Potts.

Then the students walked to an area where they observed the leaves/needles and bark of native Ohio trees. As they made their observations, they also collected seeds of these trees. The boys and girls were divided into small groups representing the redbud, hemlock, white oak, dogwood, and the spruce. Each group only collected seeds for their designated tree; however, everyone was allowed to collect the seed of the yellow buckeye, the state tree. Finally, each group pridicted how many of their seeds would be needed to balance an average buckeye. Single seeds like the dogwood or acorn were simpler to make predicions. It became more complicated for the redbud, hemlock or spruce groups since these seeds contain from 3 to 4 seeds in a pod (redbud) or from 24 (hemlock) to 317 (spruce) seeds in a cone. Consequently, when the spruce group cheered as one cone balanced a buckeye, the cheers were short-lived when the group found out that one spruce cone contained approximately 317 individual seeds.

Happy Constitution Day

September 17th was Constitution Day. The children shared what they had learned about the Constitution and the history surrounding the creation of this document with their parents. The class did this via Skype. Some parents were at home while others were at work, one even skyped us from work while he was out of town. Some used their home laptops while others used their cell phones. Approximately half the parents of the children in class signed up for this real-time communication. The children answered questions regarding the circumstances that led to the writing of the Constitution and the causes that led the colonists to break away from England. The students concluded each visit with parents by singing the Preamble to the Constituion and wished each parent "Happy Constitution Day" before blowing kisses and waving good-bye.

G. Sam Piatt, a reporter for The Portsmouth Daily Times, visited the classroom and recorded the activities and took photographs of the children for the newspaper. Besides the history lessons that the children had learned, they pointed out that in St. Paul's letter to Timothy, one of the readings for the upcoming Sunday, talks about the need for everyone to pray for rulers. When asked who were some of our rulers, the children named the president, mayor, judges, and lawmakers, to name a few.

In math class, the children also calculated distances that three of the signers had to travel to pen their names to the Constitution. Finally, in art class, the children used red, white, and blue tempera paint to design symbols of the United States.

Pet Show Goes to the Dogs

While studying animals in science and reading the story "Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea" by Cynthia Rylant, the second graders had a Pet Show. The children made connections to their pets all across the curriculum. They heard the story of creation in religion class, had a discusseon in health class about why they needed to wash their hands after playing with their pets, located the countries where some pets originated in social studies class, compared their pets to themselves in writing class, and finally designed animal masks in art class.

Parents, grandparents, and family friends brought the children's pets to the enclosed park area of the parish grounds. Children introduced their pets by explaining what kind of pet they had, the pet's name, how they took care of their pets, and then they had their pet perform one trick, if their pet cooperated. Most of the pets brought to the Pet Show were dogs. A few cats joined the menagerie and a sole sugar glider from Australia rounded out the animal showcase. After all the children had shared their pets, they had an opportunity to visit their classmates' pets up close and ask questions while enjoying one another's pets.

Honoring All Those Who Work

Students had to interview a person of their choice to gain a better understanding of why Labor Day was a day off of school. Children were encouraged to conduct their interviews in whatever manner suited them best. Several children chose the traditional paper and pencil interview. However, a number of children presented their interviews in enhanced and completely novel ways. Ethan M. augmented his written interview with an illustration of his mother's work. Tucker included photographs and statistics of his grandfather's job. Ethan J. not only distributed photographs of his uncle's profession, but also included a company video featuring his uncle on the job. Joe, on the other hand, used current technology to interview his father. Joe recorded his interview on a camcorder and then saved it onto a flash drive. The class viewed Joe's interview on our SMART Board using the full screen. It was quite well done using his whole family. Mrs. Dengel was proud of all the children and their presentations.

An art lesson sprang from the Labor Day study. Each child chose a figure that represented the career that she or he wanted to persue as an adult. Next, Mrs. Dengel photographed each child from the neck up. These digital photos were then cut and pasted on the figures. The children then had to design the most appropriate backgrounds that would represent their chosen careers. Once all parts of this art lesson were put together, the children's artwork was displayed on the hallway walls which Mrs. Dengel refers to as the 2D art gallery.

First Day of School

The first day of school in second grade was a resounding success judging by the smiles of the children as they opened their schultuten while they sat with thier parents in the school cafeteria. Parents and children also enjoyed an assortment of cookies, donuts, and juice as they spent time together before Mom and Dad headed off to work or back home. There was one special treat, however, which was reserved stritctly for the second graders. It was an enormous chocolate chip cookie decorated with flowers and the words "Wilkommen in der Zweiten Klasse" ("Welcome to Second Grade"). After all the children had a chance to view the oversized cookie, Mrs. Dengel with the help of Mrs. Dettwiller, cut the cookie into squares for all the children to sample and enjoy before returning to the classroom to begin a new school year.