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.