We have been extremely busy, and each day is action packed – filled with so much learning. We use games, rhymes, songs, books, manipulatives, YouTube, videos, experiments, partner interaction, collaborative learning, students teaching students and off-site adventures to help enhance and reinforce the learning process.
We had a Reading Rodeo Classroom Challenge to read 100 minutes each week during the month of September. Our class read a total of 6,704 minutes. Everyone participated. Nine students stayed in the saddle all month and met or exceeded their goal of 400 minutes throughout the entire month. Our top readers were Lena Huedepohl with 871 minutes, Jonathan Kohnke with 660 minutes, and Iris Sivesind with 590 minutes. We celebrated the completion of our Reading Rodeo with “Dress like a Cowboy/girl Day” and a special visit from cowboy Kolby Stallman who talked to us about his bull riding competition and the equipment he uses.
We travelled to the Blank Park Zoo to view God’s animal kingdom up close and personal. Each student prior to our zoo visit researched one of the animals. We enjoyed learning from each of our student teachers as they shared their knowledge. We were blessed to have Mr & Mrs. Hennings, Mr & Mrs. Henderson, Mr. Hilsabeck, Mrs. Neis, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Stahr, and Mrs. Westrum join us for that amazing day.
In English we worked on identifying and using telling sentences and commands as well as recognizing question words. We reviewed the use of nouns, pronouns, singular, plural, and proper nouns, as well as the use of possessive nouns.
In math, we have practiced various strategies to figure the sum (hundreds chart, an open number line, tens frame, and regrouping). Our favorite strategy is regrouping for both finding the sum and the difference.
On October 14th our class had the opportunity to go back in time as we experienced Living History Farms. It is an interactive outdoor museum that helped us look over the past 300 years of Iowa agricultural history. Our first visit was the 1876 Town of Walnut Hill. We toured the Tangen House, doctor’s office, millinery, drug store, church, blacksmith, and broom works. Our favorite was the drug store. The drugstore owner was so interesting and informative. We also visited the 1700 Ioway Farm, the 1850 Pioneer Farm and finally the 1900 horse-powered farm. It was very interesting to see the progression of these farms over the 200-year time frame. Special thanks to Mrs. Hadaway, Mr. Huedepohl, Mrs. Kohnke, Mr. Larson, Mr. Novak and his cousin, Mrs. Scott, and Mrs. Stahr for making this amazing experience possible.
In the classroom we have been studying neighborhoods, communities, rural and suburban communities. We looked at our world and sang several songs to reinforce our knowledge of the 7 continents and the size of those continents from smallest to greatest.
God has indeed blessed us with a wonderful world and a wide variety of learning experiences!
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