February 13 in Room 11

• Hillcrest School celebrated Valentine's Day today. Friendships are so important!
• In the morning second graders did a Valentine's Day word search.
• Mrs. Craig read "These Amazing Ants" aloud.
• Our own ants are slowly building a tunnel. They would work faster if the room were warm all the time. It is still fun to watch them.
• Students took their final spelling test today.
• Room 11-ers watched a video about George Washington.
• In music, they played a game. Musical, of course.
• Students worked a math pattern puzzle. The answers provided the clues for the puzzle solution.
• After the afternoon recess, the class relaxed, passed out Valentines, chatted and frosted cookies. Thank-you to all those who donated frosting, sprinkles, and time!

February 12 in Room 11

• In honor of president's day, the third graders gave a presentation to Room 11 about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
• Students discussed topic, main idea and details as they created an ice cream sundae chart based on the subject, "dessert."
• The second graders are learning about ant anatomy.
• They also read about bats in a Weekly Reader and filled out a chart showing the topic, main idea and details.
• The young artists and crafts persons built their own extra-large Valentine envelope with a window in it. It will be used to hold the Valentines they receive tomorrow during our party.
• Many of the children chose new library books today.
• Because so many are sick, there were only fourteen students in our room today!

February 11 in Room 11

• Kickball was played in P.E.
• Ant observations continue.
• Pre-spelling test today--gum-chewers are Adolpho, Logan, Colby, Jonathan, Krissy, Trinity, Teron, Jacob and Meagan. You guys rock!
• Each student signed up for an "ANT" word to illustrate for the class "ANT" book.
• A brass ensemble from southwestern Community College demonstrated their instruments and played music for the entire student body in the gym. The students in room 11 really have a fine ear for music. they were good listeners and an appreciative audience.
• The classroom Sandy Beach mural received a wrack line today. More sea wrack is being constructed.
• Babe came to school today and would rather have had a chance to play at recess, but because of the concert, she had to stay in her kennel for the afternoon. Some boys played with her at lunch recess, though. Thank-you, fellas. And Babe thanks you.
• Hillcrest students each received a free ticket to the Bulldog vs. Douglas basketball game this Friday. The high school games are fun, and an excellent opportunity to show support and school spirit.
• For the Valentine's party on Friday, students will be frosting Valentine cookies. Each student will be asked to help out by bringing a can of ready-made frosting to school. What is not used this week will be used for another project in the near future.

February 10 in Room 11

• Room 11 had a substitute teacher today. Her name is Mrs. Spring. She taught school a long time ago with Mrs. Stebbins at North Bay
• The class worked on regrouping in math.
• They cut out pictures of an egg, larva, pupa and adult, then pasted a correctly sequenced life cycle of an ant onto another paper.
• The class watched a video of pinnipeds for science.
• Students reviewed the meaning of "sea wrack" and saw some photos of Babe below the North Bend bridge with sea wrack in the background.
• Mrs. Spring helped the class to complete a crossword puzzle of the spelling and vocabulary words for the week.

February 9 in Room 11

• Did anybody notice that IT SNOWED? Yes, right in the middle of reading class.
• The class did one more practice paper with regrouping an extra ten befor moving on to the next step in carrying.
• Most of the children finished their writing about what workers at school do. It was part of a project learning about how to write details.
• The reading story this week is called ANT.
• As a special treat related to last week's reading theme, Furry Friends visited the classroom. These working dogs help trainers teach children how to treat animals well. The children learned about pet safety and care and had a chance to pet and snuggle with these helping dogs. They sure are friendly!
• The class finished the rainbow face heart project.
• Mrs. Craig read a book called Antics, in which every word has the word "ant" in it. Students will be choosing their favorite "ant" word from a list and illustrating it to make a page for a class Ant Book. So far, the favorite word seems to be "Mrs. BryANT!"

February 6 in Room 11

• Math: still weorking on regrouping. Today their papers had a lighthouse on them.
• The ants are proving to be as industrious as thier reputation. They are building mounds and tunnels.
• Students wrote "sloppy copies" of the writing they are doing on school community.
• The second graders will be joining the rest of the students at Hillcrest in Marathon Madness, which begins on Monday. This is a challenge encouraging students to run laps during their recess time. They can earn points and prizes.

February 5 in Room 11

• The ant farm is set up and ready to go . The children are avid myrmecologists who have been inspecting, commenting, observing and recording ant information in their personal ant booklets all day.
• Many students will be bringing home a crossword puzzle of their vocabulary and spelling words as homework. This size of a crossword is a new experience for most of them.
• This morning the smell of popcorn permeated the school, producing envy amid second grade hall inhabitants. This was the smell of success--Room 11 students had earned a popcorn party and a cartoon as a behavior reward. The cartoon, Officer Buckle and Gloria, coincidentally matched the story they have been working on in literature class this week!
• Library today. Craft books, especially the ones with paper folding and construction, are flying off the shelves, ending up in many desks in room 11, where they are consulted and attempted whenever time allows. (And even when it doesn't). Students are building some amazing creatures and machines.
• The last hour of the day found second graders as busy as little ants, cutting, gluing and assembling their space projects in art class. Most paintings include a satellite, a planet and a constellation, each piece researched by the artist.

February 3 in Room 11

• Music, music, music!
• Mrs. Craig has arranged a display on the table in the front of the room with pictures and books about ants and the way they live. Soon our class will be getting an ant farm. Then everyone will be able to watch live ants in action!
• The second graders got something new to go with their reading this morning: a crossword puzzle with vocabulary and spelling words. Its a new skill for them to learn.
• In math, as the children learn to move the regrouped ten over to the ten's place, the helpful little box above the other tens has disappeared! Now they must carry their regrouped tens over with no reminders. This development did not seem to faze them.
• Mr. Dunn taught a lesson about tides. He had the class play a game outside. First students sat in a circle. Mr. Dunn held the "moon." Then, as he walked around the outside of the circle, students stood up as he moved close to them and stoop as the moon traveled away around the circle. After that demonstration, the class stood on the hill outside of school and looked at the mud flats which were visible because of the low tide.
• Babe came to school today.

Groundhog Day in Room 11

• The new reading theme beginning today is "Amazing Animals." The day began with Mrs. Craig reading a story about Aero, the K-9 Officer. Then the class read poems about animals.
• Journal entries were poems about animals using the letters in the animal's name.
• In case anyone missed it, today is also Groundhog Day. It looks like this winter will be a long one, as Mr. Groundhog surely saw his shadow and dove right back down into his burrow for another six weeks of snoozing. To celebrate this legend, the class made stand-up groundhogs, just for fun.
• Students played the much-requested game of dodgeball in P.E.
• They listened to Mrs. Craig read the story "Groundhog Day."
• In math, students set up two column addition problems, then solved them by regrouping.
• They wrote sentences about what the maintenance people do here at Hillcrest.
• Valentine's class lists will be arriving at home soon.

January 30 in Room 11

• Room Eleveners left music class with smiles and a happy note from Mrs. Nelson, the music teacher. Good job, kiddos, you are an exuberant group!
• Students worked on their letter to a community helper this morning. Some hard-working community helper is soon to be the recipient of a letter of encouragement and gratitude labored over by a second grader.
• The final spelling test was a really difficult unit test. It is now over.
• Garrett's grandma, Mrs. King, helped with writing and math in our classroom today.
• Many students stayed in for recess to finish overdue work.
• The assigned job idea seems to be working well. Jacob was seen with a clipboard and check-off list this morning, asking students for their homework the moment they appeared at the doorway!
• The class continued writing about Hillcrest community helpers. They are getting a clearer idea of what kinds of work people at Hillcrest do just by thinking and writing about it.
• Work on "carrying" and place value continues in math class. Today many students used unifix cubes to figure out their work.