Chickens in School???

 Yes we had BABY CHICKS visit our classroom!  Tiya and Nancy from Farm Bureau brought chicks for us to see, touch, and learn cool facts about the chickens that are raised on Kansas farms.

 Tiya, pictured on the right, has made several visits starting with our Day at the Farm at Sowder's Ranch, to a once a month visit in our classrooms.  Each month she has brought us information from a program that Farm Bureau shares with the Greenwood County Second Graders entitled, "KANSAS GROWS A PIZZA."  We have learned about the wheat industry, dairy farming, cattle ranches, pork producers, and today chickens.  All these farm products are grown or raised in Kansas and can turn up on top of a delicious pizza.

 Farm Bureau also sponsored a "Farm Safety Poster Contest."  Children decided what part of farm safety that wanted to draw, color, and label on their posters to remind us how to keep safe if we visit or live on a farm or ranch.  Miley  received honorable mention on her poster about not playing on large round bales of hay.  Cyrus won 2nd place with his poster on keeping safe with downed power lines.  Their posters, as well as the other second graders posters are on display at our grocery store.  They both won a Sonic gift certificate.  Hooray!

Hannah won first place with her safety poster about keeping safe around her dad's pickup truck when is it hooked to their cattle or horse trailer.  Her poster has made the trip to Kansas State University to compete with all students throughout the state at our primary level.  Yippee, hope Hannah's poster wins her level.  I will keep you posted what we find out!!!  She won $10 for her hard work.   *****We have just learned that Hannah got honorable mention with her poster at the state level.  WE ARE Proud OF HER!!!

                                                

Tiya and Nancy returned for our final lesson on "Kansas Grows a Pizza."  The last item that every pizza needs in the tasty tomato sauce.  Everyone was able to plant tomato plants, pepper plants, and basil seeds.  What a wonderful time we have had and we thank Farm Bureau for making the many visits.

Howdy-DO!  (That's Alvin the Alligator's way of saying hello.)  February 19th the second graders and their teachers  went to Butler County Community College in El Dorado to the Children's Theatre.  "Alvin" made and unexpected trip into outer space.  His rocket visited the planet of Duoluna.  He met a whole new group of friends that he taught the lesson of, "It's nice to be important, but more important to be nice."  We really enjoyed the trip with Alvin and even more exciting was being allowed to come up on stage and get our pictures with the cast from the play.

Bug Lady Visits Marshall

January 21st the BUG LADY gave us some chills, thrills, and yes we touched several animal that we normally would NEVER have the opportunity to see up close or TOUCH!!!!!

Family Fun Night

Our theme for the Second Grade Family Fun Night was "Candy Corn Cuties."  The children colored their own candy corn and placed it on the wall.

Parents partner read a book with their children, then learned how to take an AR test.  Lydia reading to mom and dad.

Taryn reading her AR book.

Trip with his mom and dad.

Hannah reading "Farmer Gus and the Very Big Sneeze," to her parents.

Brenna having fun reading her AR book.
When all the children were finished reading their book, they showed their parents how we log in and take an AR test on the i Pads.

The favorite of the evening was the activity in the gym.  It is a Second Grade tradition to have a child and parent pumpkin roll!  They could choose the size of their pumpkin and together they had to roll the pumpkin down to the half court mark and back.  Here are the pictures that show a 'blur' of the pumpkin roll fun!

I'm not sure who had more fun, parent or child!!

We ended our evening with a delicious sugar cookie and drink.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and share the evening with your children. 

Firefighters Visit Marshall

Friday, October 9th, the Greenwood County Firefighters visited the second graders. This is our annual visit where we learn fire prevention and safety. They reminded us about the STOP, DROP, AND ROLL method to help smother the flames should our clothes catch fire.

They also showed a smoke alarm and stressed how the alarm could save our life. Each child pretended they were asleep and when the smoke alarm was heard, they crawled to the nearest door and felt to see if it was hot. It was hot, so they crawled to the second exit to get out of the house.

Our next lesson was seeing first hand what a room full of smoke would be like. We entered the trailer and saw how hard it would be to see and hear the firefighters. We practiced screaming, banging on the floor, and other ways to make noise to help the firefighters find us in our room. The rest of the morning was spent looking at all the different fire trucks and equipment. They allowed us to climb in and see all the equipment they use to help keep us safe.

We need to say a BIG thank you to the men and women of Greenwood County that took time off their regular jobs to teach us how to keep safe. The winner of the coloring contest from our room was Lydia Mason. She will receive a t-shirt and get the chance to ride in a fire truck at the Cattleman's Day parade in November.

Day at the Ranch

Day at the Ranch

On September 8th, the second grade classes from all of the schools in Greenwood County, traveled to Jeff and Cheryl Sowder's for a day at the ranch.  They had 10 learning stations in the morning that touched upon farming, farm animals, and the crops that are grown in Kansas.  Many local organizations and volunteers helped make our day special.  It was a wonderful field trip and everyone learned many things about farming and ranching.

Dr. Droge compares and contrasts the differences between the skulls of cattle and horses.

When is a cow more than a cow?  We all know that we eat the meat from cattle, but we get many other things called by-products.  We learned that chewing gum, candles, jello, marshmallows, and Mrs. Butler's lipstick comes for a cow.  Really... Mrs. Butler is wearing a cow on her lips!!!

One cow hide provides other things like boots, leather coats, and leather furniture.  As we stretched out this beautiful cow hide we also learned that 20 footballs come from one hide, 12 basketballs, 18 soccer balls, and 12 baseball gloves come from a cow. WOW!!

 Many of us had never been inside a tractor.  Cyrus and Westyn are listening to the facts about tractors.

 Roping isn't easy!  Lydia is trying her best to rope that steer.

 Madelyn took a lesson from Hannah Zimmers before she threw her rope.

 The highlight of the day was watching 'Jitterbug' being milked.  The Southwest Dairy Farmers brought their trailer to the Sowder ranch and we were excited to get the opportunity to watch a cow being milked.
We also enjoyed hiking through the pasture looking at the different native grasses and wildflowers that grow in our county.   Our last activity of the day was a favorite for everyone!  Mr. Sowder drove the hay wagon down the country roads giving us a thrilling ride.
Our day on the ranch was a great day to learn all about farming and ranching.  We realized that we can't go a single day without thanking a farmer or a rancher for the many things we eat and use.  A special thank you goes out to the Sowder's for letting the Greenwood County Second Graders visit their ranch.