It's officially cold. Really cold. Not just put-on-a-sweater cold, but pull-out-your-boots,-gloves-and-hats cold. While we are lamenting the bygone days of flip flops and sunscreen, no one can deny the excitement of the winter holidays and the spirit we all feel as we try to chase away the cold. Of course, the holiday season begins with my favorite holiday of all; Thanksgiving. 

I love everything about Thanksgiving - that we spend the weekend with our family, that's it's only one day, that's it's only one meal... Another thing I love about Thanksgiving, which, I love about all of our holidays, is how we cement and create family memories. We bring out favorite recipes and various relatives' china. As we sit down to our meal, we reminisce about Grandma's turkey recipe, or Bubbie's china. We feel our relatives are with us in the room as we enjoy our Thanksgiving.

In school, we have been learning about basic needs (food/water, shelter, and clothing). We have also been studying culture, which we defined as the things a group of people do/make after they've satisfied their basic needs. We are studying Native American tribes and understanding how adding beads to a deerskin dress or painting a pot with beautiful designs can define the culture of a specific tribe. So too, the customs and traditions of our holidays define the culture of our individual families.

What are your favorite family customs? What holiday traditions do you look forward to? 


Add your comment below. I would love to use these blog comments as the basis for a class discussion.

Anthony wrote this post to share about something he really loves to do in school. 

What is your favorite recess game? If you play this game, what's your favorite part?

Remember, if you want to be next week's Spotlight Blogger, just write a post (or have your parents type it as you speak). You can email your post to me or hand me your hand written post. 

This week's post is brought to you by our Spotlight Blogger, Anthony.

At recess, I play a game with my friends where we are creative.  There are 5 bosses in charge. I am the front boss and my job is to make sure everyone is ok and is doing the right thing.  The other bosses are Logan and Maya.  Their job is to make sure no one is mean.  Marissa is also a boss and her job is to make sure everyone works properly.  Hannah is a boss too and she walks around to make sure everyone is ok and no one is hurt.  The last boss is Ryan, her job is to make sure everyone is quiet when we have our meetings.  Some people give me notes and tell me I am the best boss. 

There is a lab  where we live and work and do our jobs. In the lab, we do fun activities and games.  When there are beeps we know that someone is trying to get in the lab. When we hear beeps we go to the grass so everyone is safe. But I stay in the lab and go upstairs right away so the 5 bosses can keep track of what is going on and make sure everyone is safe.  The bosses on the grass count everyone to make sure everyone is there and is OK.   I communicate with hand motions to the other bosses since I am in the lab and the other bosses are on the grass keeping everyone safe.  

Everyday, except Wednesday, I bring in keys.  I made these keys at home out of laminated paper.  I wrote each players name on a key.   If someone walks in the lab and they don't have a key the beep goes on. But if someone comes in and they have a key we know we are safe because the beeps won't go on. If people do a really good job they get stickers on their key.  When they earn 10 stickers they get to go in the magic prize bag. Everyday We have meetings and the 5 bosses get to stand in front.  Everyone else sits down on the benches. If you have enough stickers and you don't want a prize, like Julia b for example, she wanted to have a wedding so she traded 20 stickers off her key and she had her wedding. 

On Wednesday, since there are no keys, I turn on a censor to detect intruders.  

One thing we do in the lab is set up jobs. One job is putting sticks and pine cones on the shelves and they are used as lasers. Instead of the kids using sticks and leaves and pine cones they use soda cans that people drank out of and they put bags that people ate food out of on the shelves. Every time we have meetings I tell them not to put trash on the shelves. If you play the game you will know that is why I bring pictures of sticks, pine cones and leaves so you can remember. 

Everyday when we have our meetings I make sure there is enough room for people to walk up and down the stairs. We call it a pathway.  

The speaker is what I speak through when I need someone or if I need to communicate to the group.When I am going to give someone feedback I try to give everyone feedback  so no one feels upset and left out. Also, I will pick 3 people that I want to compliment and I call them upstairs on the speaker.  Jessica is a very important person in the game because she makes food for us to eat.  

If someone comes up and says, "I quit!" We will vote to keep playing the game or to stop playing the game. If we vote to stop, I am sad. I always say if you have to quit then do it but if you don't have to please don't. The people that play the game are very nice people. I wish they would play every day but sometimes they take breaks. I am very sad when they don't come back but I know that they will come back the next day.

And that is how we play the game at recess.

This week's blog post is brought to you by our Spotlight Blogger: Hannah B.

 What We Do In School

 In computers, we have been doing things on islands.  We have made our own islands. We had to include a lot of things in our own islands.  They are coast, prairie, bay, mountain, valley and river.  A coast is like a beach.  A prairie has a LOT of grass.  A bay is surrounded by 3 pieces of land.  On a mountain there is a peak at the top.  A valley is in between two low mountains and a river is a LOT of water.

 In music, we have learned a couple of new songs. They are Fifty Nifty, Fall Back, October Rocktober and Super Turkey.  Super Turkey is very funny.

 In gym, we have been playing a lot of fun games. One of the games is called Capture the Flag.  We wear little belts and they have little flags on them.  If the person on the other team has the ball, we can run after them and grab their flag off of them.  Then the new round begins. 

In library, we have been reading books by Donna Jo Napoli.  She wrote a lot of books and three of them are Hands and Hearts, Albert, and A Single Pearl. 

In science we do a LOT of very FUN experiments.  So far, they are on temperature and fire safety. Science is VERY, VERY, VERY F-U-N!

 In keyboarding, we have not done a lot except we have just been practicing how to turn on and off the keyboard.  We have also been typing these letters: fdsa, asdf, ab, and ab a couple of times.  Keyboarding is great!

In English, we have been doing our Super Kids a lot.  Super Kids is very fun!  It has a super magazine that has a lot of cool things in it.  When Mrs. Levine tells us not to open it, we always do because it is very interesting and very cool.  Super Kids also has a decodable reader that has over 100 great pages in it.  Super Kids also has a word workbook where we do a lot of our Super Kids writing.

In Hebrew, we have been doing chumash which is Torah, safa which is Hebrew and t’filah which is prayer.  In the chumash, we have been studying a lot about Avram, Lot, and Sarah.  In safa, we have been doing a lot of stories.  One of them is Sarah’s birthday.  In t’filah, we do a lot of prayers in our siddur.  Two of them that we really have to study are Ashrei and Hallelujah.

 These are the things that we do in second grade at KSDS.  Our school is very fun and we learn a lot!

Hannah wrote this post to let you know about all the exciting things we do in school. As you read her post, please comment generously - Hannah would love all the support and positive feedback from our classroom community!

If your child wants to be our Spotlight Blogger, please encourage him/her to write a blog post about anything he/she would like. I would love to have everyone participate!