The past week, we have been reading many different versions of the story, "Stone Soup." We read Stone Soup by Ann McGovern, Stone Soup by Marcia Brown, Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth, Fandango Stew by David Davis, and read "Nail Soup" (Jr. Great Books version) retold by Linda Rahm. We are also finishing our IB unit on "Changes." To culminate both activities, we made stone soup as a class. Students each brought in different things - celery, potatoes, crock pots and spoons, jars, cream, carrots, onions, corn, beef, broth, bowls, and cornbread. We listened to the song "Stone Soup" by Karyn Henley as we each took turns adding our items to the pot. First we added water, then a stone. We added the rest of the items in order as the song played on. We set the crock pot on high and left on the buses to go to Austin to see "Twice Upon a Time." When we returned, our whole classroom smelled yummy!
We set up tablecloths on each group of desks. On the tablecloths, we drew the ingredients that went into the pot. Then, we summarized the story and drew out a place setting for ourself. While we worked, we passed around the cream in a jar to make butter for our cornbread. Finally, the meal was ready!

We had a few mixed feelings about the soup, but most of the kids loved it and asked for more. We discussed all the changes that took place to prepare the meal. The kids loved it and even said it made them think of Thanksgiving (how the Pilgrims and Native Americans all contributed to the meal).

Almost Done!

Cornbread and butter

Not so sure about the soup...

Shaking up our cream!

Stone Soup is in the pot and cooking hot!

Not the best of reactions!

 

He liked it so much, he decided to have two bowls!

Ready to eat!

Shake up that butter!

Drawing a place setting.

Summarizing the story

Drawing out the ingredients

She got down two whole spoonfuls!

Our initial reactions and questions after reading "Nail Soup"

He likes it!

Burritt on the Mountain

Today was our class field trip to Huntsville to go to Burritt on the Mountain. We did a tour of the barnyard, learned about old fashioned toys, played lawn darts, did rubber stamping and paper punching, took a tour of the Burritt mansion and grounds, and finally got a chance to churn butter. After that, we had a picnic lunch and played on the field with the other second grade classes. We were fortunate to have beautiful fall weather for our trip! We were pretty worn out from our eventful day!

If I Were President...

Today is Election Day!

We are learning all about the election process. Today we are reading the book "If I Were President" by Catherine Stier and are writing about what we would do if we were the president. We each had our picture taken in the Uncle Sam hat and beard.
We will be voting in the Ben Davis mock election as well.

Maybe one of these little scholars will be running for president in 2044!