Special Visitors

This past Friday we had some special visitors.   Deputy Busse and his partner Andy came and talked to our second graders about how police officers keep our community safe.   He also shared with us some of the talents his canine partner Andy has including searching for missing items and people.  This was a great way to culminate our social studies unit revolving around the reason we have communities and how our government was formed to keep us safe.   Next week Tuesday, our very own Hudsonville mayor will come and share with us a little bit about his job, law making and solving issues in a community.

Visit From the Mayor

We had an exciting visitor in second grade…… Mayor Don VanDoeselaar!!!   He presented a problem in the community to our students that the city council was currently trying to solve.  Citizens had expressed an interest in moving the Water Tower Sledding Hill on 36th Ave to the Hillside Park.  After hearing the “pros” and “cons” of both options, the mayor took a vote from our second graders to report back to the city council. What an awesome opportunity for our second graders!

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Social Studies Update

This past week we finished up our unit of study on communities.   The boys and girls discovered that people live in communities to have a place to work, play and be safe.   We enjoyed having Officer Osbin and Zino visit to share how government officials keep our community safe.    Google Earth helped us discover that we are not just part of our neighborhood community, but also our city,  state, country, continent and our planet, EARTH.   This week we will be learning about the diversity that each us of brings to our community and the need for government.  Look for some fun family homework to be coming home tomorrow in the homework packet.

MAPS!!!

Our second graders are enjoying learning about maps and this week we began creating our very own maps, complete with a compass rose, title, map key and human and natural characteristics.  Today we looked at various landforms and bodies of water that communities have and compared them to Hudsonville.  Check out this site for some of the landforms that we are learning about… LANDFORMS.  Here is a simple LANDFORM app as well :).

Social Studies Update

We have been learning ALL about different communities ( rural, urban and suburban) as well as identifying some of their natural and human characteristics.  People live in communities so that they can be safe, provide for our basic needs and also have a place to live, work and play.  MANY thanks go to Nick’s mom for awarding us with junior deputy stickers, congratulating us on our HARD work!

Social Studies Update

Our second graders are discovering why families live in communities. This week we learned that we have three basic needs, FOOD, SHELTER and CLOTHING. Our community meets these needs by providing places of business where we can purchase items and also materials to build various types of housing.

Today we looked at the town of Brooklyn, New York through books and a virtual tour online. We then listed some of its characteristics. We then were able to separate them into two categories, natural (occurs naturally) and human (made by human hands). As you drive around with your child, point out characteristics of Hudsonville and I’m sure our second graders could share some of their knowledge of whether it is a natural or human characteristic with you :)…. LOVE THESE LITTLE SWEETIES!!!!