Sunday, October 23, 2016

Week of October 24th

I have to start by saying thank you.
Thank for all of your thoughts, prayers and offers to help. Thank you for your compassion and for your understanding. Last week was a very emotionally draining week, but knowing that you were all ready to support me and my family made a world of difference.

To sum up the story, five years ago my daughter Malorie was diagnosed with brain cancer. She had a tumor (specifically called ependymoma) that was miraculously completely removed. She underwent radiation, recovered, and has been the picture of health since.

Although we know God is in control, my family and I can't help but always live with that twinge of fear that the tumor may come back. That is why last week was so difficult for us. We were worried that part of her injury was due to her medical history.

Once again, God revealed His presence. He showed His mighty power and extravagant love when we found out that the incident last week was completely unrelated to the past, and that she would NOT need surgery on the hematoma that surfaced because of the trauma to her head.
Philippians 4: 4-8 Rejoice always!...do not be anxious, but in every situation present your requests to God and the God of peace will be with you...
God is good.

I'm also very grateful for everyone that helped take care of your children while I was away. Although they had a blast without me, I'm ready to get back in the ballgame!
Let's check out what's in store for next week!

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION
God paves the way for us to do His work. We only need to take responsibility, trust He will prepare us, and continue to listen as we follow His call.

This week we will study the virtue of responsibility. Responsibility is God’s power for you to be accountable to Him and others.

God provides whatever we need to fulfill the call He gives us, even when we feel inadequate. As we explore this virtue, we will continue to study Moses and how he had to focus on God’s power instead of his own shortcomings. When we focus on our own abilities we might succeed for a while, but we will eventually burn out and/or give up. When we focus on God and allow Him to work in us and through us, God will provide everything! God will do the work, and we get to come along for the adventure! This week as you discuss this virtue with your child, asks yourselves this big question, “What signs would you need to believe you were ready to respond to God’s call?”

READING
With this week being a "short week", we will NOT be doing our usual reading routines. There will be NO spelling words this week, which means NO homework as well!  I'm excited to say that we will be doing another author study! This week we will celebrate the world of Leo Lionni!

During this comprehensive "balanced literacy" unit, we will use four different books written by Leo Lionni. The students will be challenged to compare characters, ask questions, recall facts, and use critical thinking skills before, during and after we read. Author studies are an excellent time for us to revisit "good reading habits" and really tackle comprehension in a fun way!

WRITING
This week your second graders will hopefully begin wrapping up the "how-to" stories on which they've been working so diligently!  They are going to enjoying picking one to polish and publish. Did you hear about how we began the unit? If not, ask your second grader. It was a hoot!




NEWS and NOTES
  • October 27th and 28th (this Thursday and Friday) are student led conferences.  The 27th is an early dismissal. The elementary dismissal time is 12:05. The bus will leave at noon.
  • Please let Mrs. Leet or I know if you'd like a more "parent/teacher" style conference in addition to the student led conferences planned for the week. We understand that sometimes there are concerns that need to be addressed without your child in the lead role.
  • Book fair is this week! Our class will shop tomorrow. 
  • November 1st - Field Trip to the symphony 



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