SPELLING CITY

Hello everyone! I was recently introduced to this wonderful website called "Spelling City" that links up with our spelling words. To access the website and practice your words on the go... Use this link for this week's words...

https://www.spellingcity.com/spelling-games-vocabulary-games.html?listId=26952967&isListFromTeacherPage=1#

Some of the games are better than others, and we do not have the premium membership, be sure you are playing the FREE games. 

Week of October 31st

Happy Halloween! I hope you all have a fun evening full of exciting family adventures.

It sure was great to be back last week. I missed your children! We really enjoyed reading and responding to Leo Lionni's books and reviewing "things good readers do."

This is us taking a survey after reading Fish is Fish.

Would you rather be a fish or a frog?

 This is us responding to reading in our reading journals DURING reading...

Making predictions, connections, and asking questions are all important for comprehension!

 We also tried our best to illustrate like Leo.

He tears paper to makes a collage.

We discovered that it is kind of difficult!

Here's a look at next week's goals and objectives:

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT

Sometimes it can really be difficult to follow instructions. This week we will discuss integrity which is Gods power for you to be true to Him and yourself.  Moses and Aaron followed God’s instructions with integrity, yet Pharaoh repeatedly failed to respond to or respect God. Despite Pharaoh’s cruelty of God’s people, God used Pharaoh to reveal Himself. God keeps His promises. This week, have conversations with your child about how God used Moses and Aaron to teach us about integrity. And remember, we live under God’s authority. His plan is full of integrity even when we are not.  

READING SKILL of the week

Since we've been writing our how-to stories, your kiddos are super familiar with this week's comprehension skill - sequencing. Authors organize the events of the story in the order in which they occur. Readers should pay attention to the sequence of events to help them understand the story. We will also review how authors use transition words to help show the sequence. As the students retell stories this week, they will also be practicing fluency! Keep reading at home!!

**READING LOGS are due today.**

Your child will bring home their new reading log calendar today.

SPELLING and GRAMMAR
This week in spelling we will work on spelling words with at and ai long a spelling patterns. Review this phrase with your child... "when two vowels go a walkin', the first vowel does the talkin' " In grammar we're still investigating plural and proper nouns.
List ONE

main	wait	sail	train	stay
hay	tail	jay	pay	may

List TWO

main	wait	sail	train	stay
hay	Raid	Plain	Tray	whale

BONUS word - symphony

WRITING

Wasn't it such a treat to hear your child read a published piece of writing during conference time? I love to see your children work so diligently on their writing. They are always so proud of the ones they polish and "publish". This week we will work on writing to a prompt. The topic is things for which we are thankful. Stay tuned because these pieces will actually be sent to a REAL publisher!!

NEWS and NOTES

• Field Trip to the symphony - tomorrow November 1st
• November 13th - CCLS Sunday at Concordia
• November 23rd-25th NO SCHOOL Thanksgiving Break
• December 4th - CCLS Sunday at Glendale
• December 19th - CCLS Advent Service
• December 20th - End of 2nd Quarter
• December 21st - Christmas Break

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

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 

Week of October 10th

Last week was SO fun! 

I think we all enjoyed taking the week off from normal routines and delving into our author study of Kevin Henkes. As we read his books, your second graders really worked hard on developing "good reading habits." Each day we discussed different strategies for reading. Ask you second grader about ways they can help themselves understand - or comprehend - the books better as they read!

 We also tried illustrating just like Mr. Henkes...

 After all the connections, predictions, character study, and visualization, they voted.

Each child chose their favorite character and their favorite story...

 We are also LOVING the Christian Character Development Program. It really sparks great discussions and conversations about our identity. I hope you all are able to have conversations at home as well! 

And now... goals and objectives for this week...

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION

Think of a time you were mistreated. What happened? How did you feel? Matthew 6:14-­15 says, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” This week we will review the virtue of integrity as we continue to study Joseph. Integrity is God’s power for you to be true to Him and yourself. Joseph had been treated wrongfully by his brothers, but he was not bitter. Instead, he recognized that God was ultimately in command of his life. God created good from the evil done to Joseph, and Joseph forgave. As you discuss this with your child, ask yourselves... How can you forgive with a forgiveness that lasts?

READING SKILLS

When readers draw conclusions, they use what they already know and clues from the author to understand the story in a new way. This week your children will work on deepening their comprehension through drawing conclusions.  Learning to draw conclusions and inferences is a skill that develops over time with experiences that require children to put together various pieces of information.

SPELLING and PHONICS

This week students will identify words with short u and long u spelling patterns. Here are the two lists for the week. If your child would like to test on list two, be sure they know list one. Many "list one" words appear on the dictation portion of the test.

LIST ONE

duck	dude	rule	bump	cube
fume	rude	sun	cup	bud

LIST TWO

duck	dude	rule	bump	cube
fume	rude	thud	crunch	trunk

BONUS - Chrysanthemum 

WRITING and GRAMMAR

I sure hope you all received a special message from your child's pumpkin on Seesaw last week. Your young authors have been busy! This week they will work on identifying nouns during grammar. In writing, we will begin writing a new genre, "how-to" procedural writing. We will begin by brainstorming what we can teach to others, and then dig further into a detailed paper which describes how to do something.

NEWS and NOTES

• October reading logs will be due at the end of the month (October 31st)
• The goal is to read at least 60 minutes per week.
• October 14th - end of first quarter
• October 21st - Report cards go home 
• October 25th - 27th Elementary Book Fair
• October 27th - EARLY Dismissal & October 28th NO SCHOOL 
• student led conferences

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!