Week of December 12th

Happy Monday! One more full week of school before Christmas break. The children are getting anxious, but it will be nice to have one more "normal" week of learning before our shortened week. Here's a look back on last week. 

Did you hear about our "Hour of Code?" 

If not, ask your second grader how some "games" on chrome books and iPads are really computer science!!

We also practiced fluency with four different Christmas "Readers Theaters" last week. 

About half of the class was able to record a practice "performance" that I added to Seesaw. If you haven't gotten a Seesaw message yet, be on the lookout this week. 

This week's goals and objectives 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

This week we will discuss the virtue of self-sacrifice as we dig deeper into the Christmas story. Self-sacrifice is God's power for you to give something up to help others. Even while He was still a baby, Jesus was worshiped as "King of the Jews." The Magi traveled a long way to honor this King. Even the gifts given to Jesus remind us of the sacrifice our King would make for our sake. This week take some time to think about what your family could be willing to sacrifice in order to honor Jesus. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

In reading this week we will be working on summarizing. Good readers recognize that when they read difficult text, they need to read more slowly and summarize the important ideas in the selections. Students will practice this in various ways, one in particular will be the bible readings of Jesus' birth.

PHONICS and SPELLING

This week students will work on recognizing and spelling words with consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, and wh) 

LIST ONE

chase	sheep	while	chill	white
chest	think	shape	thing	wheat

LIST TWO

chase	sheep	while	chill	white
chunk	thirst	shin	throne	whine

BONUS – Shepherd

WRITING and GRAMMAR 

Your second graders are going to work very diligently this week to get their nonfiction writing pieces published before the end of the quarter. They'll be revising and editing and using all they know about spelling and grammar. This week's grammar focus is past tense verbs. Students will learn that the verbs in their writing need to agree. They are such great writers!

NEWS and NOTES 

• December 19th (tonight) - CCLS Advent service 
• students should arrive early and come sit with their class/grade
• December 20th - End of 2nd Quarter 
• December 20th - Class Party 
• December 21st - Christmas Break begins

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK

Week of December 5th

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... What a wonderful time of year!

Last week was a great week. It was so refreshing to dive back into our routines. We were so busy that I didn't take many pictures, but here's a few of your kiddos working on research for their nonfiction writing pieces... 

 And... Happy Birthday to Derek!

 

This week is going to be full of excitement as well. Here's what's in store:

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION 

Take a moment to think about this, "How can you learn to obey God even in circumstances you can't explain?" This week's virtue is integrity. Integrity is God's power for you to be true to Him and yourself. As we study Matthew 1: 18-25, we see Joseph, a humble carpenter. God called Joseph to be the earthly father of Jesus. It was a big job and wasn’t easy. Joseph probably had to face some opposition and embarrassment because of it. God calls us to live our lives for Him. It isn’t always easy, and we sometimes face opposition and embarrassment. It’s okay for us to feel these feelings when we’re asked to do something we don’t want to do. However, God’s Word tells us to honor Him. Sometimes we do things that we might not want to do, but when we honor God, we are showing integrity. We might just find more joy in doing those things than we first suspected. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES

It's going to be a fun week as we read a few Christmas stories and discuss decoding strategies. We will focus on how fluency can help with comprehension. Stay tuned for a Seesaw e-mail... we'll be working on readers theatres this week!

PHONICS and SPELLING 

This week students will identify and spell words with long u.

LIST ONE

bugle	fuse	flute	duke	tune
dune	music	use	June	mule

LIST TWO

bugle	fuse	flute	duke	tune
dune	music	menu	cute	unit

BONUS - Merry Christmas

GRAMMAR and WRITING 

In grammar we continue our focus on verbs. This week we will zone into changing a verb based on its tense (past, present, or future). Your children are doing their best using all the phonics, spelling, and grammar rules they know to apply this skill in their writing!

Have you asked your child about what topic they chose to write a nonfiction (informational) piece of writing yet? If not, ask them this week! Last week they used their schema and did some extra research from a few library books. This week they'll work on transforming their brainstorming into chapters with headings.

NEWS and NOTES 

• Field Trip - TODAY to sing at the nursing home! 
• Thursday, December 8th - Santa's Workshop
• Monday, December 19th - CCLS Advent service 
• December 20th - End of 2nd Quarter 
• December 20th - Class Party 
• December 21st - Christmas Break begins