Week of January 17

Well, having a four day weekend was a nice surprise. 

I hope you all stayed warm and safe over the long weekend.
We also have a surprise today!
We welcome Morgan and Madison to our class!
We can't wait to get to know you both!
We've had a lot going on in second grade... a great balance of work and fun!

These girls are explaining a new cover they designed for the book they finished in their book club, Cam Jansen and the Chocolate Fudge Mystery

If you follow us on twitter or have been in our hall, you've probably already seen these fun snow-globes. Your second graders wrote about what it would be like to be TRAPPED inside one! Ahhh! If you are not following us on twitter, consider giving it a try... 

follow us at www.twitter.com/cclschargers

 The "ice day" did not allow us to write in our Friday journals this week, but your kiddos are really excited to write you again! 

Thanks for all the letters back, this is such a valuable tool for SO many reasons!

 As we learned and brainstormed for our persuasive writing pieces, your kiddos had fun with a little debate... "Should we have school uniforms?"

 I got to sub for Mrs. Leet and teach some math!

WE loved practicing building numbers with base ten blocks.

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT
This week's virtue is diligence. Diligence is God's power for you to focus on your work. The bible reading comes from Matthew 6:5-14 where Jesus gives us a specific model of prayer, The Lord's Prayer. By giving us this model of prayer, Jesus shows us how to focus on what’s important to Him, and to the Father. He lays the foundation for this prayer by explaining that our motives should be pure, that we should not seek people’s attention or show off, or make it a ritual. Jesus teaches us that we should be diligent in seeking God and the things which are important to Him by coming to Him in an attitude of praise, humility, and dependence on Him. I challenge you this week (if you do not already do so) to be diligent about praying with your child. Say The Lord's Prayer together and focus on being faithfully connected to our Father in heaven.

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES
This week's reading skill is cause and effect. A cause is an event that makes something happen (WHY), and an effect is WHAT happens. As your children read (or you read with them) encourage them to ask themselves about WHAT happened and WHY it happened. This sure ties in perfectly with our persuasive writing pieces!

PHONICS and SPELLING
This week students will practice identifying and sorting words with scr, str and spr spelling patterns. Please note that list one and list two are not very different. This may be a good week to challenge your child with list two.
LIST ONE

screen	scream	scrape	struck	strict
sprain	spruce	strap	stripe	spring

LIST TWO

screen	scream	scrape	struck	strict
sprain	spruce	strap	stroll	springtime

BONUS WORD - Martin Luther King Jr.

WRITING and GRAMMAR
Our specific grammar skill this week will be to combine sentences. If sentences have subjects that are the same or predicates the same, students will practice combining the sentences with the word "and." We will also review previous grammar skills and I will watch for application in their writing. I've started grading the vocabulary sentences for basic grammar skills (capitals and punctuation).

Have you heard about your child's persuasive writing piece? If not, be sure to ask about what topic they chose and what their opinion is about the topic. Things are getting interesting! This week students will focus on their reasons and examples and also come up with an introduction that can "hook" a reader.  

NEWS and NOTES

• NO SCHOOL January 16th - Martin Luther King Jr Day
• National Lutheran Schools Week January 23-27 (be on the lookout for details)
• FIELD TRIP January 30th - CPH (Concordia Publish House) and Global Foods
• January Reading logs are due Friday January 27th (or Monday January 30th if you need the weekend)
• NO SCHOOL February 13th and 14th - teacher professional development
• NO SCHOOL February 20th - Presidents' Day