Week of October 30th

Happy (almost) Halloween! 

I hope you all have a fun and safe evening!

I want to thank you all so very much for arranging your schedules so that we could have such successful conferences. I just LOVED watching the children talk to you about their feelings toward school, and I also thoroughly enjoyed being able to have some one-on-one time with just the parents. I know I presented a lot of reading information, so I strongly encourage you to contact me if you have ANY questions!

I'm always here to help! We are a TEAM! 

Also, thanks for another AMAZING birthday celebration!

Mrs. Leet felt VERY loved!

Here's what's in store for the week! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

This week we will revisit the virtue of COURAGE as we read from 2 Chronicles and learn about a king named Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat uses courage when he is faced with the terrifying news that the nations bordering Judah to the east, Ammon and Moab, were coming to wage war against him with larger armies than Judah had. He courageously turns to God for help and answers. We will define courage as God's power for you to overcome fear, and ask ourselves this big question, "How can we trust, seek, and follow the Lord in every situation, especially when we are afraid? 

PHONICS and GRAMMAR

As students work with words and spelling patterns this week, they'll focus on the long O sound, particularly "o", "oa", "ow", and "oe" spelling patterns. And as usual we will also be reviewing commonly misspelled sight words. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

What is alliteration? Simply solicit a second grade student for the solution! While our reading target is still "visualizing", we'll be using poetry (with alliteration) to go beyond the text as we think about what we are reading! 

GRAMMAR and WRITING 

Wasn't it fun to hear your child's "published piece" of writing? Well, this week we are going to learn about writing a paragraph. The paragraphs we write are going to be mailed to a REAL publishing company and turned into a class book! The kiddos are ALREADY excited about this! 

As they write their paragraphs we'll focus on applying all of our grammar skills! We're learning about plural and possessive nouns this week! 

NEWS and NOTES

• October Reading Logs DUE TUESDAY - October 31st 
• November 12th - CCLS Sunday at Mt. Calvary 
• First "Change Challenge" collection - November 20th (more information to come)
• November 22nd Thanksgiving break begins 

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK! 

Week of October 23rd

WOW! We sure had a lot going on last week! 

My camera roll was full of photos! Here's a look back...

Thanks to those of you that were able to go on the field trip with us! 

Listening to the beautiful sounds of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was a treat!  

Did you hear about our "publishing party"? 

After finishing our personal narratives, we decided to share them with Mrs. Ladd's class! 

We got to read to our preschool buddies! 

We made sure we had "just right" book for US, and "just right" book for our audience. 

And last but not least, our "Harvest Party" was a HUGE success! 

Thanks to everyone that helped make this such a fun event!

It was a great party! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

This week we will learn more about RESPECT as we further study Job. Satan brought Job enormous suffering. In his agony he cried out to the Lord with questions. Eventually we see God's compassion and mercy when He restores everything that Job had lost two times. We'll remember RESPECT as God's power for you to honor Him and others, and ask ourselves, "How can seeing God in everything help you respect Him in every part of your life?" 

PHONICS and SPELLING

There will be no spelling homework this week, but we will be working on spelling commonly misspelled sight words in class. Enjoy the break! 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

We'll be reviewing all of the skills and strategies we've learned through an "author study" this week. The author we'll be studying Lois Ehlert. She has a very unique style of writing and illustrating. The kiddos are going to LOVE hearing her books and studying her craft! We'll probably be doing a lot of visualizing... which can look a little like napping at times, hehe! 

GRAMMAR and WRITING 

As you probably guessed we'll be doing some fall writing this week. As we study Lois, we might even try writing like her!

NEWS and NOTES

• This week - Book Fair at Elementary Campus 
• October 26th Early Dismissal - conferences 
• October 27th NO SCHOOL - conferences
• October Reading Logs DUE October 31st 
• November 12th - CCLS Sunday at Mt. Calvary 
• November 22nd Thanksgiving break begins 

Week of October 16th

Happy Monday! 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

This week marks the beginning of the second quarter! 

Here we go!!!

Did you here about Flashlight Friday? 

Well, technically, it was Thursday, but... we couldn't pass up such a gloomy day!

Shhhhhhhhhhh...

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

This week we will go back to the time of Job. We will read from Job chapter one and discuss INTEGRITY. We define integrity as God's power for you to do the right thing in every situation. Job went through so much suffering and still maintained integrity and trust in God. We we study Job, we will ask ourselves this Big Question: "How can you live a life of integrity even in the middle of great suffering?"

PHONICS, SPELLING, and WORD WORK

This week we will review, read, and sort words with "long A" (specifically with the "ai" and "ay" spelling patterns). Commonly misspelled sight words should continue to appear on your child's spelling lists as well. 

You might notice from your child's list that this week's words lend themselves to learning about homophones. This can get pretty tricky. We'll read a book called Dear Deer to help us determine the difference in various homophones we use in our writing.  

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES  

For the next few weeks, we will work on one of my favorite reading strategies, VISUALIZING... When we read, we make pictures in our minds to go with the words. It's so fun to see and hear about what mental images the kiddos are creating in their heads.

Last week, we learned a lot about making connections in texts. We did a lot of comparing and contrasting . Some students even tried using this skill in their reader's notebook... 

WRITING 

This week we will CELEBRATE!! Your second graders worked so hard on publishing their personal narratives and now it's time to show off all of their hard work.  We'll also be doing a few writing samples with prompts as we gear up for our next unit of study! 

NEWS and NOTES

• This Tuesday, October 17th - Field Trip to Powell Hall
• October 20th - report cards go home 
• Week of October 23 - Book Fair at Elementary Campus 
• October 26th Early Dismissal - conferences 
• October 27th NO SCHOOL - conferences
• October Reading Logs DUE October 31st 

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of October 9th

Can you believe it's already then end of the 1st quarter? 

I shouldn't be surprised, but these first nine weeks have gone by SO FAST! Your children are learning and working very hard. Be proud of their effort! 

I hope you all had family fire safety meetings last week! The children were entranced by Captain Hercules as he spoke about fire safety. It was an excellent lesson for all of us! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 
As we read about Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 7, we will revisit the virtue of DILIGENCE. We define diligence as God's power to help us focus on our work. God chose Solomon to be king of His people, and promised that he would be the one who would build the Temple. When the temple was complete, Solomon led the nation in worship to God. As we study this, we will discuss the "big question;" How can trusting in God's promises help you be diligent in the work he sets before you? 

PHONICS and SPELLING
NO SPELLING THIS WEEK!! I know, don't cry too hard! We will just be reviewing various spelling patterns in class. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES
Last week we read The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf, and this week we will read The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. After reading both of these folktales we will be able to make text to text connections by comparing and contrasting the two stories.

GRAMMAR 
Lots of review happening this week, but we will read from Giggle, Giggle, Quack and learn more about commas. Ask your second grader some of the different reasons we use commas in our writing. This book should be great for compare and contrast too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsW8oVHH0W8

WRITING
There will be a lot of writing going on this week! Not only will the kiddos be publishing their personal narratives, but we will also be writing letters to our CCLS-Uganda friends. We've also been using chrome books to create a class book for our sponsor children. Ask your second grader about creating a google document!

NEWS and NOTES

• October 10th CCLS University Night - 7pm Webster Campus  
• October 13th - end of 1st quarter 
• October 20th - report cards go home 
• Week of October 23 - Book Fair at Elementary Campus 
• October 26th Early Dismissal - conferences 
• October 27th NO SCHOOL - conferences
• October Reading Logs DUE October 31st 

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of October 2nd

Thank you SO very much for all the wonderful birthday wishes! I truly had the BEST day! Your children showered me with love, cards, flowers and sweet treats. 

And what a surprise... I LOVE the Cardinal art!!! 

It will go perfectly next to my sons Cubs art! 😉

And... we didn't take a picture before devouring the cake! 

Thanks, Mrs. Purk! WOW! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT
This week we will return to the virtue of RESPECT. We define RESPECT as God’s power for you to honor Him and others. Our story is about David and his son, Absalom, and how Absalom disrespected both God and David. As we read, we'll ask ourselves this Big Question, "How can you respect God and others even when you are being treated unfairly?"

SPELLING and PHONICS 
This week we will read, review, and sort words with beginning consonant blends.

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 
We've really been learning a lot during Reader's Workshop. One of the best times is share time. Hearing the learning from our friends is powerful!  We will continue to read and practice retelling this week. 

GRAMMAR 
Our mentor sentence come from another Kevin Henkes book called Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. It's so fun to watch the children's knowledge build week to week as they dissect all the different parts of a sentence. Along with everything they already know, the kiddos will focus on plural nouns this week.

WRITINGThere was excitement in the air last week when the class heard it was time to pick one of their favorite personal narratives to polish into a published piece of writing. We'll be reviewing the writing process and begin publishing this week. 

Mrs. Reck-Meyer is also helping us with a project for CCLS-U. It's been fun to work with chrome-books! 

NEWS and NOTES

• New reading logs go home today!
• October 10th CCLS University Night - 7pm Webster Campus  
• October 13th - end of 1st quarter 
• October 20th - report cards go home 
• Week of October 23 - Book Fair at Elementary Campus 
• October 26th Early Dismissal - conferences 
• October 27th NO SCHOOL - conferences

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!