Week of November 27th

Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying family over the break. Can you believe that Christmas break is roughly three and a half weeks away? This year is going by so quickly. I'm proud of all the learning happening EVERY DAY in our class! Thanks so much for sharing your children with me!  Here's what's in store for the week... 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT
Advent is a season every year in which we are prompted to remember the incredible narrative of Christmas and the people God used to play a role in all of it. It’s an opportunity to reflect back and celebrate the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, and an opportunity to look ahead and remember that our risen king will one day return! For the next three weeks, we’ll look at the various men and women in the Christmas story, what they would do, where they go, and what they say. As we see how they give whatever God asked of them, we will be reminded of all the virtues, which will be an excellent review. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES
As we continue to learn about "good reading habits," we will begin to explore making inferences. Making inferences can be a challenging skill... it requires students to read between the lines, to dig deeper and to find out the answer to the question, “what is the author really trying to say?" 

PHONICS and SPELLING
This week, students will read, sort and spell words with common consonant digraphs (sh, ch, wh, th), and practice alphabetizing the word lists. 

GRAMMAR and WRITING 
Wow! Your second graders sure have a lot of knowledge! They are working so vigorously on filling their nonfiction writing pieces with so many facts! As they write, they are also learning all about the elements of nonfiction and how to write to a particular audience. As we investigate texts and edit our own writing this week, our grammar focus will be on verbs. 

This week's NEWS and NOTES

• November 29th - Afternoon field trip to Global Foods 
• November 30th - November Reading Logs Due
• December 4th - Afternoon field trip to Laclede Groves
• December 18th - 2nd Change Challenge Collection 
• December 18th - CCLS Advent Service 6:00pm 
• December 21st - Christmas breaks begins

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK! 

Week of November 20th

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Two more days of school and then it's time for a well deserved break. It's time to celebrate all the amazing blessings God has given us! We have so much for which to be thankful!

 As the days lead up to Thanksgiving, I encourage you and your second grader to take some time every day to say a prayer of thanksgiving. By focusing on the reasons you and your kids have to be grateful, you can use everyday moments to make gratitude and thankfulness a part of your family’s daily life. 

Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing me with the opportunity to teach all of these beautiful children at CCLS.  I am grateful that you have connected each of our lives in ways that honor you and show how much you love each of us. 

Thank you for the love you provide to us through one another.

And we praise you, Lord, for all you have sacrificed for us through your Son, Jesus Christ. He made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. We are grateful for your forgiveness when we sin. Lord, let us never forget how much we owe to you, and let us always be humble before you. 

Thank you for providing and protecting.

In Your Holy Name, Amen. 

This week's NEWS and NOTES

• First "Change Challenge" collection - November 20th (TODAY)
• November 20th - CCLS University 7:00pm (tonight) 
• November 22nd Thanksgiving Break begins 
• November 29th - Afternoon field trip to Global Foods 
• November 30th - November Reading Logs Due
• December 4th - Afternoon field trip to Laclede Groves
• December 18th - CCLS Advent Service 6:00pm 

Thanksgiving Websites

Here's the link! Enjoy! 

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/?eml=TNL/e/20171101////NovemberNL/GR12/////&ET_CID=20171101_TNL_NovNL_12_RET_21552&ET_RID=234485727

Week of November 13th

Happy (belated) Veteran's Day to all who have served, or are currently serving our county. 

The kiddos really enjoyed leaning about Veteran's Day last week. 

Stay tuned on Seesaw for pictures of "Our Veteran's Wall."

Did you watch the Veteran's Day Reader's Theater? 

Sorry about my amateur videography, ha! 

 They practiced hard! 

On another note, we your child is an official author! 

Our class book was sent to Student Treasures Publishing Company! If you ordered one, it should arrive just before Christmas break. What a wonderful Christmas present! 

Here is a silly picture of our writers! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

We will read about Ruth this week as we study the virtue of Self-Sacrifice. We define Self-Sacrifice as God's power for you to give something up to help others. Ruth willingly gave up her family, the comforts of her own culture, and her native land because she loved Naomi, her mother-in-law. She gave of herself expecting nothing in return. The "Big Question" this week is, "How does God's power help you live a life of self-sacrifice, despite the hard times you're facing?"

PHONICS and SPELLING

There are a lot of ways to spell "long i!" This week, students will read, sort and spell words with all of the "long i" spelling patterns. We will also practice putting the words in alphabetical order this week. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

Your second graders are going to have an exciting week of exploring the similarities and differences between themselves and a Pilgrim boy or Pilgrim girl their age! We'll read "a day in the life of..." and work on comparing and contrasting! 

WRITING 

This week we are launching a new writing genre in writer's workshop - nonfiction! Your second graders will begin by learning from other nonfiction authors and expand their ideas to teach readers lots of information.

NEWS and NOTES 

• Operation Christmas Child collection is on Wednesday, November 15th
• First "Change Challenge" collection - November 20th
• November 22nd Thanksgiving break begins 
• November 30th - November Reading Logs Due
• December 18th - CCLS Advent Service 6:00pm

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of November 6th

Did you hear about our "change challenge"? 

The kiddos are pretty stoked to practice self-sacrifice - and do extra chores around the house to earn money for their CCLS-U change jars! 

The plastic jars to collect the change went home on Friday. Our first collection date in November 20th. Please let me know if you have any questions! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT
This week we will revisit the virtue RESPECT. Respect is God's power for you to honor Him and others. We will read from 1 Kings and learn about how God chose to divide the nation of Israel in two. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, would rule the southern kingdom of Judah, but Jeroboam, who was one of Solomon’s officials, would rule the northern kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam was seen as a respected young man, but once given reign of Israel, he did not obey and respect God in the responsibilities that God gave him. As we discuss, we will ask ourselves this "big question" - How can you respect God through the responsibilities He has given you?

PHONICS and SPELLING
There are a lot of ways to spell "long e!" This week, students will read, sort, and spell words with all of the "long e" spelling patterns. We will also practice rhyming with the words! 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 
Students will continue to visualize to help them "make sense of the text." We also learned about "activating our schema" to prepare us for reading... We have a filing cabinet in our brain! 😊 As we read our mentor text, The Paperboy, next week, we will practice both of those skills. I encourage you to ask your children about this at home too! 

 

GRAMMAR and WRITING 
Grammar skills will target the apostrophe again, but this week, we'll see it in contractions. So much grammar to learn in our crazy English language! We always practice applying spelling and grammar skills in our writing, particularly this week as students finish their "thanksgiving paragraphs." These paragraphs will be sent to Student Treasures Publishing Company to be published as a hardcover class book! Please be on the lookout for the note coming home about purchasing this book for your family! 

NEWS and NOTES 

• November 12th - CCLS Sunday at Mt. Calvary 
• First "Change Challenge" collection - November 20th
• November 22nd Thanksgiving break begins 
• November 30th - November Reading Logs Due
• December 18th - CCLS Advent Service 6:00pm

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!