Week of October 1st

Thank you SO very much for all the wonderful birthday wishes! I truly had the BEST day! Thank you for showering me with so many treats! 

I feel so blessed by this crew! 

Here are this week's objectives: 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT
Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had twelve sons who would create the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. This week we will read from Genesis 37 and learn about how Joseph was rejected by his own brothers – abandoned, sold into slavery, and betrayed because his brothers were intensely jealous of him. The virtue of the week is RESPONSIBILITY. We define responsibility as God’s power for you to be accountable to Him and others. The “Big Question” is – How can you stay responsible when circumstances seem unfair?

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

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 
We will read the story The Three Little Pigs and practice retelling - focusing on noticing the problem and solution.  Also, I hope you heard about "reading buddy" time with our preschool friends!

GRAMMAR and WRITING
Our mentor sentence come from a book called Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch. The kiddos will focus on commas and plural nouns this week. 

There 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. 

NEWS and NOTES

• September Reading Logs Due TODAY 
• October 8th is Mrs. Sanft's birthday. The 2nd grade teachers are putting together a basket of snacks/treats for her. If you would like to contribute something, please send it in any day this week. THANKS! 
• October 12th - End of 1st Quarter 
• October 19th - Harvest Party AND Report Cards Released
• October 22nd - 24th Scholastic Book Fair at the Webster Campus 
• October 25th - Noon Dismissal (Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences)
• October 26th - NO SCHOOL (Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences)
• October 31st - October Reading Log Due

Week of September 24th

Fall is in the air in second grade!

Click the link to see a slide show of our trip.
Apple Picking
Thanks to everyone who was able to join us! It was a beautiful day! 

Here are this week's objectives: 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

As we continue to read from Genesis, we will learn about when Jacob wrestles God, and discuss the virtue of COURAGE. We define courage as God's power for you to overcome fear. The "Big Question" is, How does trusting God give you the courage to face the fears with which you are wrestling? 

SPELLING and PHONICS 

This week's spelling rule is "short u" and "long u" (specifically the u-consonant-e pattern). 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

Our target for the next few weeks will be understanding story elements and retelling a story. When retelling, students will learn to describe the beginning, middle and end of what they read, while using details about the characters, the setting, the problem and the solution. We'll be reading the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day.

GRAMMAR 
Our mentor sentence this week comes from the book Bad Apple be Edward Hemingway. The focus will be on different ways to use a comma. 

WRITING
Practicing retelling is perfect for writing personal narratives. As students work on the plots of their stories, they will also focus on using authors to help them write in powerful ways. 

NEWS and NOTES

• September 28th - September Reading Logs Due
• September 28th and 29th - Carnival at LHSS
• October 12th - End of 1st Quarter 
• October 19th - Harvest Party AND Report Cards Released
• October 22nd - 24th Scholastic Book Fair at the Webster Campus 
• October 25th - Noon Dismissal (Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences)
• October 26th - NO SCHOOL (Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences)

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of September 17th

Another short but wonderful week!

Here's a look back on last week... 

We made a Venn Diagram to discuss expectations during Guided Reading... 

And the students have been LOVING learning about

how to use their chrome books...

This week's objectives:

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT

We continue to read from Genesis - this week we will study about the sacrifice of Isaac. As we read about how God asked Abraham to give up his only son, we will discuss Self-Sacrifice. We define Self-Sacrifice as God's power for you to give up something to help others. This week's "Big Question" is, How can you give to God what matters most to you? 

PHONICS and SPELLING

This week we will read and sort words with "short o" and "long o" (specifically with the o-consonant-e rule). We are also working on learning sight words or commonly misspelled words in your child's writing. 

**A Note About Spelling Homework**

It would be helpful for you and your child to review spelling homework together, specifically the sentences your child writes using the spelling words. I encourage you to review and help your child "edit" their sentences, especially with things such as capital letters, punctuation, or even the misspelling of certain sight words that you feel your child should know.  

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES

This week we will read a story called Jamaica Tag-Along and discuss how the characters we read about can relate to our own feelings and personal experiences. 

GRAMMAR

Our mentor sentence this week comes from another Kevin Henkes book, Chester's Way. We will continue to study sentence structure and nouns, but we will also discuss dialogue. 

WRITING 

This week's writers' workshop sessions will focus on noticing author's craft, and creating personal narratives that have a particular effect on the reader. Revising and editing are also a continued target because each child is always in a different place in the writing process.

NEWS and NOTES

• September 21st - Casual for a Cause CCLS-Uganda 
• September 21st - Field Trip to Eckert's Apple Farm 
• September 28th - September Reading Logs due
• September 28th and 29th - Carnival at LHSS 
• October 11th - CCLS University Night 
• October 12th - End of 1st Quarter 

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of September 11th

Another great week! 
I'm amazed at the way your children have latched on to the idea of "Reader's Workshop." They're doing a fabulous job self-assessing their book choices, and have worked hard on building independent reading stamina. Guided reading groups will start this week!

We really focused on THINKING about READING last week. 
To aid in that, everyone started using reader's notebooks. 
They were excited to share what they learned as well...

Come check out our hallway sometime soon and see 

our responses to reading Kevin Henkes books.

Here's what's in store for next week... 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION

We will read from Genesis about Abraham and Sarah and discuss the virtue of INTEGRITY. We define integrity as God's power for you to do the right thing. As we read we will ask ourselves this "Big Question," How can you continue to do what is right even when you don't understand God's plan?

PHONICS and SPELLING 

This week we will read, sort, and spell words with "short i" and "long i" (specifically with the i-consonant-e spelling pattern). You'll notice that I will also be mixing in some commonly misspelled sight words into our pre-test spelling lists.

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

As we discuss different genres this week, we will continue to think about the characters in our fiction stories and try to make connections. One of our read-aloud books is a Historical Fictional called, Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings. This book demonstrates an excellent lesson on diligence and courage! 

GRAMMAR and WRITING 

This week we will learn about the difficulties writers face as they revise their rough drafts. We'll work on editing and revising and making plans to improve. Our mentor sentence this week will come from the book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin. We will continue to discuss common nouns, proper nouns and punctuation. We will also learn about writing friendly letters. Fingers crossed: the kids even get to type a letter on the chrome books this week! 

NEWS and NOTES

• September 13th - School of Distinction Celebration 
• Stay tuned for information about this day!
• September 14th - NO SCHOOL - teacher professional development 
• the school lunch menu has a lunch option for the 14th - that is incorrect
• September 21st - Casual for a Cause CCLS-Uganda 
• September 21st - Field Trip to Eckert's Apple Farm 
• September 28th - September Reading Logs due
• September 28th and 29th - Carnival at LHSS 
• October 11th - CCLS University Night 
• October 12th - End of 1st Quarter 

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of September 4th

Happy Tuesday! I hope you were all able to enjoy an extra day off!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules last week to come to school and learn about second grade. The children sat so quiet waiting for their guests! 
If you weren't able to make it, you should have received an e-mail from Mrs. Leet with our PowerPoint presentation. Please let us know if you have any questions.

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT 

This week we will read from about Noah from Genesis and learn about DILIGENCE. We define diligence as God's power for you to complete good work. As we read we will discuss this "Big Question," How do I diligently complete everything just as God commands me?

PHONICS and SPELLING
This week's word study will focus on "short a" and "long a" (with the a-consonant-e spelling pattern). We will still have the test on Thursday even with the shortened week.

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

We are learning so much about "what good readers do." One thing good readers do is read "just right" books... The students practiced this really well on that rainy day last week

We'll continue to learn about character feelings and the connections we have with books, and discuss how that helps our comprehension. 

WRITING and GRAMMAR 
We'll learn about nouns through our mentor sentence this week, which comes from a Kevin Henkes book called Chrysanthemum. We will read a variety of his books and study how writers zoom into small moments and use descriptive details. 

NEWS and NOTES 

• September 14th - NO SCHOOL - teacher professional development 
• September 21st - Field Trip to Eckert's Apple Farm 
• September 28th and 29th - Carnival @ LHSS
• Did your child complete the "CCLS Summer Reading Challenge?" You will be receiving information about that free dress day soon, but please feel free to send in whatever your child used to track their summer reading at any point. 

Here's some more fun from last week... 

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!