Week of December 17th

This sure is a busy time of year. I love that your sweet second graders have been praying every morning to help us all remember the true reason for this Christmas season.

They sure have their eyes fixed on Jesus! 

Be sure to check out our new art project in the hallway... 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

This week we will be having fun comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction Gingerbread books. We'll be finding facts, retelling, and having fun with a few STEM projects. 

NO SPELLING THIS WEEK

The words and pink sheet will come home for the week of January 7th (the week we come back from break).

WRITING 

Your second graders published their nonfiction stories last week. They are very proud! This week we'll practice writing with our own versions of The Gingerbread Man.

NEWS and NOTES

·                     ALL WEEK Change Challenge Collection to support CCLS-U sponsor children

·                     December 17th (tonight) CCLS Advent Service 6:30pm 

o    Your child should arrive by 6:25 and sit in the pews with our class

·                     December 21st - December Reading Logs Due 

·                     December 21st - End of 2nd Quarter and Class Christmas Party!  

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of December 10th

Happy Monday! Two more full week of school before Christmas break. The children are getting anxious, as we prepare for Jesus' birth! 
To get in the spirit, we were able to read Christmas stories to our preschool reading buddies last week...

Did you hear about the "Hour of Code?" 

If not, ask your second grader about how they dabbled with coding last week!

Wow! Many of them know way more than I do! 

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION 
This week we'll continue to read about the story of Jesus' birth. As we read, we'll discuss how we think the different characters were feeling and carry on the topic of "making inferences" as we read different perspectives of the Christmas story from The Bible. 

PHONICS and SPELLING 

The spelling rule this week is "bossy R." These r-controlled words have the "ar" and "or" spelling patterns. 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES 

Inferring is kind of like the big umbrella and predicting fits neatly under it. But what’s the difference between them? We'll be investigating the two this week... Predicting is when you use your schema + clues the author gives you to make an “educated” guess. A prediction can usually be confirmed or denied through further reading. Making inferences also requires your schema + clues the author gives you to make a guess, but inferences are not clearly confirmed or denied through reading. Wow! We'll be working hard!

GRAMMAR and WRITING

Our targeted grammar skill will challenge second graders to identify linking verbs and helping verbs this week.

In their own writing, second graders will continue to work diligently as they consider their audience and work on engaging them with descriptions, interesting facts, or an enticing lead. Students will also be using their Google accounts to safely search for images that correspond to their nonfiction writing pieces. I have mentioned to the kiddos that they can always use their google account at home too! Therefore, here are some steps for finding more images at home... This is completely optional and while children search images, it's always smart to monitor the search by an adult.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQQP5DejtY&authuser=0 - in depth tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J6NTA0-Yig&authuser=0 - quick tutorial 

This week's NEWS and NOTES

• Week of December 17th - 2nd Change Challenge Collection 
•  Last month we collected about $110.00 dollars! What a great start to our $250 goal!
• December 17th - CCLS Advent Service 6:30pm  
• December Reading Logs Due December 21st
• December 21st - Class Christmas Party!   
• December 21st - End of 2nd Quarter - Christmas breaks begins

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of December 3rd

Last week was a great week. It was so refreshing to dive back into our routines. 

Hopefully you heard, or maybe even saw, our class book arrived!! These second graders were thrilled to have their OWN PUBLISHED book! Wow! What an accomplishment!

CHEERS to trying egg nog! 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... What a wonderful time of year!
Come check out our hallway and what we learned and created last week...

Here's what's going on this week...

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT

Advent is a time of anticipation and preparation, a time of celebration of Jesus’ coming.

Just like a mom and dad have to prepare for a baby that’s on the way, or a host has to prepare to throw a party, we ask God to prepare our hearts for the birth of His son, Jesus. 

PHONICS and SPELLING 

The spelling rule this week is three consonant blends. (For example: scr, str, spr, squ). 

READING SKILLS and STRATEGIES

We can teach inferring for a variety of purposes. Children can infer how a character feels, about why a character behaves a certain way, or even the theme of a book. This week we'll continue to practice this higher level reading skill of making inferences. 

We've also been practicing fluency with various readers theaters AND the green screen... 

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!

In writing, the kids will keep working on their nonfiction pieces. Have you asked your child about what topics they have chosen to write about yet?

This week's NEWS and NOTES

• December 3rd (TODAY) - Afternoon field trip to Laclede Groves
• December 6th (12:30 - 1:00) - Santa's Workshop 
• Week of December 17th - 2nd Change Challenge Collection 
• December 17th - CCLS Advent Service 6:30
• December Reading Logs Due December 21st 
• December 21st - End of 1st quarter - Christmas Breaks begins

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!