Week of October 10th

Last week was SO fun! 

I think we all enjoyed taking the week off from normal routines and delving into our author study of Kevin Henkes. As we read his books, your second graders really worked hard on developing "good reading habits." Each day we discussed different strategies for reading. Ask you second grader about ways they can help themselves understand - or comprehend - the books better as they read!

 We also tried illustrating just like Mr. Henkes...

 After all the connections, predictions, character study, and visualization, they voted.

Each child chose their favorite character and their favorite story...

 We are also LOVING the Christian Character Development Program. It really sparks great discussions and conversations about our identity. I hope you all are able to have conversations at home as well! 

And now... goals and objectives for this week...

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION

Think of a time you were mistreated. What happened? How did you feel? Matthew 6:14-­15 says, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” This week we will review the virtue of integrity as we continue to study Joseph. Integrity is God’s power for you to be true to Him and yourself. Joseph had been treated wrongfully by his brothers, but he was not bitter. Instead, he recognized that God was ultimately in command of his life. God created good from the evil done to Joseph, and Joseph forgave. As you discuss this with your child, ask yourselves... How can you forgive with a forgiveness that lasts?

READING SKILLS

When readers draw conclusions, they use what they already know and clues from the author to understand the story in a new way. This week your children will work on deepening their comprehension through drawing conclusions.  Learning to draw conclusions and inferences is a skill that develops over time with experiences that require children to put together various pieces of information.

SPELLING and PHONICS

This week students will identify words with short u and long u spelling patterns. Here are the two lists for the week. If your child would like to test on list two, be sure they know list one. Many "list one" words appear on the dictation portion of the test.

LIST ONE

duck	dude	rule	bump	cube
fume	rude	sun	cup	bud

LIST TWO

duck	dude	rule	bump	cube
fume	rude	thud	crunch	trunk

BONUS - Chrysanthemum 

WRITING and GRAMMAR

I sure hope you all received a special message from your child's pumpkin on Seesaw last week. Your young authors have been busy! This week they will work on identifying nouns during grammar. In writing, we will begin writing a new genre, "how-to" procedural writing. We will begin by brainstorming what we can teach to others, and then dig further into a detailed paper which describes how to do something.

NEWS and NOTES

• October reading logs will be due at the end of the month (October 31st)
• The goal is to read at least 60 minutes per week.
• October 14th - end of first quarter
• October 21st - Report cards go home 
• October 25th - 27th Elementary Book Fair
• October 27th - EARLY Dismissal & October 28th NO SCHOOL 
• student led conferences

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of October 3rd

Wow! Thank you SO very much for making me feel so special on my birthday last week.  I had such a wonderful day and truly appreciate all the goodies, cards, hugs, and love I received. I feel so blessed! 
It was kind of an extra-special birthday because I got to share it with one of our second graders! Yep! Reagan and I got to celebrate together!
Happy Birthday, Reagan!

Although there was much celebrating, we did have to say good-bye to one of our beloved friends last week. Reagan moved away.  We will truly miss Reagan and pray that all goes well for her and her family in all of their future endeavors.

In other news, here are a few highlights from last week.
First, we've been learning A LOT about our crazy English language.

So many rules!

 We have been practicing good reading habits.

Good readers make predictions based on evidence from the text...

 Here's us sharing our predictions with you all on Seesaw.

Shhh! I snuck this one in!

We also had our first experience with preschool reading buddies. If you haven't heard yet, be sure to ask your second grader about this special event! Both groups did SO great! They really enjoyed this time together!

 And... then there's ice cream Fridays.

GOALS and OBJECTIVES for the week.

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION

This week we will explore the virtue of responsibility through the story of Joseph. Joseph's older brothers were trusted by God and their earthly father with the responsibility to care for their brother. Instead of being their brother's keeper, Joseph's brothers gave in to sin, failed to keep their brother safe, and sold him into slavery. Sometimes sin takes over and jealousy and hatred consume our hearts which makes loving everyone very difficult. As God's serving leaders, it is our responsibility to love and care for others especially when it's difficult to do so. As you talk about this big point with your child this week, please discuss that it is our God-­given responsibility to love others, reconcile with those who wrong us, and care for everyone (even our enemies and those people we don't like). What is your purpose as a responsible and loving child of God?

READING SKILLS

We've completed the first "unit" in our reading series, so this week your second graders will take a Unit Test to review all the skills that have been taught. The absences of a regular unit this week allows us to take a break from our normal language arts routines. I'm so excited to say that we will be doing our first author study on the famous author Kevin Henkes. The kids are going to absolutely LOVE reading his books! Not only will we be reading his books, but we will also be responding to them as we review "good reading habits." Stay tuned for more on Kevin Henkes! AND... If you haven't starting following us on Twitter, please consider it! I'm sure I'll be tweeting a few things next week @CCLSKlug.

SPELLING
NO SPELLING this week! I know. Get your second grader a box of tissues. I'm sure they'll be sad. :)

GRAMMAR and WRITING
This week students will be doing a lot of writing as response to literature during our author study. I also plan to have the children spend some time trying to write like Kevin Henkes. This allows them to come up with their own stories that were inspired by him.

NEWS and NOTES

• New "RED" reading logs come home today! The October logs will be due at the end of the month. Remember, the goal is to read at least 60 minutes per week.
• October 5th - medicine collection ends for CCLS-U - free dress day
• October 7th and 8th - CCLS Carnival
• October 14th - end of first quarter
• October 21st - Report cards go home 
• October 25th - 27th Elementary Book Fair
• October 27th - EARLY Dismissal & October 28th NO SCHOOL 
• student led conferences

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!