Week of November 7th

Last week was a great week. 

Thanks to those of you that were able to join us on our field trip. 

The kiddos seemed to enjoy the beautiful music at the symphony. 

It was a great experience.

We also enjoyed reading buddy time with our preschool reading buddies.

Your second graders take this time very seriously. 

They practiced reading "just right books" with fluency before they came...

And then we were ready!

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

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT

The struggle between good and evil will exist as long as the earth exists… until God puts Satan in his place.  This week we will explore this struggle by researching about Moses and the 10 plagues. Just as the plagues in Egypt displayed God's authority, Jesus directly addressed the needs of His people through His own miracles, and helped bring deliverance through them. We will study the virtue of RESPECT. Respect is God’s power for you to honor Him and others. As you discuss all of this with your child have conversations about this big question… “How can you choose to respect God and others even when you’re plagued by trails?" 

READING SKILL OF THE WEEK
As we continue to investigate good reading habits, this week we will explore how good readers ask themselves questions and make inferences as they read.

PHONICS and SPELLING
This week we will work on spelling words with long i spelling patterns. (i, igh, ie, y). Students will practice identifying rhymes and blending words with these patterns.

LIST ONE

light	sight	high	try	lie
mind	cry	tie	wild	dry

LIST TWO

light	sight	high	try	lie
smile	kind	child	sky	eyes

BONUS - election 

GRAMMAR and WRITING 
Your kiddos are working really hard to publish paragraphs about things for which they are thankful... We are going to send their published pages off to an official publishing company to have a legitimate printed class book. Stay tuned on information about how to order your own book. I'm noticing that they are all applying so much of what they are learning in their writing. This week our grammar focus is using an apostrophe for possessive nouns.

NEWS and NOTES

• I will be out Monday and Thursday for my daughter, Malorie's routine MRI and doctor visits from her tumor in 2011. This year will be five years cancer free!
• November 13th - CCLS Sunday at Concordia
• November 23rd-25th NO SCHOOL Thanksgiving Break
• December 4th - CCLS Sunday at Glendale
• December 19th - CCLS Advent Service
• December 20th - End of 2nd Quarter
• December 21st - Christmas Break

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

SPELLING CITY

Hello everyone! I was recently introduced to this wonderful website called "Spelling City" that links up with our spelling words. To access the website and practice your words on the go... Use this link for this week's words...

https://www.spellingcity.com/spelling-games-vocabulary-games.html?listId=26952967&isListFromTeacherPage=1#

Some of the games are better than others, and we do not have the premium membership, be sure you are playing the FREE games. 

Week of October 31st

Happy Halloween! I hope you all have a fun evening full of exciting family adventures.

It sure was great to be back last week. I missed your children! We really enjoyed reading and responding to Leo Lionni's books and reviewing "things good readers do."

This is us taking a survey after reading Fish is Fish.

Would you rather be a fish or a frog?

 This is us responding to reading in our reading journals DURING reading...

Making predictions, connections, and asking questions are all important for comprehension!

 We also tried our best to illustrate like Leo.

He tears paper to makes a collage.

We discovered that it is kind of difficult!

Here's a look at next week's goals and objectives:

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION PROJECT

Sometimes it can really be difficult to follow instructions. This week we will discuss integrity which is Gods power for you to be true to Him and yourself.  Moses and Aaron followed God’s instructions with integrity, yet Pharaoh repeatedly failed to respond to or respect God. Despite Pharaoh’s cruelty of God’s people, God used Pharaoh to reveal Himself. God keeps His promises. This week, have conversations with your child about how God used Moses and Aaron to teach us about integrity. And remember, we live under God’s authority. His plan is full of integrity even when we are not.  

READING SKILL of the week

Since we've been writing our how-to stories, your kiddos are super familiar with this week's comprehension skill - sequencing. Authors organize the events of the story in the order in which they occur. Readers should pay attention to the sequence of events to help them understand the story. We will also review how authors use transition words to help show the sequence. As the students retell stories this week, they will also be practicing fluency! Keep reading at home!!

**READING LOGS are due today.**

Your child will bring home their new reading log calendar today.

SPELLING and GRAMMAR
This week in spelling we will work on spelling words with at and ai long a spelling patterns. Review this phrase with your child... "when two vowels go a walkin', the first vowel does the talkin' " In grammar we're still investigating plural and proper nouns.
List ONE

main	wait	sail	train	stay
hay	tail	jay	pay	may

List TWO

main	wait	sail	train	stay
hay	Raid	Plain	Tray	whale

BONUS word - symphony

WRITING

Wasn't it such a treat to hear your child read a published piece of writing during conference time? I love to see your children work so diligently on their writing. They are always so proud of the ones they polish and "publish". This week we will work on writing to a prompt. The topic is things for which we are thankful. Stay tuned because these pieces will actually be sent to a REAL publisher!!

NEWS and NOTES

• Field Trip to the symphony - tomorrow November 1st
• November 13th - CCLS Sunday at Concordia
• November 23rd-25th NO SCHOOL Thanksgiving Break
• December 4th - CCLS Sunday at Glendale
• December 19th - CCLS Advent Service
• December 20th - End of 2nd Quarter
• December 21st - Christmas Break

BLESSINGS ON YOUR WEEK!

Week of October 24th

I have to start by saying thank you.

Thank for all of your thoughts, prayers and offers to help. Thank you for your compassion and for your understanding. Last week was a very emotionally draining week, but knowing that you were all ready to support me and my family made a world of difference.

To sum up the story, five years ago my daughter Malorie was diagnosed with brain cancer. She had a tumor (specifically called ependymoma) that was miraculously completely removed. She underwent radiation, recovered, and has been the picture of health since.

Although we know God is in control, my family and I can't help but always live with that twinge of fear that the tumor may come back. That is why last week was so difficult for us. We were worried that part of her injury was due to her medical history.

Once again, God revealed His presence. He showed His mighty power and extravagant love when we found out that the incident last week was completely unrelated to the past, and that she would NOT need surgery on the hematoma that surfaced because of the trauma to her head.

Philippians 4: 4-8 Rejoice always!...do not be anxious, but in every situation present your requests to God and the God of peace will be with you...

God is good.

I'm also very grateful for everyone that helped take care of your children while I was away. Although they had a blast without me, I'm ready to get back in the ballgame!

Let's check out what's in store for next week!

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER FORMATION
God paves the way for us to do His work. We only need to take responsibility, trust He will prepare us, and continue to listen as we follow His call.

This week we will study the virtue of responsibility. Responsibility is God’s power for you to be accountable to Him and others.

God provides whatever we need to fulfill the call He gives us, even when we feel inadequate. As we explore this virtue, we will continue to study Moses and how he had to focus on God’s power instead of his own shortcomings. When we focus on our own abilities we might succeed for a while, but we will eventually burn out and/or give up. When we focus on God and allow Him to work in us and through us, God will provide everything! God will do the work, and we get to come along for the adventure! This week as you discuss this virtue with your child, asks yourselves this big question, “What signs would you need to believe you were ready to respond to God’s call?”

READING

With this week being a "short week", we will NOT be doing our usual reading routines. There will be NO spelling words this week, which means NO homework as well!  I'm excited to say that we will be doing another author study! This week we will celebrate the world of Leo Lionni!

During this comprehensive "balanced literacy" unit, we will use four different books written by Leo Lionni. The students will be challenged to compare characters, ask questions, recall facts, and use critical thinking skills before, during and after we read. Author studies are an excellent time for us to revisit "good reading habits" and really tackle comprehension in a fun way!

WRITING

This week your second graders will hopefully begin wrapping up the "how-to" stories on which they've been working so diligently!  They are going to enjoying picking one to polish and publish. Did you hear about how we began the unit? If not, ask your second grader. It was a hoot!

NEWS and NOTES

• October 27th and 28th (this Thursday and Friday) are student led conferences.  The 27th is an early dismissal. The elementary dismissal time is 12:05. The bus will leave at noon.
• Please let Mrs. Leet or I know if you'd like a more "parent/teacher" style conference in addition to the student led conferences planned for the week. We understand that sometimes there are concerns that need to be addressed without your child in the lead role.
• Book fair is this week! Our class will shop tomorrow. 
• November 1st - Field Trip to the symphony