Family Christmas Tree Project

Today your child is taking home a Christmas tree pattern to decorate as a family project.  After you cut it out, you are free to be as creative as you want!  Any material may be used to decorate the tree:  paint, fabric, Christmas cards, ribbons, glitter, cereal, wrapping paper, buttons, garland, stickers, bows, etc.  The goal is to have fun as a family, working together on a project; decorations should not be expensive or overly time-consuming.  The tree will be displayed in the hall and should be returned by Monday, December 8.  If your child is not able to decorate his/her tree at home, let me know and I will make arrangements to give them time at school.

You're Invited

Your child has been busy learning about earth’s land and water in Science.  For the past few weeks we have seen how important water is and what a blessing it is to have clean water to drink, bath, and to cook with.  We have made charts in class of how we  use of water at home and school.  We even are keeping a tally count of when we use water at school!  We are determining how much water does the classroom use over a period of time.  As part of the science unit we planning on going to the Water Treatment Plant on December 9 from 9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. We are able to take as many parents as we wish.  If you are interested in going with us please e-mail by Dec. 8. If we are planning on coming please be sure arrive at school a little before 9:15 so that you can ride the bus with us. We are scheduled for a tour at 9:30.  This tour is between 45-60 minutes.  We are looking forward to learning more about the water we use everyday! 

Many Seconds in Second

Give Thanks!

We are making a list of things we are thankful for each day.  Your child’s list is becoming quite long! I am noticing how thoughtful your child is in reflecting on what he/she is thankful for.  Look for this list in your child’s folder closer to Thanksgiving break. 

Click on the link to see and hear our class recite Psalm 100.  This Psalm of Thanksgiving is a treasure to keep close to our hearts!

This week, in writing, we started look at things with a poet’s eye.  We put on our ‘make believe’ glasses to view images and objects with the poet’s eyes. With this background, we will slowly begin to write our poems.  This week as a class we wrote a poem about a stapler.  With our poet’s eye we see the stapler as an alligator.  This is what we came up with:         

                        Alligator

                        It moves up and down, up and down

                        It chomps…paper

                        With it’s sharp teeth

           

Your child also learned to see that line breaks help the poem sound like music to the ear.   Line breaks make our poems come to life!  We are off to a great first week of creative writing.  We are looking forward to sharing these poems with you soon!

A Few Reminders:

-Math homework is due each Friday

-Reading Minutes are due each Monday

-Library books are due each Tuesday

-BOOTS! HATS! MITTENS! SNOW PANTS!  AND, inside shoes! (It's easy to forget these when the kids are wearing boots to school).  I'll suggest keeping an extra pair at school for these winter months.

-Gym shoes are required for gym: Monday and Thursday

-There's a Rose Park Skating Party on Monday evening.  Join in! 6pm at HOME Roller Rink.

This Coming Week...

“Praise and Thanksgiving, let everyone bring.

Unto our Father for every good thing.

All together, joyfully sing.”

During this month I am reminded to count my blessings and to know from whom my blessings come.  Our Heavenly Father, in all His infinite power looks upon us with unending grace and mercy.  THIS is pure joy!  May you find time during your busy days and schedules to focus on your blessings with a heart of THANKSGIVING!  In our second grade classroom, we are taking time each day to share some of our blessings.

Now, as I look at the coming week with its lessons and activities, I would like to highlight these things:

 Reading: 

This month in reading your child will pay close attention to the characters they read about.  They will see that these characters have wants/needs and problems to be faced.  As readers, we will practice walking in the characters shoes, taking on the events and challenges the characters face, and using this thinking to make predictions.  Your child’s book boxes will have a variety of ‘good-fit’ books that have a strong character presences.  Your child will then share these books with his/her reading partner and continue great ‘book talk’.

Writing: 

We will begin a month long study on writing poetry.  The first steps in writing poetry is to immerse ourselves in reading poetry. Each lesson will begin with reading/sharing poems. This week we will focus on looking at objects with a poet’s eye and start making our poems sound like music-using line breaks.

Math:

We began learning how to do two-digit addition.  This week we will learn two methods/strategies: New groups below and show all totals.  Your child will be coming home with a paper on Monday explaining these two methods.  This will help you have a better understanding of the strategies taught.  Math homework continues to be due each Friday.

Social Studies:

This week we will begin Social Studies.  In second grade, all our units of study will focus on our local community.  This week we will talk about our families.  Please have your child bring in a picture of his/her family.  We will be using this picture in our Social Studies lesson this week.  Feel free to email me a picture-if this is easier.  I can make a copy at school.

Bible:

The Bible has many names for Jesus:  King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Messiah, Savior, Alpha and Omega etc.  Each of these names describes who Jesus was.  As we listen to Bible stories this week, we will hear many new names for Jesus.  This week’s Bible stories will focus on the miracles of Jesus. 

As you can see, we have a full week of learning.  Continue to pray daily for the work your child is doing.  Pray that your child will glorify God in all things-work and play!

In Him,

Stacia Vogelzang