Half and Half

This week was spent wrapping up our Gus and Grandpa lesson and beginning the next lesson, The Great Ball Game.  This is a fun story because it is a Porquoi tale - a kind of folktale that explains why something happens in nature.  This particular story is a Muskogee story that explains why birds fly south for the winter.  Ask your second grader what the story says and how it was decided that they needed to disappear for half the year.  Our focus skill for the week was plot - mainly beginning, middle, and end but also including characters and setting as well.  High-frequency words are ago, accept, half, fair, though, and clear.  See if your second grader can use them in a sentence, or if they can use more than one word in the same sentence!  Robust vocabulary words this week are feud, superior, refuse, and insult.  Ask who is having a feud in the story this week.  Challenge them to be superior to their siblings in some way this week - completing chores or finishing their dinner.  Use the word refuse at home (I know they will all refuse to do something at some point in the next week, so point it out to them and use the word).  Let them know if they have insulted you or a sibling, or talk about things that may be insulting and why they shouldn't be said.  Our grammar skill for the week is proper nouns.  We've given lots of examples.  Remind your second grader that a proper noun names a noun and begins with a capital letter - ask them to name some for you.  Lastly, we began narrative writing.  We are writing stories about what we would do if we were the president.  Hopefully these will be up at conferences for you to read - they are looking great so far!

Spelling words for the week have the -ar spelling pattern.  Words are:
car, art, barn, start, farm, card, yarn, part, dark, hard, boy, follow, came, want, show

Don't forget...conferences are next Tuesday and Wednesday.  Remember to bring your child with you so he/she can showcase all that we have been working on!  There is no school on Wednesday.

Tuesday is voting day.  Remember to exercise your right to vote.  Help keep us EXCELLENT - vote YES for Lake Schools!

Specials schedule for next week is:
Monday - music
Tuesday - gym
Wednesday - no school
Thursday - library
Friday - music

Enjoy the weekend!  Don't forget about Vendor Day on Saturday in the Lake Elementary cafeteria and tours of the new high school from 12:30-2:30 the same day.