Ms. Russell
Second Grade Newsletter
Chaparral School

September 21, 2009
Dear Room 6 Families,
It was so good seeing you last Wednesday night for our Back-To-School Night. For those of you who signed up to be in-class volunteers, there will be a meeting in Room 6 on Thursday afternoon, September 24, right after the children are dismissed at 2:20. Your children are welcome to stay during our meeting. They can take a book outside and read at the picnic table. We have more volunteers signed up than there are available times. I hope we can work this out at our meeting on Thursday. At that time, I will also go over my expectations and any training you may need. Thank you, again, for your enthusiastic response.

LANGUAGE ARTS: We continue with Dragon Gets By, by Dav Pilkey and its attendant standards. I will show the class how they can access more information about Dav Pilkey and find educational games to play through our Room 6 web site. Give it a try!

SPELLING: Lesson 2: More short “a” words.

POEM: What Do You Do At School Each Day?

MUSIC: As we continue our study of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach, we will read the book Bach’s Big Adventure, by Sallie Ketcham. Children resonate to the lives of famous people when they can hear about the childhood of these folks. This beautifully illustrated book is based on a story that Bach liked to tell about his long walk to hear the famous organist, Jan Reincken (1623-1722), play in St. Catherine’s Church in Hamburg. Reinkin lived to the age of ninety-nine, long enough to see his friend Bach be acknowledged as the greatest organist in all of Germany and the world.

ART: This week the class will have their first watercolor lesson. Soon they will be able to set up paint projects all on their own, with little assistance from me.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Last Wednesday we discussed Constitution Day. After learning about our country’s Constitution, this class created one of their own.

WRITING: Speaking of writing... every child now has a personal spelling dictionary that s/he will be using all year at school. Please encourage your child to use a good children’s dictionary at home, as well. Each student is will be working on a short story, using a Norman Rockwell print as the prompt.

SCIENCE: This week, the students will have an overview of their first science unit: Physical Sciences. This unit will include such questions as: how can you describe position?, what is motion?, what is friction?, how can tools and machines make things move?, what is gravity?, what are magnets?, what is sound?, what is volume?, what is pitch? We learn songs, do experiments, and use our overhead LCD projector to explore the fantastic technological support that comes with this adoption.

OTHER: I have made copies of your child’s CHAPARRAL ELEMENTARY HOME-SCHOOL AGREEMENT. Please keep this copy at home. The other two copies are for me and for Mrs. Kerns.