Ms. Russell
Second Grade Newsletter
Chaparral School

September 28, 2009
Dear Room 6 Families,
LANGUAGE ARTS: This week, we continue our Silly Stories theme with Julius, written by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Dav Pilkey. Julius is a pig from Alaska who teaches Maya and her family important lessons about fun and sharing. We will be talking about the genre of fantasy where characters and events that could occur in real life combine with those that could not. For the next two weeks, we will be focusing on: High Frequency Words (brought, reason, special, surprise), Strategy Focus (monitor/clarify), Comprehension (fantasy/realism), Information Skill (diagram), Vocabulary (synonyms), Grammar (naming parts of a sentence), Writing (writing dates), Listening/Speaking (participating in a group discussion).
Last week I gave the high frequency words as a part of our language arts benchmark. Today, I am sending home the results. These are words your child needs to learn to read WITHOUT HESITATION. Please work with your child at home to learn these words.

POEM: The Library. This poem is in honor of Chaparral’s librarian, Mrs. Hamill, and our beautiful library.

WRITING: We are doing a character sketch of a skateboarder, Jessie Williams, whose skateboarding adventure around the world is a first class excuse for being late to class.

SPANISH: Our class is very fortunate to have two excellent student teachers from Scripps College and our students are already quite engaged in their Spanish lessons. Each child has been assigned a Spanish name and last week the students learned to introduce themselves in Spanish.

MATHEMATICS: The children have been introduced to a number of concepts (such as telling time and counting money) which we will be mastering throughout the year. They are also working on math fluency and memorization through fun games such as Addition Top It and Money Top It. These are games I would encourage you to play at home, as well. We are also setting up guidelines for working with partners while doing math activities. These are the Partnership Principles the class agreed on:
* Help each other
* Listen to your partner
* Quiet voice
* Be polite
* Golden Rule
* Take turns
* Be safe
* Be honest
* Follow directions
Good rules to live by!

SCIENCE: I am working with Mrs. Kaljumagi and our second grade team to incorporate the new Chaparral Garden (on the west side of the campus) in to our science program on Growing Things/Plant Life Cycle. I will keep you up to date on our progress. Meanwhile, the students are reading Westlandia with our new parent volunteers to prepare us for this exciting science adventure.

OTHER: A number of you have been asking about items you could contribute to the classroom. First, let me say “THANK YOU” for all that you have already donated. I will let you know if/when we may need other items.