I hope you have been enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend. This week takes us to our last Saint Story until November. The second graders will hear the story of Tekla Haymanot, an Ethiopian saint who was guided by Saint Michael. Throughout the block I have been increasing the amount of writing that the children are doing. This week they will be writing even more and helping develop the sentences from the story rather than me creating the sentence. By the end of the year, they will ideally be able to think of sentences themselves and write their thoughts. I distinctly remember starting my first journal in second grade. It was almost entirely about my cat, but I was writing my own thoughts and feelings. They are getting there as well!
In math we will review division and keep practicing step counting. Last week they learned that “times” means the same thing as “groups of.” This made multiplication much easier for them.
Upcoming Events
This week is full of events! On Tuesday we have our Michaelmas festival at Urban Prairie. The children will have Morning Lesson and Periods 1 and 2 as normal. In the afternoon we will have an all school rehearsal of the pageant followed by an afternoon of work toward making the school better. The spirit of Michaelmas is related to preparing for the coming cold season as well as fostering courage to brave the dark months. The children are asked to wear red on Tuesday as they engage their will and serve the community with their hard work. In second grade we will be re-potting plants in the school and potentially helping the third grade in the garden. You may want to send gardening gloves with your child that day and be sure they are dressed to work. Does anyone happen to have extra plant pots and/or soil lying around that they care to drop off for us to use? It can be dropped off to the second grade classroom sometime between tomorrow and Tuesday morning. We will also have a relay race after work is done wherein the whole school will come together.
Second Grade Parent Evening is this Wednesday from 7:00-9:00. You will have the opportunity to experience some of a second grade math lesson and ask questions about the math curriculum. We will also discuss some second grade behaviors that may seem strange but are actually completely normal. A meeting agenda will be sent out tomorrow. If you have any pressing questions that you would like discussed at the meeting please contact me so that I can include it. I want these meetings to be helpful for you!
Harvest Fest is this Saturday, October 3rd at 11:00 am at City Garden. This year, the second grade gets to play the part of the gnomes in the pageant. We have tunics and hats at school so there is no need to provide a gnome costume. It would be best if they wear earth tone or black pants to go with their costumes. This is sure to be a fun day complete with butter churning, grain grinding, apple bobbing, a pumpkin sale, cake, music, and more. I ask that you try to arrive a couple of minutes before 11:00 so that the children have time to come meet us. We will meet on Peoria Street to line up. If you are a musical person and would like to bring an instrument to play, we are inviting parents to do so! Mr. Garcia and I will start out playing a couple of songs and anyone is invited to join in or take over. I’m looking forward to seeing you there! As I said last week, please tell me if you cannot come so that I know how many children to expect. However, I hope everyone can make it and see all of the hard work the students have put in!
No School on Friday, October 9th for Faculty Development and Monday, October 12th for Columbus Day.