Greetings from 2nd grade!! We are continuing to stay busy in 2nd grade. It seems that one thing ends and the next is right there waiting. I pray that you enjoy the three day weekend. Here are some reminders to keep you up to date on what is coming our way!

Read! Read! Read! Don’t forget to keep track of the minutes you read outside of school on your calendar. Your goal is 15 minutes a day or 450 minutes for the month of November! Turn in your October calendars on November 2nd! Your new November calendar is attached.

Good news!! I was told we would not be able to participate in the Book-It reading program, but Mr. Hubach was able to talk to someone. Pizza Hut did send us some certificates. So, if your child meets their goal each month then he/she will receive a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. Again, if your child meets the goal for 6 consecutive months, then they will have a pizza party at school!!

We will be doing a science habitat project. Your child has picked an animal. With your help they will do a little research. They will have to transform a shoebox (or any box around that size) into their animal’s habitat. I then need them to answer a few questions. The project is due Monday, November 9th. If they are done before that date they can go ahead and bring it in early.

Now that the second quarter has begun, my expectations will be a bit higher. We have one quarter under our belt and by now we should be in our routine and the kids should know what is expected of them. Any late work will have points taken off and if your child forgets their name on their paper he/she will write their name 50 times. Not as many warnings for talking or behavior will be given out. I have discussed this with the kids.

Here’s what we have been up to this week!
Religion: This week we have learned many things about Martin Luther. We have seen how he was born and baptized, how he went to school, and how he grew up to be a famous monk, teacher, and pastor. We have also learned why many Christians each year celebrate Reformation Day on October 31st. Martin Luther was raised thinking that he had to be afraid of God. He did many things so that God would not get angry with him. He thought the more good works he did, the better his chances of getting to heaven would be. But, when Martin started to study his Bible he realized maybe not everything he was taught was true. The more Martin read, the more he learned about Jesus and how He died on the cross for the sins of all. “Even for my sins,” thought Martin Luther. He came to understand that God loves us and that we do not have to be afraid of God. Martin Luther helped bring this good news to the church. He helped reform the church. Your kids will probably forget some of the things we learned about Martin Luther, but it is my hope that they remember the most important thing that Martin Luther taught: God loves us. He loves us so very much that He sent Jesus, His own Son, to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus paid for all our sins. The Bible tells us about God’s love. We want to read the Bible to learn more about God’s great love.

Math: In math this week we practiced finding a line of symmetry in different shapes. In addition, we began adding 2-digit numbers. The kids are really excited about this. We have not begun carrying yet, but that will be here before you know it. We are still practicing our facts. We are working on sums of 13/14, although our fact test will include various facts from previous weeks.

Reading: In reading this week I checked comprehension from the story we read last week. We also learned to categorize and classify different animals with shells. We reviewed how to sound out CVCE words and went over some high frequency words from the story. The class also talked about antonyms. We call it the fancy word for opposites. We did not have time for reading groups this week.

Science and SS: In science this week, we reviewed the habitats that we talked about last week: tundra, grassland, rain forest, desert, ocean, and pond. In addition to describing them, we also talked about what kind of animals you might find in those environments. We also talked a little more about our habitat projects. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Habitat projects are due November 9th. If handed in late, points will be deducted. In social studies, we took our Unit 4 test. Next week we will be starting Unit 2.

Language Arts: This week the children chose their topic for the descriptive writing. They were assigned to choose one of their favorite places. In the writing they are expected to use their five senses to describe their favorite place. We are still working on our rough draft.

Spelling and Phonics: In spelling this week, we worked on words with double consonants. Next week, we will be working on words with different long “a” spellings. In phonics, we are working with the long “e” sound and spellings. In addition, we studied the following high frequency words: song, said, something, boy, girl, and people.

Take time to read about God’s love in the Bible this weekend!! God has amazing love for each one of us!

In Christ,

Miss Rempfer

Spelling List: train, way, mail, play, trail, pay, sail, hay, nail, rain, they, great, stay, day
Challenge Words: railroad, subway

Extra List: nail, load, hundred, household, belonged, study, newspaper, restore, enough, stone, packed, corners, wished, asks
Challenge Words: journey, answer

Memory Work: The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.
Psalm 118:14
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
I John 4:11

Greetings from 2nd grade!! It seems like a few things have been going around at school. Please make sure your child is washing hands, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep. If they are sick just keep them home. We are sanitizing our desks, doorknobs, etc. In addition we are washing hands and trying not to spread our germs. I pray that everyone stays healthy. Please check out the following announcements.

Read! Read! Read! Don’t forget to keep track of the minutes you read outside of school on your calendar. Your goal is 15 minutes a day or 465 minutes for the month of November! Turn in your calendars on November 2nd! Remember if you are interested in that bookmark that is also a timer go to markmytime.com or Barnes and Noble.

Today was the last day of the quarter. Report cards will go home Wednesday, October 28th.
There will also be no school on Friday, October 30th. Parent teacher conferences will take place on Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th. I will confirm a time and send a slip home so you can put it down on your calendars.

Picture retakes are on the 27th at about 10:30. I believe you are to bring your first set of pictures back.

Our next social studies test will be on Wednesday, October 28th. We will be taking it in the morning sometime. The test is over Unit 4: People Long Ago. The study guide was sent home last week.

On Wednesday, October 28th, we will be having a skating party at the Wagon Wheel. This will take place in the afternoon. If you have not turned in your child’s permission slip please have it in by Monday. Grades 1-4 will be going. This takes the place of a “Halloween party.” However, on Thursday afternoon we will be doing a small craft and having a treat. We will not be dressing up in costumes.

We will be doing a science habitat project. Your child has picked an animal. With your help they will do a little research. They will have to transform a shoebox (or any box around that size) into their animal’s habitat. I then need them to answer a few questions. All the details are attached. The project is due Monday, November 9th. If they are done before that date they can go ahead and bring it in early.

Here’s what we have been up to this week:

Religion: In religion this week, we continued to talk about various leaders for the Lord. Again, the people of Israel turned away from God. This time God allowed an enemy, the Midianites to overrule the land. The Midianites robbed the people of their food and animals. So the people hid from their enemies. God chose Gideon to lead the army, but Gideon wasn’t sure he could do it. The Lord promised he would be with Gideon. Gideon gathered an army, but the Lord said it was too big. So, many of the soldiers were sent home. Gideon’s army small, but God didn’t want the people to say they fought and won because they had only the bravest soldiers. God said he would use this small group to save Israel. Now, if this sounds unusual, listen to the weapons the army was to carry—not swords, not shields, not spears—just empty jars, torches, and trumpets! The most powerful weapon they had was God Himself! God won the victory! We also talked about David and Goliath. David was only a boy but he trusted the Lord to help him defeat the giant Goliath. David used only a small stone to defeat a giant that the entire army was worried about. We have “giants” in our lives too. In other words, we will have problems while we are in this sin-filled world. But God is our only hope, and He will never leave us.

Math: In math this week, we practiced ordering 2-digit numbers. We tested over the sums of 12 and started practicing the sums of 13 and 14. We learned to read a recipe and measure the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. We got to eat them too!! Finally, we practiced counting money, again we stuck with dimes, nickels, and pennies for now!

Reading: In reading this week, we practiced reading and writing different kinds of sentences. Again, we talked about how our voice might sound different when you read a question or exclamation. We also read a new story entitled “What lives in a shell?” We studied the following vocabulary words: grow, smooth, open, enemies, goes, outgrow, opening, and hollow. We also are continuing to read in groups.

Science and SS: This week in science we talked about how living things survive in different places. We defined the following words: pond, ocean, tundra, grassland, rain forest, desert. In addition, we gave some examples of animals you might find in each environment. I also spent time explaining the habitat project which is due on Monday, November 9th. Your child chose their own animal. In social studies we talked about differentiating between fact and fiction and we also reviewed for the test which is on Wednesday, October 28th.

Language Arts: In language arts we studied compound words. The kids picked up on this really fast. In addition, we talked about good leads and endings for paragraphs that we write. We like to start with a topic sentence and give some kind of closure to our paragraph. Finally, we started talking about the descriptive writing we will be starting next week.

Spelling/Phonics: In spelling this week we studied words with k or ck. Next week we will be studying words with double consonants. The pretest will be on Monday and the posttest will be on Thursday. In phonics, we are continuing to work on long and short vowels, rhyming, and using words in context.

God’s blessings on the week ahead! Remember God will help you face the “giants” in your life!!

In Christ,

Miss Rempfer


Spelling Words: bell, off, dress, add, hill, well, egg, will, grass, tell, at, hot
Challenge Words: brass, skill

Extra List: hour, monkey, becoming, hoping, finest, airplanes, midnight, earth, across, painter, weeds, itself, protest, loud
Challenge Words: coward, should

Memory: The Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
The Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his
manservant or maid servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your
neighbor.

Greetings from 2nd grade!! Thank you to all of you that could make it to sing in church last Sunday. We appreciate it. The kids sounded wonderful. What a great way to praise the Lord! Here are a few reminders for the upcoming weeks.

Read! Read! Read! Don’t forget to keep track of the minutes you read outside of school on your calendar. Your goal is 15 minutes a day or 465 minutes for the month of November! Turn in your calendars on November 2nd!

Mrs. Schwartz showed me a really cool bookmark that can help you and your child keep track of the time they have spent reading. It is a bookmark with a timer. You can set it to count up or down for the 15 minutes or the 465 minute goal. You can find them at www.markmytime.com or they are available at Barnes and Noble.

Remember the Yankee Candle fundraiser packets are due back this coming Monday, October 19th.

On Friday, October 23rd we will dismiss at 11:30 a.m. This marks the end of the first quarter. Report cards will go out on Wednesday, October 28th.

There will also be no school on Friday, October 30th. Parent teacher conferences will take place on Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th. Being looking for a conference sign up sheet in the next couple weeks.

Picture retakes are on the 27th and 28th. As soon as I know more details, I will let you know. I believe you are to bring your first set of pictures back.

Our next social studies test will be on Wednesday, October 28th. We will be taking it in the morning sometime. The test is over Unit 4: People Long Ago. The study guide is attached.

On Wednesday, October 28th, we will be having a skating party at the Wagon Wheel. This will take place in the afternoon. Look for a permission slip in the next few weeks. Grades 1-4 will be going. This takes the place of a “Halloween party.” However, on Thursday afternoon we will be doing a small craft and having a treat. We will not be dressing up in costumes.
Here’s what we have been up to this week:

Religion: This week we finished up the story of Moses with the golden calf. We discussed how the story does not end there though. So if you get a chance continue the story at home. When Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments he was gone for a long time—40 days. Some of the people became impatient and some were afraid. They wanted a god they could see and touch. The people no longer loved and trusted God above everything else. They put their own want first. They made a statue of a gold calf and called it their new god. We may not make idol gods for ourselves, but in a way, we fall into the same trap that the Israelites did. Whenever we love something more than we love God, whenever something else becomes most important in our life, it becomes an idol. Actually, most of the when we break the First Commandment, it is because we put ourselves first—we do what we want rather than what God wants. There is only one way to get over this sin sickness that we have. Only Jesus can take away our sins. Only He can change us so that we turn from sin and follow God’s will. Remember the word “JOY.” It is a good acronym for us to remember. Put Jesus first, others next, and yourself last. Trust the Lord!

Math: We began the week by taking our fact test over sums of eleven. We also took our written test on Tuesday. Now we are working on our sums of 12. We continued counting money, but now we added nickels to the mix. Remember when your child counts change they should always begin with the coin that is worth the most. We practiced writing the shorthand date, just using digits. The kids picked up on this pretty easy. They write it on their papers, but some of them never realized what it meant. Finally, we practiced making bar graphs and reading a Venn diagram.

Reading: We started a story entitled “Nature Spy.” It encouraged the kids to take a closer look at things around them outside. The kids really listened because at recess I have kids coming up saying, “Did you know if you take a closer look at a leaf, you can really see the veins we were talking about?” We did a comprehension check, worked on comparing and contrasting, and went over the following vocabulary words: curious, spy, discover, small, green, bird, eye, notice, size, and close. Again, we are working on fluency, so we have been reading aloud quite a bit.

Science and Soc. St. : We started off the week with our Unit A science test. I read the test aloud, but it was an individual assessment. Thank you for all the studying you did at home. We moved on to unit B—“Homes for Living Things.” We started off by answering the question, “What is an Environment?” We discussed the words habitat, environment, and adapt. In social studies, we talked about American heritage. We defined heritage, landmark, and memorial. Some of the symbols of our heritage are the bald eagle, our flag, the Constitution, and the Statue of Liberty. In addition, we talked about heroes and holidays. We discussed a few heroes like Harriet Tubman and Neil Armstrong and their accomplishments. We defined the word legend and discussed that some parts of legends may be made up. Finally, we discussed the following holidays and why they are celebrated: President’s Day, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. There will be a test on Wednesday, October 28th. The study guide is attached!

Language Arts: In language arts this week we talked about plural possessives. This has been very confusing to some. Each year this seems to be a tough concept. We will be reviewing this again. We also learned how to write a greeting and closing to a letter. The tricky part seems to be the commas. This will come in handy later when we write our penpals in Newhall, IA (it is my mom’s second grade class).

Spelling/Phonics: In spelling this week, we studied words with consonant clusters. In phonics we are continuing to work on long vowels. I know many of you may think this is too easy, but there are several ways to spell long vowels so this is a pretty long unit for us. We reviewed long a, i, and u. I introduced the long “o.”

God’s blessings on the week ahead! Remember the acronym for JOY!

Jesus
Others
You

In Christ,

Miss Rempfer

Spelling Words: lake, rock, ask, pick, truck, black, back, bake, clock, kick, kite, take
Challenge Words: dock, snake

Alternate List: driving, aunt, pain, hearing, training, birthday, grasshopper, hello, pool, howl, safe, talked, bottle, thinks
Challenge Words: energy, disturbed

Memory Work: The 6th Commandment: You shall not commit adultery.
The 7th Commandment: You shall not steal.
The 8th Commandment: You shall not give false testimony against
your neighbor.

Greetings from 2nd grade!! It was wonderful to see all the kids back after the extended weekend. I hope many of you got a chance to enjoy the time off too. They have done such a wonderful job this week getting right back into the routine. Again, I just want to highlight a few things for the upcoming weeks.

Don’t forget we sing at Zion Lutheran Church at 8:00 a.m. this coming Sunday, October 11th. Mrs. Bell is asking that all the kids meet in our classroom by 7:45 a.m. This is an awesome opportunity for both 2nd grade classes to share Christ with others and to praise the Lord! Remember, if you can’t make it please send in a note for Mrs. Bell.

Read! Read! Read! Don’t forget to keep track of the minutes you read outside of school on your calendar. Your goal is 15 minutes a day or 465 minutes for the month of November!

Our science test is this coming Monday, October 12th. The study guide went home a few weeks ago. We have been studying in class and hopefully you have been spending time on it at home. If not you have time to brush up on it this weekend.

Remember the Yankee Candle fundraiser packets are due back on Monday, October 19th.

On Friday, October 23rd we will dismiss at 11:30 a.m. This marks the end of the first quarter. Report cards will go out on Wednesday, October 28th.

There will also be no school on Friday, October 30th. Parent teacher conferences will take place on Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th. Being looking for a conference sign up sheet in the next couple weeks.

Here’s what we have been up to this week:

Religion: This week in religion, we talked about how Moses lead the people out of Egypt (the Exodus). Really, we know we can’t give all the credit to Moses. As a class we talked about the 3 P’s: present, patient, and powerful. God was present the entire time. A pillar of cloud led them by day, and a pillar of fire led them by night. We know that He is always with us too. God was patient. God had shown His power and protection. But at the first sign of trouble, the Israelites panicked and complained. God could have given up on these people. Instead He was patient and faithful. God is patient with us even though we make mistakes and sin. He continues to love us, forgive us, and help us to follow Jesus. God is powerful. God showed his power as we parted the Red Sea and destroyed the enemy. Jesus has shown His power over sin, death, and the devil—the greatest enemies of all. We also began talking about the Ten Commandments. The commandments tell us what we should not do, but they also help us understand what we will do through God’s power working in us. God loved us and sent Jesus to save us. Now, because of our love for God, we want to do His will. It is impossible for us to follow the commandments perfectly because we are sinners. But God had a plan. He sent someone who could obey for us. Since we break the rules we deserve to be punished, but God sent Jesus to take the punishment for us. We are truly loved! Now we strive to live as children of God.

Math: We started out the week by taking a written test and practicing measuring in inches with a ruler. The kids liked it. Challenge your child to do some measuring at home. We also practiced trading pennies for dimes. This is something that can also be worked on at home. I suggest keeping a bag or bowl of change around to practice with weekly.

Reading: This week in reading we continue to work on fluency. We read some passages several times and I talked to the kids about how much better it flowed after they felt more confident and comfortable. Sometimes we have to break the sentence into sections and read them. We did a lot of group reading this week. In addition, we talked about answering questions in complete sentences and using part of the question in the answer.

Science and SS: In science this week we talked about the plant life cycle. Our big word for the day was germination. In addition, we spent much of our time reviewing for the test, which is on Monday. In social studies, we talked about independence. We discussed the 13 colonies and how they wanted to form their own country. The Declaration of Independence was written and then signed on July 4, 1776. Finally, we talked about the American Revolution and some important leaders at that time.

Language Arts: This week we reviewed when to use capital letters. Some kids are making silly mistakes on these worksheets by rushing or simply not following directions. I have reminded many of them several times, but perhaps you could encourage reading the directions, etc. at home. I also introduced plural nouns. The rule we learned is when the word ends with ch, sh, s, x, or z, then you add –es. In most other cases you just need to add –s to make a word plural. When the word ends with a y, then you change the y to an i and add –es. Then of course there are those words that are irregular and don’t follow the rules.

Spelling and Phonics: This week we did more vowel-consonant-e words and next week we will be studying words with consonant clusters. In phonics, we went over long “i” and long “u” spellings. In addition, we studied the following high frequency words: could, over, very, come, one, and these.

God’s blessings on your weekend! Remember the three P’s! God is present. God is patient. God is powerful!

In Christ,

Miss Rempfer

Spelling Words: trip, swim, step, nest, club, stone, next, brave, glad, lost, flat, slip,
Challenge words: branches, storm

Alternate List: indeed, fourteen, thanking, hurry, shame, tool, while, roar, pulling, somebody, higher, grain, navy, oats
Challenge Words: lightning, believe

Memory: The Third Commandment-Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
The Fourth Commandment-Honor your father and your mother.
The Fifth Commandment-You shall not murder.