Greetings from 2nd grade!! We are continuing to stay very busy. Hang in there!! Thank you to all those who volunteered to chaperone for the field trip. I am sorry we were not able to use all of you. I appreciate your willingness to help. Please take note of the following reminders.
Today was midterm of the 3rd quarter. Midterm reports will go home on Wednesday, February 17th.
We have no school on Monday, February 15th in honor of President’s Day.
Your child’s president brochures are due on Tuesday, February 16th. Points will be deducted if the project is late.
Iowa Tests of Basic Skills begin Tuesday, February 16th. These tests are pretty intense so please be sure that your child has breakfast and gets plenty of sleep.
There will be no spelling unit or memory next week. I am trying to limit the amount of homework your child will have to help you ensure that they get to bed early for the ITBS tests.
Remember to send in any spare change for the quarter raiders. All the change that is collected will be given to the relief effort in Haiti.
The 2nd grade classes will be singing in chapel on February 24th. It is a Lenten service, so it will start at 10:00 a.m.

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

Religion: In religion, we continued to talk about Jesus’ miracles. Jesus had the power to calm the storm. The disciples were very afraid, but Jesus simply used His words and the waves died down. The disciples were blessed to have Jesus with them during this emergency. The truth is that we don’t need God only in emergencies. We need God all the time—when we have big problems, when we have small problems, and also when we have no problems at all. Just like the disciples, we can be thankful that Jesus is near—all the time!! We also talked about how Jesus healed the blind man Bartimaeus. When we have faith in God in our hearts, it affects our lives in what we say and do. We can see this in Bartimaeus. He had faith and was certain that Jesus could help him. Bartimaeus called Jesus the Son of David. He believed that Jesus was the promised Savior sent from God to save us. Bartimaeus followed Jesus to learn more about God’s love, and he praised God for showing love and mercy.

Math: In math this week we learned how to find half of both even and odd numbers. This proved to be a challenge for many of the students, especially in dealing with the remainders for the odd numbers. In addition, we practiced estimating a sum by rounding both addends. Finally, we practiced measuring in feet and inches.

Reading: We started the week out by discussing syllables. The kids can either clap it out or put their hand under their jaw. These are just two tricks to help them find how many syllables are in a word. Breaking a word down into syllables can help your child sound words out. We also talked about verbs that end with –ed and discussed how they are pronounced. Finally, we reviewed how to summarize a story by identifying the main characters, setting, problem, main events, and ending. The kids really do a good job with this.

Science/SS: In science this week, we reviewed key information about the solar system. We also practiced saying the names of the planets in order, beginning with Mercury, which is closest to the sun. We learned some new information as well. We discussed what causes day and night. The earth rotates once every 24 hours. When it is daytime here, we are facing the sun and the other side of the world is experiencing nighttime because they are not facing the sun. In social studies, we reviewed some key terms for the test. In addition, we played a Jeopardy review game. The kids really enjoyed studying for their test. The class took the test today. Remember president brochures are due Tuesday, February 16th.

Language Arts: This week, we simply finished up our letters to our penpals. Our penpals in Iowa should receive our letters next week! We are looking forward to hearing from them. After Iowa Tests we will be starting a new unit.

Spelling: In spelling this week, we worked with more long “i” spellings, for example, i, y, and igh. Again, there will be no spelling or memory next week due to ITBS testing. In phonics, we reviewed the plural endings –s and –es. Because this was a review it came very easy for the kids.

God’s blessings on your week! This Valentine’s Day remember that God love you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die and rise for you!! What an amazing love!

In Him,
Miss Rempfer