Balance a Banana?

Our Science Lessons have moved from Rocks and Earth's Layers to Balance and Motion."

We have learned that God made our bodies with some balancing ideas in his thoughts.  We can stand in a stable position with our feet together.  Our feet act like a base and our arms become counter weights. We can say we are balanced because gravity is not pushing or pulling us over.  Have some fun and try to balance items on your index finger tip.  Can you balance a banana?

We also enjoyed some time with a few parachute activities in the gym before the cold days off from school.  Please ask your student what they learned about the power of air pressure.

Unit 14 Spelling List and some Dates to Know

Here is our Unit 14 Spelling list.

1.  own     2.  most     3.  soap     4.  float     5.  both     6.  know     7.  loan     8.  goat

9.  flow   10.  loaf    11.  throw  12. coach  13. so       14. grow    15. swallow  16.  ocean

Remember to look for tricks to help your student.  Can you find "an" inside two words?  or how about silliness.... Did a goat eat oat?  Can an oat float? Can you throw in a row?

DATES TO KNOW   

2nd and 3rd Grade students sing on Sunday, Jan. 19th at the 10:30 service.
2nd and 3rd Grade students sing on Saturday, Feb. 1st at the 5:30 service.
Please mark these dates on your calendar at home.  Thank you!

2014 is Here!

The students arrive back at school on Thursday!  Yippee!  
We get to begin the 2014 portion of the school year together.  

Here are 3 goals to help us focus.

1.  Remember to finish and return all old work. 
             *****Clean out your backpack.*****
             Complete old Art (snowmen and mittens)
             Finish Old religion booklets and any other old homework.
2.  Have any new work ready for the morning.
             Review your AR book and be ready to take your first test for January 2014.
             Spend time preparing your next Memory Verse.
3.  Bring your OUTSIDE winter clothing.
             We will hopefully be blessed with outside recess.

The most important part is you!!  
        Please get some sleep tonight!  
                 You will be ready to return to school!
        Please continue to pray about everything!
                 You will be ready to share your love for God with everyone.

Good Kings and Saints

The Christmas services concentrating on God's merciful salvation are now finished.
The church was full of saints worshiping the King. The fullness of God's house impresses me every year!  The voices of the congregation praising God in unison fills the heart of everyone worshiping at St. John today.  Then add all of the students singing beautifully and speaking the Christmas history clearly.  It is easy to see why so many people felt inspired by the Lord as they spent time together.

Thank you to the upper grade students who led with their confident voices speaking, singing, playing instruments, reading portions of the message, and acting out parts!  The lower grade kids could proudly look to your example.

Thank you to the Christmas Committee of Mrs. Hahn, Mr. Breitwisch, and Mrs. Breitwisch for organizing our service, guiding practices, and encouraging us all along the way.

Our 2nd Grade classroom task for the rest of the school year can be summarized from the service.
We should walk in the footsteps of our King as Saints giving His love to others in all we do.

We are Gifts to our Families

Sometimes we exert more energy on finding gifts than we do on showing others what a gift they are to us. During this Christmas season, my prayer is that you'll continue to… Spend more time playing with your family than you spend shopping for them. Remember that the gift they really yearn for is you. Hug them and smile into their eyes as often as possible. Show them through your never-ending love what a precious gift they are.

Goals for Thursday!

The students have 3 goals for the morning!

1.  Listen to their teacher say "WOW" every time she grades a reading workbook on Thursday!

This will happen if students...
...Complete any reading worbook pages that have Fix written on them, 
...and make sure today's work of pages 192 and 193 is fantastic!

2.  Dance with Mrs. Fritz 

This will happen if I have all Religion Books numbered 2 and 3 on Thursday morning.  

We are working on Book number 4, but I do not have Books 2 and 3 all of my students.
Students may need you to check Religion books they brought home today,
or if they wrote a note about missing a book, help them find it, check it over, & send to school Thurs.

3. Listen and Watch a story on the Big Screen!

This will happen if students read their AR books and pass the AR tests on Thursday!  

(One point books may take longer than one night to read)
Several students are trying to earn pizza certificates for December by passing 4 tests.
A few students have almost passed 10 tests to earn an AR point toward a $5 coupon of their choice.

All the Good

The second graders usually end the day with a prayer we say together.

Jesus, Savior, Thanks today 
for all that has been good today.
Help us every day to be
good and gentle just like thee!

Sometimes after the second line we stop and begin to list those "good things."
The list today was quite long, and we realized just how blessed we are!
The students even made sure to thank God for OUTSIDE RECESS!!!
I hope they can tell you about the many wonderful parts of the school day!