Circle Time
Gathering Poem
Pledge of Allegiance
Thirty Days Hath September
We’ve ploughed our fields
We’ve sown our seed
We’ve made all neat and gay.
Then
take a bit, and leave a bit
Away,
birds, away.
-A Journey through Time in Verse and Rhyme
Michaelmas Song from Jodie Mesler's "Autumn Songs."
Class One Song from A Journey through Time in Verse and Rhyme
This is a really fun poem with four or five stanzas about different animals getting ready for autumn. I plan on having the kids memorize it and then put it on as a short play. We'll rehearse it and take turns pretending to be the animals and finding costumes and everything during Circle Time.
Spanish
For Spanish this year we are going to focus on a different Spanish speaking country each month. We'll learn about a holiday there, a game, a song, and make a recipe from that country. This month's country is Puerto Rico. My kids take a weekly Spanish class and do some online Spanish work starting in second grade, but I design these lessons to introduce them to culture and try to build vocabulary even though I don't speak much Spanish myself.
The way I do this is by telling a story every day about Ernesto the gnome. Every day, he wakes up and says 'hola' to his perro, gato, and pez. (Have the kids say hola perro. hola gato. hola pez, along with you.) Then Ernesto opens the window (abre la ventana) and looks outside and says, "Que tiempo hace hoy?" (what is the weather?) Have the children tell you in Spanish what the weather is like outside. (We learned weather terms last year.) Ernesto decides to go visit his friend Gabriela. I won't give you a line by line layout of how this will go. But Gabriela is from Puerto Rico and she has dos hermanitos (two little brothers) who need to go to sleep (dormir). So Gabriela teaches Ernesto a game outside.
Then Gabriela tells Ernesto all about a holiday coming up Grito de Lares. (There's lots of info about this online, do some research and decide how much to tell your kids. But it's basically Puerto Rican independence day.)
Then they sing a fun song. "Brinca la Tablita." http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3217
Have the children learn the following words in Spanish by giving reasons why Gabiela and Ernesto have to sing this song all these different ways and have the kids sing the song these ways.
Yell = grito
Whisper = susurro
Talk = hablar
Sing = canta
Whistle = silbar
Hum = tararear
Recipe: tortilla de gueneitos.
http://www.elboricua.com/Tortilla_de_guineitos.html
Handwork
Learning to purl. Make a dishcloth with just purl stitch.
Music
Lessons 1 and 2 on recorder from Jodie Mesler's "Living Music From the Heart vol. 2"
Main Lesson
This month our Main Lessons will be focusing on Saints Stories.
St. Francis
St. Jerome
St. Christopher
St. George
St. Michael
We are going to try to do a weekly act of service based on the stories of these saints.
Week 1 - St. Francis - make a hummingbird feeder
Week 2 - St. Christopher - clean up a stretch of the local creek
Week 3 - St. George - donate to the women's shelter
Week 4 - St. Michael - make cookies for firefighters
All lessons are accompanied by painting, drawing, or modeling from the story and summarizing in a Main Lesson Book.
Math
We will keep up on our math facts by practicing addition and subtraction on our walks and playing the several math games I purchased this summer.
Science
This year we will focus on marine biology. This month will be fish. I'd like to go to the aquarium, buy a goldfish and observe it, and read books about fish (both fiction and non fiction.)
Spelling
We will again be using the weekly spelling lists from k12reader.com http://www.k12reader.com/second-grade-spelling-words/
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