The second grade class enjoyed the first week of our Saint George (and Saint Francis) block. We heard one version of the story of Saint George and the Dragon as well as two other verses focusing on courage. In the story we will share at the Day of Courage festival, Saint George subdues the dragon, and while not all our stories share that theme (the dragon does not always give up so willingly), the underlying message for our students is overcoming their own dragons. We shared about our dragons, such as becoming angry at our siblings or being scared of certain things both real and imagined. It's made for some very interesting and insightful conversations. We spent time painting and drawing dragons, copying verses and practicing our long, shared verse. Each child took home a copy of the verse they will be speaking at the festival. Please help them memorize their verse by saying it for and with them. If your child can read it, please remind them to still memorize it. I will be there to prompt them when needed. We will practice at school this week together as well, in preparation for Friday's festival.

Fridays we focus on form drawing through fables. We have been reading Anansi the Spider stories and also learning more about spiders as animals. The students love the stories of mischievous, but caring, Anansi, a little reflection of all of us. Following the stories, we work on drawing forms. Form drawing helps us develop our will as we must slow down and draw with thought and care. This school year our form drawing focuses on mirrored forms. We are taking this step by step as we first draw one side of the form and then reflect the opposite form the next class period. These forms also directly link to handwriting (letter-formation) and will help the students as they move into cursive letter formation this school year.

With gratitude,

Ki Melissa