Week of October 16, 2006
Our second Language Arts theme for the year is Helping Hands. The five stories of this theme stress teamwork and show how people work together to accomplish goals.
The Enormous Turnip, by Alexei Tolstoy, is the first selection of the new theme. It is a Russian folktale about a man who grows a turnip so large he cannot pull it from the ground by himself. One by one, from the largest to the smallest, the man asks the members of his family to help him pull the turnip. It is not until they all pull together, with the help of a tiny mouse, that they are successful.
Your child can review and practice the vocabulary words and definitions for The Enormous Turnip by clicking the Java Games link in the Quia activities section. It may be helpful to print out the list of terms (vocabulary words and meanings) from the game choices page so your child can refer to them as needed during practice. Once your child can easily match the words and definitions, try playing the Columns Game where vocabulary words are used in the context of sentences.
The Useful links section at the bottom of the Class Page features hyperlinks to other sites that contain background materials and enrichment activities that go along with this week's story. These links are provided as an extra opportunity for fun and learning for you and your second grader. If you have not already done so, you will need to register your email address and a password of your choosing when you visit Crayola's site (www.crayola.com) for the first time.
