Our new Language Arts theme is Neighborhood News. The purpose of the five stories included in this theme is to help children develop a sense of community. The Park Bench, by Fumiko Takeshita, is the first story of the theme. In this piece of realistic fiction, all the action centers around a white bench in a community park. Through the reading of this selection, children may realize and appreciate that parks are wonderful community resources.

If you are a new user of Ms. Pellarin's Class Page for Second Grade, here's how it works. You will find vocabulary games and practice by clicking on 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 they can be referred to as needed during practice. Once you know the vocabulary list words and definitions, you should click on the link for Columns to practice using vocabulary words in sentence context.

Looking for background or enrichment activities that correlate to this week's story? You should be able to find something of interest in the links I have included in the Useful links section of this page.