10/1: Our groups have been very active in reading! One group just finished Jobs for James, with a focus on Main idea and details, as well as character traits. We are now reading very short stories, where we concentrate on close reading. Another is reading Dragonflies, a non fiction book. Our focus here is author's purpose. Soon, they'll be reading short stories too.
11/30: Second grade groups have changed, but the reading strategies and skills continue! We have been reading a variety of very short stories, with the emphasis on skills such as main idea and details, fact and opinion, and context clues for vocabulary. Some of our longer readings have included The Camel and The Pig, Stars and Stripes, Firefighters, Scaredy Crow, Terrific Tree Houses, Trucking, At The Airport and Building a House. The variety of fiction and non fiction, as well as different skills with each story.
12/21/2016: Second grade continues to read interesting stories, always with a particular skill focus in mind. Some of stories included First Airplane Trip, Superhero Joey, Penny the Rude Penguin (personality traits), Billy Gets Lost (sequencing and cause /effect), Terrel's Taste Buds, (theme/story message) and Pizza! (compare/contrast).
1/27/2016: We have read sooooo many books, I've lost count! They are Statues in the Ice, Elephants: Giant Mammals, Goodnight, Groundhog!, Police Officers, and The Day I Needed Help. Each has a different focus, such as cause and effect, main idea and details, and compare and contrast. Stay tuned for more in February!
2/9/16: We have read Bigger Than A Monster Truck , Hibernation (compare/contrast), and currently We Make Maple Syrup, with a focus on story sequencing. We may try some shorter stories after break!
3/14/16: For March, we've read so far Bonk's New Bike, with a focus on cause and effect, and The 100th Day Project, with a focus on the 5 W's. We have started the short stories The Little Red Hen and How We Get Around, with a variety of skills that are addressed in alignment with the new core standards. Our next short story is What Lives In a Marsh? followed by Cinnamon Bun Mystery and Arthur's Bad News Day.
5/10/16: We had shifted our focus for April to many short stories. including This Old House, Fruit Salad, Tree Owl, The Sandwich and The Bird Nest. A variety of skills and strategies were reviewed...we even wrote an ending to a spooky story! Our books included Heroes of 9/11, Eggy's Easy Out, and our latest, Baseball.
6/22: June has found us doing amazing things! We read A Day at the Zoo (mixed comprehension focus), What Pet Should You get? (fact vs opinion focus), and Statue of Liberty (focus on prediction for an experiment we preformed, turning shiny copper pennies into green "weathered" pennies!).