READING
RI2.3- Connections Between Historical Events
In this unit, students will be reading biographies about important people in history. We began the lesson by reading about Thomas Edison. As a class, we discussed the words sequencing and timeline and proceeded to fill in the class graphic organizers together. I shut the lights off and sent the class back to their seats to complete a graphic organizer with their partner. They looked at me like I was CRAZY :) This was the perfect start to a conversation on why Thomas Edison was an important person and how our lives would be different if he never existed (he contributed to our society in many ways, one of which was inventing the light bulb.)
Throughout the rest of the first week, students read a new biography each day. They sequenced the important events in that person's life and then recorded their findings on a T-chart and timeline. They read about, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, and Susan B. Anthony.
Next week, students will be revisiting each person and identifying why they were an important person in history. They will identify their contributions to our society and analyze how life would be different if they had never existed.
MATH:
2.MD.C.8- Solving real world math problems using dollars and coins correctly
This week we started working on money. Because the students have little background knowledge on this topic (it is not taught until second grade) we have spent quite a bit of time working on identifying the coins and their values. We started out by observing each coin and making a bubble map of facts for each. The students made their own bubble maps and kept it in a money book that they can use to refer to throughout the unit.
We also worked on making equivalent amounts, counting groups of similar coins (all nickels, dimes, etc.) and counting mixed coins. I introduced several games to practice these concepts.
SCIENCE:
Earth Day/Habitats/Life Cycles
During the month of April we have a lot that we are going to be covering! We started out with our Earth Day fundraiser and then moved into habitats. We discussed the difference between land and water habitats and identified animals and plants that live in them. Students sorted animal cards into large Venn Diagram circles and then made their own graphic organizers using the information.
We used our textbook to read about where plants and animals live, what they need to survive, and how they depend on each other. We are going to finish our unit next week. A study guide will be sent home on Monday to practice with!
WRITING:
Personal Narrative
This week students have started identifying the parts of a personal narrative. Our school has a program called Writers In Control. With this, we begin by organizing their papers to have characters, setting, problem, two attempts to solve, and a solution. I introduced our example paper and had students work in groups to complete a "scavenger hunt" looking for the different parts. Throughout the week, I read them several stories that are set up in a similar way to how they will be writing. Some of the books that follow this format are:
We used the following graphic organizer to pick out the important parts of the story. (This is the same GO that the class will be using to write their own personal narratives from.)
Finally, we started brainstorming problems that could happen at a specific setting. I showed the students a picture of the beach. We then played the beach ball game by tossing a beach ball to different students in the class. Whoever caught the ball had to tell a problem that could happen at that particular place. The catch was that you couldn't repeat a problem once it had been said. It got pretty tough but the kids did great! This showed them how to creatively think about problems and proved that there are actually many things they can write about (hopefully avoiding the famous "I don't know what to write!" line that often comes up! :))
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