October-Present Update

Due to labour negotiations, it has been a long time since I have last posted. I will provide a short overview of what we have been up to in grade 2 English, and then I hope to return to a more weekly updating schedule. 

For the first few weeks of October we were discussing making connections while we read. There are three main kinds of connections that readers can make: text to self where readers find similarities between what happens in the story and their own life; text to text where they find similarities between two different books; and text to world where similarities are found between the book and the world (or community). This week we will be making text to self and text to text connections using the books "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day", "The Difficult Day", "Oliver Button" and "Amazing Grace". I invite you to encourage your children to make connections in the books that they read at home too, referencing specific examples in the books to support their answers.

I have been using songs about connections as shared reading activities. Here are the words and tunes if you would like to share with them with your child:

Connections Song

Tune: On top of spaghetti

I'm reading a story and my brain says “Hey!”

This story reminds me of the other day.

It's called a connection-

From text to self,

The story reminds me, I've done this myself.

I'm reading a story and my brain says “Look!”

This story reminds me of that other book.

It's called a connection-

From text to text.

My brain remembers and does a quick check.

I'm reading a story and my brain says “Wow!”

This story reminds me of news happening now.

It's called a connection-

From text to world.

It makes my brain flutter, sputter and whirl.

Connections Song 

Tune: Brush your Teeth Song 

When I read a story and my brain says "Hey"
This part reminds me of the other day!
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain say "Whoa!"
This part reminds of my good friend Joe.
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain says "Cool"
This part reminds me of my school.
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain says "Look!"
This part reminds me of another book.
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

When I read a story and my brain says "Wow!"
This part reminds me of my grandpa's cow
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da
It's called connect- da da da da da da da da da

You probably also saw a writing activity where students were asked to write descriptive sentences about a pumpkin that they had created. We talked a lot about word choice and using a thesaurus to find more interesting words to use in place of other more common ones (such as 'outstanding' rather than 'good'). Students worked through a plan, wrote a rough copy and then produced good copies of their work. 

While learning about media devices, we examined a number of posters to discuss features that helped attract attention and clearly convey a message. We created our own posters in a t-shirt design that had environmental messages, linking to the grade 2 science curriculum. 

In the past few weeks we have been playing with words that contain the long a sound (made by 'a', 'a_e', 'ai' and 'ay') and long i (made by 'i', 'ie', 'igh' and 'y') sound. We also continue to use the class word wall in all of our written work.  It includes many high frequency words and each week children will do a variety of activities to practise four of these words, as well as an additional word chosen by them from their class writing or personal interests. You can find a copy of the word wall words in the "spelling" tab of the blog home page. While there will not be a formal weekly spelling test, children will bring their weekly word lists home each Friday and are encouraged to continue to practise if they have not mastered them yet. Please also encourage many opportunities for reading and writing in English to increase exposure to words.

Our current writing focus is writing a friendly letter to the tooth fairy. We have looked at various friendly letters and identified the key components, including date (heading), greeting, body, closing and signature. We are writing our rough copies right now and will then move to our good copies. Many students have asked if they can leave their good copies under their pillows so you may want to be prepared for that!