Week 13 of no-prep 2nd Grade Morning Work for students to practice ELA mixed concepts including grammar, phonics, and language skills.
A 2nd grade summer early finishers reading worksheet focusing on comparing and contrasting.
Hello darlings! Do you teach vocabulary to your students? I think this is one thing we are missing in the upper grades and we are doing a disservice to our students. As they move up levels in reading, the thing that I notice that holds my students back the most is the challenging vocabulary they ... Read More about Adding Vocabulary to your ELA Block
Find out how to set up routines for Spiral ELA review in the 1st or 2nd grade classroom.
These engaging 6th grade short stories are a fantastic resource to help you teach reading in your middle school ELA classroom.
This RL.2.2 Recount or Retell 2nd grade reading unit is packed full of standards-based lesson plans, Lexile passages, and activities to use while you are teaching the standard RL2.2. If you are not teaching Common Core, then the unit is still valuable to use when teachings students how to recount a story and find the ... Read more
Learning to read and spell silent letter words can be tricky for kids. Learn teaching tips and tricks that make this concept easy and fun!
Hello Everyone!! Happy New year to all of you! The end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 have been very emotional for me. We started off our winter break visiting my son, Jordan in Indiana. He has made his way into the hearts of the people of southwest Indiana with his amazing storytelling and reporting for the local news station. And...He just bought his first house. We are so excited for him! We loved spending time with him over Christmas. --- On our drive back home, we kept getting texts, phone calls, and e-mails from friends about the 12 tornadoes that ravaged their way through the towns around our home in Texas. Oh my goodness---our emotions went from bliss to absolute heartbreak. So many of our friends lost everything, including a couple of teachers from our district. One of the elementary schools was hit and is now deemed unsafe. And sadly, 11 people lost their lives. The past few days have been filled with helping school and church groups gather needed supplies for those affected by this disaster. Texans do tend to jump in and help whenever needed!! The cleanup and rebuild will take years, but the support will be there. If you would like to help those in need during this time, here's a link to the red cross donation sight. Thank you in advance for sharing your blessings! http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/12/28/how-to-help-tornado-victims/77965462/ These events really put things into perspective for me. What is important? Where should we put our passion? So many of us are blessed beyond measure. We take for granted who and what we have in our lives. Herein lies the resolution. Giving. The more you give, the more you receive. Throughout the coming year, I will continue to share things on this blog for anyone who can use them to help teachers, parents, and kids get excited about learning. Teaching is sharing. Teaching is giving. I will give the best I have. It may not always be perfect, it may not always fit everyone's bill, but, if what I share can help even one person, It is worthwhile!! So, having said all that, I am sharing a new unit. This one is all about Opinion Writing. You all know how much I love Lucy Calkins. This unit is based on her "Writing Reviews" book for first graders. When we get back from winter break, our firsties will be learning all about opinions and how to share them through writing. This unit is a precursor to one we will do on writing book reviews and other type of persuasive writing. It includes everything you need to print and go! Here are a few pics. The unit is about 32 pages. If you think you might be able to use any of this, simply click HERE for the printable download. As always, thanks for taking time out to stop by and read this little blog. I appreciate you! My New Year's wish for you is that you are surrounded by love and joy, and that you are blessed to be a blessing to others. If you are heading back to school next week, have a wonderful reunion with your littles. Give them the best you have!! Joyfully! Nancy
*A DIGITAL OPTION HAS BEEN INCLUDED FOR GOOGLE SLIDES AND FORMS/GOOGLE CLASSROOM* Be sure to re-download! There are directions and links inside the pdf. Hello, ELA! This resource is a unique way to get your students warmed up at the beginning of your ELA block. Each month contains 4-5 weeks of ELA bell work, which will have a theme around the season, national holidays, or events associated with that particular month. The morning work is focused on ELA 6th Grade Common Core Standards. Each day has a thematic structure to cover language standards as well as enhance vocabulary and comprehension skills. Save money by purchasing the year long BUNDLE! ELA Daily Review 6th Grade {Growing Bundle} Each week follows a predictable and engaging structure: Meaningful Monday: Monday is focused on making meaning. Tasks will focus on synonyms, antonyms, vocabulary words, context clues, and making meaning in a short amount of text. Some tasks may require students to make meaning in the text (inference, message, adages, proverbs, etc.) or build vocabulary skills. Text Structure Tuesday: Tuesdays will have a paragraph that requires students to identify the text structure, signal words, main idea, author's perspective, or vocabulary, or any other question types related to the Craft and Structure standards. Wordy Wednesday: Wednesday is all about working with words. Tasks include working with shades of meaning, homophones, spelling, prefixes, suffixes, roots, and other word skills. Throwback Thursday: Thursday is all about grammar usage and conventions. Figurative Friday: Figurative Friday tasks include working with various types of figurative language including similes, metaphors, idioms, poems, alliteration, structures of poems and more!🛑 Are you a member of the TLL Membership? These materials are already included. If you are not a member, click here to learn more. The TLL Membership gives you an all-access pass to hundreds of ELA resources for teachers in Grades 3-5. This ELA + Math Morning Work is available for the following grade levels: ELA + Math Bundles 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade ELA Bundles 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade ELA Weekly Assessments 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade Math Bundles 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade Let’s connect! The Literacy Loft Blog The Literacy Loft on Instagram The Literacy Loft on Pinterest The Literacy Loft on Facebook I hope this resource works for you! Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with any questions, comments, or feedback. - Jessica
Supercharge your morning work with I Heart Literacy! Each page features a fun theme so your students will not only be practicing reading and ELA skills, but will also be learning about a curriculum-based topic. A wide variety of Common Core skills are addressed. Try these five free pages for free! Happy Teaching! Rachel Lynette ... Read More about Morning Work ELA and Reading Freebie!
Second graders need to have hands-on practice with ELA skills in a meaningful way. This post shares some fun 2nd Grade literacy center ideas.
Each Monday we collaborate with our building's new and Dual Language staff members for a professional development session based on what they highlight as their needs and/or desires for learning! This week we focused on Daily 5 ideas as all of our staff are currently working hard to get their stations and guided reading up and running! The teachers who attending the session came up with a variety of wonderful ideas and activities that could potentially be used throughout the year in these work stations. I thought some of you may enjoy taking a gander at what they came up with as well! Just a little background... we utilized a strategy many of you may be familiar with called "Round Robin" to gather ideas during our meeting. The staff were given the anchor charts with only the titles and asked to add any activity ideas they were doing, would like to do, etc. based on the title on their paper. We gave each group 1 minute to brainstorm and write their ideas, and then they were asked to pass the poster to the next group. We continued to do this until all posters had made it to all groups. This is a great strategy that you could use with your students as well to assess their background knowledge and/or learning of concepts. You could even do it at the beginning of the year to see what activities they already know and enjoy doing during Daily 5 if they are familiar with it from the year past! This may give you some insight as to what they may want to do in your classroom as well! Alright now onto the posters...keep in mind these were quickly written by our staff and we discussed them a bit after as well, so not everything may make perfect sense! But feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have any and I would be happy to try my best to answer! After our meeting, I also took some time to type up all of their ideas onto one page for them to hold on to and refer to throughout the year. You are welcome to a copy if you'd like- just click on the image below :)! (Graphics: Scrappin Doodles, Priscilla Concepcion)
2nd Grade ELA All Standards Assessments- Over 150 assessments -- spend your time teaching not hours and hours on the web looking for the right assessent.
Filler Activities for ELA (blog post) What can you do with five extra minutes in secondary ELA? Here are a few ideas to engage students until the bell.
It's time to think beyond Mad Libs.
2nd Grade ELA All Standards Assessments- Over 150 assessments -- spend your time teaching not hours and hours on the web looking for the right assessent.
Pixar short films are a great way to target essential literary elements and techniques from characterization to theme to conflict to symbolism. These Pixar short films inspire class discussion and analysis, and students can then in turn write essays based upon these films. They are an excellent to
Learning to read and spell silent letter words can be tricky for kids. Learn teaching tips and tricks that make this concept easy and fun!
Are you looking for some fun ELA activities to make planning engaging ELA lesson plans a little easier? This list has you covered!
Unlock strategies for 4th and 5th grade small group reading. Explore different focuses and a six-step process to use.
Are you ready to pull your hair out with all those plural noun rules? I have a Freebie displaying 8 Plural Noun Rules on one nice little sheet. This poster only displays 8 plural noun spelling rules with an example of each one. If your 2nd and 3rd graders struggle with plurals, this poster can help. There are so many rules to follow that it's easy to forget how to add endings when writing plural words. You’re free to download it and use it in your classroom. This also comes in a black and white version to save on color. Just click and print! Do your students struggle with plurals? I made some engaging games and centers to help students practice those rules. The Plural Pack has a Poster (freebie from above) that explains some plural rules, games and centers, and 20 worksheets. This Pack has students learning the rules, writing and spelling singular and plural nouns. Purchase Plural Pack right here at a discounted price! Here are some items you may need when teaching about plurals. I linked them to Amazon to make it easy for you: If You Were a Plural Word book Plural Poster Plural Task Cards Irregular Plural Flashcards Mad Libs Thanks for stopping by today! See you soon, Check out more Grammar activities by Teacher's Take-Out: L.2.1b
The freebies have moved! Instead of having the freebies in a separate resource library, we have put all of our freebies in our shop. You can find the freebies by clicking right here!
Need to help your students get more hands on practice for their vocabulary words? I've got 5 fun vocabulary games you can use right away!
Discover my favorite activities that are aligned with the science of reading curriculum to help your young learns master reading fast.
Do you hate to teach poetry? Do you want your students to learn and enjoy poetry? Try these simple ways to learn how to teach poetry...
Hi Friends…. The past two weeks we have been working on Prefixes and Suffixes in our second-grade classroom! My kiddos were having such a good time brainstorming words with prefixes and then figuring out the meaning. They really had a strong grasp of the concept… I was pretty impressed. After our whole … Prefixes, Suffixes and a FREEBIE Just for YOU! Read More »
Want an intentional way to increase your students' morphological skills AND vocabulary? Try a morphology word of the day routine!
Looking for Wordle classroom ideas? Incorporate Wordle into your classroom with this activities, ideas, and templates.
Get 5 tips for How To Teach Opinion Writing & details about the Opinion Writing Units that will help you bring Opinion Writing into your kindergarten, first, or second-grade classrooms!
Identifying syllables in words is helpful for accurate spelling. Breaking words into syllables is a great strategy when taking a spelling test. It is something competent spellers do. Accurate spelling is not the only benefit of well-developed syllabication skills. It helps with decoding and reading new words. It also fosters good speech habits. Here are a few ideas of how to practice syllables with children. 1. Name Clapping - Clapping out (first names) is a high-interest activity because children are curious about the number of syllables in their own names and they love the sound of their classmates saying their names out loud in unison. Other than a pair of hands, no materials are needed! 2. Pocket Chart Center - Counting the number of syllables in first names can be extended with a pocket chart literacy center. The pocket chart center is simple to set up. Write the children's names on cards using a different color marker . This is a very easy station to set up. Write the children's names on cards using a different color marker for each name. Put the name cards in one or two columns on the pocket chart. Place a bag containing several copies of the numeral cards for each name. Put the name cards in one or two columns on the pocket chart. Place a bag containing several copies of the numeral cards from 1 to 4 next to the pocket chart. When students are assigned the center, they position the appropriate numeral cards to the right of the students' names according to the number of syllables. (If there is a name with more than four syllable, add numeral cards for 5, 6, or however high needed.) Make an answer key so students can check their center work. 3. Syllable Puzzle Center - The name cards can be repurposed and made into a puzzle center. Cut the name cards between syllables. For instance, if the child's name is "Julie", cut between the letters "u" and "l". Since each name card is assigned a different color, students will quickly sort the names and put their classmates' names back together syllable by syllable. Utilize the syllable puzzle center idea with weekly spelling lists. This additional practice may cause a significant improvement in spelling test scores with a student struggling to spell words. 4. Final Syllable Movement - Everyone stands in front of their desks. The teacher determines an action such as jumping up and down. The teacher says the final syllable of a student's name. The student completes the action. More than one student could be involved in the action. For instance, saying, "lee" when "Mollie" and "Kelly" are in the class, they'll both be jumping! (Students that have single syllable names will listen for their full first names. During the activity, a child named "Lee", will be jumping with "Mollie" and "Kelly"!). 5. Connecting with Core Subjects - Use science and social studies vocabulary words to practice breaking words apart into syllables. A unit on mammals could include a syllabication activity with relevant words such as dog, cat, elephant, dolphin, lion, tiger, or rabbit. The activity reinforces their knowledge of animals within the group while determining the number of syllables in words. 6. Educator Created Games - Use games designed to practicing counting syllables. They can be board games, memory matching games, bingo games, or anything else imaginable. Here are some engaging syllable games for small groups. These games are age-appropriate for second and third graders. Two to four players are needed. Students in first grade that have acquired reading skills will also enjoy the games. One game is called "Confetti Yeti!" It features words with one or two syllable. Players determine the number of syllables from the word printed on the cards they withdraw. Then they take the same number of confetti cards. They use the confetti cards to cover their yetis. The winner is the player that covers his/her yeti first. There are 16 spaces on the game board to cover, and each player gets an individual game board. The second game has words with two or three syllables. The name of the game is, "Oh My Stars!". the object of the game is the same as "Confetti Yeti!" Students withdraw a word card, count the number of syllables and cover the unicorns with stars. The first player to cover both of their unicorns is the winner. Game guides allow players to check the number of syllables in words. The game guide is like an answer key and is helpful when they are unsure about the number of syllables. Print it front/back to create a single sheet reference. There are 100 word cards in each game. Do not use the complete set (100 cards) in one sitting of the game. Switch the words out, challenging students with a variety of syllable types. Collectively, the 200 words selected include open syllables, closed syllables, short vowels, silent e pattern words, r-controlled vowels (ar, er, or, and ur), stable syllable "le", diphthongs ou and ow, as well as a few vowel teams. If interested in these games or the bundle version, click on the images below. If interested in these games or would like to purchase the bundle version and receive both games, click on the images below. © 2020 Molly McMahon, Lessons by Molly
With these 2nd grade reading comprehension passages, you have 3 levels of the same title so differentiation and targeted instruction is easy! Free passages included.
Kids will have fun practicing adding endings to words with this fun, summer themed FREE Word Endings Ice Cream Shop. Worksheets included.
In kindergarten and first grade, we have poetry folders for fluency practice. So what does fluency practice look like in 2nd grade? Take a peek at how to use fluency passages for less that 5-10 minutes each day to build fluency in your second graders!
Teaching grammar and language art skills can be a challenge for anyone. How do you hit all of the skills...effectively? How do you know your students are
Word wall bulletin boards are a great way to promote vocabulary growth in middle school classrooms. Find out 10 creative ways to use them!
Fables are an important part of English Language Arts instruction. The genre, which often includes animals that act like humans and moral lessons, is perfect for targeted lessons in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and analyzing. Classic and modern fables are both entertaining and approachable. Fables also shed light on other cultures, characterization, and moral lessons. Most importantly, they're just plain fun to teach! Here are 6 easy ways to teach fables in your classroom... I LOVE giving students a chance to write their very own fable. I recommend starting with mentor texts so that students can become experts on the genre. Then, through targeted writing instruction, students can write their own story that includes a moral, animal characters, story elements, and illustrations. As students develop their stories, you can even have them "pitch" their stories to their peers acting as storybook editors. Once students have written a strong fable, take these lessons to the next level and let students create a children's book filled with illustrations. You could even have them share their fables with younger students. Check out this ready-to-teach Fable Writing Unit! Don't you just love lessons that meet a ton of instructional standards at once? Well, this fable unit does just that! It’s a 7-day unit designed around Aesop’s fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” and in it students read three different versions of the fable. After building background on each form, they have the opportunity to critically read and respond to the fable in prose, verse, and drama form. Through small group work, independent studies, and class discussions students will not only understand and appreciate the elements of a fable and each form of literature, but they’ll also develop a deep understanding of each text. Learn more about this unit here. Of course, fables are wonderful to read in the classroom. But, why just read a fable when you can also connect, investigate, write, and draw? I created this Foldable Fables resource with Art with Jenny K. to combine reading, writing, and illustrating. This resource is super engaging because students create an accordion-style booklet filled with their learning and creativity. It's fun and educational! The seven learning activities help students connect deeply to their reading. Check out the super engaging Foldable Fable here! I've found that fables are wonderful to add to learning stations focused on reading comprehension skills. For instance, in this sequencing centers resource, students investigate "Fox and the Goat" at one of the learning stations. At the station, they're tasked to read the fable and then put the fable in the correct sequence with an interactive shape. Since fables are often short and focused they're the perfect addition to reading comprehension learning stations! Fables lend themselves perfectly to plays. I've found that students respond really well to opportunities to perform short skits and plays in the classroom. In this theme mini-unit, students get to act out "The Four Oxen and a Lion." As a small group, they practice reading out loud, acting, and investigating theme. It's fun for students to get into different characters as they act out a fable! I'm a big fan of reading out loud to students. Often, I would read stories to students as they completed their daily warm-ups. My read alouds included novels, poems, short stories, and of course, fables. You might mix-up your own read alouds with fables from around the world or modern fables. Here are a few collections of fables that you might want to add to your classroom library... --- Aesop's Fables: The Classic Edition --- Buddhist Stories for Kids --- Filipino Children's Favorite Stories ------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you've found some simple ways to teach fables in your classroom! Fables really are wonderful literature treasures for teaching reading, writing, investigating, performing, and more! Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. My friend, Art with Jenny K., has another idea for adding fables to the classroom. Check out her post here. *This post contains affiliate links.
What are they? Inflectional endings are those groups of letters that are added to the end of a word. These endings change the meaning of the words. We are following the Katelyn’s Progression for th…
When you want your students to write more, motivation is half the battle. Giving kids a real purpose and a real audience for writing can make a big difference in their desire to write! In today’s post, I’ll describe 10 engaging persuasive / opinion writing projects that you can use to motivate your students. At the beginning […]
Cultivate lifelong reading skills.
Find ideas for teaching Retelling & Recounting Stories including books, activities, no-prep resources, and more.
Get ideas for teaching the six syllable types to your students, details about my Syllable Types Resource and a FREE syllable types activity to get you started!
