Meaningful Sentences

Next week we begin using our Saxon Phonics vocabulary words to write meaningful sentences in our ELA centers, as well as for homework. 

SO... What is a meaningful sentence you ask? A meaningful sentence is a sentence that has value to the reader. A meaningful sentence needs to make sense, begin with capitalization, and end with punctuation. A meaningful sentence should also paint a picture for the reader by using describing words, or adjectives, to give details. An example of a meaningful sentence is on the Weekly Homework sheet. I have also created a Homework Rubric to make sure your child knows what goals to reach with the homework writing.

Both the Weekly Homework sheet and the Homework Rubric will always be posted in the Newsletter tab of the blog for your reference and convenience.

Here is the Meaningful Sentences worksheet we will be using in centers. At the bottom is a writing rubric to check off and help your child to ensure that the sentences are meaningful.

Thank you for all you do to ensure your child's academic successes in second grade!

What is a Pangram?

This week we will be using the pangram, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", to help improve our handwriting skills. Now that we are working with the Saxon phonics program each day, being able to write and code the words clearly is essential on both the activities and assessments. By using these worksheets in centers over the next couple of weeks, the students will be able to practice their handwriting skills with lowercase and uppercase letters, and become more aware of how to make their letters proper.

Stretching a Sentence

Our class video for Writing Wednesday on the morning announcements this past week showed Crown Point Elementary students how to *S-T-R-E-T-C-H* a sentence. My amazing second graders demonstrated how to add sparkle words and details to a sentence to inform the reader about... who, is doing what, when, where, and why.

The class did an awesome job!!

Be sure to watch the entire video so you can enjoy our filming bloopers at the end. I think the bloopers were the students favorite part... TOO CUTE!!

Big Bad Wolf Compare & Contrast

As we continue working with compare and contrast this week in the classroom... this is a fun activity to compare/contrast the Big Bad Wolf character in the fairy tales, "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Three Little Pigs". The mini-anchor chart will help your students remember what compare and contrast mean. You can also use the Wanted Poster for any fairy tale villain you are reading about with your class. 

In addition to comparing and contrasting, I have also included some other activities for story sequencing, retelling, and more.

Included in this activity...
~ Wanted Poster for your fairy tale villain
~ Example of how to create a wanted poster for the Big Bad Wolf (Three Little Pigs)
~ Example of how to create a wanted poster for the Big Bad Wolf (Little Red Riding Hood)
~ Big Bad Wolf compare/contrast Venn Diagram activity
~ Compare/Contrast mini-anchor chart
~ Story retelling for The Three Little Pigs
~ Story retelling for Little Red Riding Hood
~ Author's Corner writing activity for The Three Little Pigs
~ Author's Corner writing activity for Little Red Riding Hood
~ Story sequencing for The Three Little Pigs
~ Story sequencing for Little Red Riding Hood
~ Big Bad Wolf ABC order activity

The Venn Diagram activity, story retelling, and story sequencing are a great way to assess your student's comprehension and understanding of the characters, events, and main ideas of these fairy tales.

To purchase this activity from my TpT store, click here

Complete Sentences

Giggle ~ Giggle... I think my second graders would have a good laugh if I had this on the board Monday morning. Our complete and meaningful sentences have kinda gone to pot since winter break... this just might be a fun way to get our awesome writing mojo back! :)

Beginning, Middle & End

We have been working hard on retelling the beginning, middle and end of a story. Last week we read, "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon, and created a story map to outline the beginning, middle and end of the story. The students did an amazing job retelling the story. :)

Here is the mini-anchor chart and writing activity we used in the classroom for our beginning, middle and end retelling story map...

Click here to see this activity in my TpT store

Writing Interactive Journals

I have finally started taking some of my ideas for interactive journals and creating the journal entries. I decided to work on writing first... and I have to say, I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. :)

These letter form handwriting guides and practice sheets are perfect for your classroom writing interactive journals, literacy centers, morning work, or handwriting/penmanship standards instruction. Each page focuses on both uppercase and lowercase letter forms. With 26 pages (one for each letter of the alphabet), you will have enough weekly interactive journal entries for three quarters!

I have also included writing interactive journal covers in two colors and designs (girl/boy) to use with your composition or spiral notebooks.

Click here to purchase this activity from my TpT store

Here is how these letter form handwriting guides and practice sheets can be used with your interactive journals...

Stretching Our Sentences

This week we will be starting our outlines for our narrative stories. . . and I have decided to kick this writing off with my *Stretch a Sentence* activity. FUN!

My kids have amazing imaginations, and tell me the craziest stories all day long. . . but when it comes to writing, the elaborate and very detailed story they told me in the morning about helping dad kill a snake BIGGER than me in the backyard, turns into, "I saw a snake." in their writing journals in the afternoon. BOO! So I plan on putting some *creative* writing in our narrative stories by stretching our five-word meaningful sentences into awesome sparkle-word sentences.

I put together a cute little *Stretch a Sentence* mini poster to review how adding who, is doing what, when, where, and why to a sentence can add SPARKLE to our narrative stories. Hopefully this activity will work, and the challenge to my first graders to stretch their sentences will be gladly accepted. . . the gauntlet has been thrown! :)

Click here to download this Stretch a Sentence activity from my TpT store

We Know Our Facts

We spent all week gathering facts and information about our animals for our informational text writing. Each of the students picked a different animal to research and write about. To introduce the students to fact finding skills, I had them draw a pictures of the animals in their natural habitats, label the name of the animal, and list two facts discovered about the animals.

I was so amazed and proud of the awesome job each of the students did with their pictures and fact finding skills, that I had to showcase each of their animal facts on the classroom bulletin board for everyone to enjoy!

Our Classroom Bulletin Board

 

All About Sea Turtles

As we finished up our unit on Informational Text Reading & Writing, we put our fact finding skills to the test with a KWL chart all about sea turtles. The students had so much fun sharing all the things they already knew about sea turtles, as well as what they wanted to know about sea turtles before we read, "Sea Turtles" by Kay de Silva.

After reading about sea turtles, the classroom was buzzing with excitement as my awesome first graders not only realized all the facts that they already knew about sea turtles were in the book, but most of the things they wanted to know about sea turtles were discovered in the book too!!

Our KWL Chart

"Sea Turtles" by Kay de Silva

That Darn Tricky Y!

WANTED: That sly tricky Y for stealing the sounds of "e" and "i"

Two things I must always remember

To keep the letter Y from tricking me...

In one syllable words he sounds like “i”

In two syllable words he sounds like “e”.

This is a fun little activity to help your students learn about that darn tricky Y. There is a mini anchor chart that can be printed and displayed in your literacy center, on your word wall, or with your reading and writing strategy bulletin boards.

I have also included two tricky Y activities...

- A worksheet to circle the number of syllables in each word and write which sound they hear... "e" or "i"

- A tricky Y word find

Click here to visit my TpT to download this Tricky Y activity 

Enjoy!