Polar Bears


Last week was all about polar bears in second grade!  We had so much fun learning tons of facts about these amazing creatures!

My students needed to work on asking and answering questions while reading, so that's what I decided to focus on while studying polar bears.  I want to make sure they know how to stop and check for understanding while reading informational text.  We began by generating questions about what we what to learn in our study.


To build some background knowledge, we read this big book together.  We also covered some vocabulary that we would be covering in the texts we would be using during the unit.



We sorted our questions under each of the headers below before reading our main text for the week.  We also came up with more questions before diving into the text.  Don't be afraid to do lots of modeling when it comes to generating questions!  They need this extra support early on.  


Our reading series came with a classroom set of the book Where Do Polar Bears Live?  So, this served as our primary text throughout the week.


We went on a picture walk before reading the story.


We also practiced later on, when actually reading the text, stopping to ask ourselves questions while reading the text.  This took lots of modeling, too.  My little ones were needing some additional tools to aid in comprehension, so I knew that teaching them to stop and check for understanding was crucial.  



This is an example of one that was a work in progress when I took a picture of it.  I'm not going to lie!  When I told them they were going to get to write on Post-It Notes, they were all in and suddenly interested! 



You can pick up this little freebie {HERE}.

We also did some directed drawing to work on following directions and our listening skills.



I always make sure they encounter short passages each week related to our theme.  This is great practice for preparing them for end of the year assessments and a great quick check for comprehension. I always do at least one cold read at the end of the week but usually more.


Finally, we did an informational writing piece about polar bears using the POW TIDE model.  





The other second grade made these super cute polar bears!  I just had to share them!




You can find my lesson plans from last week below.  Sorry that this post was kind of a hodgepodge of our reading for the week!  



Have a great weekend!  I hope it snows!!!

5 comments

  1. I love that you shared so much about your reading. I work at a school with no new ela curriculum for cc, and I don't really have a team, so I love looking at your blog and tpt store for great ideas.

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  2. Where did you find those great short passages?

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    Replies
    1. They were from a book from a teacher supply store that I borrowed from my teaching partner.

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