The week of Valentine's Day is one of the craziest weeks of the year!  Everyone is so excited for the upcoming holiday and classroom parties.  I love incorporating the holiday into my whole group interactive read aloud plans for the week.  I also like to change it up every so often, so this year I made plans to go along with the book, Love, Z by Jessie Sima.  Last year for our party, we made Love Robot Bags for our Valentines, so I thought this story would pair perfectly with the robot theme!  It's about a young robot who is on an adventure to find out what love is.  It's a very sweet story!   I went ahead and made five days of lessons plans for the interactive read aloud that include a scripted mini-lesson, text-dependent questions, a daily task, and an exit ticket for each day.  At this point in the year, my students need to work on answering questions about a text using text evidence, so that's what I chose to focus on.  They become......

 Why is phonics so important?  It's the foundational skill of decoding letters into their corresponding sounds, which is essential for students to independently read unknown words.  Research shows that it's the best way to teach students to read words.  While we do provide systematic phonics instruction during whole group and small groups, students also need time to practice these newly learned skills.  It's also vital that they get some spiral review within their day.  The best way I have found to do this is through our Word Work Station.  In this post, I want to share how I set up my word work center, what our favorite tools and activities are, and how I manage it from week to week in a way that's not overwhelming or time consuming.  Teachers cannot afford to add anything else to their plates. (This post may contain affiliate links.) This is my most recent word work center.  I like to have it in front of a bulletin board so that I can hang ......

February might be my favorite month to teach!  There are so many holidays and important topics to cover, from Black History Month, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, and Dental Health Month just to name a few.  For these second grade read alouds, I chose to focus on Black History Month, Valentine's Day, and Presidents' Day.  We cover a combination of literature and informational text standards, such as answering questions, summarizing, author's point, making inferences, and comparing and contrasting important points from two different texts on the same topic. Henry's Freedom Box | Summarizing Henry's Freedom Box is about a famous figure from the Underground Railroad, Henry "Box" Brown.  Henry escaped slavery by shipping himself to Philadelphia.  This is a great text for introducing students to the Underground Railroad, as well as teaching them about other important figures from that time, such as Harriet Tubman.  You could also read texts about her ......