February Interactive Read Alouds

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 to give them some background knowledge.

We focused on standard RL 2.5, describe the overall structure of a story, including how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.  The culminating task for the week was summarizing the story using the SWBST strategy.

We built up to the culminating task throughout the week with these daily tasks in which students had to describe the character's response related to the beginning and end of the story, describing the setting at the beginning and end, and problem and solution.

You can click below to view this resource.  I do post them separately, as a digital resource, printable resource, and in the monthly or yearly bundle.

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch | Making Inferences

This is the sweetest story for Valentine's week.  My students needed to work on inferential questions, as evidenced on their CFAs, so I decided to use this text to teach making inferences.  In the story, Mr. Hatch receives a Valentine from a secret admirer.  I started off the week with the same gift for my students.  When we started our lesson, I pointed to this heart-shaped box that I had found with a tag that said, "Somebody Loves You."  I acted like I thought it was from them, and they of course said it wasn't.  I opened the box to a stack of clues and some candy.  We went through the clues and recorded them all.  I taught students about how to make inferences using the clues along with their background knowledge, or schema, to make an inference about who might have left the treats.

The clues OBVIOUSLY pointed to me, but only one student guessed it.  Ha ha!  They thought it was the librarian which was so funny.  They were shocked when they found out that I had tricked them!  It was such a fun way to kick off making inferences!  

I printed this anchor chart and learning poster as posters to refer to and use throughout the week.

Their daily tasks each day involved inferential questions about the text, except for one day in which they had to make a text-to-self connection.  They wrote about a time when they felt that someone loved them.  This is a really cute bulletin board for February, too.  We attached it to a directed drawing of Mr. Hatch.

In addition to taking grades on the culminating task, I also give a comprehension test that is included in the pack for the asking and answering questions standard.

Looking at Lincoln | Compare and Contrast Important Points

Presidents' Day is the week following Valentine's week.  I told you it was a busy month!  I decided to use Looking at Lincoln, because we had read a book by this same author in the previous month.  I absolutely love the illustrations!  It's a book about Abraham Lincoln from a child's perspective, which I feel is more relatable for them.  

Our focus standard was RI 2.9, comparing and contrasting the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.  We read two different texts and learned how to identify the most important points, because otherwise they will write everything down.  Our daily tasks involved some fun ways to identify important points, such as using our schema, gathering up points into Abe's hat, listing points, and saying "wow" when we found an important point.  On Friday, they took the important points from throughout the week, and compared and contrasted them on a Venn diagram.

Let the Children March and The Story of Ruby Bridges | Author's Purpose

I wanted to end February by focusing on Black History Month again.  I think it's important for them to understand how children contributed to the Civil Rights Movement, and how children can make a difference in the world.  

We read two different texts, Let the Children March and The Story of Ruby Bridges.  These were great texts for RI 2.6, identifying the author's main purpose for writing a text, including what an author wants to answer, explain, or describe.

I always preplan my questions to ask by printing them on sticky notes.  These are included, along with daily scripted lesson plans.

I also explain my vocabulary routine and provide these printable cards.

We spent the first three days on Let the Children March.  I began the week with discussing why this story matters.  Why is it important for the readers to hear about this event.  This is a great scaffolding for building up to identifying author's purpose.  We then dove into the author's perspective on the topic by learning more about her.  This shapes the author's purpose for writing a text.

We spent the final two days on The Story of Ruby Bridges.  Students wrote again about why this story mattered to them.  They then identified the author's purpose the following day with this checklist.  I also expect them to provide text evidence to support their thinking.

The craft I put together for this story is a schoolhouse with this heart banner of different shades of skin.  I had students write about how children can make a difference in the world.

I also have converted all of these read aloud resources to DIGITAL slides for your in person and distance learning instruction.  There are instructional slides for each day, along with assignable daily tasks, exit tickets, self assessments, and a weekly assessment.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about our February interactive read alouds.  You can click any of the pics above or below to check this resource out!  Within the bundle, you will see links to each of the lessons sold separately.