With the implementation of the new Ontario Language Curriculum (2023) there has been a main focus on B2. Foundations of Language where the phonics instruction expectations are outlined. While I have spent the last three years focusing on crafting my phonics instruction and this year my board has provided many tools to help with that, I want to bring attention to B3. Language Conventions for Reading and Writing. While I have always taught nouns, I am now expected to teach collective and abstract nouns. This concept was really new to me and I thought I would share some activities I used in my class to teach abstract and collective nouns.
What is an abstract noun? An abstract noun is a feeling or an idea you cannot touch. For example, kindness is an abstract noun. I like to use the five senses to help teach abstract nouns. Colourfulness is an abstract noun that you can see. Melody is an abstract noun you can hear. Softness is an abstract noun you can feel. Deliciousness is an abstract noun you can taste. Freshness is an abstract noun you can smell. I usually give my students a person and I have them fill in the correct abstract noun with the correct sense.
Art attack activity: I then connect abstract nouns with art by letting my students pick an abstract noun such as love and have them create a collage representing that abstract noun.
Collective Nouns: This unit is great to teach when teaching Grade 2 Science Life Systems Growth and Changes in Animals. We brainstorm what different groups of animals are called. For example, a pride is a collective noun for a group of lions. I print out matching cards and give them to groups to mix up. They have to match the picture to the correct group of collective nouns.
I hope these ideas help you teach the Ontario Language (2023) curriculum, including B3. Language Conventions for Reading and Writing. If you are interested in these activities to help you teach abstract and collective nouns to your grade 2 students, please click the link here.
With some districts in America already going back to school, my social media is abuzz with back to school ideas. While up here in Ontario we won't be going back for another month, I like to prepare. I have used and created many back to school activities over the last few years that really help me to get to know my students better.
I always like to begin the year with back to school read alouds. Here is one of my favourites:
I also like to decorate my classroom with All About Me Activities so students can see themselves reflected in their classroom. I have created a fun All About Me activity that allows students to share their favourite things like to play, their family, their friends, and themselves. I learn a lot about each student with this activity.
Of course, students come in the first week nervous so I like to do an ice breaker with a die. I like to call it DICE Breaker. I have a large die from Dollarama that I give to a student one at a time. They roll the dice and from the chart, they read the question of the number they rolled and answer it. This gets students talking and sharing about themselves. With older students, you could have them play this game in small groups.
Who doesn't love a SELFIE? I like to give students a template of a phone and draw themselves on their first day of school. They cut them out and we post them in the classroom. It's a great bulletin board idea.
Math About Me. I recreate the handout on chart paper and hide my answers with sticky notes and students have to guess my answers. This activity is great at getting students using numbers they use in everyday life. Students are given their own activity sheet and they have to fill out how old they are, how many family members they have, how many teeth they have lost etc.
These are just some of the fun first week back to school activities I do with my class. Lucky for you, I created a package with these very activities you can purchase so the hard work is done for you!
Here at Craft Teach Repeat I have been sharing ideas I plan to use at the beginning of the school year in September while I teach Grade 2. In my school, we use a scope and sequence for teaching the different units in math that pairs with the Ontario 2020 Mathematics Curriculum. I notice that when I follow the scope and sequence my students can sometimes use it and lose it when it comes to their number sense. I want to correct that by using Math Talks/Number Talks daily as part of my math routines. This will allow me to incorporate Number Sense even when we are learning spatial sense or data management.
What are Math Talks/Number Talks? They are short questions that are presented whole class and students are given time to figure out the answers (usually mentally but sometimes they can use whiteboards/math journals to help them). Students then use hand signals to show when they are thinking,when they have strategy, and when they have multiple strategies. To find out more about the hand signals, check out Primary Bliss Teaching's blog post.
Once students have shown you that they have the answer and a strategy you can call on a student to share their answer and the strategy they used. Students then show an agree sign if they agree and a disagree sign if they disagree. Math Talks really help my students to share their thinking. How can we get our students to open up and share their ideas with the class? Here is a poster I made with Math Talk Sentence Starters to help students share their ideas.
Where can you start on your Math Talk/Number Talk journey? Lucky for you, I made a First 20 Days of Math Talks to help get you started! This product includes 20 different Math Talks to help you get started and is best used for Grades 1 or Grades 2. This is one less thing you need to worry about in the busy Back to School season.
Have you used Math Talks in your classroom? If so, leave a comment below letting me how know how they work in your class.
Last week I shared how I plan to review sentence writing with my class in September. I am now going to add a follow up to that post with a FREE lesson you can use to teach Parts of a Sentence.
First, I plan to begin teaching what the parts of a sentence are. I will refer to trust Jack Hartmann who wrote a song on this very topic:
Then I will use my FREE Google Slides lesson on the parts of a sentence. This lesson explains the two parts of a sentence:
1. The naming part
2. The telling part.
In the lesson, it explains the two parts of a sentence and then has an interactive slide that allows students to sort parts of a sentence into the naming part and the telling part. Then it has students underline the two parts of a sentence using sentence examples. Finally, the lesson has students finish sentences and share them with a partner.
Back to school, the time where teachers really try and see what their students can do. We are observing and giving tasks we think they can complete independently. Writing is one of the first things I assess. I give sentence writing activities the first week of school to see what my Grade 2 students can do. Do they include a capital letter at the beginning? Is there punctuation at the end of the sentence? Does the sentence make sense? All are important look fors.
The first thing I like to go over with my students is what a sentence includes. I create an anchor chart with a pencil at the top and a checklist of what a sentence includes:
-A capital letter at the beginning.
-Punctuation at the end.
-A complete thought is included.
-Finger spaces between words.
I will then play this song by Scratch Garden:
I then give students a writing prompt. Since it is the beginning of the school year, I will often ask students to write one sentence about something they did over the summer. I have students use the checklist anchor chart to help students make sure they have included each of the parts of a sentence.
Once students have handed in their work, I give feedback to my students using the star and a wish method. The star is something they did well (e.g., I like how you included a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence) and a wish is something they can work on (e.g., Next time, include a period at the end of your sentence). You can get the checklist and the star and wish by clicking the link below:
It is summer now, a time to reset and recharge for most teachers. However, like most teachers, I can't help but reflect upon the previous year. The many great lessons I taught and the lessons I need to tweak. With COVID-19 protocols changing throughout the year, group work and partner work wasn't a main focus. This year, I am hoping we won't have any changes to protocols (wishful thinking) and I can start the year off teaching with partner and group work activities.
I like to include partner and group work with social emotional learning. When students feel comfortable in answering questions and making mistakes in math class they will enjoy working with others knowing it is okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are proof we are trying.
So how can I incorporate social emotional learning with group work and partner work? Here are some ideas I have:
My students have all loved Brain Pop videos! Here is a video I plan to share with my students about Conflict Resolution:
After watching this video, I plan on giving my students a magic key activity. Using math tiles/snap cubes, students work together in partners. They create a barrier using a book and one partner uses tiles to create a key. They then have to describe their key to their partner to see if they can create the same one. Partners take turns. I will also have students use an emoji spectrum to help them reflect on how they worked with their partner. To get this activity, you can purchase these activities at my store. Click the image below!
To have my students work in groups, I plan to give them an open-ended task. In groups, students are going to agree upon a number between 10-50 (for older grades you can change the benchmarks) and they have to represent their number in as many ways as they can. Each group member must show one way of representing the number.
Lastly, to have my students reflect upon these activities, I plan to have my students create an emotion intensity chart. After each activity, they can mark where their emotions were when completing the activity. I included a blank emotion intensity chart in my product on TpT and I plan to have my students put theirs in a page protector so we can use them throughout the year. To learn more about the Emotion Intensity Chart, watch this video:
How do you plan to help your students prepare for making mistakes in math? How do you plan to work in group work and partner work with social emotional learning? Let me know in the comments below.
