The second grade students moved into a new block of stories about Anansi the Spider. We spent time first semester hearing Anansi stories to complement our Friday Form Drawing periods. The children adored his mischievous antics and the outcomes, both successful and unsuccessful. In bringing these stories again to our class, my hope is to remind them of that feeling of togetherness and fun they felt as a group interwoven with some new spelling/phonics lessons to keep them motivated and feeling there is value in their current work.
This past week the students began by reviewing two previous phonics lessons (I am calling them "spelling lessons" for simplicity's sake) and a new lesson. These lessons, delivered to the students by their home-learning teachers (a.k.a "mom" or "dad"), are done through drawings, word lists, games and verbal activities. They are meant to be kept short and sweet (like the kiddos). They reviewed doubling of the final consonant in a short vowel, one syllable word, renegade word endings like "ild" and "old" that don't follow the short-vowel patterns, and finally we learned about when we use "ck" at the end of a word (one syllable, short vowel).
Our online lessons also included more practice creating summaries for stories either verbally or writing them down, math games using a hundreds chart, math worksheets to practice addition and subtraction skills, many Anansi stories, our class read aloud, and a Friday Fun craft to finger chain a spring flower.
Next week, we will continue hearing Anansi stories, working with a new spelling rule for the week, modeling with clay, drawing and creating summaries, math worksheets and games, and, if desired, planning a craft, and maybe some baking, to celebrate May Day on Friday, May 1st. I hope families will choose what brings their child (and themselves) the most joy. Use what you find helpful and allow the unused lessons to rest for now. The children will benefit most from a relaxing home experience and their parents will too! Please use what works and leave the rest! <3
I look forward to seeing the childrens' happy faces on Monday mornings for our live Zoom sessions! It's so wonderful to see them and hear their stories from the previous week!
With gratitude,
Melissa