Our Top Choices from the Top 20 Books of 2019!

Every January in 2nd grade we countdown the top picture books from the previous year.  We start at number 20 and read one book each day until we get to the top book of the year.  It's so much fun to read these books!  We are introduced to many new titles and get to revisit a few favorites we've previously read.  After reading each book, the students choose their current favorite all the way up until the end.  Once book number one has been read, the students make their top choices and write up a short review to post in the hallway so we can spread the word of our new favorites!

Here were our favorites:

          
    

Awesome Adjectives

We've been learning about characters in our reading and using adjectives to describe them.  After reading "The Duckling Gets a Cookie?!" by Mo Willems, we brainstormed a list of adjectives to describe the crazy Pigeon!  We then called up a classmate and used adjectives to describe her. 

The students wrote out a list of adjectives to describe themselves along with a cute little self-portrait to go along with it.

Daily 5

We use the structure of Daily 5 for our reading block.  This structure teaches the children to make independent work choices that help them grow as readers and writers.  In 2nd grade we have 3 rounds of Daily 5 every day. I meet with a group of students or individuals during each round to work on reading skills and strategies, writing, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.  When not meeting with me, the students choose from read to self, read to someone, work on writing, word work, or listen to reading.

Each choice was introduced slowly at the beginning of the year with an emphasis on building habits to help make us as successful as possible.  We revisit these expectations often of staying focused, working quietly, and reading or writing the whole time.

Our Daily 5 block opens up each morning with a read aloud in which we focus on a skill or strategy for the students to be using and practicing in their own reading.  We are currently working on word attack strategies to help us work through tricky words in text.  A few examples are "Chunky Monkey" which means to look for chunks in the word you may know or "Pattern Parrot" which means to look at the unknown word carefully to see if there is a spelling pattern we've learned.

The students are doing a fantastic job in Daily 5.  They are excited about books and reading!  There is nothing that makes me happier than students rushing up to me with a book they just have to share, or to tell me about making it through a tricky word, or that they finished a story they've worked really hard on!

At the beginning of the year the class learned about shopping for books in our classroom library.

 The students love partner reading!

 Within a few weeks the rest of our choices were introduced.