Growing into Second-Grade Phonics

Bend I reviews some of the key phonics principles students studied in kindergarten and first grade.  It starts by reminding them of all they learned about phonics:  short vowels, long vowels, silent E, vowel teams, R-controlled vowels, blends, digraphs and endings.  Students will be introduced to a new tool, “My Snap Words Book,” a printable resource that contains all 146 high-frequency words that were introduced in kindergarten and first grade. 

Bend II focuses on rallying second-graders to grow beyond their first-grade work and do more second-grade work.  This means asking students to work on “growing up” their writing, by working to spell some tricky snap words correctly, adding periods on the run (not just after they have finished a whole page or a whole piece), and putting in capital letters where appropriate.  Students will be introduced to the concept of “troublemaker words'', which are high-frequency words that were introduced in kindergarten and first grade.  These are words that kids can read in a snap, but still have trouble spelling with automaticity.  They will also be introduced to the particularly tricky concept of homophones. 

Bend III is a joyous exploration of rhyme and rimes.  Students explore rhyming texts and identify the word parts or rimes that are particularly useful.  Children will also write their own fun and sometimes silly rhyming books, working to use all of the rimes they have harvested across the bend.  The bend, and the unit, end with a celebration of rhyming and poetry.  This is a celebration of all the growing up that second-graders have done in this unit and it is also meant to celebrate all of the growth that is yet to come in this very exciting year!