In this module, students continue to build on their knowledge of pollinators from Module 3 as they deepen their literacy skills and build citizenship.
Module 4 Big Ideas and Guiding Questions:
Why should people help pollinators to survive?
How can I take action to help pollinators?
Unit 1: Pollinator Characters Who Work Hard to Help Others
Guiding Question:
What does it mean to make the world a better place?
In this unit students explore folktales and fables in which pollinators are the central characters. Students engage in a close read-aloud of The Little Hummingbird. This helps them build the skills they will need for comparing texts during this unit. Then, as students engage in a series of focused read-alouds, they participate in the Role-Play protocol, recount the story using key details, determine its central message, and finally write a paragraph about the central message. As they analyze each text, students also consider habits of character that help the fictional characters contribute to a better world by responding to challenges. The song "We Do What We Can" is used throughout the unit and allows students to explore how rhythm, repetition, and prefixes provide meaning in texts, while also allowing students to consider how to contribute to a better world.
Unit 2: Reading and Writing Opinions: Helping Pollinators
Guiding Questions:
What dangers do pollinators face?
Why should people protect pollinators?
In this unit students continue their study of pollinators by reading and writing opinion pieces. Specifically, students learn about the challenges facing bats and butterflies. In the first part of the unit, students read two opinion texts, A Place for Bats by Melissa Stewart and Bats Roosts in Danger! written by EL Education which describes the dangers facing bats and different actions people can take to address them. Building on the research skills students learned in Module 3, the class records class notes about these dangers. In the second part of the unit, students read about the dangers facing butterflies using the texts A place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart and Help protect Butterflies! written by EL Education. Students continue to hone their research skills by recording class notes, which they also us as evidence in their written piece. Throughout the unit students also consider habits of character that help them contribute to a better world; this character work lays the foundation for their performance task in Unit 3.
Unit 3: Taking Action Through Literacy and Artwork: Helping Butterflies
Guiding Questions:
How can people take action to help butterflies?
How does reflecting help me grow as a learner?
In this unit, students apply their knowledge about plants and pollinators to help one important pollinator: butterflies. Building on knowledge from Module 3 and 4, students read about how planting wildflowers helps butterflies. For their performance task, students are invited to take action by creating wildflower seed packet to then give away a school or family member. The front of the wildflower seed packet includes a title and colored pencil drawing of a monarch butterfly. The back of the seed packet includes instructions for planting wildflower seeds and an opinion piece telling people why they should help butterflies.
Letterland is our phonics curriculum. This quarter we will explore the following
Two closed syllables
Dividing before a single consonant
Dividing with double consonants
Dividing closed syllables v/cv and vc/v
Multi-syllable words with magic e
Syllable division with Robot syllables
Consonant -le syllable
New digraphs: gh/-/, gh/f/ and ph
Continuing Unit 7: Data and Two Step Problem Solving
This Unit, which focuses on data, serves as a platform to solve one and two-step word problems. Students work with the process of data collection as they pose relevant questions, collect data to answer their questions, organize data, and interpret the results. This includes both measurement and categorical data. Measurement data should be based on standard units of linear measure, while categorical data should be sorted into non-numeric categories.
Standards Addressed:
NC.2.MD.10 Collect and represent data, with up to four categories. Interpret results of picture and bar graphs with up to four categories. Solve put-together, take-from and comparison problems using data.
NC.2.OA.1 Solve one-step problems relating to data within 100. Solve two-step problems relating to data involving only single-digits.
Unit 8: Problem Solving with Money
This unit focuses on money, serves as a platform to continue work with solving one- and two-step word problems. Students should be able to solve word problems involving coins within 99¢, and whole dollar amounts, using both the ¢ and $ signs correctly. Students should be able to draw on their prior knowledge of skip counting of 5's and 10's to assist in solving problems with coins.
Standards Addressed:
NC.2.MD.8 Solve word problems involving quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies within 99¢, using ¢ symbols appropriately. Whole dollar amounts, using the $ symbol appropriately.
NC.2.OA.1 Solve one-step problems relating to data within 100. Solve two-step problems relating to data involving only single-digits.
Unit 9: Reasoning with Shapes
In this unit students should recognize, draw, and describe attributes of triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons and recognize and describe attributes of rectangular prisms and cubes. Additionally, students focus on equipartitioning, and develop an understanding of identifying whether or not a shape has been partitioned into equal shares and how to partition shapes into equal shares themselves. Throughout the unit, a focus will be placed on essential mathematics vocabulary including triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, hexagon, rectangular prism, cube, side, vertex, face, edge, partition, half, third, fourth and quarter.
Standards Addressed:
NC.2.G.1: Recognize and draw triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, and hexagons, having specified attributes; recognize and describe attributes of rectangular prisms and cubes.
NC.2.G.3: Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal parts. Describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, fourth of, quarter of. Describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Explain that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape.
Standards Addressed:
2.L.1 Understand animal life cycles.
2.L.1.1 Summarize the life cycle of animals including: Birth, Developing into an adult, Reproducing, Aging and death
2.L.1.2 Compare life cycles of different animals such as, but not limited to, mealworms, ladybugs, crickets, guppies or frogs.
2.L.2 Remember that organisms differ from or are similar to their parents based on the characteristics of the organism.
2.L.2.1 Identify ways in which plants and animals closely resemble their parents in observed appearance and ways they are different.
2.L.2.2 Recognize there is variation among individuals that are related.
Students will understand:
that animals grow and change and that they experience different stages of development called a life cycle.
that an animal’s life cycle begins with birth. that after a period of time (after birth), an animal will develop into an adult.
how different animals spend varying periods of time in each stage of the life cycle. For example, some animals have few stages of a life cycle, while others have several stages of a life cycle.
how animals might look the same, similar, or completely different at specific stages of development.
how organisms (plants and animals) have characteristics that are similar and different.
ways that young animals are very much, but not exactly, like their parents and also resemble other animals of the same kind. ways that plants also are very much, but not exactly, like their parents and resemble other plants of the same kind.
characteristics of animals that can be similar to and different from their parents.
Standards Addressed:
2.E.1.1 Understand how the availability of resources impacts economic decisions.
2.E.1.2 Explain how the availability of resources impacts the production of goods.
2.G.1.1 Recognize absolute and relative location of various settlements, territories,and states in the development of the American nation.
2.G.1.2 Explain how the environment has impacted settlement across America.
2.G.1.3 Interpret how the movement of people, goods, and ideas has impacted the regional development of America.
Students will understand:
Economic decisions are influenced by the availability of goods and services.
The economic decisions relating to what people buy often determines what goods and services are produced.
Limited resources often dictate what goods and services can be produced.
Production decisions are often determined by the availability of resources.
People can identify where they are based on the position of a place or depending on its location with respect to other locations.
Landmarks or points of interest can be used to determine the location of a place.
Geographic coordinates on a map or a globe may be used to navigate people to specific places or locations.
The physical environment may influence how and why people settle in a place.