Reading Workshop is held daily. During this time students read from “Just Right” independent reading books and complete supporting comprehension and decoding activities, depending on their needs and abilities. Books are chosen from a leveled library of fiction and nonfiction texts. Students are free to pick any books that match their reading level and interests but are encouraged to read a range of texts and genre. Teachers circulate, checking in with students while still allowing them time to invest in quiet, independent reading and work time. In addition to their daily reading, the children work on their phonics and other foundational reading skills through a multi-faceted approach.

Children are introduced to literature circles, similar to book clubs, at the end of second grade, where they work on the assignments in school. They begin participating in regular literature circles during the third grade year. With the exception of nightly reading, this is their first introduction to homework. During this homework experience children practice developing consistent daily routines, time management, and organizational skills while working on various roles that are presented within their lit circle groups during the school day. Literature Circle is run by the children as they cycle through the roles of discussion director, investigator, word finder, connector and illustrator.

In the 2-3 classroom, we love to read aloud to children and will often read several chapter books and lots of picture books throughout the school year. During this time we practice making predictions, creating real word connections, using strategies to identify new vocabulary words, and understanding the power of imagery.

Our writing curriculum is individualized, focusing on each child’s needs and abilities as a writer. Each child works on their own piece of writing at their own pace, receiving guidance on topics like grammar, invented spelling, and style through group mini-lessons and daily conferences with teachers. They each move through the stages of writing (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, and publishing) with the support of their teachers and peers. Four main units--narrative, poetry, non-fiction and opinion writing--are covered every year. How we address these units changes in coordination with our themes. An example of this could be researching and writing a report about an animal during our study of biomes, or creating and writing a puppet show after researching a person during our biography unit. During opinion writing, we may write reviews on products or places we are passionate about and publish them to the internet, or write letters to friends and authors sharing opinions about books and ending with class book award nominations. In the spring of 2022 we did a deep dive into haiku writing with haiku poet Brad Bennett. Each unit lasts for several months to allow students to invest in their work and see growth as a writer. Nature Journaling is done throughout the year in students' sit spots in the woods. Writing is done for real purposes and audiences so there are many opportunities to share unfinished work and receive feedback as well as for publishing celebrations.

In second grade there continues to be heavy emphasis on concrete experience using materials (some made by the children, such as fraction strips, and some commercial, such as The Powers of Ten). We draw from everyday hands-on experiences incorporating math into the daily life of the classroom. Our emphasis on problem solving stresses that how we get to an answer is oftentimes as important as the answer itself.

In third grade, mathematics continues to build on previously learned concepts expanding into a deeper investigation of all four operations and the application of mathematical skills with more challenging problems and real world situations. Students tackle larger math projects often related to our themes while practicing multiplication and division skills and expanding exploration of fractions, measurement, and geometry content. Students continue to develop their number sense, manipulating increasingly complex numbers in order to solve more challenging problems and projects.

When possible, math in both second and third grade is integrated into real life experiences or thematic simulations (“Math Congresses”). Some examples of this have included creating a school store, building a community garden, designing tiny houses, and planning a trip. Collaborative math activities provide the children with opportunities to share and appreciate a variety of perspectives and approaches.

We focus on three thematic units each year. We balance science and social studies, while making both as hands on as possible. We often repeat units on a two-year cycle, but are also responsive to the interests of the children in our class as well as what is happening in our world. Some units we’ve done in the past:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle… and Compost!

In this unit, we dig in to trash to examine what happens when you throw something away. We follow a piece of trash on the path it takes after it leaves our hands, and we’ll learn why we have a large amount of trash in our world today. We learn how others have worked to help by reducing what they throw away, reusing what they can, and recycling or composting what they can’t reuse. We practice reducing our waste by finding reusable alternatives and by making creative use of things we might otherwise throw away. We become school experts in recycling and composting, and then put what we learn into action, becoming “superheroes” who save things from the trash that can be reused, recycled, or composted and educate the community on proper recycling and composting techniques. In fall of 2021 we also partnered with We Grow Eco to have each student pick up one piece of litter each day and document and reflect on our progress.

Journey Around America: Investigating Sustainability Solutions

In this unit we travel the United States, learning about the 50 states and the five regions that make up our country. We dig deep, learning about how people are addressing concepts of waste and sustainability in the United States. Through the lens of food, clothing, and shelter, we examine what a few different organizations are doing to tackle waste. Our projects in this unit include writing diary entries from the perspective of a farm animal, calculating miles that local vs non-local ingredients travel to create a spaghetti dinner, selling Birches t-shirts made from recycled bottles to the community, and designing tiny houses. Later in the year, students return to U.S. geography in all subjects, such as researching a state during writing and reading, and planning a trip to a state during math.

The Civil Rights Movement

In our unit on the Civil Rights Movement, we learn about race, racism, and white supremacy, using this knowledge as we uncover this history and how it connects to the modern Black Lives Matter movement. First, we celebrate different skin colors and discovered that they differ because of melanin. We learn that people have used lighter skin color as an advantage, focusing on our country’s history of slavery and segregation. Then we learn about important events in the Civil Rights Movement, emphasizing that the power of these resistance efforts comes from a large number of people of all races working together. We also learn some names of changemakers, being sure to include both well-known and lesser-known individuals. We make these people and events come alive through stories, art, photos, songs, videos, and reenactments, always bringing our work back to the themes of injustice, courage, and personal responsibility. In 2021 we had the opportunity to work with Reggie Harris, who zoomed with us for three sessions to tell us stories of racism and resistance, to answer our questions, and to sing songs with us.

We start each year with building a classroom community. We spend time practicing active listening, looking at situations from different perspectives, fostering kindness and discussing what it means to be a good friend and classmate. We stress the importance of communication, including how to express emotions through “I statements”, problem solving with peers, inviting others into our play, and sharing ideas during group discussions and school meetings. We examine our commonalities and differences, appreciating our unique selves and how together we make a diverse school.Children in the 2-3 classroom have the opportunity to call concern meetings to process and problem solve as a community when conflicts arise. We work hard to empower children to use their voice and develop strong conflict resolution skills. The students work together to generate classroom and recess norms as well as expectations for the year. They debate, vote and agree upon these expectations and find comfort and pride in their ownership over the creation and observation of these norms. Children appreciate that even when a vote doesn’t go their way, their ideas and thoughts have been heard and recognized.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are values that are woven into all that we do in second and third grade, as students are always learning about people, places, and ideas far different than what they have experienced. We are always discussing how to be respectful of others, such as using preferred pronouns, asking respectful questions, being open to new points of view, and not stereotyping. In the past in our class we have focused on celebrating Black Americans, Indigenous Americans, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, people experiencing homelessness, and people of all genders.