Fortunately, Unfortunately with Grade 2

Thanks to https://ideafm.org/ for the idea and the image.

In second grade, we read Fortunately by Remy Charlip, a story that follows Ned through a series of problems and resolutions, and talked about plot structure. 

Then we wrote our own version as a class ... the kids much preferred coming up with the "unfortunately" parts!

Mrs. Cipalone's Class

One day, I was in California for a conference. 

Unfortunately, I got lost and was late for the conference.

Fortunately, I ended up in Disneyland.

Unfortunately, I landed in Animal Kingdom, and a tiger scratched me 10 million times.

Fortunately, there was a cast member there to save me.

Unfortunately, I had to leave.

Fortunately, I got to stay at a hotel.

Unfortunately, they don't have food there.

Fortunately, there were a lot of restaurants nearby.

Unfortunately, I don't have any money.

Fortunately, a teenager gave me money.

image from pinterest.com

Unfortunately, Mr. Crabs stole the money somehow.

Fortunately, I called the police.

Unfortunately, they didn't come on time.

Fortunately, they did find him.

Unfortunately, they lost their money too because Mr. Crabs stole it!

Fortunately, Mr. Crabs used the money to give us food.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't give him food because he didn't have enough money.

Fortunately, Spongebob came and made food.

Unfortunately, the restaurant closed.

Fortunately, the police drove us to a new restaurant that was open.

Unfortunately, someone vomited on Spongebob.

Fortunately, we all went back to Disneyland.

The End

Mrs. Gallagher's Class

One day, there was a girl named Sienna. 

Unfortunately, she got stuck in quicksand.

Fortunately, she could jump.

Unfortunately, she just made it worse.

Fortunately, someone saved her in a hot air balloon.

Unfortunately, lions and tigers were chasing her.

Fortunately, the lions stopped chasing her.

Unfortunately, the tigers were still chasing her.

Fortunately, she went into a cave and blocked the entrance.

Unfortunately, it was a bear's den.

Fortunately, she dug a path out of the den.

Unfortunately, she landed in a tiger pit.

image from amazon.com

Fortunately, she got out of the pit.

Unfortunately, she ran into a snake pile.

Fortunately, the snakes were not venomous.

Unfortunately, she fell off a cliff.

Fortunately, Superman saved her.

Unfortunately, Superman fell.

Fortunately, there was a trampoline.

Unfortunately, they bounced to outer space.

Fortunately, she landed on a planet.

Unfortunately, the planet was toxic.

Fortunately, Darth Vader saved her.

The End

Mrs. Chittim's Class

One day, a girl named Malorie jumped into an airplane. 

Unfortunately, the airplane crashed.

Fortunately, it landed in a lake.

Unfortunately, she couldn't swim.

Fortunately, there was a boat.

Unfortunately, it broke in half.

Fortunately, there was another boat next to it.

Unfortunately, she fell out of that one too. 

Fortunately, she made it to land.

image from youtube.com

Unfortunately, there were venomous monkeys. 

Fortunately, she stayed alive. 

Unfortunately, she had to go to the hospital.

Fortunately, the best doctor in the world was there.

Unfortunately, he was sick.

Fortunately, his twin brother was there.

Unfortunately, he was sick too.

Fortunately, there was another doctor.

Unfortunately, the doctor got grossed out by her injuries.

Fortunately, there was another doctor to help.

Unfortunately, she was too old to do the surgery.

Fortunately, after all that time, Malorie already healed.

Unfortunately, it was hard to walk because something was still wrong with her legs without having surgery.

Fortunately, she had crutches.

The End

Mrs. Smorol's Class

One day, Poppy went outside to go play soccer. 

image from etsy.com

Unfortunately, she got hit with the ball.

Fortunately, she dodged it.

Unfortunately, she landed on the ground.

Fortunately, she was okay because she landed on grass.

Unfortunately, she was cheating in her soccer/football game by accident. 

Fortunately, she apologized for cheating.

Unfortunately, no-one forgave her.

Fortunately, it was time for everyone to go home.

Unfortunately, the next day at school, Poppy fell at recess.

Fortunately, a teacher caught her.

Unfortunately, she had to go home because she broke her arm.

Fortunately, it healed after five days.

Unfortunately, nobody had accepted her cheating apology yet.

Fortunately, she said sorry again when she got back to soccer.

Unfortunately, a giant spaceship landed in the soccer field.

Fortunately, the aliens were nice in space.

Unfortunately, the aliens ruined the soccer field by accident.

Fortunately, the people who did not accept Poppy's apology apologized for not accepting the apology because they saw that things can happen by mistake.

Unfortunately, a dragon went to space and attacked all the aliens.

Fortunately, they went into a portal to Minecraft. 

Unfortunately, the creepers were chasing them.

Fortunately, when they saw the Chicken Jockey store, they all ate dinner together and became friends.

The End

Mrs. Ricci's Class

One day, a bear fell down off a tree.

Unfortunately, he got hurt and was bleeding.

Fortunately, he was dreaming. 

Unfortunately, when he woke up, he chased a boy who was trying to go to the pool. 

Fortunately, the boy could run faster than the bear.

Unfortunately, he ran into nasty bad dirty water, and a shark chased him. 

Fortunately, he found land. 

Unfortunately, there were crocodiles on the land.

Fortunately, his mom was there to help him to run away.

Unfortunately, he almost got pinched by the crocodile teeth.

Fortunately, they escaped.

Unfortunately, they escaped via the water, but there were still lots of sharks. 

Fortunately, he dug a tunnel on the ocean floor. 

Unfortunately, there were rats.

Fortunately, a plane in the sky could see what was happening and tried to save them.

Unfortunately, there were too many sharks for the plane to be able to save them.

Fortunately, there was a boat that was able to save them.

Unfortunately, the sharks flipped the boat.

image from cnn.com

Fortunately, another boat came for them.

Unfortunately, the sharks tried to eat the boat.

Fortunately, the sharks all fell asleep.

Unfortunately, the crocodiles were friends with the sharks and came out to the boat and started moving it.

Fortunately, another plane came and saved everyone.

The End

Grade 2 Dewey Detectives

The Dewey Decimal system is a way of sorting nonfiction books. I don't expect my students to memorize specific numbers; that's what the online catalog is for. I do, however, want them to understand how certain topics go together. At least according to how Mr. Dewey thought they did. 

Second graders each got a search term and a number from a "hundreds." They had to work with kids who had the same number to figure out how their subjects could be classified under one major label. 

Can you solve the puzzles? 

• 500s: planets, electricity, magnets, elements, weather, rocks, dinosaurs, bugs, ecosystems, plants, animals
  
  
• 700s: music, jokes, origami, drawing, magic tricks, football, chess, yoga, knitting, dance 
  
  
• 900s: maps, ancient civilizations, countries, states, wars, explorers, The Titanic disaster, flags, American colonies

Mock Sibert Winner 2025: We have a tie!

The American Library Association awards the Sibert Medal to the creators of "the most distinguished informational book for children published in the U.S. in English." This year, for the first time, we had a tie between two of the four finalists for the Garden City Mock Sibert:

Hello, I'm a Sloth, written by Hayley Rocco and illustrated by John Rocco

Erno Rubik and His Magic Cube, written by Kerry Aradhya and illustrated by Kara Kramer

Second-graders shared their reasons for their choices, as well as some of the facts they learned: 

• Sloths can swim in the water.
• I like animals.
• Sloths are cute.
• I liked the pictures.
• My favorite thing is they are slow climbers.
• Sloths are so cute and brave.
• Sloths go down the tree once a week to poop.
• They can fall 100 feet out of a tree to the ground.
• They have green hair.
• Sloths hang upside down to live.
• It tells us about facts we might never have heard.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I like Rubik's Cubes.
• This book gave us the most information.
• He never gave up.
• Erno Rubik grew up in Hungary.
• He used rubber bands for his first cube.
• His job was a math teacher.
• It is cool.
• He studied art and architecture.
• He had a square head in the pictures.
• It is fun to play.
• He loved puzzles.
  
  

Grade 2 Covers Inspired by "The Z Was Zapped"

In second grade, we read The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg, which features the letters of the alphabet meeting sad fates. The students had to guess the action happening to them, which started with the same letter; for example, the F was flattened by a foot and the Q was quartered. (Can you say "alliteration"?) 

Then the kids created their own version of the book, as well as their personal call number. I've added their work into a binder that can be read during checkout time. Here is a preview:

Our Sibert Winner

The American Library Association awards the Sibert Medal to the creators of "the most distinguished informational book for children published in the U.S. in English." This year, second graders chose their winner for the Garden City Mock Sibert: Butt or Face? by Kari Lavelle garnered half of the votes cast among the three finalists. 

FYI, here are our Honor books ... I have learned that students love animal facts more than biographies of humans:

Fortunately, Unfortunately with Grade 2

Thanks to https://ideafm.org/ for the idea and the image.

We read Fortunately by Remy Charlip, a story that follows Ned through a series of problems and resolutions, and talked about plot structure.

Then we wrote our own version as a class ... the kids much preferred coming up with the "unfortunately" parts!

Class 2B

One day, a unicorn got invited to a party.

Unfortunately, she got kicked out because she was ruining the party by getting all muddy.

Fortunately, she went and took a shower and dried off and got back in.

image credit: picturetopuppet.co.uk

Unfortunately, she turned into a chicken.

Fortunately, she found Santa's workshop.

Unfortunately, she threw up on Santa.

Fortunately, he still gave her a toy: a plushie fox.

Unfortunately, she wanted books.

Fortunately, she helped Santa make toys AND books.

Unfortunately, they all fell apart.

Fortunately, Santa had plenty of kids on the naughty list who could get broken toys. 

Unfortunately, the unicorn / chicken accidentally kicked an elf.

Fortunately, the elf forgave her and put her on the nice list.

Unfortunately, the elf lost his powers.

Fortunately, Santa gave him new powers, including changing the chicken back into a unicorn. 

THE END

The Good and Evil / Dun dun duuuuuuuun 

by GG, AM, LS, EM, CB, ST, and JB from Class 2B

One day, a big giant monster was smashing a mountain to make a sculpture of himself. 

Unfortunately, the big giant monster turned into a chicken. 

Fortunately, a superhero named Courtney saved him.

Unfortunately, another big monster came and fought him.

Fortunately, the superhero beat him.

Unfortunately, the other monster was now hurt.

Fortunately, Courtney and her superhero sidekick Carmella helped him.

image generated by https://hotpot.ai/art-generator

Unfortunately, then the monsters crashed into a library and everyone was scared and passed out.

Fortunately, other sidekicks named Ari and Lucas and Betty helped out by calming the people down by saying, "Ice cream for everyone!"

Unfortunately, Courtney's sidekicks threw up and nobody wanted ice cream any more.

Fortunately, Courtney cleaned it up.  

Unfortunately, a supervillain named Gavin showed up and smashed all the heroes into a bookshelf with his powers.  

Fortunately, a girl named Sienna helped the heroes get up and stop Gavin. 

Unfortunately, a cyclops came and knocked down the whole town and took it over.

Fortunately, the heroes helped the town and made everyone happy and gave them a special treat of ice cream.

THE END

Class 2A

The Thunder Story / The Bad Luck Story

image created by K.A.

One day, Madelyn was at the park.

Unfortunately, it was thundering.

Fortunately, she found shelter at a haunted house.

Unfortunately, there was a bloodthirsty giraffe eating ice cream in the haunted house.

Fortunately, Madelyn ran out and found an umbrella to use to cover her up from the rain.

Unfortunately, there were holes in the umbrella. 

Fortunately, she taped it up.

Unfortunately, the lightning struck and destroyed the umbrella.

Fortunately, she found another umbrella outside of the park.

Unfortunately, there was a whole bunch of people with Nerf basketballs throwing them everywhere and fighting.

Fortunately, Madelyn found shelter behind them, and they didn't find her.

Unfortunately, bats found her and she ran away.

Fortunately, she found another shelter made of wood.

Unfortunately, it broke apart because the thunder was so loud.

Fortunately, the Flash came and fixed everything.

Unfortunately, she blew away because the wind was so hard it made a humungous tornado.

Fortunately, she landed in her house.

THE END

Class 2C

One day, I was at the movie theater and I got popcorn and candy and soda. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to pay.

Fortunately, there were no security guards.

image generated by https://hotpot.ai/art-generator

Unfortunately, the gingerbread man chased me.

Fortunately, there was a kid that was hungry, and he ate the gingerbread man.

Unfortunately, the kid was still hungry and ate all my snacks.

Fortunately, the kid didn't like frosting so he left that for me.

Unfortunately, there were bugs in the frosting.

Fortunately, a spider ate the bugs in the frosting for me.

Unfortunately, the spider was still in the frosting.

Fortunately, a cat appeared and ate the spider.

Unfortunately, a whole army force showed up because they heard I didn't pay.

Fortunately, a piano fell on them.

Unfortunately, one survived and tried to arrest me.

Fortunately, I found my wallet with my allowance and tried to pay for the food even though I didn't even get to eat it.

Unfortunately, they only took credit cards. 

Fortunately, the army guy had one and we both got new popcorn.

THE END

Grade 2 Has Problems

In second grade, we are reviewing story elements, including characters, setting, and plot (problem/solution and beginning/middle/end). 

For extra credit on their quiz, students could make up a problem for a character. Here are some of their ideas: 

• I lost my cat.
  
  
• A giant whale knocked over a boat.
  
  
• A boy is throwing up unicorn food.
  
  
• A cat is stuck in a tree.
  
  
• A rainbow fell down and hurt her leg and got sick.
  
  
• I got eaten by a spider.
  
  
• Pooh lost his honey.
  
  
• The pirate was stuck on an island.
  
  
• My dog bit my book.
  
  
• The character is surrounded by 10,000,000 snakes.
  
  
• One time a fish was small but was getting chased by a big fish that wanted to eat him.
  
  
• The dog ran away.
  
  
• The cafe customers asked for coffee but there was no more coffee.
  
  
• The girl went to buy Nikes but someone else wanted them too.
  
  
• He couldn't stop farting.
  
  
• The city buildings all fell down.
  
  
• The cat couldn't find the litterbox.
  
  
• Spider-Man lost his suit when he brought it to a washer place.
  
  
• The kid wants a cat, and the mom doesn't want it.
  
  
• He plays outside and there is a storm.
  
  
• I don't have a rake to rake the leaves.
  
  
• There is no food.
  
  
• The girl doesn't know how to get to the pet store.
  
  
• They can't find their library books.
  
  
• I need my asthma pump. Please help me!
  
  
• An artist made a mistake on the paper. 

Grade 2 Covers Inspired by "The Z Was Zapped"

In second grade, we read The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg, which features the letters of the alphabet meeting sad fates. The students had to guess the action happening to them, which started with the same letter; for example, the F was flattened by a foot and the Q was quartered. (Can you say "alliteration"?)

Then the kids created their own version of the book, as well as their personal call number. I've added their work into a binder that can be checked out and brought home as a library book. Here is a preview:

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