ABC with 2B and 2C

Kids always assure me they know their alphabet ... but how well do they REALLY know it without having to sing the song in their heads? I challenged second graders to see how quickly they could put fiction call numbers in alphabetical order. 

The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken

In fourth and fifth grade, we are practicing the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. 

We read The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken - written by Jennifer Frank and illustrated by David Ezra Stein - as a class and then the students worked together to write these summaries: 

Mrs. Worm 

wanted to take a picture with her family. 

But Emma wanted her family to be more colorful, 

so she got a box of a bunch of accessories. 

Then they looked drippy. 

Mrs. Worm 

wanted to remember her family, 

but she had such a small brain that she couldn’t. 

So they decided to take a picture. 

Then they made the word “Cheese” with their bodies. 

Emma 

wanted her family to have a picture like her friends’. 

But she wasn’t like her friends. 

So she was sad. 

Then she decided to order what her friends had: colors, hair, and teeth. 

The family 

wanted a family portrait to hang up in their house. 

But when Emma saw her friends’ family portraits, she felt bad. 

So they dressed up. 

Then the photographer couldn’t recognize them. 

Emma 

wanted to have a special picture like her friends, 

but all of her friends’ pictures kind of made her sad because she wasn’t like them. 

So she got stuff to look like them. 

Then the photographer didn’t recognize her family. 

The family 

 wanted to take a picture, 

but they looked drippy and Mr. Muskrat didn’t know who they were. 

So they took their costumes off, 

Then Mr. Muskrat recognized them as Emma’s family. 

Emma 

wanted her family to take a picture, 

but Mr. Muskrat didn’t recognize them with those big goofy buck teeth. 

So they took all of it off. 

Then they took the picture and it was “perfectly perfect.” 

The family 

Wanted the photographer to take their picture 

But he didn’t recognize them. 

So they took off their costumes. 

Then they turned their bodies into letters and spelled “Cheese.”

Which One Does(n't) Belong?

Part of our grade 1 focus in library is sorting and categories. We read Which One Doesn't Belong? by Christopher Danielson, which is a very cool book that asks which of four images doesn't belong with the other three ... and every answer is correct so long as you have a reason! 

NOTE: In looking for the cover image, I discovered that there is an entire website with more examples! Will be adding that to my resources for next year ... 

Then the kids chose Ouisi cards and had to find another student whose card matched theirs in some way. Here is Mrs. Monte's class in action:

Grade 2 Covers Inspired by "The Z Was Zapped"

During the year, students in grades K-2 create pages for “books” based on mentor texts (aka readalouds that model concepts). 

Our first 2025-2026 publication is The Z Was Zapped … Continued, based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. It 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. 

The very first time I read the original book, I said to myself, “This will make a great lesson!” It teaches alliteration while students stretch their brains to come up with vocabulary words. Below are some sample pages designed by the kids; your family can make their own version at home!

Mapping the Library

The first activity we did in the older grades this year was mapping the library, recording on a diagram where each section of books lives. Here are some students in action

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