Year 2
Reading
Learning Experience Overview
We shared the text ‘A Year in Fleurville: Recipes from balconies, rooftops and gardens’ by Felicita Sala. It is described as a cookbook, a mini guide to gardening, and a picture book rolled into one. The focus is on gardening and seasonality of produce, with a strong theme of community connectedness and collaboration throughout the year.
This links directly to our Big Idea: Communities share resources, spaces, and responsibilities to live and grow together; and our first Driving Question: What are some of the resources people use in our community?
Learning Intention: To identify and sort verbs.
WHOLE
To begin with, we came together to break down the meaning of our Learning Intention. We discussed the difference between the four verb types that we were identifying: Action Verbs, Saying Verbs, Thinking Verbs and Relating Verbs. As a Shared learning experience, the students were asked to give examples of each, from their own experiences.
Each student had a Verb Word Sort worksheet, ’Listening for Verbs’, on a clipboard, so that they could record, as we read together. This will be the example that your child will bring home.
We then read the story together, pausing to consider each page, identifying, then classifying the types of verbs. These were sorted, according to the criteria on the display, then recorded on the whiteboard, as we went along.
We then read the story together, pausing to consider each page, identifying, then classifying the types of verbs. These were sorted, according to the criteria on the display, then recorded on the whiteboard, as we went along.
After reading we used the verbs to help us determine the text’s theme.
Our discussion included the questions:
- Can you think about what people actually did/thought/said in the story?)
- How did people relate to each other?
- In what ways did they work together (communicate, collaborate)?
- What connected all the characters?
- What main ideas or themes were running through the story?
- How does this theme link to our first driving question?
- How did they connect and collaborate as a community?
- What’s an idea we have about this theme?
To continue the learning at home, from this experience:
- As you read together, bring their attention to how the writer has used different types of verbs. Ask them what a certain writer does in their writing, that they could do too. Perhaps they use precise verbs which tell the reader so much more.
- Discuss different words that could be used to show us how things are spoken; instead of simply ‘said’ – shouted, whispered, yelled, groaned, cried, sobbed, laughed, screamed, explained
- Notice the use of explicit verbs to show action; instead of simply ‘walked’ – raced, marched, hobbled, sauntered, strolled, wandered
- Encourage your child to look for the theme or the main idea within stories.
- Read every day, to expose your children to new ideas, different styles of writing, and different perspectives on the world
- When you are reading together, notice new ways with words and explicit vocabulary which is used to heighten the reader’s mental image of what is happening in the text.
- Most of all, have fun reading together!
Jocelyn and Steph
Year 2 Team