Hello again!
Being back in the classroom is such a wonderful feeling! I have been looking forward to returning to my amazing grade twos to continue learning together.
For my three-week block, I decided to teach an ELA Poetry Unit (eek!). Being a pre-service teacher, I really wanted to challenge myself with the subject I chose to teach because now is the time to struggle and learn! Before the three weeks began, I was very nervous and anxious about the planning and preparation I had done for my unit. I had no idea where to begin with teaching poetry to GRADE TWOS and to be honest, the Saskatchewan Curriculum does not get into specifics about poetry within the ELA strand.
Even though I was nervous, I walked into my co-op’s classroom confident and excited for whatever was headed my way! The grade twos were very excited to have myself and my teaching partner back in their classroom (so was our co-op!) and it quickly felt like we had never left.
I wanted to kick off my poetry unit with a way to HOOK my students and get them excited about poetry! As a class we recited the cutest “Poetry Promise” which you can download for free from the Brown Bag Teacher’s blog here!! Each student stood up and raised their right hand as a sign of a solemn promise. The class then repeated after me as I read the Poetry Promise which got them all very curious about the facts we would be learning about poetry!
By the end of my first week, we had learnt about stanzas, rhyme, rhythm, repetition, and acrostic poems! My students had each written their own unique stanza based off of the classic Canadian poem “Alligator Pie” as well broadened their mental dictionary for rhyming words!
I look forward to all the learning that happens next week!
See you then!
Miss H.