Learning Lessons With Amy Labrasciano: Penguins

Click here to learn all about teaching ELA in the second grade classroom. These free and fun lesson outlines will detail curriculum and ideas for all informational, literature and writing standards in my 2nd grade elementary classroom. This week's lessons will be all about: Penguins, Cold Weather Penguins, Warm Weather Penguins, Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast, Informational Writing, Opinion Writing. Your second grade students will love the lessons and activities shared here. These lesson outlines are added and updated almost each week.

Hi everyone! I hope that your new year is off to a great start! This week is all about penguins and informational text. I love this time of the year because we can tackle several standards in one week and the students are well on their way to working effectively and independently. Their third grade teachers will be pleased. We start the week off by bribing a staff member to deliver a frozen or very cold package that is marked "URGENT". Inside is a letter and penguin articles. The letter is from my "good friend" Dr. Hanson who is noticing effects from climate change and wants our class to investigate whether or not penguins could move to a warmer climate. The students are so excited to not only receive the package, but also to help solve the cute little penguin's problem. We'll be exploring key details, compare/contrast, connecting events and response to text. The students will carry their learning over into writing where they research and choose a topic about penguins to write about. Students who finish their work on time will get to make a penguin cover for their writing. They love that part. I'll post pictures below that show some of the activities will have during our independent time.

For the materials that I used this week, click on the picture below.

The students always love a great non fiction unit of study. Much like our bats, owls and spiders unit I like to give the students choices. The students get to choose which animal to apply their learning of the standard with: penguins, polar bears or reindeers. During shared reading, I make sure to focus on the standard that they are learning and use texts from all of the topics to show them how to use the standard. I have these cute fact sheets pictured below that they can write 3 facts on. Once they have their facts in place we extend the learning over to their writing. They can then write an informational piece. They love it and it feels like a two for one special for me!

Penguins, Polar Bears and Reindeer

Winter Unit

Learning Lessons With Amy Labrasciano

Cause and Effect - ELA Lesson Plans #16

Penguins, Polar Bears, and Reindeer