Spring Creek Second Graders Learn About Giraffes

March 27th, 2019 /
Shauna Sprunger /
Elementary School, News, Schools, Spring Creek

Second graders in Mrs. Baughman’s class at Spring Creek Elementary spent their time learning how to identify attributes of a giraffe as they read informational stories.

This lesson focused on the second grade core standard that states,“ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text”. As the students read various informational texts, they would circle all of the attributes of giraffes they discovered within the story.

After Mrs. Baughman approved their work, the students formed groups to complete different literacy center activities to help further develop their phonics skills. One group chose to play a game called “Let’s Talk”, where they read cards that had different sounds on them. They then would ask the group a question about what was on the card. For example, “What can you wear that starts with the letter sound ‘sh’?” Students completed this activity while Mrs. Baughman helped students individually who hadn’t yet finished their work.

Mrs. Baughman’s class was in a unique situation for today’s lesson. During a time that Spring Creek elementary is doing some of its ELL (English Language Learner) testing, Mrs. Baughman was left with a few of her students coming in and out of class time. This presented a challenge to keep everyone up to speed, but Mrs. Baughman found a way to make it work. By giving the children time to learn on their own, she was not only able to promote independent study skills, but could help the students that had missed part of the class understand the assignment.

When circumstances out of her control prevented her from easily teaching her students, Mrs. Baughman found a way to give everyone the opportunity to learn. With teaching methods like this, all students will properly learn how to read and understand details.