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Summer SAVY, Session 2 Day 1, Playing with Words (1st – 2nd)

Posted by on Monday, June 17, 2024 in blog, SAVY.

Good afternoon, SAVY families! 

Welcome to a new week of SAVY—Playing with Words! Our learning objectives today included: I can understand and use similes; I can name and describe some generalizations about change; I can use context clues to help me understand unfamiliar words; I can use adjectives to describe objects; and I can effectively use metaphors to enhance my writing. 

We began the day by reading, It Looked Like Spilt Milk, and discussing similes found in the book. Next, we created our own imaginative cloud drawings using construction paper and chalk as a creative medium. Students’ drawings were amazing, and they completed the simile, “A cloud is like ____ because ______.” As a valuable data point, students read the poem, “Fog,” and completed an initial writing pre-assessment. 

We had a great first SAVY lunch and our class did an excellent job learning and following the expectations! 

After lunch, we generated ideas of how things change to prepare us for our study of how language and words have changed over time. Students came up with various living and non-living change cycles, including animal life cycles, physical changes like ripping paper or getting a haircut, and even natural changes like volcanoes changing landscapes. We applied our knowledge of change to four generalizations: changes can happen fast or take a long time; changes can be positive or negative; changes can be caused by people or happen naturally; and changes can be predictable or unpredictable. We used our brand-new workbooks to sketch our own examples and non-examples of each type of change. 

For our Organized Recreational Activity (ORA) time, students enjoyed outdoor games and soaking up some sunshine as they got an opportunity to move their bodies and interact with other classes. When we got back inside, we cooled down and shifted our focus of change to how language changes over time. We played emotion charades as a whole group and then read the story, Cobbler, Cobbler. We discussed how words may be used differently at different times and places and rewrote the poem in our workbooks using more familiar language. 

As the last lesson of the day, students listened to a video on the parts of speech, and we read aloud the book, Many Lucious Lollipops. We discussed the adjectives used in the book and added them to our Adjective Chart. Students placed the adjectives into four different categories: how something looks, how something feels, how something sounds, and other describing words. 

If possible, have your students think of words and phrases to describe the moon. Please write these down on a sheet of paper and try to generate at least 5 words or short phrases. 

Questions for further exploration with your students could include: 

  • What is a simile? Can you provide me with an example? 
  • What is change, and what are some generalizations about change that you learned today? 
  • What are adjectives, and how do they help us in our writing?
  • Can you tell me about any other parts of speech and what their function is in sentences? 

We look forward to another great day of learning tomorrow!