Second Grade - ELA
1: Community
Unit 1: Communities Around the World
Lesson 1
Exploring a Community
Students are asked to write complete sentences in Activity 1 by completing sentence frames: "The _______________ is important because ______________________." Activity 3 asks students to write three sentences about where they would rather live and to circle the noun subject and underline the verb, with review of subject/predicate, verbs, and end punctuation. The Wrapping Up activity has students identify the noun subject and verb in simple sentences during a spoken game.
Lesson 2
Roles of People in Communities
Students are asked in Option 2 to write a sentence about each community worker and then identify the noun in the subject and the verb in the predicate, which practices producing complete sentences and recognizing sentence parts. In Activity 4 students write a paragraph about a worker, discuss the worker's role in detail, and are encouraged to add words or dictate sentences, which gives students opportunity to expand sentences into longer ideas. Students also circle the beginning letter and end punctuation of each sentence, reinforcing sentence boundaries and completion.
Lesson 3
Goods and Services
Students are prompted to write sentences in Activity 4 by completing the "If you give a _____ a _____" story frames (e.g., "If you give a _______ a ______," "He might ask for a _______." "Then before you know it, he'll ask for _______."). Students are asked to organize ideas on sequencing arrows and then write a sentence (and later more sentences) to make a simple book with a sentence and illustration on each page. The skills list also specifies that students will "Write using an author's model of language," which supports producing modeled sentences.
Lesson 6
Uses of Money
The lesson explicitly lists the skill "Compose complete sentences with punctuation" and asks students to use writing to communicate ideas and to use new vocabulary in writing. In the Giving Money activity students complete sentence-stem prompts (Option 1) and write a more open paragraph (Option 2), with reminders to begin sentences with a capital letter and end with punctuation. After writing, students are asked to identify the noun/pronoun in the subject and the verb in the predicate of each sentence, showing attention to sentence structure.
Lesson 7
Work and Money
Students are asked to "Compose sentences and paragraphs to communicate ideas" in the Skills list, indicating sentence production. In Activity 3, students write responses to scenarios using prompts like "I will ____" and "because ____," producing complete sentences that explain choices. Activity 4 directs students to use each spelling word in a sentence and to say the sentence aloud, providing additional sentence-production practice. Activity 2 includes sentence-completion prompts with blanks for words such as "with," "without," "someone's help," or "by myself," which requires students to complete sentences about working together.
Lesson 8
Customs and Holidays
Students are asked to write a sentence for each holiday on the Patriotic Holidays page ("Write a sentence about what you do on each holiday"). On the Holiday Book pages students write the name and date of each holiday and complete prompts such as "On this day our family…" and "We celebrate this holiday because…," producing written sentences and multiple-clause responses. Option 2 asks students to write sentences about why a holiday is celebrated and what their family does without sentence prompts, requiring more independent sentence production.
Lesson 10
Communities Change
Students are asked to write a sentence beneath each season illustration on the Changing Seasons Wheel (Activity 2), which requires producing complete sentences describing the community. The lesson also prompts students to retell events, summarize the story, and respond to open-ended questions about The Little House (Activity 1), which requires oral or written sentence production. Skills listed include "Retell the order of events," "Summarize events," and "Respond to open-ended question about a text," indicating opportunities for students to compose sentences when explaining ideas.
Lesson 11
Government and the People
Students are asked to write a sentence about how each government service helps them on the "The Government Helps Citizens" pages and to complete the prompt "Tonight we will" on the Voting activity page. Students record leader titles and leader names (with a reminder about capital letters) on the Government Flowchart, and they are asked to explain orally why it is important to allow everyone to vote. Several activities require students to produce written or spoken sentences as part of completing charts and describing choices.
Final Project
Community Brochure
Students are asked to "think about the sentences she wants to include on each page" and "record her ideas" on the Community Brochure Organizer. The skills list includes "Select and use new vocabulary and language structures in both speech and writing" and "Compose a variety of written products using a writing process," and the organizer requires use of vocabulary words (money, goods, services, wants, needs, etc.) in brochure sentences. Students are instructed to write descriptive content for sections (goods and services, jobs, holidays, change), which requires composing complete sentences.
Unit 2: Citizenship
Lesson 1
A Good Citizen
Students are asked to write sentences in multiple places: Option 2 asks students to write a sentence or two describing times they demonstrated each citizenship trait. The "Scene by Scene" activity asks students to put scenes in order and write a sentence for each scene. Activity 4 and the Home activity ask students to write or dictate sentences about times they lied/told the truth and to make up a sentence or two describing each page. The Citizenship Chart asks students to write a short sentence describing what they did to earn a sticker and the Community Citizen page asks students to write about a planned civic action.
Lesson 3
Diversity in the Community
Students are asked to write five interview questions on the "An Interview" page and practice writing question marks, then write short answers to each question. The skills list and activities direct students to end sentences with correct punctuation and to use text to locate important information, indicating practice producing complete sentences and punctuation use.
Lesson 4
Living in America
Students complete two sentence prompts on the flag activity page (e.g., "There are 13 stripes because _________." and "There are 50 stars because __________."), which requires them to produce written sentences explaining reasons. Students answer open-ended questions about the Pledge (e.g., "Why do you think we have a pledge?" and "Why should America be free and fair for all people?"), which requires them to formulate spoken or written responses. Students read and explain lines of the Pledge, producing explanations in sentence form when discussing meanings.
Lesson 5
Citizens Share and Help
Students are asked to write spelling words five times and to use each word in a sentence about themselves (using "I"), then read the sentences aloud, which requires producing complete simple sentences. In Activity 2 students complete written sections such as "I plan to," "There will be ____ of us," and "Each of us will," requiring them to write and describe plans in sentence form. The wrapping up prompt asks students to explain what it means for citizens to share and to think of something they can split equally, which elicits verbal or written sentence responses.
Lesson 6
Leaders in the Community
Students fill in sentence frames in the Biography Book (e.g., "___ was born in ___," "When ___ was younger he/she ___," "___ was a leader because ___"), producing complete simple sentences. Students are asked to write a paragraph in "A Leader I Know" and to write a sentence describing how a person is a leader in Activity 5. Option 2 asks students to record their own sentences for biography sections, requiring independent sentence production.
Lesson 7
Inventors
Students are prompted to write complete sentences about inventions using provided sentence starters (Option 1) and open-response prompts (Option 2). Students are taught that a sentence expresses a complete thought and are asked to circle the subject and underline the predicate for sentences they write. Students also write sentences and a paragraph during the Invention Scavenger Hunt and the "My Own Invention" activity, producing original sentence-level writing.
Unit 3: Plants and Animals
Lesson 1
Living and Nonliving
The lesson asks students to write names, record items on a scavenger chart, and answer questions about objects, which requires students to produce written phrases or sentences. It includes composing products such as stories and oral retellings, and an activity where the child dictates a story and the parent records it, giving students opportunities to produce complete sentences. The skills list explicitly includes "Write or participate in writing using an author's model of language and extending the model," which suggests students will practice guided writing.
Lesson 3
Classifying Animals
Activity 9 asks students to write a paragraph and provides sentence stems (e.g., "I am a ____, and I live ____.") that prompt students to produce complete sentences and at least one coordinated/copulative structure. The directions review sentence and paragraph features (sentences begin with a capital, end with a period; a paragraph has more than one sentence and sentences relate to the same idea). Activity 10 prompts students to speak and answer questions in full sentences about animal traits, encouraging oral sentence production.
Lesson 5
Animal Needs
Students are asked in Activity 1 to "write a sentence" describing how the community helps meet each need. In Activity 2 students write the animal's name, habitat, and how its food, water, and shelter needs are met beside their habitat drawing. Activity 4 asks students to "write a description" of a new animal using fill-in-the-blank guided sentences for name, habitat, physical characteristics, diet, and shelter.
Lesson 6
Extinct and Endangered Species
Students create and record puppet-show lines (Activity 4 requires the child to "dictate at least two lines for each dinosaur and record her ideas in script form"), which has them produce complete simple sentences. In Activity 3 students read through and practice an "Endangered Species Puppet Show Script," speaking and performing the scripted sentences. The skills list includes "Use words that name and words that tell action" and "Write using an author's model of language," which prompt students to construct and imitate sentence-level language.
Lesson 8
The Role of Plants
Students are prompted to write complete sentences in Activity 4: Option 1 provides sentence-starter prompts such as "Thank you for...", "I also want to thank you for...", and "The best thing you ever gave me was..." for composing a thank-you note. Activity 4: Option 2 asks students to write every sentence of an open-ended letter, requiring independent sentence production. Activity 5 asks students to write sentences beside each plant product using a provided sentence structure ("is used"), and the skills list includes composing a variety of written products.
Lesson 9
Comparing Living Things
Students complete sentence starters in Option 1 (e.g., "Plants and animals need __________." and "Plants, animals, and humans all need __________."). In Option 2 students are directed to "Write three sentences about how plants, animals, and humans are the same and different," which requires generating original sentences. The Spelling activity asks students to copy five complete sentences twice, giving additional practice writing full sentences.
Final Project
Nature Guide or Habitat in a Box
Students are asked to "describe and illustrate the life cycle for one animal" and to explain an endangered species including "why it is threatened," which requires written descriptions. Students fill in multiple activity pages with lines for Name, Size, Body Covering, Diet, and sections for Food Chain 1 and 2 that include space for explanations. Students assemble a nature guide or a Habitat Community in a Box and "paste her drawings and descriptions in the book," indicating they must produce written text for each entry.
2: Matter and Movement
Unit 1: States of Matter
Lesson 2
Solids
Students are asked to write sentences about two solids in Activity 3, using at least two of the descriptive words or phrases they recorded with their five senses. Activity 8 directs students to use each spelling word in a spoken sentence, producing complete sentences aloud. Several activities require labeling and describing objects (e.g., Investigating Solids, Sorting Solids), which prompts students to create descriptive sentence-level responses.
Lesson 3
Liquids
Students are asked to write sentences in Activity 5 (write five sentences about how she uses liquids) and Activity 8 (write one or two sentences about each liquid). The Skills list explicitly includes "Use basic capitalization and punctuation" and "Use nouns and verbs in sentences," and Activity 5 instructs students to start sentences with a capital letter and end with a period and to identify nouns and underline verbs. These tasks require students to produce complete simple sentences and to analyze sentence parts.
Lesson 4
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
Students are asked to write three sentences that describe the oobleck (Activity 4), and Option 2 of the True or False activity asks students to write three true and three false sentences about the story. Activity 5 asks students to write a new ending for the story, encouraging independent extended writing. The Skills section lists "Write or participate in writing by using an author's model of language and extending the model," which supports producing written sentences.
Lesson 5
Comparing Matter
Students are prompted in Activity 3 to "write a sentence about each picture using the adjectives she listed," which requires producing complete written sentences and adding descriptive words. The activity also asks students to draw nouns, label them, and write two adjectives for each, giving direct practice expanding simple noun phrases into fuller sentences. In Activities 1 and 2 students are asked to "explain" and "ask her to explain how she made her selections," providing opportunities for spoken production of complete sentences.
Lesson 6
Changes in States of Matter
Students are asked to "write a sentence about each picture" for water in its three states and to "write a complete sentence" describing food changes (Activities 1 and 7). The skills list explicitly includes "Write sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation" and "Use new vocabulary in speech and writing." An advanced writing example shows sentence expansion: "The Popsicle melted and changed from a solid to a liquid."
Lesson 7
Exploring Solids and Liquids
Students are asked to write three sentences describing three events from the book (Activity 1). Students write hypotheses and record results in the "Dancing Raisins" experiment page, which requires composing explanatory sentences. The skills list and question prompts (e.g., "Which part of the book was your favorite? Why?" and asking what will happen when the cake goes in the oven) prompt students to respond and elaborate in spoken or written sentences.
Lesson 8
Our Bodies and Our World
Students are asked to write their own short story (Activity 5) using a graphic organizer with labeled sections for Setting, Characters, Problem, Events, and Solution, and they are given guidance that the first sentence or two can introduce setting and characters, followed by sentences describing the problem and events and ending with a solution. Option 2 of Activity 4 asks students to read a short story and fill in blanks with words (solid, liquid, gas) to complete sentences, which requires producing appropriate words in sentence contexts. The story-writing task explicitly requires multiple sentence references (at least five solids, three liquids, and one gas) and allows children to dictate or get assistance, indicating students will compose multiple complete sentences.
Final Project
States of Matter
Students are asked to "Write a sentence beneath each liquid about what it is used for" in the Liquids Collage, and an example sentence is provided ("Lemonade is a yummy drink during the summer"). In the Solids Collage students write the name of each material and three adjectives describing the solid, which requires producing descriptive phrases and words. The final step asks the child to "share" the collages with family, which implies speaking about their work.
Unit 2: Earth
Lesson 1
Our Planet Earth
Students are directed to write three sentences about the book in Activity 3, and to write a letter to an alien in Activity 4 (with a fill-in-the-blank option and an open-ended option) which requires producing complete sentences. Activity 5 asks students to write an acrostic poem with one line per letter that can be written as short sentences or phrases. The Wrapping Up section asks students to explain what they learned, prompting spoken sentence production.
Lesson 2
Matter on the Planet
Several activities require students to write sentences that include adjectives: Activity 3 (Option 1) asks students to write a sentence about two of the items and include two adjectives in each sentence, and Option 2 gives the same final task. The Wrapping Up asks students to select one object and pick five adjectives to describe it, which supports expansion of descriptions within sentences. Activity pages guide students to draw, label, and record adjectives for objects, providing material for sentence production and expansion.
Lesson 3
Digging Into Dirt
Students are asked to write short descriptive passages in multiple places: Activity 5 asks students to write two or three sentences explaining how they solved the soil/coin mystery, Activity 8 asks students to write four complete sentences about ways the Earth is important, and the "Experimenting with Soil" page includes a fill-in-the-blank prediction sentence ("I think the seeds will grow best in ___ because ___") plus spaces to record results. The Skills section also lists "Select and use new vocabulary in speech and writing," which supports sentence production in writing tasks.
Lesson 4
From the Earth
The Skills list explicitly includes "Use complete sentences when writing (LA)" and "Self-monitor composition by rereading (LA)." Activity 1 directs students to write a sentence about how their family uses each circled material. Activity 5 asks students to write three sentences about things that are not matter, identify the nouns in each sentence, and reread to make changes.
Lesson 5
Rocks
Students are asked to write their own sentences when they summarize each rule from the book (Activity 7, with an optional extension to write sentences summarizing each rule). Students write a short story about their rock and may copy a dictated version (Activity 9), which requires producing complete sentences. Students also dictate a sentence for each spelling word (Activity 10), giving repeated practice in composing simple sentences in context.
Lesson 6
Water, Water Everywhere
Students are asked to write a sentence or two describing how freshwater bodies differ from the ocean in Activity 3 (Option 1 and 2). In Activity 7, students are asked to write a sentence about the importance of each listed use of water and to number the uses from most to least important. In Activity 8, students are instructed to write a short paragraph describing where a newly imagined ocean creature is found, what it eats, and its unique features.
Lesson 7
Taking Care of the Earth
Students are asked to write two or three sentences explaining why recycling is important (Activity 4). Students must use each spelling word in a sentence and write them three times (Activity 9). Students are asked to compose a free-verse poem about why it is important to take care of Earth and to create a poster that could include written messages (Activity 8). The skills list also includes composing a variety of products using the writing process and selecting and using new vocabulary in speech and writing.
Final Project
Earth Exhibit
Students are instructed to write a name and two sentences for each exhibit item: one sentence saying where the material is found and one sentence explaining why it is important to living things. Students write a Description and Directions on exhibit cards for solids, liquids, and gases, filling in sentence-length responses on multiple Student Activity Pages. Students are prompted to produce museum-facing text (labels, descriptions, directions, and a poem or poster) and to record their two planning-sheet sentences beside each item.
Unit 3: Balance and Motion
Lesson 1
What Is Balance?
Students are asked to write two or three sentences describing the main idea of the book (Activity 1), which requires producing complete simple sentences. In Activity 9 students write step-by-step directions with each step written as a complete sentence, use sequencing words (first, next, then), read them aloud, and make corrections. Students also read the book aloud with assistance, practicing sentence production and oral sentence use.
Lesson 2
What Can Be Balanced?
The lesson reviews nouns and verbs and instructs students to "balance" sentences by filling in missing nouns or verbs on the "Balancing Sentences" activity page. Students are directed to record a noun or verb in each blank, reread the completed sentence, circle the noun and verb, cut apart selected sentences, glue them on construction paper, and illustrate them. The introductory text explicitly states that sentences must have at least one noun and one verb that work together, guiding students to produce complete simple sentences.
Lesson 3
Symmetry
Activity 3 requires students to create a symmetrical picture and then write three sentences about the picture, giving students practice producing written sentences. The Wrapping Up section asks students to explain what symmetry means and to name different lines of symmetry, which gives students opportunities to speak complete sentences aloud.
Lesson 4
Force and Motion
Students are prompted to write a sentence about three pictures on a separate sheet of paper (Activity 3). Students label examples of motion and then write a short paragraph or story describing their picture (Activity 4). Students complete spelled-word sentences by filling blanks in four sentences (Activity 8), and students are encouraged to answer questions aloud about motion (Activity 1).
Lesson 5
Gravity
Students are asked to write a short paragraph of three to four sentences about life without gravity (Activity 4), which requires producing complete simple sentences in writing. Students are also asked to explain what gravity is verbally in the Wrapping Up section and to use vocabulary to describe ideas and experiences (Skills list), which requires spoken sentence production. The activities include reading aloud and responding to prompts, which gives students opportunities to produce sentences orally and in writing.
3: Culture
Unit 1: Geography
Lesson 1
Using Maps and Globes
Students read The Armadillo from Amarillo aloud and are prompted to stop, reread sentences, and listen as sentences are reread, giving practice with producing and reading complete sentences. Students fill in the "Where in the World Am I?" activity pages by writing short, sentence-like responses identifying home, town, state, country, continent, and planet. Students write a paragraph describing an imagined trip in Activity 5, which requires them to produce connected written sentences about events and details.
Lesson 2
Cardinal Directions
Students produce spoken directions using full imperative sentences when they follow and give step-by-step directions (e.g., "take three steps north, two steps east..."). Students write responses to map questions and complete a pirate journal entry in which they must include all four cardinal directions, producing written sentences that use directional vocabulary. Students also practice using new vocabulary and language structures in both speech and writing as part of composing map labels and the journal entry.
Lesson 3
Landforms and Bodies of Water
Students are asked to write a paragraph persuading someone which body of water to move near (Activity 2 Option 1 and Option 2) and to complete sentence frames in the fill-in-the-blank activity. Students write a sentence about how people are affected by landforms on the Land and Water Posters (Activity 4). Students dictate descriptions of their drawings in Activity 5, producing spoken or written sentences about landforms and bodies of water.
Lesson 4
Natural Resources
Students are asked to record information on the "Researching Resources" sheet by answering prompts such as "Natural Resource," "Where is it found in the U.S.?," "How is it made?," and "Describe a job related to the resource," which requires written responses. The wrapping-up prompts ask students to describe ways they use natural resources and to explain why natural resources are important, which elicits sentence production. Several activities (creating a map key, labeling maps, and completing the math word problems) require students to write short answers or labels that are likely to be written as sentences or phrases.
Lesson 5
Habitats and Geography
Students are asked to write a sentence beneath each habitat box about how the animal or plant is used by people (Activity 2, Options 1 and 2). Students complete the poem template and write short lines about an animal (Activity 3), producing sentence-like lines such as "I am a _______." Students write a sentence about what they would enjoy most about living in each habitat (Activity 4).
Lesson 6
Geography, Weather and Natural Disasters
Students are asked to write a question for each natural disaster and reminded to begin each sentence with a capital letter and use correct end punctuation. Students are asked to write three or four sentences that describe each disaster and to identify the subject and the verb in each sentence. Activity 5 asks students to write three or four sentences describing the weather today and related activities.
Lesson 7
The Seven Continents
Students are prompted to name the continent they live on and answer guided questions (e.g., "Which continent would you most like to visit? Why?") that require spoken responses. Students are asked to explain location, climate, and cultural ideas (e.g., explain why it is important to know where places are located; point to parts of continents that are warm or cool). Extension activities ask students to tell which continent an animal lives on and to label and describe maps, which involve producing descriptive sentences.
Lesson 8
People Change Geography
Students are asked to write a sentence about each crop/farm they read about (Activity 2), providing practice producing simple written sentences. Students are instructed to write each spelling word three times and to use each word in a written or oral sentence (Activity 6), giving additional opportunities to produce and speak sentences. Students are prompted with questions (e.g., thinking of ways people influence the land) that require spoken sentence responses.
Final Project
Geography of a Continent
Students are asked to write the name of the continent and the names of bordering oceans and to "record the information" collected on their poster, which requires producing written phrases or sentences. Students must complete the research page with prompts (e.g., major landform, how people use the water, natural resource) that will lead them to write short answers and descriptions. Students will plan and practice an oral presentation, including listing each prop and describing how they will use it, which requires speaking in complete sentences.
Unit 2: People Around the World
Lesson 1
Exploring Culture
Students are asked to write about cultural elements on the "Looking at My Culture" page, providing space to illustrate and write examples for jobs, holidays, food, clothing, and homes. Students conduct an interview and fill in answers on the "Interview" page, recording responses to questions about important jobs, holidays, homes, and popular foods. The lesson prompts students to answer oral questions after reading (e.g., "What are some things that people do in different cultures?"), which requires producing spoken responses.
Lesson 2
Traditions
Students are asked to write sentences on multiple activity pages (the Holidays table, Celebrating Christmas, and My Favorite Holiday). The My Favorite Holiday page explicitly reminds students that each sentence should have a subject (noun) and predicate (verb) and reviews capitalization and end punctuation. Activities prompt students to write sentences describing the importance of holidays and unique cultural practices.
Lesson 3
Different Religions
Students are prompted to write multiple sentences on the "Writing About My Beliefs" page using sentence stems (e.g., "My family believes ___" and "Because we believe these things, we ___"). Students are asked to compose written products generally (listed under Skills) and to write questions for a friend from a different religion in the Life Application. Students also answer short-response questions for the Religion Graph which may require sentence answers.
Lesson 4
Homes and Culture
Students are asked (Option 2) to make up their own paragraph, writing their own complete sentences and to identify the noun(s) and verbs in the subject and predicate of each sentence. Option 1 provides sentence frames (e.g., "One tradition we have is... We do this...") that require students to produce complete sentences. In Activity 4 students write the names of rooms and descriptions of the purpose of each room, which requires composing written sentences.
Lesson 5
Transportation in Culture
Students write a sentence about a personal transportation experience (Activity 1) with an explicit example: "I rode in an airplane to Nebraska," and are encouraged to make a more complex sentence: "I rode in an airplane to visit my grandma in Nebraska." In Activity 3 students complete a multi-sentence template "My Day as a _________" and write several sentences describing a day in a transportation job. The Wrapping Up and role-play prompts ask students to describe types of transportation and how they are used in different cultures, producing spoken or written sentences. Activity 5 has students fill in blanks to complete sentences using spelling words, placing words into sentence contexts.
Lesson 6
American Culture
Students are asked to write a sentence about a personal symbol using the prompt "This ___________ symbolizes ___________ in my life," which requires producing a complete sentence (Activity 1). Students are instructed to write and illustrate information about American culture inside a U.S. outline, prompting them to compose written entries that may be sentences (Activity 4). Students are asked to write a letter to a child from another country and are shown how to begin and end a letter (Dear ___ / Your Friend, ___), which requires composing multiple sentences in a connected form (Activity 5). The skills list also includes "Participate in rhymes, songs, conversations, and discussions" and "Compose a variety of written products," indicating opportunities for oral and written sentence production.
Lesson 8
Asian Culture
Students are asked to write in multiple places: they complete guidebook pages (Activity 2) and write a paragraph about living in Asia and three adaptation tips (Activity 8). The skills list includes "Respond and elaborate in answering what, when, and how questions" and "Select and use new vocabulary in speech and writing," which require constructing sentences. Students also present information (Activity 6) and share recorded facts, which involves producing spoken sentences.
Lesson 10
South American Culture
Students are asked to write or speak sentences using spelling words (Activity 8), and to answer comprehension questions about South America in complete responses (Activities 1 and 2). Students fill in sentence prompts on the "A South American Animal" sheet (e.g., "I live ___.", "I like to eat ___") which requires producing complete simple sentences. Students complete the "Guidebook to South America" and may write descriptions, which involves producing written sentences about the continent.
Unit 3: Stories Around the World
Lesson 1
Fiction or Nonfiction
Students are asked to write one sentence to describe each of two fiction stories on the "Fiction Stories" activity sheet, and the directions explicitly say "Write about each of the two fiction stories you read." Students also create titles and write decisions on the "Is It Fiction or Nonfiction?" sheet and write the first letters of authors' last names and the alphabet in Activity 5, which involve composing short written responses.
Lesson 2
Character
Students are asked to write a character's name, descriptive words, one action the character might take, and one thought the character might have (Activity 3), which requires producing short written phrases or sentences. Students are prompted to "tell a short story about each character" after completing descriptions and to "respond in the way he thinks the character would respond" in role-play scenarios (Activity 5), which elicits spoken sentence production. Students record examples of what a character thinks, says, and does (Activity 2), providing opportunities to formulate sentences representing those ideas.
Lesson 4
Plot
Students sequence printed event sentences from Jack and the Beanstalk by cutting out and ordering sentences on the "Sequencing Events" page, which requires them to rearrange complete sentences to retell the story. Students fill in the "Writing Events in a Story" and "Creating the Plot of a Story" charts by describing the problem, three events, and the solution—tasks that require producing written responses and orally telling and dictating a story. Students also read and recount stories aloud, practicing sentence production when they tell the plot and have their story recorded and reread.
Lesson 5
Folktales and Fairy Tales
Activity 2 has students read ten written sentence strips from the folktale and arrange them in the order they occurred in the story, which requires students to work with complete sentences and rearrange them. The introduction and activities ask students to retell the story, take turns telling parts, and answer who/what/when/where/why/how questions, giving students opportunities to produce sentences orally and in writing. Activity 5 asks students to record ideas and describe cultural elements from Yeh-Shen, which involves composing sentence-level responses.
Lesson 7
Theme
Students are asked to describe main characters, major events, and the theme of a story, which requires producing complete sentences (Activity 1). Students make up a new story with two animal characters, dictate it as it is recorded, read it aloud, and decide whether to make changes, providing opportunities to write and revise sentence-level content (Activity 4). Students are asked to update their story to integrate facts learned about animals, which asks them to add details and modify existing text (Activity 5).
Lesson 8
Myths and Legends
Students answer comprehension questions aloud about the myth (e.g., "Who had fire at the beginning of the story? Who stole the fire?"), which requires them to produce complete sentences. Students are asked to write down two things from the Paul Bunyan story that could be true and two that are fiction, producing written responses. Students read and perform a scripted dialogue for "How Rabbit Brought Fire to the People," rehearsing and speaking complete lines from the script.
Final Project
A New Cinderella
Students are prompted to answer each question on the Organizing My Story page in a sentence beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period. Students write draft text on the story outline pages, copy or dictate sentences to an adult, and revise their draft into a final copy. Students complete multiple fill-in-the-blank and sentence-prompt pages (e.g., "Once upon a time there lived a ...") that require composing whole sentences about characters, setting, and events.
4: Relationships
Unit 1: Living Things and Their Environment
Lesson 2
Heredity Lab
Activity 4 asks the child to use each spelling word in a sentence orally and then write each word three times, which requires students to produce complete sentences. The listed skill "Communicate observations and justify explanations using student-generated data from simple descriptive investigations" expects students to explain and describe their investigations in spoken or written form. The Wrapping Up prompt asks the child to explain what she has learned about traits and heredity, prompting extended spoken responses.
Lesson 5
Rivers
In Activity 4 students draw the four stages of an animal's life cycle and write a simple sentence describing each stage in their own words. The Reading and Questions section directs students to answer comprehension questions (e.g., "What is the difference between ponds and rivers?"), which requires producing sentence answers. Activity 6 has students write spelling words and make a picture dictionary, supporting basic written expression.
Unit 2: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Lesson 1
Relationships
Students are asked to write three sentences describing their favorite stuffed animal's personality on the "Favorite Stuffed Animal" page, producing original sentences. Students are prompted in Wrapping Up to use each vocabulary word correctly in their own sentence, practicing sentence construction with target words. The Skills list includes using adjectives and adverbs to describe, which supports adding descriptive elements to student sentences.
Lesson 3
The Queen Mary
Students complete a "Shades of Meaning" page where they substitute more descriptive verbs and adjectives into given sentences (e.g., changing words in "The Queen Mary is a (large) ship that holds (many) people"). The activity directions note students can change articles ("a" to "an") as needed for chosen words, requiring them to adjust sentence parts. In the wrap-up, students hear sentences and repeat them while substituting the emphasized word with a more interesting descriptive word or phrase.
Lesson 5
Emotions
Students complete a reflexive-pronoun worksheet that requires them to fill in blanks inside full sentences (e.g., "Mary can get the dress if she can pay for it __"). Students compose a multi-sentence "Goodbye Note" as Edward, writing lines that express emotions rather than simply listing words. Students answer story questions aloud or in writing, which requires them to produce complete sentences in response to text-based prompts.
Lesson 6
Irregular Verbs
The lesson asks students to produce sentences when it tells them to say three sentences with regular past-tense verbs and three with irregular past-tense verbs. It models and practices present-to-past conversion (e.g., "I play... I played", "I run... I ran") and prompts students to insert verbs into the sentence frame "Yesterday, I __________." The Student Activity Page requires students to fill in blanks with correct past-tense verbs, which has them produce complete simple sentences.
Lesson 7
Figurative Language
Students write plural nouns in context by filling in sentences on the "Irregular Plural Nouns" activity page (e.g., completing blanks for mice, geese, teeth, feet). Students compose their own sentences in Activity 1 Part II using the plural forms of woman (women) and deer (deer). Students create original sentences in Figurative Language Option 2 (or copy a quote) that they write, circle the figurative language in, and illustrate, demonstrating sentence production.
Lesson 8
The Falling Star
Students are prompted to write a sentence for each preposition on the activity page and to circle the preposition (e.g., "Edward is beside the ball" is provided as an example). Students answer comprehension questions aloud or in writing about characters and events, producing verbal or written sentence responses. Students write a wish on a star, which requires composing a short written phrase or sentence.
Lesson 9
Apostrophes
Students are asked to write contractions and then use those contractions in their own sentences (Activity 1, Option 2 and the second Student Activity Page list five word pairs and prompt students to write a contraction and compose a sentence). The Student Activity Page with sentences missing apostrophes requires students to rewrite sentences with correct contractions (e.g., "Hes not coming home." -> "He's not coming home."). The wrapping up section asks children to produce contractions for given word pairs, reinforcing sentence-level use of contractions.
Lesson 10
Illustrations
Students are asked to retell the story using illustrations as a guide and to record quotes beneath their drawings, which requires them to produce written or spoken sentences. On the "Explain an Illustration" page students write responses to who, what, when, and where prompts and complete a short written explanation beginning "This is my favorite illustration because...". The wrapping up task asks students to briefly describe each environment Edward experiences in chronological order, prompting sentence production and sequencing.
Lesson 11
Building Sentences
The Skills list explicitly names producing, expanding, and rearranging complete simple and compound sentences. In Activity 1, students identify conjunctions (FANBOYS), find conjunctions in example sentences, and use a worksheet to place a conjunction in a blank and expand three given sentences. In Activity 3, students add adjectives to expand sentences and, in the more challenging option, rearrange sentence word order on provided activity pages.
Final Project
Chalkboard Presentation
Students are asked to dictate a sentence that states their opinion of the story and to explain why they feel that way (Slide 1). Students dictate a sentence explaining why they like a favorite part (Slide 2) and a sentence describing a favorite relationship and why it is a favorite (Slide 3). The lesson notes that students can "add some of her own words to the presentation" and the Skills section references using linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons.
Unit 3: Connecting with the Past
Lesson 1
Studying History
Activity 1 directs students to "Use each word in a sentence," and the provided answer key shows full example sentences using vocabulary words (e.g., "People who lived in the past did not own a television."). The wrapping up section asks the child to "explain the difference between primary and secondary sources," which requires students to produce spoken explanations. Several student pages ask students to label or describe timeline events, implying short written phrases or sentences for events.
Lesson 2
Colonization and the Revolution
Students complete fill-in-the-blank sentences on the George Washington activity page (e.g., "George Washington was a leader in the _________"). Students write things they are thankful for on cut-out leaves and fill two response lines for "Because of the colonists and the revolution they fought, today" on the Colonists and the American Revolution page. The reading questions and timeline prompts require students to produce short written answers or labels (e.g., identifying dates and labeling events).
Lesson 3
Slavery and the Civil War
Students complete fill-in-the-blank sentences on the Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln activity pages and the "Because the Civil War was fought, today ______" sentence completion, producing written sentences. Students list five character traits for Henry and "explain each trait with evidence from the book as he writes it," which requires them to write explanatory sentences. Students add dates, pictures, and short descriptions to a timeline, which involves composing brief descriptive sentences about historical events.
Lesson 4
Immigration
Students answer comprehension questions aloud and in writing after reading Ellis Island, providing opportunities to produce simple sentences (e.g., Who was Annie Moore? What did immigrants see?). Students listen to oral histories and are asked to retell one of the stories, which asks them to produce and expand narrative sentences. Students select a photograph and respond to prompts about who the person is, what they are doing, and how they feel, which requires descriptive sentence production. Students complete the "Because immigrants were brought... today ___ and ___" sentence starter on the American Immigration activity page, asking them to produce a written sentence.
Lesson 5
Civil Rights
Students are asked to write on the "Civil Rights" page and complete the prompt "Because Americans fought peacefully for people of all colors to be treated equally, today ___________ and ___________," which requires them to produce at least one written sentence. Students are asked to explain the Civil Rights Movement in their own words and to speculate about alternate outcomes, which prompts them to produce oral or written sentences. The reading comprehension questions ask students to answer prompts about Ruby Bridges and her family, encouraging sentence-level responses.
Final Project
Preparing Projects
Students are asked to practice presenting their "Connecting with the Past" poster and to explain how past events impact life today, which requires them to produce spoken sentences. The lesson directs students to share their "Famous Americans" book, timeline, and poster with family members, which involves speaking and possibly reading statements aloud. The student activity pages include a cover with a "by" line for students to write their name, indicating a minimal writing task.
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 1
Word Families and Long Vowel Review
The activity "Sentence Scramble" (Activity 4.3) has students unscramble a set of words to form a complete sentence, write it, and read it aloud, requiring them to arrange word order and apply capitalization. The lesson explicitly states "Sentences begin with capital letters" and in Shared Reading students point to and read short messages aloud, practicing sentence-level reading and word order in context.
Lesson 3
Complex Consonants Review
Students unscramble a set of words to form a correct sentence in Activity 4.3, write the sentence using proper capitalization, and read it aloud. In Activity 5.1 students listen to a passage and write the underlined words to complete sentences, then read the story back to check their answers. During Shared Reading and Sight Words work, students read model sentences (for example, "Keep jumping until I tell you to stop.") and are reminded that sentences end with appropriate punctuation.
Lesson 4
R-Controlled Vowels Review
Students practice rearranging words into a complete sentence in Activity 5.3 (Sentence Scramble), where they must unscramble words to form "The bird eats three worms with a fork." The Life Application asks students to dictate a short sentence, have the words written on index cards, and then put the sentence back together, which has students produce and rearrange a sentence. Shared Reading and Reader activities require students to read sentences aloud and take turns reading lines, giving additional spoken sentence practice.
Lesson 5
More R-Controlled Vowels
Students are asked to use the words "hear" and "heard" in sentences showing present and past (Activity 2.2), which requires them to produce complete sentences. During the Day 5 reader activity, students are asked comprehension questions (e.g., "Why does it rain?" "What might you see or hear during a thunderstorm?") that prompt them to answer in sentences. Shared reading asks students to read and point to lines, reinforcing sentence-level reading.
Lesson 11
Final e: ce, ve, ze, se
Students are asked to produce sentences with sight words (Activity 1.3: give the sight word cards for "three" and "put" and ask him to use each in a sentence). Students read and repeat teacher-modeled sentences (e.g., "I'd like a piece of pie." and "I'd like some peace and quiet.") and are prompted to read passages aloud and answer comprehension questions (Day 5: finish reading and answer questions about fables). Students are also asked to read words in context and to write words in provided spaces (Activity 5.2: identify pictures and write the words mouse, cheese, horse).
Lesson 15
Words Ending with ed and ing
Students are asked to produce short sentences about past, present, and future actions (e.g., "I ate spaghetti for dinner" and "Tonight I will be eating pizza for dinner") and to read those sentences aloud. Students fill in blanks and write correct ing/ed forms in sentences (Activity 5.2) and are invited to use target words in sentences at the end of the week. Several activities require students to identify action words in sentences and write base forms, demonstrating creation and reading of complete simple sentences.
Lesson 16
Words Ending with er and est
Students complete and write whole comparative sentences on the "Comparing Two Things" activity (e.g., "A horse is faster than a snail"). Students are asked to use sight words in sentences and to speak answers to comprehension and comparison questions (e.g., "Which shape is the tallest?", "Who is the fastest runner?"). Students read, say, and write comparative and superlative adjective forms in context (coloring or labeling pictures, filling blanks, and grouping base/comparative/superlative word sets).
Lesson 17
Semester Review
Students are given Sentence Scrambles (Activity 5.2) in which they receive groups of words and must arrange them into complete sentences, with concrete and more challenging versions provided. The activity prompts students to attend to sentence conventions (capitalization and end punctuation) as they create sentences. The Fill in the Blank activity (Activity 3.2) requires students to place words into sentence frames and then read the completed sentences aloud, reinforcing production of complete sentences.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Compound Words
Students are asked to use the sight word "own" in a sentence (Activity 1.3) and to answer comprehension questions about A Color of His Own, which requires them to produce spoken or written responses. The lesson repeatedly prompts students to read paragraphs aloud and discuss what they read, encouraging students to form complete sentences when responding to questions and talking about colors and story events.
Lesson 2
The Six Syllable Types
Students are asked to say a sentence aloud that uses an animal name after drawing an animal card (Activity 5.1). Students answer open-ended reading comprehension questions about A Color of His Own, which requires them to produce spoken responses (Day 3). During shared reading students read lines aloud (parent reads left, child reads right) and speak short sentences together (e.g., 'I love rainbows!').
Lesson 3
Open and Closed Syllables
Students are asked to use the sight words "under" and "never" in a sentence (Activity 2.3). Students complete fill-in-the-blank sentences using vocabulary words from a word bank and then read those complete sentences aloud (Activity 3.3 Tiger/Camel Fill in the Blanks). Students fill in missing body-part words in sentence frames on the "Mouse Body Parts" page (Activity 4.1), producing complete simple sentences.
Lesson 4
Syllables with R-Controlled Vowels
Students are asked in Activity 5.2 to choose two sight-word cards and write a short sentence with each word, with each sentence required to begin with a capital letter and end with a period. The activity gives an example sentence and instructs students to include one two-syllable word that contains an r-controlled vowel. Students also retell stories and either dictate or write responses on the plot diagram (Activity 3.1), providing additional opportunities to produce written sentences.
Lesson 5
Two-Syllable Words Ending in y
Students are asked to use the sight words "beautiful" and "again" orally in a sentence (Activity 1.3), which requires them to produce complete simple sentences. In Activity 4.3 students complete eight Puppy Word Sentences by selecting words to fill blanks, demonstrating sentence-level usage and comprehension. Several activities require students to read sentences aloud (Day 3 sight word games, Day 5 labeling and reading labels), providing additional opportunities to produce and read complete sentences.
Lesson 6
Possessives
Students write possessive noun phrases (e.g., "Jaden's shoe", "the chair's leg") in Activity 1.2 and form possessives on Word Building with Possessives (Activity 4.3). In Activity 5.2 students rewrite full sentences into possessive constructions (e.g., "The pig that Bobby owns won the contest." → "Bobby's pig won the contest."). Matching and finding activities ask students to identify nouns that possess other nouns (e.g., "Mrs. Goodwin's house"), reinforcing sentence-level possessive usage.
Lesson 7
Contractions
Students are asked to use sight words "don't" and "it's" in sentences orally or in writing (Activity 1.3). Students complete sentence-level tasks that require choosing or filling in an appropriate contraction in context (Activity 5.2 and the "Finding Words in the Text" activity). Students build and separate contractions by matching two-word phrases to their contracted forms and by converting underlined phrases into contractions, which requires recognition of how two-word sequences form single-word contractions.
Lesson 8
Two-Syllable Words with Silent e
Students are asked to write short sentences using sight words (Activity 5.2) and to write sentences that contain two chosen two-syllable silent-e words. Students also give an oral summary of a story (Activity 4.1), which requires producing multiple complete spoken sentences. Shared reading and sentence-writing activities require students to start sentences with a capital and end with appropriate punctuation.
Lesson 9
Vowel Teams
Students are asked to use the sight words "together" and "idea" in sentences and, as an added challenge, to use both words in the same sentence (Activity 1.3). In Day 3 students complete the page "Just Around the Corner," writing three things that will happen soon and choosing one to write about in a sentence. In Activity 5.2 students read word lists and fill in blanks to complete ten sentences, producing context-appropriate complete sentences.
Lesson 10
Consonant Teams
Students are asked to produce sentences orally with the sight words ("once," "friend") in Activity 1.3. Students complete written sentence tasks: they fill in blanks on the "Panther Word Sentences" page (Activity 4.3) and write a sentence for a holiday on the Seasons and Holidays page (Day 2). The lesson also asks students to use a possessive for their name when completing the favorite-season sentence (Activity 4.1), requiring sentence-level writing.
Lesson 12
Suffixes
Students are asked to use sight words in sentences (Activity 1.3) and to tell a story out loud that includes the eight theme words while writing each used word (Activity 2.1). Students complete sentence prompts such as the Magic Purple Pebble prompt (Activity 4.1) and fill-in-the-blank passages (Activity 4.2, Day 5) that require producing complete sentences and short written responses. The lesson also includes comprehension questions that prompt students to answer in sentences (Reading and Questions).
Lesson 14
Words Starting with q or a
Activity 1.3 asks the child to read sight-word cards and to use each word orally in a sentence, requiring students to produce spoken sentences. Day 2 asks the child to copy days of the week and to say what she usually does on each day, prompting generation of simple written and oral sentences. Activity 5.2 has students fill blanks in sentence frames with target words, requiring them to produce grammatically complete written sentences. Reading-and-response questions (e.g., choose a poem and explain why) require students to formulate and express complete answers orally.
Lesson 15
Semester Review
Students are prompted to write complete sentences in Activity 5.3, where they must write four sentences using target words and follow capitalization and end‑punctuation rules. In Activity 1.3 and the Spelling Review, students complete and read sentences by filling in contractions, possessives, or missing words, demonstrating sentence-level production and punctuation. Several activities require students to read sentences aloud after writing or filling them in, reinforcing accurate simple sentence construction.
Final Project
Write Your Own Story
Students are asked to write the first two pages of their story with about 2–3 simple sentences per page (Activity 2.2). Students plan a beginning, middle, and end and produce six notecard drafts (Day 2 and Day 3), using sight and theme words in their sentences. Students revise their drafts for spelling and grammar during a Book Editing step where an adult helps correct writing (Activity 4.1).