Second Grade - ELA
1: Community
Unit 1: Communities Around the World
Lesson 12
Rules and Laws
Students practice spelling a set of words (rule, law, house, change, flag, city) and write each word three times in a Spelling Journal. The spelling worksheet asks students to put the correct word in sentences, which requires them to recognize the words in context. Several listed words contain common vowel teams or vowel patterns (e.g., law = aw, house = ou, rule/change = final -e affecting vowel sound, city = vowel by y).
Unit 3: Plants and Animals
Lesson 6
Extinct and Endangered Species
Students read and say animal names on the Endangered Species Charade Cards (for example: Eagle, Bear, Whale) and encounter words with vowel teams in the texts and activities (for example: sea and eight in the subtraction problems; bamboo in the puppet script). Students also read the puppet show script aloud and name cards during charades, so they practice reading words that contain common vowel-team spellings in context. These instances provide multiple, incidental exposures to vowel-team spellings during student reading and speaking tasks.
Lesson 9
Comparing Living Things
Students practice spelling and copying the words soil, water, food, sun, and air by writing each word three times and by copying sentences that include those words. The word list includes examples of vowel teams/diphthongs such as soil (oi), food (oo), and air (air) in context. Students also encounter those words again in sentence-copying activities (e.g., "Seeds grow in soil.").
2: Matter and Movement
Unit 1: States of Matter
Lesson 7
Exploring Solids and Liquids
Activity 8 asks students to work with a set of spelling words (metal, plastic, air, stirs, sink, float): students circle the first letter, put the words in alphabetical order, look up definitions, and copy each word five times. Several words in the lesson materials and student pages also contain vowel-team spellings (for example, air in "air" and oa in "float", and mail in "mailbox"). Students perform spelling and copying practices that expose them to these vowel-team spellings in context.
Lesson 8
Our Bodies and Our World
The Rhyming Words activity requires students to read and color words such as tea, steam, cream, pea, pool, stool, boat, and coat, which contain vowel teams (ea, oo, oa). In Activity 4 (short story) and Activity 5 (write your own short story), students read and produce text that will include words with vowel-team spellings while circling or writing solids, liquids, and gases. Option 2 of Activity 4 asks students to fill in blanks with words representing solids, liquids, or gases, which may prompt selection of words that use vowel teams.
Unit 2: Earth
Lesson 7
Taking Care of the Earth
Students are given a short spelling activity (Activity 9) in which they use the words air, earth, water, land, and sky in sentences and copy each word three times in a spelling journal. In Activity 3 students are asked to read a materials list and directions aloud for the paper-making task, giving some practice decoding and reading multisyllabic words.
3: Culture
Unit 2: People Around the World
Lesson 5
Transportation in Culture
The spelling activity provides a word box (culture, home, train, plane, car, boat) and asks students to fill in sentences, illustrate them, and write each word three times in a spelling journal. The word list includes examples that use vowel teams or vowel patterns (train contains the ai vowel team; boat contains the oa vowel team; plane and home illustrate a_e/silent-e patterns). Students practice reading, writing, and using these words in context through the fill-in-the-blank and repetition tasks.
4: Relationships
Unit 1: Living Things and Their Environment
Lesson 3
Sun, Moon, and Stars
Students complete Activity 7 (Spelling) by writing each spelling word in boxes, drawing a picture for each, and then writing each word three times in a Spelling Journal. The listed spelling words appear as Moon, Sun, nights, star, day, which contain vowel-team spellings such as 'oo' in Moon, 'igh' in nights, and 'ay' in day. These tasks require students to produce and rehearse the spellings and pronunciations of words that include common vowel teams.
Unit 3: Connecting with the Past
Lesson 5
Civil Rights
The spelling activity lists words (appearing as free, war, bus, equal) and asks the child to write each word three times in a Spelling Journal. The activity also directs the child to understand what each word means before writing. These tasks require students to produce the orthography of words that include vowel patterns such as the ee in "free" and the ea sound in "equal."
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 1
Word Families and Long Vowel Review
The lesson's skills list explicitly includes "Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams." During Shared Reading students are asked to identify vowel sounds in words such as "read" (long e) and "know" (long o), providing incidental exposure to vowel-team spellings (ea, ow). Activities also have students practice long vowels via adding silent e (e.g., cake, bike, home, mule), and students build and read words that demonstrate long-vowel spelling patterns.
Lesson 2
Vowel Teams Review
The lesson lists specific vowel teams for each long vowel (e.g., ā: ai, ay; ē: ee, ea; ī: i-e, igh, ie, y; ō: o-e, ow, oa, oe; ū: ue, ew, ou, ui) and repeats them in the Lesson Focus. Students read and identify these teams in shared reading and multiple activities: Day 2 sorts long a and long i spellings (coloring, column placement), Day 3 highlights long e words and sorts long o spellings, and Day 4 sorts long u spellings. Students also complete a fill-in-the-blanks activity and a word-scramble that require selecting and applying vowel teams to spell words.
Lesson 4
R-Controlled Vowels Review
Students practice and read words containing the vowel teams ar, er, ir, or, and ur across multiple activities (Day 2–Day 4 word-building, spelling, and reading tasks). They convert words by replacing letters (e.g., stag → star; hem → her) and spell lists of example words (farm, herd, part, bird, fork, turn, curb, etc.), write Bossy-R words, and sort words into columns by r-controlled vowel. Students also complete decoding/coloring and word-search activities that require identifying whether a vowel is short or r-controlled and read aloud sight words that include these patterns.
Lesson 5
More R-Controlled Vowels
Students read, sort, and glue word lists for multiple vowel teams (ar/are/air; er/ear/eer; ir/ire; or/ore/oar/our; ur/ure/ur-e) in Activities 1.2, 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, and 4.1. They practice spelling-sound correspondences by reading words aloud, writing words into columns by spelling (e.g., sorting ar vs. are vs. air), and answering questions about which words have particular vowel sounds (e.g., identifying long e, long a, and the 'her' sound for ear). Students also build and spell words using letter cards, read two-syllable words made from learned parts, and rehearse word lists during the review and reader activities.
Lesson 6
Other Vowel Sounds
Students read and sort words containing specific vowel teams (oi/oy, ou/ow, aw/au, wa/al/ough, oo) in multiple activities (sorting pages, filling blanks, and word-building). They practice identifying which letters make the vowel sounds (e.g., asking which letters make the /oi/ or /ow/ sound), note positional patterns (aw at end vs. au in the middle), and highlight words that show the two pronunciations of oo. Students also spell words with targeted vowel teams using letter cards and read connected text that contains these vowel-team words.
Lesson 7
More Long Vowel Spellings
The Facts and Definitions section explicitly lists many vowel teams (ei, eigh, y, ee, ey, e_e, ie, igh, ea) and the sounds they make. In Activity 1.2 and Day 2 activities, students read words containing these teams, underline or point to the letters making the long vowel sounds, and sort words into groups by vowel pattern (a_e, ai, ay, ea, ei, eigh). Activity 3.2 has students build words using letter and word-building cards that include vowel-team chunks (ie, igh, eigh) and Activity 2.2/3.1 ask students to sort and write words based on whether the vowel team makes long e, long i, or long a sounds.
Lesson 8
Vowel Sounds Review
Students cut out and read cards showing vowel teams and place them in columns by long vowel sound in Activity 1.1, directly practicing spelling-sound correspondences. The provided answer key lists specific vowel-team spellings (e.g., ai, ea, eigh, ie, oo, oa, ui, ew) paired with example words, and students check and correct their sorts. Multiple activities (Word Hunt #1 and #2, Word Building, Fill in the Blanks, Word Scramble) require students to identify, write, or spell words based on those vowel-team spellings and corresponding sounds.
Lesson 9
Complex Consonants: dge vs. ge
Students read and say words like gem, age, huge and identify that g makes the /j/ sound when followed by e (and learn the soft g rule for e, i, y). Students sort and label word lists into long-vowel, short-vowel, and r-controlled groups and highlight dge endings to observe that dge follows short vowels and that silent e indicates a long vowel. Students write and read word lists grouped by dge and ge and explain the rule that dge comes after a short vowel while ge follows long vowels, r-controlled vowels, or another consonant.
Lesson 10
Complex Consonants: tch vs. ch, ck vs. k
Students read and sort words that contain vowel teams (for example, beach, speech, reach, peach, coach, roach, pooch, book) while discussing the vowel sounds that come before the consonant endings. Students are asked to distinguish long and short vowels when reading one-syllable words and to refer to the vowel sound to decide whether to use tch/ch or ck/ke/k. Several activities require students to read, spell, and color-code words that include vowel teams (ea, ee, oa, oo) as they work on ending spellings.
Lesson 11
Final e: ce, ve, ze, se
Students read and sort many words that contain vowel teams (for example, leave, weave, sleeve with ea/ee; choice, voice with oi; piece, peace with ie/ea; juice with ui; sauce with au). In Activity 2.1 the child is asked which words have the long e sound and explicitly asked what letters are making that sound (ea, ee). Students also find and read vowel-team words in the word search and read aloud lists that include multiple vowel-team patterns.
Lesson 12
Homophones
Students are asked to identify the vowel sound and name the letters making the long a sound, then sort long a words into spelling groups (ai, a-e, ay, ei, ea) and discuss which spellings are most common. Students cut out, read, and pair long a, long e, long i, and long o homophones across multiple activities (matching, drawing, gluing pairs, word search), practicing reading words with different vowel-team spellings. Students also write homophone partners and complete sentence activities that require selecting words with correct vowel-team spellings in context.
Lesson 14
Uncommon Plurals
Students read and say aloud many words that contain common vowel teams (for example: day, play, key/keys, loaf, leaf, chief, hoof, flies/fries) during shared reading, word-sorting, and fill-in-the-blank activities. Students are asked to distinguish long and short vowels when reading one-syllable words and to notice the letter before y (vowel vs. consonant) to decide how to form plurals. Students also read and hear these words in matching and memory games, providing repeated exposure to vowel-team patterns in context.
Lesson 17
Semester Review
Students practice and produce words using vowel teams in multiple activities: Day 2 Magic Hat asks students to create and read long-vowel words (examples: eight, sleigh, light, sight, weigh, thief) that illustrate vowel-team spellings (eigh, igh, ie). Day 4 Build-a-Word pages include vowel-combination boxes (an, ie, oi, ee, oun) and ask students to build and write words (piece, voice, niece, noise, freeze) showing mapping between spellings and sounds. The introduction and Getting Started skills explicitly list long vowel sounds and spellings, including vowel blends, and direct students to review vowel-blend word sorts from earlier lessons.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Compound Words
Students read and decode many compound words that contain common vowel teams (for example, the Words with Light list: sunlight, moonlight, starlight, lighthouse, flashlight, candlelight, firelight, stoplight, nightlight) and are instructed to find and cover the "light" part while reading. Students form and read other compound words that include vowel teams such as teacup/tea (ea), beehive/bee (ee), moon (oo), head/headache (ea), and gold/goldfish (old) and are prompted to sound out parts, clap syllables, and pronounce words as needed. In Activity 2.2 students are guided to notice a spelling change (the dropped silent e in where + ever → wherever), reinforcing awareness of orthographic-sound relationships.
Lesson 2
The Six Syllable Types
The lesson explicitly teaches vowel teams in multiple places: the Facts/Definitions section names 'vowel team' as one of the six syllable types and notes vowels teaming with y or w. Activity 4.1 has students read words (mail, voice, meet, couch, haul, brook, clown, stray), underline the vowel team, and complete a sorting task that places words into circles labeled with specific vowel teams (ee, ea, ay, oo, ai, au, ow, oi, ou). Activity 1.2 and other activities also point out vowel-team examples (e.g., 'key' in 'turkey') and instruct students not to divide between vowels when syllabifying vowel-team words.
Lesson 4
Syllables with R-Controlled Vowels
Students read and decode many words that contain r-controlled vowel teams (ar, er, ir, or, ur) aloud (e.g., market, person, thirteen, forest, turkey) and practice dividing multisyllabic words that include vowel+r patterns using the Orca shortcut. Students sort word cards into groups labeled ar/er/ir/or/ur, and they complete a "Complete the Spelling" page where they circle the correct r-controlled vowel combination and write the full word. Students also answer final checks asking whether words are spelled with ar/er/ir/or/ur and use the patterns in sentence-writing and syllable-matching activities.
Lesson 5
Two-Syllable Words Ending in y
The lesson's skills list explicitly includes "Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams." The teacher notes that "when a word contains a vowel team, it is not as important where your child divides the word because the vowel sound will not change." The lesson gives a specific prompt for the ea vowel team: "For the ea vowel team, if your child does not know whether to use the long or short sound of e, encourage him to try both."
Lesson 6
Possessives
Students read and practice sight words that contain vowel teams, including "thought" (ough) and "between" (ee) in Activity 1.3, where they pronounce syllables and read the words aloud. In Activity 2.1 students are asked to pronounce the first syllable of "neighborhood" ("neigh" pronounced "nay") and then sound out the remaining syllables. The Skills list also explicitly includes "Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams," indicating attention to vowel-team correspondences in student tasks.
Lesson 8
Two-Syllable Words with Silent e
Students are asked to read and compare the sight word "move" and are told the /oo/ sound is usually spelled with two o's but is spelled with one in "move," giving an explicit spelling-sound correspondence. Students are introduced to the vowel team ea and instructed to try its different sounds using the examples beach (long e), bread (short e), and great (long a). Students encounter the word lifeboat and are asked to identify its parts (life + boat), so they say aloud a word containing the vowel team oa.
Lesson 9
Vowel Teams
Students read and pronounce many words containing vowel teams (explain, cartoon, maybe, flower, shampoo, noodle, owner, delight) and are asked to underline or highlight the letters that make the vowel sound. Students sort words into categories by the vowel-team sound (long a, long e, long i, long o, long u (oo)) and into /aw/, /ow/, and /oy/ columns, and they cut out and glue sorted words to reinforce the correspondences. Students use the Weasel and Lion rules, posters, and flowcharts to divide syllables and determine whether adjacent vowels form a vowel team or separate vowel sounds, and discuss ambiguous examples (ea in eat, bread, steak; ow in owner vs. towel).
Lesson 10
Consonant Teams
The skills list explicitly includes "Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams." In Activity 1.2 and the Panther Rule student page, students are instructed to "underline the vowels/vowel teams" and to draw lines over consonant teams, then pronounce each word (examples include complain and mushroom, which contain vowel teams). The Syllable Division Review references the Weasel rule that uses one underline for the two letters of a vowel team and asks students to divide words and read them aloud.
Lesson 11
Consonant + le Syllables
Students are asked to read and discuss the words near, learn, bear and are told that ear usually makes a long e (near) but can also make other sounds as in learn, heard, or bear (Activity 1.3). The skills list explicitly includes "Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams." Students also locate and read sight words such as heard and every in the text (Activity 4.2), providing additional exposure to the ear vowel team and its pronunciations.
Lesson 12
Suffixes
The lesson's skills list explicitly includes "Know spelling-sound correspondences for additional common vowel teams." Students read and form words that contain vowel teams (e.g., rain → rainy/rainless showing ai; meaning/meaningful showing ea; speedy/speediest showing ee; smoothest showing oo). The lesson also calls attention to one specific correspondence when it tells students that "ough makes a short o sound" for the sight word brought.
Lesson 14
Words Starting with q or a
Students sort and read lists of words organized by vowel sound (e.g., activity pages with columns labeled long e, short i, short o, short a, long a, short e). Students are given explicit instruction that the au combination usually makes the /aw/ sound (author; autumn, awful, August, auto) and practice reading words that contain ee/ea (queen, squeaking) and ai (quail) in the qu-word activities. Students pronounce, categorize, and read aloud words containing these vowel patterns during the qu and words-beginning-with-a activities.
Lesson 15
Semester Review
Students sort two-syllable words by the vowel sound in Activity 2.2 using index cards labeled long a, long e, short e, long i, long o, oy, and r-controlled and then read the words in each group aloud. The lesson explicitly lists spelling alternatives for long e (ea, ee, e_e, ey, ie, ei) and prompts students to practice those correspondences. Students watch a 'Vowel Teams: The Weasel Rule' video and play a Roll-and-Read board game on Day 5 that requires reading words containing vowel teams (e.g., raisin, peanut, noodle, beetle, maybe, shampoo).