Lesson plan Grade 2 English Language Arts
Water Hunt at Harrow Bend School: A Grade 2 Informative Lesson
A 45-minute grade 2 ELA lesson in which students hunt for water around a school, chart each spot as solid or liquid, and write an informative paragraph.
Objectives
- Students will name at least three places water is found at school.
- Students will label water in each place as solid or liquid.
- Students will write an informative paragraph with a topic sentence, facts, and a closing.
Vocabulary
Key words: solid, liquid, melt, fact, topic sentence
Teacher overview
Second graders are asked by their science standards to say where water is found and whether it is solid or liquid, and this lesson turns that question into a writing task. Students take a short water hunt through the building and the doorway area of a fictional school in the town of Harrow Bend, record what they find, and then write an informative paragraph from their own chart. A misconception worth planning for is that many young students do not count ice as water at all, and they may leave the freezer, the ice on the steps, and the frost on a window off a water list unless the chart asks about them directly. The solid-or-liquid column is in the chart to surface that thinking early in the lesson.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Ask students to close their eyes and picture every place water is sitting inside the school right now. Take five or six answers and write them on chart paper without sorting or correcting them. If no one names ice, add nothing yet; the read-aloud will raise it.
Read-aloud (10 min): Read the following text aloud twice, slowly, while students listen.
Water is easy to miss. At Harrow Bend School, water sits in the tall silver tank in the boiler room. Water waits in the pipes behind the wall. Water fills the sink in the art room. Water hides as ice in the freezer in the kitchen. On a cold day, water freezes into a thin sheet on the front steps. After rain, water rests in a puddle near the bus door. Water is in all of these places. Some of it is liquid, and some of it is solid ice. Ice is still water. It only changes back when it gets warm.
After the second reading, ask which places in the text hold ice, and mark those on the chart paper.
Chart modeling (5 min): Draw a two-column chart labeled Place and Solid or Liquid. Model filling two rows using the read-aloud: the art room sink is liquid, and the kitchen freezer is solid. Say aloud the reasoning for the second row so students hear that ice belongs on a water list.
Water hunt walk (12 min): Lead students in pairs along a route you have walked in advance: the hallway fountain, the classroom sink, a window on a cold morning, the kitchen door, and the puddle or downspout outside the main entrance. Pairs record each place and mark solid or liquid on the handout. Stop at each spot long enough for both partners to write. Keep the class together, and keep students off icy steps and away from traffic.
Shared writing (8 min): Back in the room, model a paragraph on chart paper using the class chart. Write a topic sentence ("Water is found in many places at our school"), two fact sentences drawn from student rows, and a closing sentence. Underline the topic sentence and the closing sentence in a second color so students can see the shape.
Independent writing and exit check (5 min): Students finish items 5 and 6 on the handout. Collect the handouts and read item 4 first. If more than a third of the class marked ice as not being water, plan a five-minute reteach the next morning with a cup of ice melting on a desk.
Student Handout
Fill in the chart on your walk. Then answer the questions.
Chart: two columns labeled Place and Solid or Liquid, with five blank rows.
Word bank: solid, liquid, melt, water
- Water in the drinking fountain is which form: solid or liquid?
- Water in the kitchen freezer is which form: solid or liquid?
- Water in a puddle by the bus door is which form: solid or liquid?
- Is ice still water? Answer yes or no, and tell why in one sentence.
- Name two places at your school where you found water on the walk.
- Write three sentences about water at your school. Start with a topic sentence. Add one fact from your chart. End with a closing sentence.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Liquid. Fountain water pours and takes the shape of the cup, which is what liquid water does.
- Answer: Solid. Freezer water is frozen into ice, and ice holds its own shape.
- Answer: Liquid. Rain water spreads out flat in a puddle and moves when you step in it.
- Answer: Yes. Accept any reason that says ice is water that is frozen, or that ice turns back into liquid water when it warms up.
- Answer: Answers will vary. Accept any two places the pair recorded on the chart, such as the hallway fountain, the classroom sink, the kitchen, or the puddle by the bus door.
- Answer: Answers will vary. A full-credit paragraph has a topic sentence naming the school and water, at least one fact taken from the student's own chart, and a closing sentence that wraps up the idea.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a chart with the first two rows already filled in and only three blank rows to complete. Pair them with a strong writer for the walk, and let them dictate item 6 to an adult before copying it. A sentence frame helps: "Water is found in the ___ at our school."
Extension
Ask students to add a third column to the chart labeled How it got there, and to write one extra sentence explaining how water reached one of their places, such as rain falling on the sidewalk or a pipe carrying water to the sink.
ELL supports
Pre-teach solid and liquid with a cup of ice next to a cup of water, and let students point to each before naming it. Accept single words or drawings in the chart, and provide the paragraph frame: "Water is in the ___. It is ___. Water is in many places at our school."
Extensions
Set a cup of ice on a sunny windowsill in the morning and check it after lunch. Ask students to add one sentence to their paragraph telling what happened to the ice and what form the water is in now.