Unit 2 — Look Around and Explore!
Description
Students develop observational skills and curiosity about the natural world. Through reading diverse texts about matter, rocks, water, and art, students learn how exploring and asking questions deepens understanding. The unit combines informational texts with narrative fiction and poetry to help students recognize text features and gather information while building vocabulary related to scientific and physical concepts.
Essential Questions
- How does exploring help us understand the world around us?
Learning Objectives
- Identify words and phrases that express feelings and actions
- Use context clues to determine word meanings
- Understand singular and plural nouns and use inflections correctly
- Describe words and their meanings using reference materials
- Write narratives with descriptive details about experiences
- Decode words with long vowel patterns and initial consonant blends
- Apply knowledge of suffixes and inflections to read multisyllabic words
Suggested Texts
- The Important Book — narrative fiction (week 1)
- It's Only Stanley — fantasy (week 2)
- If You Find a Rock — nonfiction (week 3)
Supplemental Resources
- Sorting mats for categorizing nouns by type
- Printed images of objects and natural materials for descriptive writing
- Construction paper for creating nature journals
- Graphic organizers for recording observations
- Markers and colored pencils for illustrating explorations
Language
Reading: Informational Text
Reading: Literature
Speaking and Listening
Writing
Students engage with informational texts about plant growth, weather patterns, habitats, and animal life. Reading and writing skills are applied to scientific topics including plant needs, weather effects, and ecosystem relationships.
Formative Assessments
- Observation and exploration activities with written documentation
- Synonym and antonym practice activities
- Noun identification and classification tasks
- Guided comprehension questions about informational and narrative texts
Summative Assessment
Selection quiz, weekly assessment, and module assessment evaluating comprehension and skill application
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to teacher questions about feelings, actions, and word meanings from unit texts, or through matching activities with pictures and words. Visual supports such as word cards, illustrations, or realia may be provided to support vocabulary and concept understanding.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
During decoding and vocabulary activities, provide visual supports such as picture-word cards for science-related terms connected to matter, rocks, and water to reduce cognitive load while building meaning. For written documentation tasks, allow students to respond orally, through dictation, or with labeled drawings so that output mode does not limit demonstration of understanding. When working with noun inflections and suffix patterns, offer color-coded visual anchors or word-sorting tools to help students process and apply the rules. Break multi-step observation tasks into clearly numbered, sequential steps with frequent check-ins to keep students on track.
Section 504
Provide preferential seating during shared reading and whole-group vocabulary instruction to minimize distraction and support focus on text features and scientific concepts. Allow extended time on noun classification tasks, comprehension checks, and any written narrative work so students can fully demonstrate what they know. Ensure printed copies of any directions or anchor charts displayed in the room are available at the student's workspace throughout the unit.
ELL / MLL
Pre-teach key science vocabulary related to matter, rocks, and water using real objects, photographs, and illustrated word banks before students encounter these terms in text, helping to build the background knowledge needed to access both informational and narrative readings. Provide simplified, visually supported directions for observation and documentation activities, and allow students to respond in their home language or through drawings as a bridge to English output. Pairing MLL students with a supportive peer during comprehension discussions can offer additional language models in a low-pressure context.
At Risk (RTI)
Connect the unit's science-themed vocabulary and texts to students' everyday experiences with nature and the physical world to activate prior knowledge and create meaningful entry points into new content. Reduce the complexity of written documentation tasks by offering sentence frames or partially completed graphic organizers, allowing students to focus cognitive energy on the core skills of observation, noun use, and word meaning rather than on production demands. Celebrate incremental progress in decoding long vowel patterns and consonant blends by providing immediate, specific feedback during reading practice.
Gifted & Talented
Encourage students to investigate a specific concept from the unit — such as the properties of matter or how water changes form — by locating and comparing information across multiple text types, including more complex informational sources, and synthesizing what they find into a written or multimedia presentation. Extend vocabulary work by challenging students to analyze how suffixes and root words reveal meaning across a family of related science terms, pushing beyond simple definition toward understanding word relationships and etymology. Students may also be invited to craft their own observational poem or narrative that uses precise scientific vocabulary to describe a natural phenomenon, deepening both writing craft and content understanding.