I had the privilege to sub for a grade 2 small group yesterday, as their regular teacher traveled with her daughter to a cheer competition.  I really like subbing for my teachers, because it gives me great snapshots of how the students in that group are doing, and the teacher geek in me just loves teaching kids!

The language portion of the lesson yesterday involved choosing two words from sticky notes to make a compound word, then choosing a different colored sticky note adjective to describe the compound word.  Those stickies were taken to the work table, and students wrote a sentence, underlining the compound and boxing the adjective. This activity was great on many levels, including the getting up from the work table and going to the counter were the sticky notes were laid out between each sentence.  Planned stretches are important for our students, and creative writing that is one sentence long is less overwhelming than a whole paragraph.

I was going through individual reading assessments with each of the five students as the sentences were being written, so was listening to sentences here and there when young authors were so delighted with their own words that they just had to share a particularly funny sentence with me.  That is when Henry started the “money tree” sentence thread.  He had recently heard the maxim “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” and was all about imagining the possibility of money actually growing on trees.  We talked about what the saying means, and why parents or grandparents might say it, but the giggly, creative imaginations of those five second graders had already taken flight, and I found myself in the role of air traffic controller, keeping them from talking over one another in their enthusiasm to read the sentence they had made with their compound word that related to money growing on trees.  Want some examples of their wit?

“If money grows on trees, I will get my whole class orange basketballs for PE.”

“I plant a money tree in the hot sunshine so we can go to Chick-fil-A every day.”

“I got a lot of cool skateboards with dollars from my money tree.”

The sentences went on and on, and the language portion regrettably drew to a close and we moved to spelling, where a new list of words to work on was introduced.  Our pattern of introducing words is to underline the target spelling pattern in each word, scoop syllables, then read the words orally and use them in sentences. I know you can see where this is going, and yes, you are right.  The money tree theme spread like a bamboo forest, creeping from language lesson into those sample spelling word sentences.  Never before had I seen such sharp wit and wide smiles from this group of five students as they somehow fit money trees into oral sentences using their spelling words.

The Spire reading lesson finished out our small group time, with the money tree theme front and center. As we brainstormed all the ways they have learned to spell the long e sound, they were quick to point out that the word “money” ends in the long e sound.  We briefly talked about how not many words have the e at the end spelled ey, most are just a y.  Mary Lou was right there to remind us all that you can’t spell the sound e at the end of a word with the letter e, because then it will be silent and make the vowel in front of it say its long sound, turning our “money tree” into a “moan-y tree.”  Mary Lou had tears of laughter streaming from to corners of her eyes as she painted for us the picture of trees than moaned and complained.

As small group drew to a close, all of us felt the ninety minutes had flown by, like money taking wings of flight. I loved seeing these students’ growth, in both knowledge of how reading and language works, and of the wit and humor that language can bring to us.  This year, these five students have journeyed from the land where language is a confusing blur full of puzzling rules and unexpected exceptions to a stable place where the GPS of reliable rules and guidelines lead them to the right word choice nearly every time.  How amazing see this change unfold, a money tree of knowledge growing steadily between each student’s ears.

” Knowledge is wealth, wisdom is treasure, understanding is riches, and ignorance is poverty.” Dhliwayo