How My 1st Graders Learned the Word “Observe”

“Hey! I know that word! They’re going to watch her dance!” shouted one of my first grade students during a small group lesson.

The word was “observe,” and the book was Bee Waggle by Catherine Schmidt and Christopher Cyr, written as part of a readable series through Geodes by Great Minds.

“Observe” is not a word that most first graders can read. It’s a two-syllable word containing a closed and r-controlled vowel syllable, things which are not typically taught in first grade. So, why was this first grader able to read and understand the word ‘observe’? Because of the connections built through Wit & Wisdom and Geodes. 

In my classroom we use the trio of Wit & Wisdom and Geodes through Great Minds and Fundations through Wilson Language Training. Wit & Wisdom is our ELA curriculum. Geodes is our readable texts that we use during small groups. Fundations is our systematic phonics curriculum. All three are connected either through content or skill. Geodes bridges the knowledge from Wit & Wisdom and the foundational skills building from Fundations for students to practice their reading. 

During module 2 of Wit & Wisdom in 1st grade, students learn all about animals and their unique features. They learn about how animal features can be dangerous through the complex text, Never Smile at a Monkey. They learn about how animals use their unique features in different ways with the text What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? Students also learn about people who are advocating for animals like Jane Goodall with the text Me…Jane. In this text, they learn that Jane Goodall, when she was as a child, crawled into her grandmother’s chicken coop to discover where eggs come from. 

“So she and Jubilee snuck into Grandma Nutt’s chicken coop, hid behind some straw, stayed very still, and observed the miracle.”

When we read this text, students explicitly learned about the word “observe.” We discussed that it must be a verb because Jane is doing something. Then, we used the illustration to figure out what the word means: to watch closely. 

Fast forward one month, my five students at my small group table opened their new Geodes text, ‘Bee Waggle.’ In this set of four Geodes texts, students learn about Vervet monkeys who communicate different alarm calls to warn about different predators, about ants who communicate using scent, elephants who communicate in many different ways, and bees who have dances to communicate the location of nectar. My students read the page.

It’s a great feeling when you realize students have made a connection. They get quiet. I could see their minds spinning, looking for that connection and then ah ha! “I know that word!” It put the biggest smile on all of our faces. My students were rightly proud of themselves too—they knew how to read and understand this big word. 

This is just one example of how having these three connected resources in my classroom have created magic. It’s so powerful when students get to spend a large amount of time on one topic and explore it thoroughly. Students have confidence about their knowledge. They acquire more knowledge through reading, and they are able to write about it and talk about it. It creates excitement in the classroom!