Off And Running!

Our first two weeks flew by, and now that I've gotten to know my students better (and they've gotten to know me) we're ready to really dig in to our learning. Open house was last Thursday, I really enjoyed meeting several of my students' families--lots of interest in classDojo! We intro'd it last Friday and we started using it full-time Monday. As soon as the "good answer" ping sounds, the hands shoot up to get in the conversation!

Reading workshop is in full swing, we're reading more every day! Our classroom library isn't open quite yet, but students have begun to check out books from the book bins we're using to get started, and reading logs are filling up quickly. Writing workshop is off to a great start too, there are so many awesome stories to tell! (Ask your student about the bee!) Our first unit is personal narrative, and we're learning strategies to help get our writing started. This week we'll start integrating personal share time in our morning meetings, and every day we read at least one great read aloud filled with excellent examples of "showing" our stories, instead of simply telling them. 

Research workshop started this week, first order of business: what is research? What is a researcher? We'll be working on identifying unique nonfiction text features, and creating our own research projects. I can't wait to start hanging up student work around our room and hallways! I'm also looking forward to utilizing all the great resources online, including fantastic materials from the Chicago History Museum (www.chicagohistory.org) which I expect we'll be visiting early next year.

Math starts with the number of the day and math talks, and everyday we're delving deeper and deeper--thinking about math, instead of just doing it--in no time at all we'll be math pros! In addition to exploring concepts and strategies for solving problems, everybody's writing fantastic math stories--we don't just solve word problems. we write them!