Important Dates Coming Up:
Monday, January 9th: MAP, DIBELS, and Fountas and Pinnell Reading Assessments
Monday, January 16th: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, January 24th: OMSI field trip. (***Please turn in these permission slips as soon as you can, and if you need a new one, please let me know.) Also-we still need chaperones and drivers, so let me know if you can help in this way. Thank you!
Thursday, January 26th: Half Day (Early Release). Open House: 6:30 pm (5:30 pm, pizza, $2 a slice)
Friday, January 27th: NO SCHOOL, Teacher Work Day, end of 2nd quarter
Because our week was cut short last week, I was not able to get pictures. I thought it would be a great time to review what our day and week looks like in our classroom and share some older pics!!!
We always start our day off by writing in our journals or reading a book. We have different themes for our journals each day: Make it Monday (usually includes making a picture or list of something), True-Life Tuesday (sharing 3 facts on a topic), Would You Rather Wednesday (poses a would-you-rather question to which kiddos answer in their journal), Thoughtful Thursday (includes answering an interesting question such as "Why do dogs bark?", and Free-Write Friday (which is free choice). On certain day, students are chosen to share their journals at morning meeting. I usually am looking for great sentences and a picture that matches that sentence when I choose people to share. A yellow cone is placed on the desk of those I am hoping will share their work.
Next, we open in prayer, pledges, and say our rules together.
At morning meeting on Mondays, we talk about what we will learn in the week ahead, and have time to share about highlights of our weekends by passing Buzzy the Bee around. We also reserve time for calendar (saying the entire date), counting how many days we have had in school, identifying the "tens" and 'ones" in that number, and what the expanded form of that number would be (ex: 72 days would be: 70+2=72). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have journal sharing, on Wednesday, we talk about the weather and choose adjectives to help describe it and write those down. On Fridays, we do a "Fri-Yay" share, passing Buzzy around, and sharing something we are excited about!
After our morning meeting, we start Daily 5, our reading time. As I work with small groups of students, students have several choices on what they will work on: read-to-self, read-to-someone, word-work, work-on-writing, and listen-to-reading. Sometimes they use iPads during this time to listen to reading or write their own stories.
After Daily 5, we have recess. On Mondays, we have chapel, which is an amazing time of worship and stories from the Bible. Once a month, Christian Evangelism fellowship presents, and it often includes songs the children have learned in Good News Club and puppet shows!
After recess, students have time to have a morning snack if they choose and practice their spelling words. Sometimes they practice by themselves and some days are partner-days in which they can test one another. Using white boards and their journals, they practice words that will be on our weekly spelling test. We then start Math daily 3, which is similar to Daily 5 in that while I am working with a small group of students, students are engaged in one of three activities: math with someone, math by myself, or writing about math. Sometimes students get to use iPads to do math games as well. Math by myself is usually the independent work from their lesson, the number of the day worksheet, or solving the problem of the day. Writing about math can include an extra-credit question posed in the curriculum, writing their own story problems, using math vocabulary in writing, or about the problem of the day in their journals. Math with someone includes different activities based around current concepts in math or math games, sometimes utilizing technology. The math lesson always uses technology in that lessons are presented on the interactive board and often include a short video displaying the concept of that day or a unit's focus. There are even videos of songs that help to solidify the math concepts being studied.
Following math, we begin to get ready for lunch by getting our lunches, saying a prayer of thankfulness for our food, and washing our hands. Students are quiet at the beginning of lunch to ensure they have an opportunity to finish eating and they get to socialize towards the end of lunch before recess. They enjoy recess on the large playground with equipment, which is followed by a read-aloud in class. When a group of students has earned all their "pom-pom" points, they get to eat lunch in the classroom, listen to The Fish radio station, and socialize with one another and the teacher. It is a really fun time!
In the afternoon, we have writing, share time, star-of-the-week presentations, Bible, specials, science (using both the Abeka science curriculum and STEM projects), social studies (focused around geography, topics aligned with our reading program, and topics covered in our Scholastic readers), and art. The specials include music with Mrs. Warner, Spanish with Maestra Monica, Library with Mrs. Johnson, and PE with Mrs. Berglund (Mrs. B). We have an afternoon recess and do brain breaks as needed!
What a great group of Little Explorers! I am so proud of all the work they have been doing and excited to see the goals they will be making for the last part of their school year. I look forward to seeing you all at Open House the evening of Thursday, January 26th to celebrate how far they have come and where they are headed too!
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