Happy Friday, everyone! We have continued to have a wonderful time in our class getting to know one another, getting familiar with our surroundings and schedule, and building great work habits. The kids and I are having a ball!
In literacy we have introduced two of our choices, reading-to-self and writing. We have been able to build up to 15 minutes of each and are working on transitions between choices. We are working our stamina up to 1 total hour. Next week we will be practicing partner reading.
We are about to kick off our annual fall assessments, so please try your best to make sure that your kids are rested and ready to go. We do a phonological assessment (for some students), a reading assessments, math assessments, an upper and lower case letter name/sound assessment and a spelling assessment. We make sure to spread these out so as not to tire the kids out and to avoid losing as much instructional time as possible. We will be able to talk about any of this information at any time after it is done, should you want to, as well as at parent/teacher conferences.
In Writer's workshop we are continuing our work on handwriting as well as responding to a choice of books that we have done for read-aloud. The kids are enjoying doing this work and are working hard at it. We will discussing and practicing sentence writing next week as well. The goal is to see kids making the connection between the work they are doing in their handwriting and their independent writing. I will be starting to differentiate during this time to work with smaller groups on more discreet skills that are germane to their current skills. Right now I am getting a read on their needs and ho best to meet them.
We will begin morning science tables next week. My plan is to have them rotate through three science tables, one per week and then resetting the activities after the third week. We will have a weather station, observation station and a inquiry/investigation table. They will do these jobs 2-3x per week. We will be learning how to do these stations one at a time and then splitting up the groups and rotating weekly.
Next week we will continue our work in building our class atmosphere, talking about Rumney CARES as well as activities that build our cohesion as a group and classroom expectations. I always find that giving the class a couple of weeks before getting into this work is helpful, as we need to know one another a bit before entering this work, as trust and knowledge of one another, albeit just a small bit, helps. Even without this work, the kids have been doing a great job. Chris and I have been so pleased with how these kids treat one another.
As always, be in touch with any celebrations, questions or concerns.
Enjoy your weekend!
~B
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