Friday {& Thursday!}

Sorry for not posting yesterday! Time got away from me! :)

Review Friday-

We had a great day today!

Math Groups:
Students rotated to 5 different groups almost all led by an adult.  Students worked on a variety of skills to challenge where they are or to support and help what they are struggling with.  Please take a look at your child's Math Slip in their planner to see what we worked on! The kids did so well with this...per usual! :)

Writing/The Magic of a Moment:
We began working on this writing prompt for the PTA writing contest.  The kids did AWESOME! We all wrote (me too!) silently in our writer's notebooks for an uninterrupted time limit.  Then got in groups to share and help each other make our short pieces even better! We will continue these on Monday.

Reading/Current Events:
We will be reading current event non fiction articles each Friday to support our ELA standards as well as help with our informational reading!  Today I had 4 different short articles on 2 things I thought the kids would enjoy, 1 current news event, and an event that had to do with the science standard kids are learning.  The students were split into 3 groups and had a teacher led discussion group.  The kids really did well with this discussion and use of their reading/comprehension standards.  THEN we made a Twitter board to display our reading responses! So much more fun than writing those on paper! ha! The kids had a blast with this! I saw kids who don't like to write begging to write more!! Yay!  Here's a pic of our Twitter board...we will change this weekly to match our current event articles.

Book Buddies:
We read with our 1st grade buddies! It was great!

Class Meeting/Opening Bookworm Cafe:
During our class meeting we focused on problem solving.  We discussed several reasons why kids feel upset, lash out, or maybe shut down in the classroom (work is too hard, not understanding, something going on at home).  Then we all problem solved how we can be a community of friends in our room to help out a friend in need.  The responses from the kids were just wonderful.  I got some chills hearing some kids talk.  It was so neat to see these kids really beginning to see each other as a community in our classroom!
I also finally opened up my classroom library!  The books are all organized by Lexile levels and genre.  Students got their current Lexile level on a note card (from MAP) and will be able to check out books to read.  Students are allowed to take books home to read, but they must return them each day to the classroom.  We will have a check-out system in my room that will be very similar to the 'old school public library' system! :)  All of my books either have Giles (my maiden name) or Burton written on them with the Lexile level on the back or inside back of the book.
*as always, I am happy to take any chapter books off your hands if you have an lying around!!!

Reading/Writing/Current Event Wrap Up:
We are continuing to slowly learn about our presidential candidates on a very un-biased platform.  Students today read about their stance on education (the articles are from Time For Kids).  Students then took to our Graffiti board to write about their opinions or stances after reading the articles.  It was really cool to see what their views were! Come take a look at our board! It will be hung up in our classroom!

**Thanks so much for taking the time to read our classroom blog! If you remember, make a star on Monday's date for the planner so I will know who all it is reaching!! :)