A "taste" of my Monday

Wow--today flew by!  I swear it feels like a couple hours ago that I was pulling into my school parking lot with a million things on my mind as I began my Monday.  Well, there are still about a million things on my mind, but I made it through the day!

Today we kicked off guided reading groups in our Language Arts block, and ohmygoodness, I may have actually taught my little kiddos something in the past month.  Were they a little chatty?  Yes.  Were all of them doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing the whole time?  Of course not.  But I looked up from one of my reading groups and, believe it or not, most of my students were doing one of the Daily 5s, and doing it right.  I almost had a heart attack right there.  Kids that had chosen to "read to self" were reading to themselves.  Others that had chosen to "work on words" were practicing spelling their read-and-spell words.  Some that chose to "read to someone" were buddy-reading in whispering voices, sitting knee-to-knee and focusing on their partners books.  I wanted to add a million marbles into our class marble jar, but I restrained (and only added two).

Whew--thanks for letting me brag on the little guys for a bit :)

During our Language Arts block, I taught a mini-lesson on the -at word family--what better read-aloud is there than Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat.  You all remember the old favorite:

For those of you that haven't read a children's book aloud in a while, this one is near the top of the list for the most fun.  The rhymes are fairly uncomplicated, so you can read it pretty fast without getting tongue-tied!  As we read, we wrote down all of the -at words we came across: cat, hat, mat, that, at, etc.  Then, when the book was done, we came up with even more words in this family: rat, fat, chat, splat (a funny one to act out).


In our content block today, we started talking about seasonal changes (fall), but before we got too deep into this, we bounced back to American symbols when I showed my kiddos pictures I took of the Capitol building and Washington Monument while in Washington, D.C. this weekend.  My favorite response: "you got that close to where they make the laws and you didn't even touch the building?!?!"  Well, boys and girls, if I tried to get that close to the building just for the photo op, I think I would have had some pictures of guards escorting me out of the District.  But, for you, 1st graders, I will try next time I am in the city :)

As far as fall learning goes, I had students running up to me with colored leaves and acorns at recess.  Knowledge sinking in: success!  More about fall as the week continues . . .


I'll leave you with a final "taste" of my Monday:

A triple-threat for a Monday--chocolate chip cookies on the bottom, Oreo cookies in the middle, and brownies (still gooey) on the top.  This is what happens when good friends pass along recipes and I have extra time (and eggs that I need to use!) on a Sunday afternoon!  Nothin' like a little chocolate to kick off the week!


Happy Monday, y'all!
Love from Room 106,
Allie


Oh, and another smile added to my heart today:

(I am not actually this box-y, and believe it or not, I have a neck, but the hearts that were drawn on the back of this card--I thought three pictures might have been over the top, but I promise, they were there!--are another reminder of just why I do what I do.)