Aren't I the one making the routines?!?
Every day we do our calendar, and we've established a certain way that we do it. Well, even though I was the one that created this "way" of doing it, today I forgot a part. And sure enough, one of my kiddos corrected me! It's crazy the routine that my students remember and hold me accountable for! I promise, tomorrow I won't forget anything!
Bulletin boards
Gotta love bulletin boards, right? I certainly do :) The first grade was lucky enough to reserve a set of bulletin boards in the library (right as you walk in--prime bragging space for our kiddos!) for--get this--the entire year! We did this on purpose; one of the main focuses in our science curriculum is seasonal changes, and since we are in school for all four of them, we wanted a way to display this. Every first grader contributed to our bulletin board by making two leaves, and then the teachers stapled them all up; our idea is that every season, we'll have our classes produce new artwork to hang (snowflakes and bare tree limbs in the winter, buds in the spring, etc.), and fingers crossed that we can squeeze out some time to get some fall writing in to hang up and showcase student work. I can't remember the exact words we decided on, but the title we put on the board was something like "the seasons are changing, and we're reading every day!"
Love and marriage
Love: my calendar helper today was a girl, and as she was in the middle of helping out with putting today's date on the calendar, a little boy in my class shouted out, "Sally's* cute!" (*name changed) It's moments like this (among many others) that I so appreciate that I co-teach math in my classroom with our school's Math Resource teacher so that another adult was able to cherish this moment with me. If only we could all be so honest!
Marriage: Coincidentally, during reading groups today, Sally was finishing reading Halloween, a book I mentioned a post or two ago. While this book scared one of her group members, it didn't scare Sally--on one page the book read, "Do you see the the ghosts? Yes, I do." She looked at me, grinned, and said, "that's what people say when they get married." Only a first grader could muse about this while in the midst of a book about ghosts, black cats, and haunted houses . . .
New week, new author study
This week it's Frank Asch, so after another trip to the library, I'm all set for author study round #2. Today we read one of Frank Asch's Moonbear books, Moonbear's Shadow, and also The Sun is My Favorite Star (perfect timing because one of my students randomly made the comment to me as she was walking into class today: "Ms. W, guess what I learned from my sister? That the sun is actually a really, really, really big star!"). I don't think our P.E. teacher was very happy with me today--there was actually a substitute in P.E., and apparently there was a large interest in how shadows worked during class on the blacktop today . . . don't blame me that the kiddos are inquiring about and exploring what they learned during a read aloud!
Lesson plans . . .
. . . can you believe that after five weeks, I've finally figured out a format for lesson plans that actually work for me?!? Whew! What a relief! (I literally tried a different format every week--all part of finding an organization style that works for me. Not something that I copied from something else, or modified from another teacher, but something that truly works for me.)
Tuckered out, and ready for Tuesday!
Love from Room 106,
Allie
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