First Week Back Together

In the midst of a new year, much of our first week back together was spent reviewing classroom procedures and getting back into the swing of school. At times, it seemed as though the classroom buzzed with a new type of energy - one that felt as though all learners were rested and ready to explore something new. This was especially evident during our math time, where students thought of strategies to organize materials using strategies such as skip counting (ex. 2, 4, 6..), grouping by landmark numbers (ex. By 10s), grouping by type, and using tally symbols. There was so much to celebrate as students got to share with the rest of the class some of their strategies. Please check out the classroom Twitter if you are interested in seeing some of this thinking!

Highlights from our week together:

1. Students reconnected with friends and shared stories from winter break

2. Students worked together to organize classroom supplies and talked about counting strategies

3. We started a classroom read aloud "The Mouse and the Motorcyle" by Beverly Cleary - I believe it will soon become a classroom favorite!

4. We compared two similar stories ("The Little Red Hen" and "The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza"), talking about story elements such as character, setting, events, problem, and solution 

5. We gained a new CPS animal, and learned all about wolves

6. We wrote thank you notes to a friend or family member and talked about the "unique-ness" of such a type of note

As always, it was such a joy to teach and learn alongside your child this week. Thank you again for sharing them with us!

Welcome 2016

It's hard to believe it's already 2016 and half way through our year! They have all grown and learned so much. I'm so excited to have Mrs. Elizabeth Smith join our classroom family as our student teacher. She is passionate, caring, organized, determined and so much more! This will be a fabulous second half of the year! Check back soon for more...

We always need more time

As I look to see my last post was September 17 (!), I think if I had more time I would have posted more. While they may be true, there are always reasons for not doing something! With help from Mrs Smith, our student teacher, I am going to work to keep this updated! It will be great to look back at the end of the year(s) and see how much we learned. Here's to 2016 and the start of new and great beginnings!