LITTLE Learners BIG Learning: It's Friday!

Happy Friday!

It's been a long but great week here in our classroom! We are starting to get into the swing of things with our daily routines such as Morning Meeting, Writer's Workshop, and Daily 5. I am planning on posting more about our routines in the future to give you more information about what we do each day! Stay tuned!

This week we talked about how there are 3 ways to read a book. We learned that we can read the words, read the pictures, or retell a familiar story. The kids were pretty impressed with themselves when they learned that they already know how to read!

This poster helps us remember the different ways to read a book!

We also practiced one part of Daily 5 which is called Read to Self. During this time, students read books from their book baskets while the teacher meets with a group of students for Guided Reading. We are working on our stamina, meaning we want to practice reading quietly for longer and longer each day. We made it two whole minutes on Thursday which is awesome! Imagine your teacher asking you to be quiet for more than two minutes....Fweew! The goal of Daily 5 is for students to be actively engaged in their own independent learning while a teacher meets with small groups. I will discuss the other components of Daily 5 in the future.

This week we also discussed appropriate behavior at school using the language "Above the Line", "Below the Line", and "Bottom Line". Behavior that is appropriate such as raising our hands, walking in the hallway, and using kind words are all Above the Line. Behaviors which we try to avoid such as blurting, not participating, or being unsafe are considered Below the Line. Bottom Line behaviors are those that hurt such as kicking or hitting. Please talk with your child about appropriate behavior in school and have them share a time that they were ABOVE THE LINE!!

Finally, I wanted to share some center work that your child did this week! This time is usually spent doing a hands on activity such as play-doh or pattern blocks. We love this time of the day!