Sunday, September 6, 2015

August 31 - September 4

Week 3

Our week started off a little rocky and emotional, but by mid week and after some community building and reflection, we were back to our normal big happy family! As you all know we did an activity in class in order to help us understand who we are as a person on the inside and also how we treat our neighbors. I had the kids write things that they thought their classmates were good and also things that they needed to work on. These were solely about who we were as social individuals not academic individuals. We had discussions on how the things that we do and say can affect the people around us in both positive and negative ways. As you know I participate in all activities and had the class also write some things about me. The kids wrote that I was good at doing nice things for everyone and at being helpful. They also wrote that I need to work on not raising my voice so much and also “catching a fit”. I wasn’t aware that I ever raised my voice at the kids, but I think we all know that I’m a loud person and perhaps that is something I need to work on. I thanked the kids for their honesty and explained to them that I can only grow as a person if they tell me what I need to work on. This activity has produced so many beautiful conversations amongst our classroom family!

Below is the one that the kids did for me. I have it hanging right above my desk so that I can constantly be reminded of who I am, what I'm good at, and what I need to work on.
Below are a few of the students who were brave enough to volunteer their papers for me to post on the blog.  



A Surprise Visitor
Mrs. Griggs, who is our reading coach and who was also some of the kids’ 1st grade teacher, came to visit our classroom and she brought a wonderful book to read to the kids. The book was entitled The Best Place to Read! The kids loved the book and afterwards talked about some of their favorite places to read: like under their bed, on the couch, or on top of their bed. It’s always a joy to have Mrs. Griggs and the kids absolutely adore her.



An Array of Arrays
In math we’re in the very beginner stages of understanding the idea of multiplication through arrays, groups, and group sizes. We did an M&M activity where we arranged our M&Ms by color in order to create an array. Once the kids each had their own array arranged, they created the repeated addition number sentence and multiplication sentence that went with each. They really enjoyed the activity and eating the M&Ms. We have also been practicing our fluency by doing sprints from Engage NY. The kids are timed (1 minute) to see how many problems they can correctly complete and then repeat the exact same problems on the other side to see if they can increase the number of problems they can do. They love competing against their selves.










6 Regions of SC
As we are finishing up the 6 regions we will be ending with a group project. The kids are divided into 6 groups and they are responsible for researching their regions, displaying the information they found, and also coming up with a key to display the landmarks and natural resources from their regions.  We will present these projects on Friday afternoon.



Book Buddies
Starting Friday, September 18, we will be joining Mrs. Luchsinger’s class for book buddies. To prepare for our first visit we are working on creating replicas of our favorite books (only the cover). We will use this to help Mrs. Luchsinger’s class gain and understanding of what books each student likes in order to best choose a book buddy. Once the book buddies are chosen we will spend 30 minutes in her room or our room every Friday reading with our book buddies and discussing habits of good readers.








I’m excited about the accomplishments our kids have made academically and socially and I’m looking forward to many more from these kidos!

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