Back At Work

Well two days down, I've been easing my class back in to things literacy wise, yesterday doing some review of what we've focused on and today we started back in to our shared reading, doing a probable passage activity. I was surprised by how many did not remember how to complete one, it's amazing what they forget after a few weeks! We started up our guided reading today, with a small group reading about cliques, I feel like the topic could be used for a broader discussion involving character education and how friends should treat friends.

Yesterday we started a new art piece: pastel resist snowflakes. I got the idea from two teachers I admire very much, the idea of the resist came from Runde's Room but I got the idea of incorporating not only blue but whitewash from Zack Ambridge, a teacher I met through a social networking group. Another thing I'm learning: the ideas found on Pinterest, internet or blog never look the same or turn out exactly how you expect, so just remember that, it allows for creativity and let's your students shape the activity in their own way.

We also dived into persuasive writing today, creating a list of what we think persuasive writing should include after we looked at several pieces, I have posted the anchor chart we co-created, it's still a work in progress, as we will read two more examples tomorrow and try and add some more. There was been more of a push to create anchor charts and notes with students, so they take more ownership of their learning. I really took this idea to heart and this year when I put up my bulletin boards left them all empty, ready to be covered with chart paper and our ideas!

We are off to a good start and everyone is happy to be back, let's see what the rest of the week holds :)

Here's a few shots from my room.