Writer’s Workshop, Reader’s Workshop, Visits from the students at The Culinary Institute of America, our new Assistant Teacher…. we have a lot to share! The class has been flourishing on so many levels!
Writer’s Workshop:
We started Unit 2 in January and the class is off to a great start! We are now writing in books (well… really 3 pages stapled together with room for drawing and lines underneath, but in more of a book format.) We talked about telling stories about ourselves and writing about something that happened to you. I modeled an example, the class thought about what they wanted to write about and set off for a very productive time. We discussed the beginning, middle and end of a story. They then shared with a partner. I introduced a beginning, middle and end graphic organizer. With sticky notes I modeled how to organize your thoughts before you write your story. We have also recently been discussing making spaces in between words so we can read our sentences better. Everyone has finished at least 1-2 stories so have. A finished story includes a cover, title and writing who the author and illustrator is. The class is quite proud of their finished pieces and so am I. Soon we will share our stories with another class!
Reader’s Workshop: In January we officially started Reader’s Workshop after finishing our letter activities. Each student has a canvas bag that they each decorated and wrote their names on. Each week the class gets to pick out 10 books, 5 from their reading level and 5 of any book in the class. Most days the class has 10-15 minutes of quiet reading. Each student has a special reading spot to quietly look at their books and I rotate around the room to meet with each student and have them read and talk about the book.
We also have been working in small groups reading a book together and discussing parts of the story, predicting what might happen and our favorite part of the story. We read and reread Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. The class also made puppets of the animals and acted out the story. They had great fun with this!
Letters/Phonics: We finished the alphabet in January and are now reviewing the short vowels a ,i, e, o and u and focusing on these sounds in the middle of words. In addition, the class reads small books that include short middle vowel sounds and completes a short reader’s response. They have been doing great with this!
New High Frequency words : you, she and he. Vocabulary words: ram, fin, nod, and cub
CIA Visits: We have been so fortunate and excited to work with Alyssa, Stefania and Yoori from the CIA this semester! They have visited the class twice so far and will be visiting a few more times. They came and planted micro greens and herbs with our class and on their second visit made beet pasta from scratch. The class had a fantastic time making pasta and learned all about beets as well! We can’t wait for our next visit this Monday, March 26th when we get back.
Trip To Stop & Shop: The class had a great trip to Stop & Shop to pick out food for our food drive!
Our new Teaching Assistant: Meet Danaisia from Day One! Check out the photos above. The class has already bonded with Danaisia and loved asking her questions to learn more about her. The chart we wrote up is in the photo gallery above.
ChangeMakers Assembly: I’am so proud of our class! They did an incredible job reciting facts about Wangari Maathia, acting out The Hummingbird Story and singing songs. They truly loved learning about Wangari and were inspired by her movement to plant 30 million trees across Kenya.
Upcoming Events:
Monday, February 26th: CIA visit at 1:15 – 2:15pm
Wednesday, March 6th: Whole School Ice Skating 1:00 pm
Monday, March 11th: Class Trip to Adams Fairacre Farms in Poughkeepsie at 1:00pm