September!

Somehow September gets away from me every year and I fail to update! We've had a great start to the school year and we're mostly finished up with introductory learning and ready to get into some content!

Kindergarteners have enjoyed checking out books and listening to stories. In September we read: It Starts with a Seed and Kite Day. These kids are learning about trees and weather in science so these books went along with that. Kids also drew some trees in different seasons using the Promethean board. They love the "magic board"!

 

 

We also read an ABC book called A Busy Creature's Day Eating by Mo Willems. Mo Willems is just priceless, in my opinion. His books are so different and funny and this one is no exception. We will read a handful more ABC books and then the kids will write our own ABC book as a class.

First graders celebrated Dot Day earlier this month. We read The Dot and used markers and coffee filters to design their own dots. The dots have been displayed in the hallway, giving us some color!

We also practiced making text-world connections using the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. This is my favorite book to use to practice this skill. We watch it on Bookflix and the kids love it. Then I show them photographs of Philippe Petit walking on his wire and it amazes them that its a true story.

Second graders worked on summarizing a story. One week we focused on beginning, middle, and end. Students listened to Nate and Kate Wake Up Late and built story towers. 

The following week we practiced SWBST after reading one of my favorite books-- Huck Runs Amuck.  Kids worked in teams to write out a somebody/wanted/but/so/then for one of the characters. It was a lesson in teamwork and summarizing both! They put their sticky notes up on the board for their character.

Third and fourth graders have been working on tracking their reading in Biblionasium. Biblionasium is like Goodreads for kids where kids can create virtual bookshelves of books they've read, are reading, and want to read. Our 4th grade teachers are having kids use this to track their independent reading and third grade will follow after seeing what is successful for fourth grade. I also showed our 4th graders how to access our ebook and audio book collection in MackinVIA. 

Third graders started having a conversation about what community looks like both online and offline. What we learned is that a good online community has similar traits as a good offline community. These kids are going to start the Global Read Aloud next week. We'll be reading A Boy Called Bat and connecting with students in Illinois using Edmodo, an online educational platform.