Lots to Update!

Hello!

I feel as though there is so much to update the families about. I am doing my mini-residency this week, which basically means I am going to be the teacher from Tuesday-Thursday. Sharon will be at school, but not in the classroom. This will be my "mini" before I start my real residency in the Spring Semester, when I will do six weeks of residency. Again, Sharon will be around school, but I will be the only "teacher".

Also, I am going to add two more journal entries from school today. Daniel, a kindergartner, is more than excited to be published "for real!" Brent, a first grader, did an amazing job for his journal entry as well. Today we encouraged the children to write about anything they want to (normally we give them a prompt). As an intro, Daniel wrote his about a movie called Batman: Brave and the Bold.


"I am going to write about Batman and the Outsiders." Daniel sounded it all out by himself!

Batman is on the left, and there's a line that shows him move to the right a little bit. The third from the left is Psycho Pirate. Next is Black Lightning. Then a girl but I forgot her name, and then Metamorpho. Psycho Pirate feeds on people's minds and feeds on their anger. He turns into red air so he can float away. This is from Batman Brave and the Bold. "I am so proud of those that made Batman: Brave and the Bold. So proud. Almost too proud." - Daniel





Brent's Entry:
There are two Targets and they are really close to my house and best of all my mom can drive there! And you know what (over -->) the other target my Dad can drive there and we don't shop there anymore because of the other on the one page.

Brent drew a map which depicts where each Target is. His drawings are so elaborate, you will even see the Target sign where each one is located. He also write the word over, instructing me to go to the next page. :)

Good job Daniel and Brent! I hope you enjoy seeing these entries as much as I do! See you all on December 2nd for the next Family Style Meal!

Megan

Candy & Fruit Party

Here are a few pictures from our Candy and Fruit Party. We made chocolate covered strawberries earlier in the day and masks. Also, we made finger puppets and took a few class pictures. A class picture with our masks, and a silly faced one. The party was a lot of fun!

Octopusis

A recommendation from a parent that follows this blog, requested that I put up some of the children's own writings. This has spread like wildfire, and I have had a few children want to get published "for real"! So we have two work samples, I wish I had my camera today and was able to show their pictures, but I will definitely include a picture for the next post. The journal topic was if you could be an animal, what would you be? Why?

Oktopusis
My anumil is a oktipus kus vay liv udr uotr. I liik vam. By Jayden. Ydeu frum Daniel. Ulustrad by Skyler. Oktopusis

(My animal is a octopus because they live under water. I like them. By Jayden. Idea from Daniel. Illustrated by Skyler. Octopus' -- He included the title page at the end, Skyler did not really illustrate, but he clearly understand the need for a title page :)

Greta's Journal entry:
If I were a butterfly I would fly around all round in the forest. Greta.

As you can see, Jayden's entry is completely sounded out by himself. Both Greta and Jayden worked so hard on their work that I really wanted to share their work with you all. We can see so much progress with sounding words out and their handwriting has improved as well! Hope you enjoy seeing a little bit of our day!

Megan

Update!

Hello!

School is blowing by! I feel so welcomed, and just love my experience here in Sharon and Megan's Family Group. The kids are learning, but more importantly they have made friends. It is great to see how so many have become best friends, all the while we are all working on welcoming EVERYONE to play with each other. This has been an important learning experience for us all, and is really going over well. I love that the kids have learned this so quickly and are really a family in here. It's great!

We have been moving through our math, and we are really focusing on patterns. We are having a pattern exhibit on Monday, so we are encouraging all students to find patterns at home and bring them in to share.

This week our star student of the week is Anika, and next week it will be Michael! It is so neat that the students get a chance to bring in pictures and they are so proud as they talk about their pictures.

I hope you all enjoy hearing my little tidbits about what is going on in the room! :)

Megan

Pictures as Promised!

Here are pictures of the first few weeks of school as promised!

Megan

Busy Week in our Room!

Hello all!

This week is going to be a hectic week for us all! We had yesterday off (Yay for the long weekend!:) Today should be relatively normal, but tomorrow is our first half day of the year and we are going to start Family Style Meals at 11:30-1:00. Spaghetti is on our menu! Then, tomorrow night we have the Open House from 6:00-7:30. Thursday morning we will take our school pictures at about 8:30 in the morning. By 9:30 we will be on our way to the Alaska Botanical Gardens for our all day field trip! By Friday, the kids should be ready for a normal day.

I have enabled the comments, so I hope to hear from some parents (I kind of feel as though I am talking to myself).

Also, I have taken some great photos of the children learning throughout the day and playing with their friends so I will try to upload those soon!

Megan

Literacy in the First Week!

Hello!

On Friday, I read to the kiddo's after lunch and recess. This is part of their daily schedule, to have a read aloud after recess to calm them down before doing paired reading. The children were especially interested in listening to the book, so I ended up reading three books to them.

For the paired reading time we pair all of the first graders with a kindergarten student. This allows the first grader to read to the younger. Some of the children aren't reading, so they sit together and look at the books. This is an interesting time to watch the children interact, because a lot of times the elders allow the youngers to choose the book. It seems as though the older children are just very proud to be able to help the youngers. Aside from the reading time, they also have writing workshop and literacy centers.

The first week was a lot of fun, I am very excited for the rest of the year!

Megan