ask me about thursday, october 8, 2020

We started our day with a collection of photographs that we analyzed and discussed.  We looked for ways the pictures were the same to find out what they were showing.  We found that these photographs all showed leaders.  

We learned about leaders at home and leaders at school.  The tricky part is that we have not been at school, and the children do not know many of the leaders at our school, so we read a short book about what principals do.  I asked the children about what other leaders they know and they mentioned me, several super heroes, Paw Patrol characters and Star Wars characters!  I was happy to make their list!  It was mentioned, finally, that a dad is a leader, but they did not mention a president, a mom, or police officer.  We will continue to talk about what a leader is and who leaders are in our community and in our country.  We will also talk about how they can be leaders throughout the year by making good choices, helping others and leading by example.

In reading, we read a realistic fiction book about rules.  We focused on key events in the story.  This is still a rather tricky for the kids to identify.  We are working to identify something specific that happened.  We work on this throughout the school year.  We also reviewed talking and thinking bubbles, which were throughout the book.  Then, the children wrote a key detail from the book with me, then wrote one on their own.

We are starting reading groups.  Today I introduced them to their groups and we worked on going to break-out rooms.  Today I asked them to talk in their breakout room to find out what their friends' favorite desserts are, and to remember their name so they could tell the whole group what dessert was someone from their group's favorite.  This encourages them to listen to what others are saying, and will help them learn the names of other children in the groups.  Some children will change groups as time goes on, based on what they need to learn in reading and writing.  Please don't be worried if this occurs, especially initially because I am going off the MAP-RF data and the data I collected on letters, sounds and words.  Some children weren't as comfortable taking risks as others, so some children may get moved.  I don't normally name groups because I don't want the children thinking some groups are smarter than others or groups just getting a reputation, but for online I will be naming them to make it faster to get them to breakout rooms.  Our groups are named for characters from Toy Story, so we have the Hamms, the Potato Heads, the Slinky Dogs, and Rex's group.  The children are so excited to start reading groups, and so am I!  It will be a great way for them to get to know each other better in addition to reading instruction.

Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe