Thursday, September 24

Today we practiced skills for our daily five reading. First we practiced Listen to Reading. The goal is for students to do this skill independently on their own or in small group while paying attention to the story, using the equipment correctly, and reflecting on the story they heard. We practiced making a row of friends, operating the cd/tapeplayer, and turning the pages with signals. We practiced with two other versions of the Gingerbread Boy today. That fox was up to his old tricks again. The students did a great job! We have a HUGE library of recorded books, so they'll have many great choices in the future. So far we've read many fun versions of the Gingerbread Man. Ask about the Gingerbread Cowboy. Giddy-up, Giddy-up!
We went "shopping" for more books for our independent reading book bags. Students found lots of great books to keep in their bags. When reading time was done, I heard moans and groans! The hardest part of indepenent reading today was holding back from talking about our books with our neighbor (it's quiet reading time) and stopping our reading. Of course, lots of students are reading aloud to themselves as they "read their pictures" but that doesn't seem to distract our neighbors if we whisper. Everyone is pretty focused on their own books! We also took photographs of ourselves in our reading spots, so we can remember where to go to read by ourselves. Next week we'll start Read to Someone with our book buddies - we'll meet some new buddies from 2nd grade!
We worked in our math journals. First we solved the problem of the day, which was matching objects made of the same shape: Circle donut/circle quarter, rectangle calendar/rectangle crayon box, triangle instrumet/triangle flag... Then we journaled several objects from our lives that start with those same shapes. Some students drew rectangle aliens and giant square tvs! There were some delicious circle cookies and triangle pizzas, too. Students are so proud of their math journals and want to take them home, but we'll wait until they are full!
Afternoon Kindergarten was treated with a visit from Mrs. Olson.
The biggest laughs came today when we sang our hello and goodbye song with a new twist. We're practicing the sound of 'b', so we changed everyone's name to start with 'b' and sang it in a a song. We were the bunniest bounding bids in the bool!