Happy 2014!

After two weeks off and three snowdays, you'd think I would have gotten some blogging done. But . . . nope!  I need to take a note out of my sister's book blog and set a New Year's Resolution to write once a week.

So with Resolutions in mind, I thought I'd share some of the ways we rung in 2014 in the classroom. 

I started the week back with a the following parent note home, inviting them to make a reading resolution as a family.

Happy 2014!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and are on track with your New Year’s Resolutions. While you are thinking about ways to improve your 2014 and New Year’s Resolutions, I’d like to encourage you to create a Reading Resolution with your child this year. Perhaps you will resolve to read more, build your personal library, or take time to meet as a family book club. Whatever you decide remember that research shows that reading books aloud is the single most valuable support parents can provide in helping children learn to read!  To help get you started I have included some great documents that will help no matter what your resolution is! Happy Reading and Good Luck!

Included:

• January’s Scholastic Order forms  - remember you can send in a check or order online
• Choosing the Best Books for Your Child  - information to help you build a library with titles your child will remember forever
• Go Clubbing – Tips to starting a parent-child book group
• Day Trips for Book Lovers – Family excursions to bring to life your child’s favorite books

After two weeks off we got back into the swing of things right away with our morning meeting. Typically my morning meeting follows the predictable steps of: greeting, share (2 students), and morning message. I kept this format but chose activities for each to help students get their wiggles out and "catch up" with friends they haven't talked to in 2 weeks. So for the greeting - we did mix and mingle. Where students walked around the room and when they heard the chime, they would find a close friend greet each other and chat for a minute or two about their winter break. I repeated this for approximately 10 minutes to let them get their stories out. For the share, we played stand up and take a bow.  To play this, every student sits and I would make a statements that maybe students participated in over the holiday break like, "I have a party at my house." or "I built a snowman." If the statement was true for a student they would stand up and take a bow. Then for the morning message we revisited our classroom rules and procedures.

During reading we read the book Squirrel's New Year's Resolution By: Pat Miller. We discussed the vocabulary word resolution and then retold the story using the worksheet created by Tammy over at Primary Paradise. You can pick up for free at her TPT store.


Then we took a quick look back at 2013 and a positive look forward to 2014 by creating a 4 flap flip book. Each flap was labeled with a number for the new year. 2 - 0 - 1 - 4. Under each flap that students wrote:
2 - 2 of the best things from 2013
0 - something they won't do anymore
1 - 1 wish for the new year
4 - 4 goals for the new year


In math we read Shante Keys and the New Year's Peas By: Gail Piernas-Davenport. After reading the book we used black eyed peas to practice our non-standard measurement, using another wonderful and FREE resource from Amber at School is a Happy Place and then also completed the mini math book that was also shared on her site.
    

So this is how we rung in the new year. Thanks to all the amazing teachers who shared their resources and for FREE! We had a wonderful first day back! Happy New Year Everyone!

Keep a Poem in Your Pocket

What a great way to end April! Today my students held our 6th annual Keep a Poem in Your Pocket Poetry Day!

All through April we study poetry in Writers Workshop. Students write poems using the crafts of  rhymes, repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. We used poetry all year during Shared Reading to help learn phonics and increase fluency. Today was the culmination of all the students work.

First students started as a group reading - It's Poetry Time By:  Lee Bennett Hopkins

"It’s poem o’clock.

Time for a rhyme—

     tick-tock

     ding-dong

     bing-bong

     or

     chime.

Poems are

     wistful

     wish-filled

     sublime—

Come.

Unlock a minute

for

poetry time."

Then students explained the purpose behind using poetry in the classroom and explained that this why we believe you should always keep a poem in your pocket. At which point students read, Keep A Poem in Your Pocket By:  Beatrice  Schenk de Regniers

"Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed

The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you're in bed

So-
keep a picture in your pocket
and a poem in your head
annd you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed."

Finally, students "mingled" around the classroom reading the poems in their pockets to parents and administration. The poems in their pockets were a mixture of poems they wrote and those we read throughout the year during Shared. 

Along with the "mingling" students' BioPoems with self portraits and I Wish Poems were displayed for students to read.

BioPeoms:

 I wish poems:

Christmas Celebration

Before our Christmas party, we were working on letter writing in Writer's Workshop. Each student wrote a note to Santa and they were so excited to receive a response all the way from the North Pole from Santa!  Each notes was personalizes based on what the students' wrote along with some special information that there is no way Mrs. Keene could know (unless she talked to mom and dad. <insert smiley>.)

After we opened our letters from Santa we enjoyed some treats and then had our Christmas Book Exchange. Each student brought a wrapped book (under $5) for our book exchange:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!