It is taking some time, but I finally am starting to feel like I am getting my feet planted. We are now done with our second month of school!! It is hard to believe that we have already been in school for eight weeks, and tomorrow begins week NINE!! I knew a class of 26 was going to keep me busy, but I never imagined it would keep me this busy! Having my two kiddos at home keeps me busy at home as well!
My kids are loving the Daily 5!! So far we are up to the Daily 3.
They are doing so great with Read to Self, and I am meeting with them all at least once a week individually or in a small group. My biggest problem is trying to find ways to "assess" them in a way for parents to be happy with a grade on a report card. I don't want to just give them a grade, I tried to explain it more as progress. Some parents were okay with it, and some weren't too excited.
Word Work they are loving!! I asked parents to bring in some supplies for us to help out with our Word Work. I was given one Scrabble set, so the kids love using that one! It is the one word work option that I always see being put to use. When I told parents about it during parent teacher conferences last week they said they would get buy us another set, so I'm crossing my fingers!
We did our first formal Work on Writing assignment over the last two weeks. The students were able to write about their favorite thing they did this summer. I had kids writing about trips to the Ozarks, Nebraska for the college world series, Broadway to see Annie, and the mall to go shopping! My kids had a blast with the experience, and loved being able to draw their pictures as well. Parents were excited to see the process too, and I told them at the end of the year they would have a whole collection of writing to look at!
I have been reading aloud to my kids every day, so I feel that counts as Listen to Reading, but I haven't brought out the books on CD yet. I don't really own any, so that is part of the problem, as well as having the CD players, and headphones available. It is something that I will work on over time, and hopefully will be able to have up and running by Christmas time? The kids picked out our last novel I read to them, and they chose Fantastic Mr. Fox. We are going to watch the movie next week since we will be doing our standardized testing the morning. I haven't seen the movie yet, but from watching the previews I can already tell how different it is from the novel. It is going to be a great writing lesson after!!
I love the top picture! She looks genuinely cozy and snuggled up with her book :)
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