After Independent Reading Time, we had Morning Meeting. After our meeting, we began Reader's Workshop. Today we worked on developing a rubric that we will use together to evaluate the kids' work as the are being read to. For instance, we talked about what it would look like if they had their eyes on the reader and were sitting still. After we read a book (Moira's Birthday by Robert Munsch), the kids rated their performance as a 1 (an "uh-oh day"), and 3 (a "pretty good day") or a 5 (a "superstar 5" day - "superstar 5" of course said in a dramatic whisper -- it is first grade, after all...). The kids also got their independent reading book bags today, and chose "just-right books" to fill them with.
(As an aside, if there are any moms, dads, or other adults who like to sew, and wouldn't mind sewing permanent bookbags for us, please email me. I have a pattern, and it's nothing fancy - a square bag with a drawstring top. If you'd like to donate a yard or so of cool fabric, please email me also. Thanks!)
After reading, we moved on to Writer's Workshop. Today we expanded on the mini-lesson from yesterday. I modeled what writers do when they come across something tricky - the do the best they can and keep going. Then the writers all went off to practice that skill by adding to a previous writing or by starting a new piece. At the end-of-workshop share, the kids talked about how they tried the best they could when they got to a tricky part of their work.
After writing, it was time for lunch and recess. When we got back up from recess, we had read aloud. We kept going with Jigsaw Jones and the Case of the Hermie the Missing Hamster - the book is really getting good - hopefully we'll find out tomorrow what happened to the hamster!
After read aloud, it was down to the gym for class with Mr. Hill and Mr. Peterson.
When we got back up to our room, we had Math Workshop. Today we worked on writing numbers onto a September calendar, and then worked once again on the number books from Tuesday.
At the end of the day, we read a funny book by Nancy Carlson called How to Lose all Your Friends, which led to a discussion of what a good friend is. We re-wrote much of the book as How to Keep all Your Friends, and we will take all of our ideas and make them into a class book tomorrow.
After all of that, we had a couple of extra minutes, in which the kids convinced me to read a little bit more of our Jigsaw Jones mystery, and then we packed up to head on home!
