Off and Rolling in 202!

 

Hello Weckie Parents!

Happy Friday!! We are off and rolling in 202!! What a FANTASTIC two weeks of school we have had together. We have been learning about our classmates through games, sharing our favorite books, buddy activities and more! I love this time of year as you watch your classroom community come together, new friendships form and kids come out of their shells (for lack of better words)! I like to use this Friday News Blog to post updates about our learning 1-2x a month! I'd like to say I was really good at posting every other Friday, but sometimes life just happens (or teaching for that matter).  I'll try to email out to the whole when I do post here so you'll know that there is new information to read. I apologize for a lack of photos here or on our Twitter page (be sure to follow @WeAreTheWeckies as I eagerly await the list from the office about which faces are allowed on social media and which are not). Hopefully soon!

Readers' Workshop

We are slowly launching our Readers' Workshop and have spent time the last week:

-Learning to pick a comfy reading spot (Comfy Reading Spot homework due Monday)

-Learning what Readers' Workshop looks like vs. what Readers' Workshop sounds like

-How to ignore distractions and build our reading stamina (up to 20 minutes as a whole group as of today)

-How to talk to an audience about our favorite books, giving the title and showing why we picked this book as a favorite

Writers' Workshop

We are slowly launching our Writers' Workshop as well! We did an On-Demand Writing Assessment to start the unit using a narrative piece (tell me about a time you went...). Our Writers' had about 45 minutes to complete a piece and show all that they were capable of doing as a writer. We will look back at these pieces later in the year to see how your children have grown, and I will use these pieces now to guide my instruction moving forward!

Our first writing unit is a personal narrative unit and we spent time this week talking about big events (and comparing them to a big watermelon) and then all of the little events or small moments that happened in the big event (and comparing those to seeds, or ideas, for our small moments). My modeled example was about a family camping trip to Algonac State Park and each seed was about something that happened or we did in Algonac. Each seed representing something I could write a small moment story about for my audience.

Math Workshop

This week we took a beginning of the year Math Assessment so that I can gather more data about our kids as mathematicians and best guide my instruction. We then began the first couple of lessons from the Everyday Math program as we explored with number lines, filled in missing numbers on number lines, explored the different tools in our math tool kits and talked about all of the ways that numbers are important to us in every day life!

Curriculum Night

Curriculum Night is on Wednesday night at 6:30pm on Wednesday, September 14th!

Please let me know ahead of time if you will not be able to attend so I can send home information with your child on Wednesday! It really is an important time to attend (30 mins) so that we can discuss the details of the year, answer any questions and clarify anything academically we will be covering this year.  I hope to see you here!

Have a fantastic weekend! - Mrs. Weckstein