Classroom Ideas

First off I just wanted to let you all know that I am now on Facebook! You can click here or on my little pink icon over to the right to check out my page!  It’s brand spanking new so you can be one of the first to “like” me. I would love to see you all there!

I’m linking up with Doodlebugs this week for her weekly Five for Friday Linky party.

1. We started our patterning unit this week and the kids are doing really well with it!  Check out some pics:

I would love to hear what your favorite ideas are for patterning.  Next week I plan to make some bead bracelets with them as a final task but I would love some new ideas!  Leave a comment if you have something to share.

2.  We also started building our “I can write a…” bulletin board.  I don’t put them all up at once because I like to create the anchor charts with the students and then put them up as we introduce them.  This year we are starting off spending about a week on each different writing form that we feel is important.  This way the kids have a selection of forms to use during writing time.  So far we have covered journal and letter but I just have journal up on my board so far:

3.  Earlier in the week we read, “Where the Wild Things Are”.  Who doesn’t just love this book?

Then we followed it up with some monster art:

4. We read several other great books this week too! David Shannon of course!

5. During Daily 5 time we worked really hard on building stamina! We’re up to 12 minutes now! So far I’ve introduced Read to Self and Write about Reading (I use this time for them to write in their reader’s notebooks). And then today I introduced Read to Someone.  I love using the online stopwatch…since I started using it they have been super quiet during their stamina building time.  We were stuck at 7 minutes for several days but then using the online stopwatch helped them move up to 12 minutes.  I think the visual really helps them. Plus it makes a dinging sound so I know when it’s time to switch.