Friday Update

Here goes...

The kiddos made self-portraits and practiced writing their names.  Just a few examples.

Here's a picture of the poster I made when we counted how many letters in Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan!!  The kids wrote, counted, and graphed how many letters in their names.

We've been building a community in our classroom.  The kiddos did thumbprints on a tree and now it's hanging in our room.

We also read ALL the No David! books and talked about Peacemakers and Peacebreakers.  The kids each picked a card and placed it on the correct poster.  I have these cards on my TpT Store!

Ayla was our Special Person on Thursday and we interviewed Brendan today.  Here they are with their posters!!

Ugh, just noticed it should say, "elephants."  I'll be fixing that Monday!

I also began Writer's Workshop this week and practiced the workshop model.  Most told me they liked to write...which is good!!

With the new Common Core we now have to teach opinion writing.  I thought this would be the perfect time to introduce opinions since we've worked with our names all week.  I had the kids turn and talk about their names.  They had to tell if they liked it or not and give a reason why.

I  had them write in their notebooks too.  I modeled first by stating my opinion, gave one reason, and a closing.  Of course this poster wasn't pre-made so it's not fancy looking.  It was done right along with the lesson.  

I wasn't worried if they could do it all.  I just wanted to see what they could do and get a sample.   Here are a couple of examples.  I added a FREE worksheet to my TpT Store.

Last but not least, we wrote in our Take Home Journals.  We complete these every Friday for writing.  The kids write to a family member letting them know what they did during the week.  Today, I just had them draw a picture and write one sentence.