Snazzy Snapshots!

Well, I am back in the swing of things!  I am LOVING my new (and old) kiddos, and I am loving teaching two grade levels!  The planning is a TAD daunting, but I love it nonetheless.  The first week of school was exhausting though!  It always is, right?! I am pretty sure I fell asleep on the couch by 8:00 for at least three days that week, so blogging was out of the question.  This week, I have a little more energy, and I have been DYING to share what we’ve been up to, but my blog has been a little fussy.  It currently looks like some kind of crazed collage with the overzealous “Look Who’s Popular” image plastered all over it, even though it has nothing to do with ME whatsoever.  My blog designer just has to make a few changes through her Photobucket account, so hopefully it is ironed out sooner rather than later.   It’s kind of disheartening, but I have decided to go with it… and roll with the punches… or collages. I apologize for the inconvenience!!!  I just want to share some time-sensitive lessons before it’s too late!

First of all, we have been working through my We Are Authors pack to launch reader’s workshop, and I am LOVING how we are laying the groundwork.  I had to do a few of the lessons out of order while the binders for Writer’s Workshop continued to trickle in… and despite the fact that I wanted to have it done in five days… the truth is… we had a ton of safety drills and baseline testing that interfered with my best-laid plans.  I always forget about how much real life can get in the way at the beginning of the year, but it is always for the best! I just always have to remind myself to cool it… and just let it all unfold.  I don’t necessarily have to hit the ground running… a jog will suffice at first.

We read “Author: True Story” by Helen Lester, and then the kiddos created their own autobiographical books about their literate lives.  This was a great formative tool for me to find out what their perceived strengths and weaknesses are.  I also was able to develop a list of mini-lessons to hit this year based on my students’ questions.  This was a great tool!

I also sent them home with Inspiration Bags for homework.  We used their objects to practice writing detailed descriptions using sensory language, and it was a roaring success!

We also launched our interactive notebooks this week with my Interactive Notebook Flap Books!  In Reading Street, my third graders are reading “Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday” and my fourth graders are reading “Because of Winn Dixie”.  Those are our main selections for the cycle, and I am teaching sequencing and summarizing to both groups.  {Aligning the skills over the summer has saved my life already!}  This flapbook was wonderful because it allows for natural differentiation… and that is my favorite kind of differentiation!  It could easily be used as an independent reading task as well!  Needless to say, all of the interactive journaling we’ve been doing is going just swimmingly.

 We will also be “journaling” using Reading Street’s essential questions just like we did last year.  I LOVE how the questions help guide students to think more conceptually and at a deeper level as we read the main selections.  I have started the process of creating the fourth grade set, but if you want my third grade set of journals, they are ready to go!  You can download them HERE.  The old post with examples from Gertude Ederle can be found HERE! I will add the fourth grade set whenever I wrap that up!  🙂  At the moment, I have created exactly ONE journal.  Ha!  I should get on that!

I also taught about the Real Reading Salad again this year for the fourth year in a row, and I think it is safe to say that I am obsessed with this lesson!  It always goes SO well and it always helps students understand the reading process in a more concrete way.   This year, I decided to create a template to allow them to create their OWN Real Reading Salads during independent reading.  Let’s just say, I will definitely be doing it again.  I LOVED every single student work sample SO much!  It made my teacher heart exceedingly happy!  If you want to use this activity with your own kiddos, click HERE!

I hope your new school-year is off to a fantastic start!  Happy Hump Day!!!! 🙂