Thursday, May 5, 2016

Today was a special day. There were more smiles and uplifting words than I can count. What a great day.

I had the pleasure of reading silly Mother Goose rhymes with some of the kids, and then they practiced fluency with songbooks/story books.

Later as we read from our literature anthology (a text that was directions for making an origami dog) the kids got super excited about creating their own origami. And again, I was so excited to see so many of the kids reading. Reading the on grade level story. Kids that struggled to read even at Christmas time are making me proud. I hope they are also proud (or maybe they do not realize that they have transitioned into readers).

It was a good thing that I post the schedule each day. Because it makes them independent for knowing what is happening throughout the day. And it gives information to the kids to help the teacher when she tries to send them to the wrong special for the day. I was getting them ready for Art and they needed to go to science. What a fun time.

Just one more example that they are so ready to move on to second grade. I'm sure there will be a lot more expected of them, but today I was reassured that they will make that leap with grace.

For math we had white boards and sat by shoulder partners. I posted a problem on the board, they solved it, then they talked with their partner about HOW they solved it. We have some sophisticated ways of solving the problems.

Then I would have one student come to the front and explain to the whole class HOW they solved it. Knocked my socks off again.

The reason I do this, is that some kids are still struggling with 34 + 78 and having other students explain it, may just help the strugglers "get" it. As the students get older, their teachers will require more explanations of HOW and even require some writing about HOW they solved the problem. I want them to be ready for that with words and good explanations.

These kids now understand that when I say "prove it," that does not mean they are wrong. It means--tell me your thinking/how you solved it. I have learned A LOT from these first graders in the last three days and I am excited to share that with future students.

And then we cleaned the room. We are ready for tomorrow and the special morning time with moms before school.

Yep, a special day.

And a few recess photos, because, why not?