Wednesday, August 27th & Thursday, August 28th

WEDNESDAY-

The lint roller.

Ask your child about the connection between a lint roller and reading!

Our schema is what hold all of our personal experiences and prior knowledge.  This is what we draw from when we read.  We are constantly making connections to our own lives (our experiences, thoughts, feelings), to other things we have seen or read (books, movies, tv shows) and to the world.

Today we practiced our awareness of these connections.  We all make them, it is just getting to the point that we are metacognitive about them (getting to the point that we can recognize them, call them out, identify them and think about them).

This is tough work.  It is quite easy to say, "I can't connect to this book at all".  BUT….we are all making connections constantly.  We will keep working hard to identify these connections because this is how we can begin to think more deeply about the books we are reading!

THURSDAY-

Genre!  Today we defined each of the genres and began thinking about the similarities and differences between them.  We will be keeping a graph of the number of books we are reading as a team within each genre.  I am SO impressed by the number of books these classes have already finished, and it is only the first full week of school!!!!!

When we get to 100 books as a team (Ms. Daly's Class + Mrs. Pickering's Class), we will schedule a Read and Feed.  I will let you know in advance when this will be!  I don't think it will be long!

Happy reading :)

So…do they have homework?

Great question!

Homework for me this week has been to READ!  I have purposely been open ended about the number of minutes because I am still getting to know the kids as readers.  I want them to want to read.  Some are there and some are not.  This is ok.  What I don't want to do is force reading on them and give them a "bad taste" in these first few weeks.

Reading every night is really an expectation for me.  Just like anything, we only get better if we practice.    We are working hard here at school on building solid reading lives, and we will all get there!

So, the answer to this questions is, YES.  They do have homework and it is to read!  They are also learning ways to respond in their reader's notebooks so I am encouraging them to be doing a little writing about reading too.  However, this will get to become more and more as we learn more about how the reader's notebook works.

Literacy Night

Prairie Creek will be hosting a literacy night on September 11th from 5pm to 7pm.

This is a chance for you to experience and hear about what literacy looks like at Creek.

There will be opportunities for raffle prizes, a chance for everyone to sign up for a free book and opportunities to get public library cards from our surrounding community libraries.

We will also be having the book fair at this time, so it will be a great opportunity to buy some books too!

You can come any time between 5 and 7 and rotate through the centers of your choice.

We hope to see you all here!!!

Tuesday, August 26th

Today was all about METACOGNITION - Thinking about our thinking

There is a difference between reading words and real reading.  Real reading happens when we take the text (what the author is telling us) and mix it with our own thoughts.  This is when real reading happens.

It is kind of like having constant thought bubbles popping up over our heads.  And, the thought bubbles help us make meaning from the text.

Today we practiced paying attention to those thought bubbles.

STEALING MINUTES!  We have been working hard on the concept of "stealing minutes".  This is a habit of a good reader.  Stealing minutes means trying to carrying your book so you can get a few minutes in here and there.  Examples of this at school are when the teacher is answering another question or when the teacher gets interrupted by someone at the door.  Rather than sitting and waiting, steal minutes in your book.  This keeps us engaged as readers.  The more we read our book, the more we get into it and the more we'll want to read it.

Monday, August 25th

Today we talked more specifically about what keeps us reading.  We also started our reading notebooks by listing things that keep us reading.  Our reading notebooks will become a very valuable and important part of our literacy lives.  I am excited to get these off and running!  

We then had time to read, and I checked in with all students to ask them if they felt "into" their books.  During this time, I was trying to capture what was keeping them reading.  This information is great for me because it will allow me to get to know each student as a reader and help to recommend books for them.

We have had some students already finish a book!  WOW!!  I think I have a class of readers, and I love it.

We will be working really hard this year to develop and maintain a positive reading life.  The way we become better is by doing and so we need to be reading A LOT!

Along with this, we need to be reading books that are just right for us.  We have talked about IPICK.  The book fits our purpose, we are interested in it, we can comprehend it and we know a lot of the words.  We also talked about how sometimes we don't get really into it until a few chapters in.  I shared that the book I am reading right now didn't get really, really good until page 50.  So, we have to know how to "hold on" and give books a fair chance.

Homework for tonight was to read!  I just want to know how long and how many pages.  Again, this is giving me information into each reader's current reading life so we can build from there!

First Week

Our first three days of school we spend a lot of time getting to know each other and talking about classroom and school expectations and procedures.

We did learn quite a lot from the Channel 14 news team.  They taught us how to S.O.A.R at Creek.  SOAR stands for Safe, Optimistic, Accountable and Respectful.

Enjoy just a little taste of the news team here.

We also started talking about our reading lives.  We brainstormed reasons for good reading lives and "stinky" reading lives.  And, we decided that interest plays a huge role.  We need to be reading books that we are interested in, that we understand and that we WANT to keep reading.  Otherwise, reading is going to fall by the wayside!

We had a chance to get to know my personal classroom library and also to visit the IMC.  Most students left with a book on Friday and lots were able to get a few pages read.

We also learned about "stealing minutes".  Ask your child what this means!

It was a GREAT first week!

Welcome

Welcome to our class blog!

Here you will find information about your child's Literacy/Social Studies class.