Happy, Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year bloggy friends! I have had the best (laziest) winter break in a long time. I got to spend time with family and friends, sleep in, bake cookies (or watch B bake…), exercise, read, and even clean! I loved every single second of it. But all good things must comes to an end, right?! So back to school I go (tomorrow)…

I always get a little anxious about going back to school after long breaks. As if I’ll forget what to do or something. I just keep reminding myself “Erin you can do this, you know how to do this, you are good at this.” I know…I’m nuts…oh well haha!

 I find it is much easier to transition back to school if I over plan. That way I always have an extra trick up my sleeve just in case something gets thrown at me. 

I’ll start by having the kids write a recount of what they did over winter break on mitten shaped paper. I plan on using this as a template to cut notebook paper into because these lines are little too big for my students. Next I’ll have them illustrate their winter breaks on the blank mitten template and staple them into little booklets. oh.my.word. There are so many fun shapes for writing on this site. Why am I just finding this now?!

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For Reader’s Workshop we will be starting our Jan Brett Author study. How stinkin' creative is Cara from The First Grade Parade? I’m really excited for this one. We will also be using the many resources from Jan Brett's website. The plan is to discuss text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections. It is always easier for my little ones to understand connections when related to an Author Study. They are able to see that most authors have a “style” and then are able to make really great connections to them. Do you do Author Studies in your room? I’d love to hear how you set them up? I know…dork alert.

As for math…we are moving into a new unit…Solving Story Problems. Oh boy! This is our first year using TERC Investigations and I have to say it is much better than what we used to use. The only thing about it (and it’s like this with anything new) is it takes serious time reading through all of the teacher books, implementation books, and student activities. So I really can’t blame the program for making me read…that’s my job, right? I guess you know what I’ll be doing tonight… 

What math programs do you guys use? Do you like them?

Well folks that's about all I have time for right now...be sure to check back to see what craziness is going on in J1W this week. Ohhh and check out my fun new little Pinterest button over there on the right hand side. Fun, right?! 

Poem of the Month...

Every day my class has a monthly poem that we recite during morning meeting. It is an excellent way to practice fluency and reading skills such as volume, tone and expression. Plus the kids love it! I keep the poems themed by month and whoever is the line leader that day gets to lead the class in the poem.

There are so many activities that you can do with poetry. I have attached just a quick Persona Poem intro lesson that I read about on Scholastic years ago. They come out very cute every year. It’s really funny to see what each kid picks to be. I will take pics after my class completes this little writing activity. 

Do you use poetry in your classroom? 

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