Literacy Block

I am working on posting a blog entry about each of the major sections of our day to help parents and other family members to get a sense of what our schedule is like.  So, this post will be about literacy.

Our literacy block is two hours in length.  It is broken down into three rotations with three mini-lessons (short whole group lessons) in between each rotation.  The basic schedule is:

• mini-lesson 1
• rotation 1
• mini-lesson 2
• rotation 2
• mini-lesson 3
• rotation 3

The mini-lessons are generally 15 minutes in length and each rotation is 25 minutes in length. 

That may sound rather confusing, but it actually works quite well.  The students follow the board in the picture (see left) to figure out where they are headed for each rotation.  Each student is in a group and follows a specific schedule.  The blue columns show where mini-lessons take place.

The mini-lessons focus on teaching strategies that make students better readers.  Our lessons fall into 4 categories: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary.  These make up our CAFE menu.  Each time we learn a new strategy we add it to the board.

During the roations students have specific jobs depending on what group they are in.  During a week each student will do each job at least once, usually twice.  The jobs are: reading group with Mrs. Kahler, Word Work, Daily Choices, and Classroom Library.  A brief explanation of each follows:

Reading Group with Mrs. Kahler

These groups are based on student need and ability.  Students are working on developing reading skills to advance reading level, improve comprehension, fluency and vocabulary.  Groups are small, no more that six students.  Each group meets with Mrs. Kahler at least twice a week.  At this time we have six different groups.

Word Work

This is time for students to practice writing and spelling specific words that we are working on.  Ways to practice these words include: writing the words on white boards, spelling the words with stamps, making the words with magnetic letters, and creating a "crossword" with the words using Scabble tiles.

Daily Choices
At this point Daily Choices involves three things that students may choose from.  These three things are: read to self, read to someone, and listen to reading. 

For Read to Self, students may choose to read independently, but they must choose a book from the book box (books in book box have been read in reading group or have been selected because they are "good fit" books - at students independent reading level). 

As for Read to Someone, students may buddy read with another student, again selecting books from his/her book box.  Students take turns reading books.

And finally, Listen to Reading, involves listening to a book on tape.  This choice was just introduced today and the students did a great job with it!

For each of these choices students select a quiet space to work where they will not be distracted by others or distract others.  Students may sit at a table or sit on the floor.

Classroom Library

This job is as simple as it sounds.  Students choose a book from the classroom library and read it to themselves during this time.  Classroom Library is an independent job and does not involve buddy reading.  Students may also choose to read books they have checked out from the library at this time.

That is our literacy block in a nutshell.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or set up a time to come and see it in action.

BBQ Fun

Wow, what a fantastic time we had at the annual beginning of the year Hawaiian BBQ! 

Many students came dressed up in their Hawaiian gear ready to celebrate.  Thank you to the families that we able to come and join us for the BBQ and picnic lunch. 
The weather was perfect for relaxing, eating, and chatting with friends.  It was great fun to see everyone! 

Reading Buddies & Art

Some highlights from today.

Reading Buddies

Today we met with our 5th grade reading buddies for the first time.  Throughout this year, once a week, we will be meeting with our buddies, from Mrs. Thompson's fifth grade class, to work on our reading. 

Each week we switch classrooms, today we went to Mrs. Thompson's room and the 5th graders read to us.  Next week the 5th graders will come to our classroom and we will read to them.  There are many benefits to this practice, when the 5th graders read to us we have the model of a fluent reader and when we read to 5th graders we get to develop our own fluency.  Plus - it is fun.  Check out some of the pictures from our time with reading buddies today.

Art

For art time today we studied the art of Victor Vasarely, particularly his piece: Zebegen.  As we looked at this piece we discussed the artists use of contrasting colors and the way he carefully arranged the shapes to create an optical illusion.  Our art words today were:  contrast, shape, abstract, and optical illusion. 

After checking out even more of his art of his website http://www.vasarely.com/ , we made some of our own abstract art using oil pastels and black paper.  We used geometric shapes and colored them using contrasting colors. 

Come and check it out - it will be posted outside of our classroom.

All School Hawaiian BBQ

Please join us for a Myers tradition 

Our fall Hawaiian BBQ Lunch

Date:       Friday, Sept. 25

Time:       Student Lunch: 11:30-12:00

Location:  Myers - meet your student in our classroom, room 108
Menu:      Hamburgers, hotdogs, & chicken patties w/all the fixins
Tickets:   Tickets may be purchased in advance through the office
Cost:       $3.00/adult     $1.75/child (students may use lunch card)

• Remember - meet your child in our classroom
• Bring a blanket to sit on, we will be eating outside
• You and your child are invited to dress for a Hawaiian beach party (Hawaiian shirts, flip flops, etc.)

Open House

It was so great to see so many of the families last night at Open House!  The students had a terrific time showing their guests all the neat parts of our classroom and the school. 

Thank you to those of you that took an item from our classroom wishlist to purchase!  And, thank you to those of you that purchased books for our class from the book fair!  Those items and books will be well used & loved this year :-)

The students especially enjoyed the slide show of pictures from our experiences so far this year, so I have added some of those pictures to this post.

Thanks again for coming last night!

Welcome!

Welcome to Room 108!  I am so excited to be teaching the 1st - 2nd blend this year.  It was wonderful to get to meet all of the students and many of the parents on the first day of school last week.  I am really looking forward to getting to know you all better and working together this year.

I hope to see all of you at our Open House this Thursday, September 17, 6:30 - 7:30PM.  Come on over to see the school and check out your child's classroom. 

See you soon! =)