"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Today we started our "Understanding Characters" unit of study in reader's workshop.  This is one of my favorite units because we will do a close study on lots of fun characters, including Ramona Quimby, Ivy & Bean, Gooney Bird Greene, and more!  To kick off the unit, today we read The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.  Check it out on YouTube!  This is a true story about Philippe Petit, an aerialist who walked on a tight rope between the Twin Towers in 1974.  We developed a list of how Philippe's traits move the sequence of the story, including: ambitious, courageous, sneaky, clever, determined, cautious, brave, adventurous, confident, and free.  We were surprised to learn that he was NOT nervous, as we had predicted! 

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Today we finished our Book Club selection, Junie B., First Grader, Cheater Pants by Barbara Park.  Junie B. is a favorite character of mine!  Mrs. Park's books offer a host of character trait lessons and reading with the purpose of noticing how a character's actions contribute to the sequence of events in a story.  I chose this selection to guide students on their use of our first three fiction sign-posts: Contrast & Contradictions, Tough Questions, and Aha Moment!  The class did an excellent job reading this humorous selection and noticing the main character, Junie B., grow and change throughout the text.  We will continue to study characters in many books in Reader's Workshop as we focus on CCSS RL 3.3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.  

Reading and Writing Anchor Charts!

The Anchor Charts that I posted in my reader's and writer's workshop mosaics were a bit fuzzy...so here are the anchor charts a little clearer!  Please use these at home to help with independent reading and writing!

Open House!

Wordles created on wordle.net:

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it to Open House!  It was wonderful to see you all again and review your child's upcoming year!  I have added parent links to the toolbar on the right side of my blog.  That is where you will find the YouTube video on the Common Core that I shared at Open House.  I also shared the link to the Parent Roadmaps on the Common Core.  Remember, please feel free to contact me at anytime, e-mail works best!  Also, be sure to sign up for blog update alerts at the bottom of my blog page!

Thank you again for completing all of the paperwork involved at Open House as well!  It is greatly appreciated!  

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

What an exciting Monday morning!  Today we continued our poetry morning work with a close read of John Updike's September.  We will continue to read his poems each month throughout the school year.  His poems are a collection from his book, A Child's Calendar.  In addition to reading the poem, students were introduced to some important poetry vocabulary that we will refer to all year, including words like poetic license, rhythm, rhyme, stanza, explicate, and literary devices.  Ask your child what these terms mean!  Happy reading everyone!  

September by John Updike

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

At Writer's Workshop time, I shared the book The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, written by William Joyce, with the class.  We also watched the award-winning short film that is an animated version of the story.  The book and film teach children that their stories live on forever and helps reiterate the importance of reading and writing to develop to a colorful life!

"It's Monday!...What Are You Reading?"

It was a great first Monday in school!  Now I can finally share books that we are reading in our classroom!  Today, we started to discuss our signposts that we will Notice and Note throughout the school year on our post-it think notes!  We started by noticing when a character acts in a way that Contrasts and Contradicts what we would expect.  We then answered the question: why is the character acting this way?   Characters often act in an unusual way, hinting towards what the plot or conflict in the story will be.  We will continue to discuss this signpost throughout the week, using our mentor text,  Wolf! by Becky Bloom.  We will continue to practice this strategy tomorrow in our very first Book Club session, then practice the strategy even more at independent reading time!  I look forward to it!  In honor of our meme, It's Monday!  What Are You Reading!  my girls and I visited the Newington Lucy Robbins Welles library after school!    

Brooklyn finds a good book!

Cami explores a tunnel!