Read With Me Cultivating a Literary Community 

Last week, as a part of our investigation of good readers, we completed a short questionnaire about ourselves.   Are you wondering what we said?  Check it out…

The Blue Team said:

And the Red Team said…

(Remember to click on the images to see them larger.)

Now, you may be wondering what do we learn from all of this mumbo jumbo?

My initial observations include:

1.  Both of my classes enjoy humorous books.

2.  Many of  my students would enjoy reading about such places New York, California (Hollywood), the Florida Keys, Mexico and Hawaii.

3.  My readers would enjoy read biographies of pop stars and sports heroes.

4.  Many of my students do not have favorite authors, per say, but favorite many favorite series.  When they list favorite authors, many of them were authors from previous author studies or authors of previous  Battle books.

5.  Both classes seem to enjoy learning about math and other content areas, yet books on these topics are historically underutilized in my classroom library.

6.  Books of historical nature (both historical fiction and nonfiction) are not currently a favorite among these groups of readers.

I will continue to study and learn from these Wordles and the individual student response sheets over the coming days and weeks.  The more I pour over these results, the more I intend to re-administer this fun little “temperature check” during the course of this year.  This surely will prove to be an easy way to see how our tastes and attitudes towards reading change as we mature as readers!

Here’s what the Blue Team said…

And the Red Team said it was…

I was so glad to hear that!

(Remember to click on the images to see them larger.  And stay tuned for more Wordles from wordle.net!)

First Day Jitters, by Julie Danneberg, is a surprisingly funny story with a twist about being nervous on the first day of school.  A perfect read aloud, of course, for the first day of school.

Today, this book also provided a perfect springboard for our first quick write.  Students were prompted to write about “first day jitters”. The directions, though, were extremely open-ended.  The writing could be completely fictitious, about themselves, about themselves in years past, about themselves in some OTHER first day situation (ex: first day going to dentist, first day at new dance studio, first day of camp, etc.), or even about someone they know!  They also could write their feelings about first day jitters (vs. telling a story) OR even write a response to the book we shared! 

Since one of the main purposes for quick writes is to improve writing fluency (the speed at which the writer can transfer their thoughts to paper while continuing to think ahead and write on), students were instructed to write for 5 minutes, keeping their pencils moving constantly.  Common pitfalls with this process for young writers include things like what to do when you run out of ideas and don’t know what to write or can’t spell a word. 

My tips for students are:

1.  Don’t worry about spelling.

2.  Don’t stress over punctuation or handwriting.

3.  If you run out of ideas, just keep writing.  It is OK to rewrite something you’ve already written.  Your mind is more likely to come up with new ideas when you keep it moving, versus stopping.  Thinking.  Waiting. (…and then getting distracted!) 

Take a look at these samples of student work.  See if you can find evidence that they’ve followed my recommendations to avoid getting stuck! 

When all was done today, I was thrilled to see that for most students, the hardest part was putting your pencil DOWN when the timer buzzed!  I can’t wait to hear what they wrote at home tonight!

Right click on this glog and choose “fullscreen” from the menu.  Once you are in fullscreen mode, click and play.  There is a video, a song, and a welcome message from me, as well as some links to check out.  Have fun!

The first days of school for teachers aren’t ALL work…we do get a little time on opening day for some fun and games.  After all, we have to CELEBRATE our homecoming to Chets Creek after a long summer apart!

Here’s a sneak peek at what I’ve been up to…

You may remember that Mr. Montisano is rockin’ and rollin’ as a fifth grade science teacher this year, which may have left some of you wondering, “Who’s going to teach us math, science, and social studies?”  Fortunately, we’ve got a GREAT new teacher to love this year!

Miss Lynn Patterson will be joining our jazzy family, and I could not be more excited!  Why? What’s so great about Miss Patterson, you ask?

I know you will love her because…

.

Miss P is funny.

Miss P loves math, science, social studies, reading AND writing!

Miss P also loves KIDS!

Miss P is artistic.

Miss P is creative.

Miss P is kind and fair.

Miss P makes really delicious peanut butter cookies.

Those are just a few things I know you’ll like about her, but I’m sure you’ll find even more!

If you’d like an early opportunity to get to know Miss P, click on over to her blog “Tales of a 4th Grade Something”.  I know you’ll like what you see!

Can’t wait to see you all soon!  I’m counting down the days…are you?

Did you know that one of the earliest symptoms of a teacher is their ridiculous love of school supplies? Nothing makes a teacher (or child destined to become a teacher) happier than fresh pens, pencils, notebooks and crayons.  Aaaaah…the smell of paste is in the air and I feel alive!….

But seriously, it’s that time again!  Are you ready to roll? Here’s what you’ll need for fourth grade:

Every child will need a backpack or bookbag.  Please do NOT purchase rolling backpacks (space limitations).  Thank you!

• 4 composition notebooks
• 4 packages of notebook paper paper (wide-ruled, loose leaf)
• 7 plastic 2-pocket, 3-prong folders (2 blue, 2 yellow, 1 red, 1 green, and 1 purple) **
• 4 dozen SHARPENED #2 pencils
• 1 hand-held pencil sharpener WITH COVER (to catch pencil shavings)
• 1 standard calculator (hint: check the dollar store!)
• 1 box of sharpened color pencils
• 1 pencil pouch with zipper (NO BOXES, PLEASE)
• 1 package of 5 write-on divider tabs
• 2 glue sticks
• 1 package white copy paper

Additionally, please check these lists:

BOYS: 1 box sandwich size zipper baggies, post-it notes, 1 3-pack pink erasers (no pencil topper erasers, please)

GIRLS: 1 box gallon size zipper baggies, 1 pack dry erase markers, 1 pack index cards

And, lastly, we are ALWAYS grateful for the parents who ask what else they can bring in to help stock our classroom.  Here are a few items we would greatly appreciate:

• additional items of anything on the student supply list
• boxes of tissues
• Lysol wipes
• liquid hand soap (Large refill bottle is fine – We’re green!)
• hand sanitizer
• Crayola or Mr. Sketch markers
• COPIES OF ANY BATTLE BOOKS FOR CLASS TO SHARE
• AA batteries
• hot glue sticks (the multi-temp skinny ones)
• gift cards to book stores, Office Max, Target or Walmart for projects and activities throughout the year

As always, thank you SO much for supporting our classrooms and your students.  We can’t wait to see you all again!

Happy shopping!

** This year the students will have recorders for music class and will need to bring their purple folders with them everytime they go to music.

At Chets Creek, teachers are offered a special opportunity each week to recognize a student of member of the faculty in a positive, personal way by sending a positive postcard home.  When my first positive postcard of the year arrived in my mailbox today, my mind began to swim.  I found it, as usual, a blank canvas.  To whom should I send this first, special note?

Immediately, I thought of all the students I’ve had the opportunity to meet over the past week and “bonus days”.  So many wonderful new faces.  So many friendly students, eager to do well this year.  So many shy, little smiles, tentatively learning the ropes for their next adventure.  I thought of many reasons to recognize and send a special hello to many different students.  As always, I enjoy writing these postcards, but dread them on a certain level, too…these decisions are always difficult for me!

I decided that I would write a positive postcard to ALL of my students and publish it here! 

Dear students,

Thank you so much for all your hard work and wonderful attitudes so far this year.  Our year has barely even begun, but I’m already feeling closer to you all and falling in love with you all for your own unique traits.  We are building quite a special community! 

Included in our community, we’re privileged to have students from all around the world!  We’ve got students from Columbia, Mexico, China, Europe, all over the United States!  We will be the luckiest third grade classes, too, because we will have the opportunity to befriend THREE sets of twins and EVEN a set of triplets!  (I hope you’re noticing, like I am, that even though they’re twins or triplets, they, too, are very special and unique people!)  We have students who are new to Chets Creek this year, as well as many students who have grown up here since Kindergarten.  We have students who play sports, dance, sing, act, fish, write, read, cook, ride horses, YOU NAME IT! 

I hope you are as excited as I am to continue on this global adventure this year.  I am so thankful to have been blessed with such a wonderful and kind group of students.  I know we’re going to have a great year! 

Thanks again for all your hard work you’ve shown so far, and all the hard work you’ve yet to do! 

Your loving teacher,

Mrs. Nash

First of all, THANK YOU to all of our families who have sent in the requested supplies!  As the year gets underway, we’re phasing in various pieces of our academic routines.  With each piece added, various supplies are called to duty.  I know it can be a hassle to chase them down (I’ve been there!), but the supplies are very much needed and appreciated.

This week each child was “issued” their Seed Journal (composition book #1).  I hope you received the message (via newsletter and child) that they are to be working on decorating and personalizing these notebooks at home this week.  As children complete this personalization process, they are given the opportunity to share their unique designs with their classmates.  We’re already hard at work generating ideas and early writing practice in these notebooks.

Soon, I hope to have enough composition notebooks collected (I need about 25 more)  to introduce an important piece of the reader’s workshop:  their reader’s notebook (composition notebook #2).  This space is reserved for students to record thoughts and responses to their reading; early planning for formal responses to literature; letters to me regarding their reading habits and thoughts; as well as for me to respond to these letters with guidance, advice and praise!

As a rare note regarding the math side of the day, Mr. Montisano has also phased in the use student math notebooks (composition notebook #3).  Each student will use their notebooks as a place to keep notes and daily practice with math strategies and class investigations.  Students are encouraged to refer back to past lessons throughout the year, especially in the event they get “stuck” on a problem.  These notebooks were a huge success last year with his students.  In fact, students filled one volume and began working in a second notebook for the second half of the year (composition notebook #4 — still needs about 35 more).

This week, all students also received their homework folders.  These folders are to be transported to and from school DAILY.  In addition to being a safe place to store their weekly homework, they are also a safe place for us to transport the occasional note or flyer that cannot wait for the Friday folder to go home.  Please help your child remember to keep this folder in their backpack with their planner and seed journal.

Speaking of planners, they’ve arrived!  A huge thank you goes out to Chick-Fil-A and Huntington Learning Center for sponsoring Chets Creek’s custom designed planners for grades 2-5 this year.  They are beautiful and filled with tons of CCE specific information and tools.  Be sure to sign your child’s planner each night and help them begin the habit of recording their pages read in the box daily.  What a convenient tool!

Coming soon, your child will receive a writing folder where they will their drafts and revisions for writing work in progress.  Additionally, I enjoy sharing poetry with children, and hope to have enough folders to help each child compile a poetry collection as the year progresses.  Mr. Montisano plans to use student binders as a part of the Daily Oral Geography program.

As you can see, we’ve got a lot planned and we’re excited to share these opportunities and tools with your children.  Thank you for your time and efforts to enhance and support our classrooms and your children’s learning experiences.  We’re ready to start this journey!