Days 5 and 6 =)

I didn't post anything last friday, and I've heard a few people ask about it, so I figured I better include friday on today's update.

Friday was a pretty uneventful day.  I read them a story for making meaning that was about trees, and they had to close their eyes while they listened and tried to picture the story in their minds.  Then we discussed the differences and similarities in the images everyone pictured.  We talked about size, shape, color, etc.  It was pretty interesting!  Then we had a "guest reader" (a.k.a a 3rd grade student) who brought in the longest book ever to read to the class.  We didn't want to cut her short, but we had to start pulling spelling groups out to take their spelling tests.  She read for a half hour, and still wasn't able to finish the book.  It was a little funny, because Mrs. Miller and I just kept looking at one another like, oh my gosh, when will this book end?!  After lunch, Mrs. Miller gave the students a spelling test that will tell us what level they are and if anyone needed to be in different spelling groups.  Then it was time for Fun Friday, which actually ended up being the quietest part of the day because they started watching the movie Shiloh.  I think that movie is so sad, but all the kids love it.

Today was much more exciting.  Over the weekend, I figured out that the student teacher I had in my 4th grade class works at the school I'm working in right now.  I mentioned it to her, and she actually had a photo album in her room of her time there! I was in a few of the pictures, and we had fun looking through them.  As far as the actual day goes, I read them "Voices in the Park" this morning.  Its a very interesting book that has a lot of meaning and purpose behind the text and illustrations; stuff that could be way beyond their little brains.  However, I wanted to show them how stories have more than one voice, and we discussed how the pictures portray the moods of the characters in the story.  Its a beautiful book, and I think I'll be using it again for a writer's workshop lesson in the future.  They did independent reading while Mrs. Miller worked with a reading group and I wrote lesson plans for next week.  Then they did a writing prompt during writers workshop time.  After lunch, I read them a chapter out of the book we're reading right now (Stuart Little). Then we moved into math, which I also taught.  They're just learning how to subtract.  I will be using M&M's as manipulatives tomorrow, which should be interesting on a behavior/listening level! I'm testing my own classroom management tomorrow.  After math, we worked on poetry.  Basically, they have a poetry book which we read a poem from each week, and they get to illustrate the poem.  They are able to listen to music during illustration time, so I turned on a CD for them.  The first song was Hakuna Matata, and they were all giggling as I sang and danced to it =)  Finally, we moved into Phonics.  We were able to stay on task and accomplish 3 pages, which is a big deal! They were glad they didn't have any homework. 

It was a great day. I'm so blessed to have such wonderful students, and I'm still just so excited to be there! I literally smile all day long.  It's so nice to know I've chosen the right career path for me, and that I'll be happy for the rest of my life! =)