A pond is an active place. It is bursting with activity, noise and life.
Our little learning pond is much the same. It is bustling with activity as children make new discoveries about the themselves
and the world around them.
The central hub of the learning pad is the watering hole (carpet area). Here we hold our class meetings, group lessons,
listen to stories, and share together.
Our day begins with morning greetings and morning work. The children come in, greet their friends (just as we do when
we get to work) and then take care of morning routine work such as signing in, lunch count, frog binders, and then complete
an assigned morning task or book shop.
First off on our agenda is our morning meeting. Our morning meeting is very routine. We do calendar math, read our morning
message, sing songs, and have fun learning through poems, games and puppets. It's a great way to start the day.
Following our morning meeting we dive into our math workshop next. We really FLIP over math. We start with a math meeting and group lesson. FLIP rotations
follow the group lesson. FLIP is an acronym for Facts and practice, Learning concepts, Independent Investigations, and
Partnerships in learning. Children complete tasks in each area.
Reader's workshop is next. It begins
with a read aloud and a group mini lesson, often focusing on a particular reading strategy I want the kids to try out. During
reader's workshop children dive into reading as they work on the Fabulous Four. Kids can choose from read to self, read to
someone, listen to reading, or write about reading. They read from just right books of their choice to better their reading
skills. During this time I confer with children helping them develop reading skills and strategies at their instructional
level. The room is a busy place during reader's workshop. We end reader's workshop with a sharing circle where we share our
learning.
Word Work is next. Here we study word patterns,
spelling rules, do word building and have fun exploring the written language.
As you can see, our morning is very busy and we are all ready for brain break (recess) and lunch.
After lunch we gather for writer's workshop. This
is one of our favorite times of the day. Each workshop begins with a mini lesson that teaches us something about becoming
great writers and authors. After the mini lesson, kids have the opportunity to try out the things we have been learning as
they write from self selected topics. Writer's workshop ends with a share time in which young authors share their work with
their classmates.
Our specials
take place in the afternoon. When we get back from specials get to work on explorations in science and social
studies. This is always a fun and exciting time. We also do work stations during this time block. Work Stations
allow the kids to relax a bit and have fun as they explore a variety of work areas in the room. It gives them a chance to
interact and learn with their friends. Work stations cover a variety of skills and integrate reading and writing with
science and social studies.
Our day is full of fun and learning!
