What a great week for reading and writing in the Mustang's classroom!  We are settling into our Reader's Workshop routine.  This is an important part of each day.  The Mustangs are getting better and better at choosing "just right" books to read.  We are working on "pre-reading"; looking over a book before we even read a page, looking at pictures for clues, and thinking about what the big ideas might be.  We have also worked hard at setting goals for ourselves as readers.  Some of our goals include "reading 3 pages at a time without taking a break" and "finishing a big book before Halloween".  I have seen each reader gain endurance in reading independantly!  This is one of MY goals for them! I was also excited to see some students taking the initiative to journal about a book they read without prompting from me. 

We added new words to our Word Wall Boxes and even made time for some informal quizzing at each table.  The students used their word cards as flashcards to help make these words "Cheetah words" for everyone at each table!

We had the opportunity to work on various types of writing this week.  On Monday, we did some reflective writing about our weekend in our journals. We also wrote "creation stories" about our favorite rocks at the rock shop.  In addition, we explored other types of writing as we discuss an answer to the question: What do writers write?  We wrote thank you notes, how-to's for around the classroom and descriptive writing for our "Mighty Mustangs" poster.

Thank you for encouraging your child's reading at home!  A book should be coming home in the bag every night.  It is every Mustang's responsibility to bring their books back and forth from school.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns on this front.  I will make sure to give ample opportunity for all students to choose their books each day.

This week, students worked on building good reading workshop habits: choosing "just right" books, knowing when to read silently and when to discuss reading with a friend, and what to do after finishing a book.  I introduced the Reading Journal, which allows students to log important details about the books they are reading. This is an important tool for documenting and reflecting on what we read.  Readers can even rate the books they finish by filling in 1 to 5 stars! 

We've had a lot of fun with our word wall boxes.  The sight words we place in our boxes are quickly becoming "cheetah" words for all of us!  We have also begun "Working with Words".  These fun and quick lessons enable students to manipulate letter tiles to build various words.  Students take turns working with the large chart letter tiles to share their word discoveries with classmates.

I also had a chance to sit down with every student and conduct important assessments. I was able to read with each student individually.  We also carried out a spelling assessment and a phonics/sight word assessment.

We spent a little time each day learning the routine of a "Readers Workshop".  This time allows students to learn and practice a new reading skill while giving me time to conference with individual students. We focused this week on choosing books that are "just right".  We worked really hard to choose "just right" books to take home over the weekend for  "Book in a Bag". Please make sure books that come home as part of "Book in a Bag" return to school every day.  Please log the books he or she reads on the log sheet included in the bag.  For now, we are using a coding system to help us know how easy or hard a book might be. 

We also began practicing and learning sight words by creating flash cards for individual Word Wall Boxes.  The students loved decorating and individualizing their own boxes.  The boxes will help each student amass just the right vocabulary of sight words!

We will delve into our first big writing project next week.  To prepare, we brainstormed all of the things that writers write.  We will save our list on the wall to give us inspiration!

We had our first Readers Workshop this week!  We learned about how to choose a reading book that is "just right".  It will take some time time for your reader to practice this skill.  We decided that if a reader can't decode more than 5 words on a page, that reader needs to find a book that is a little bit easier.  More challenging books can be "Goal Books" that we can work towards as we gain practice. 

We have not begun our handwriting curriculum yet, but we did decide to improve on the alphabet that is up on our walls.  Students worked hard to create a new "more exciting" set of alphabet cards to hang on our walls.  You'll see an "S" made of socks, a "Q" made of q-tips and so much more!  Our letters have never been so amazing!

For our first writing project, we described a highlight from our summer vacation.  These are now decorating the wall.  We learned about each other while getting back into the groove of forming clear and descriptive sentences.