The first year...

The first day, the first week, the first month, THE FIRST YEAR!!! What a struggle this can be for a first year teacher. After a tough day yesterday I just wanted to share how thankful I am for my mentor and my third grade team this year. They have been such a help to me these first two months! While unpacking some boxes back in August I found this sign my sweet friend Katelyn made for me. I decide to hang it up behind my desk just to remind myself that I can do this. I just wanted to share this with the rest of all you first year teachers...and the seasoned veterans as well. WE CAN DO THIS!! 

Read For The Record!

Today the nation took part in "Read For The Record". Schools and classrooms across the country read the book "Bunny Cakes". I decided that I would incorporate this into our instruction for the week. We have been discussing the reading strategy visualization and how it can help you determine or infer different character traits. I played a reading of the story on the computer and only allowed the students to listen. They were not allowed to see the pictures. They had to visualize the characters, their actions and their dialogue. I asked them to draw a picture of what they visualized and to write down character traits they determined from the visualization. THEY DID AWESOME! I was so impressed with how quickly they picked up this skill and how great they executed it. 

A new reading series!

The third grade at TES has started their new reading series this week. Benchmark Literacy is currently being incorporated into the entire school and we are hoping all the students will really enjoy it! I am absolutely excited about the Readers Theater portion that accompanies the series. Super fun!!!