We did it!!! Thanks to the families of Room 18 we ordered well over $200 in books from Scholastic this month. That means we automatically earned 6,000 bonus points to put towards books, cd's, listening station sets and other great materials for our room. I have already ordered multiple books both fiction and non-fiction pertaining to the upcoming elections, four great audio books for our listening stations, Hot Dots interactive learning pens that provide countless opportunities to reinforce concepts learned in class (see here for more information), numerous science books (I love science and the kids have expressed a keen interest as well) and a class set of Magic Tree House books. My next "plan of attack" is to sit down with the kids each month and pick out 3-4 books from order form to add to our classroom library. Thank you all so much for your support. The children and I appreciate it more than you'll ever know!

 

We have all kinds of exciting things brewing in the classroom right now. This week, the children had the opportunity to make a special home for their writing as they personalized their Writer's Notebooks. It was so neat to see all of the pictures, stickers and quotations the children brought in. I especially enjoyed hearing all of the memories and stories that went along with each memento.

 

The children could hardly wait until Friday to write their first entry in their notebooks. When that day finally came, the room was absolutely silent. The children were so engaged in their writing that for a moment I completely forgot I was in a room with 20 vivacious and excitable second graders. Walking around and conferring quietly with the students I heard memories of family trips, stories about favorite pets, dedications to loved ones who were lost and fiction pieces of superheros and fantasy lands...and this was only our first day! We have a great journey ahead of us in the world of Writer's Workshop and I can't wait to watch the children continue to blossom.

 

As I mentioned before, the children continue to impress me across the board. When I share with someone that the students in my room give each other their spelling test each week I am often met with a look of confusion and surprise. The truth is, when I first considered partner spelling tests I too was a little apprehensive. Now that we are in are third week of testing, I wonder why I was ever worried at all. The children are incredibly mature and reliable when it comes to giving the tests. They read each word clearly and repeat it as needed (some even mimic their first grade teachers, using each word in a sentence) and when they are done they put away their testing materials and read quietly while the rest of the class is finishing. Being able to successfully complete this task each week requires a tremendous amount of responsibility and I'm proud to say that this is definitely a group of second graders I I can depend on!