My First Solo Week!

Just as I'd hoped, my first solo week felt smooth and exciting! It was such a great experience to run the show for a week and really get my feet wet teaching alone. 

We started off the week by finishing up our time unit in math. Now we can tell time not just on a digital clock, but on an analog clock too! The kids were excited and looking forward to starting off our money/coin unit, as was I! First we learned a poem that introduced each coin, pointing out the visual characteristics as well as the value of each to help us recognize and remember the differences between them. 

We then learned a few math games involving counting mixed coins and coming up with equivalent values using different or the least amount of coins. We still have a few more games to learn next week that will give us more practice working with money and even with making change!

During the week we had the honor and pleasure of meeting the very talented author and illustrator Ralph Masiello! Thank you Mrs. Foy for organizing this incredible experience to enjoy during our library time! The kids have been really looking forward to meeting him, as they have been using his drawing series for the past couple of weeks in library to create inspired beautiful artwork of their own.
Hearing him tell his story from when he was a kid and watching his illustrations come to life was truly inspiring. He knew how to run the crowd and had all the kids engaged and laughing; they really enjoyed their time with him! 

To wrap up our opinion writing unit, the students first posted a picture and voice audio to Seesaw of them reading one of their top opinion pieces, stating their opinion and backing it up with supportive reasons. Now as a final classroom project, we are going to combine our individual student work to create a 1/2Y classroom wide "Best Part of Me" book. This activity is originally inspired by the mentor text, The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald. Below is a video read aloud. As a class, we first watched this to give us an overall idea of what it is we are trying to create. Students are now in the process of taking their ideas from their organizers and turning into smooth writing. Not only has this activity helped students in their writing, but it has also helped promote a caring classroom community as students are respecting themselves and their classmates.

To put a cherry on top of the end of our week, we had a Patriots celebration in hopes that the Patriots win the Super Bowl this weekend! As true fans, we dressed up and made Patriots hats to spread our cheer around the school!

Enjoy your weekend, and go Patriots!