Today was more of a "regular" style day, and I think we were all thankful for that! I warned the kids yesterday that we would be BUSY all day every day, and I think they started to believe me!
Here are some highlights from the day:
~They took a math pre-test! (We'll take a reading pre-test tomorrow, weeeeeee!) Pre-tests are great because it shows us as teachers exactly what we need to focus on reviewing or reteaching before we move on, and it also shows us what we won't have to focus on as much later on because they've already got it down. While they can be overwhelming for the students (that idea of not knowing an answer can really freak them out!), they hopefully aren't too scary. All the kids survived the math pre-test today, at least!!!
~We reviewed parts of speech and story elements today - with some super fun cutting and pasting, a little bit of note taking, and some conversation. Then we read Lon Po Po, a Chinese folk tale that is similar to our own story of Little Red Riding Hood. The video of that book can be viewed here so they can listen to it again before they complete their worksheet that goes with it.
~We glued our very first map into our Social Studies notebook --- let the geography learning begin!!!!!
Looking ahead toward tomorrow and even next week, things will start to get busier with more homework and more intense school work, but let's all enjoy this honeymoon period now! We will still spend some days reading children's books (because they are a great way to teach and review some basic and important skills!), and we will continue cutting and pasting things into all of our many notebooks - social studies, reading, vocabulary, writing, math, science....I think there's a notebook for everything!
Look for spelling words next week - we'll start with tests next Thursday!