The highlights included our book study of Razia's Ray of Hope by Elizabeth Suneby. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is thought provoking. While I read, I could see that children's eyes were opened to a bigger world, and that's an exciting event. So far we've used the book to study questioning, fluency, and character. Next week we'll continue character, focus on plot, looking for evidence of craft, and charting our emotions as we read. Later in February, we'll have the chance to meet Ms. Suneby.
Our math program saw the start of our new "mathemagician numeracy" daily half hour--a half-an-hour a day devoted in differentiated ways to numeracy development and enrichment. I LOVE it as I believe this effort is providing students' with needed extra, targeted attention in math. We continue to have our differentiated, blended, hour-long core lesson as well.
Students' started their work with the narrative genre by adding a holiday narrative to a Google doc thread. I've read and commented on most of them, and enjoyed each story. This weekend I'll catch up and read/comment on the remaining stories. Next week students will use their home study time to craft a wonderful narrative by following the outlined steps, and in the meantime we'll focus on narrative craft, organization, and voice during classroom focus lessons.
The first week back also ushered in our Friday genius hour/creativity time to students' delight. Some children coded games, radio shows, and movies while others turned cardboard boxes into castles.
It was a great week for Team 15, and now it's this teacher's time for a bit of family time and rest.
