Falling in love

We had a great day at school  full of my favorite things, reading and writing! I know I have said it before, but I cannot say enough how much I enjoy watching a new class fall in love with reading every year. Of course there are always those precious students that walk through my door with an innate love of reading.  How I would love to take credit for their abilities in reading and writing, but that would not be quite fair now would it? They would LOVE reading regardless; even as I stand to profess the joy and wonder of all things literacy to those around them. It is like preaching to the choir with these chosen few. One of these days I expect an Amen sister, or an Hallelujah! I sometimes look at them as sweet old souls with the same loves as me. I want to enlist them in my private campaign to transform my classroom into a reading haven. 


I must profess that what I have found so exciting this year, after reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, is that it REALLY is possible to create that very haven in which students walk in ready, and not just willing, but eager to open their books and dive right in! Is it premature of me, here in the first month of school, to hope that the quiet moments of Reading Workshop, that I so enjoy watching and participating in, endure the year! I hope not!



Our "Writer's Eyes" were a smashing success yesterday! I am so proud of my little writers...here are some examples!

       

Again, as stated in a previous post, this project will lead us closer to creating the perfect narrative piece.  Just one more resource to pull amazing ideas from!

In the next few weeks, most of the mentor texts that I share will help with sensory detail and figurative language. These small daily pages and details we add to our Writer's Notebooks will be just be one more tool to help us plan and write that amazing narrative story. Revisited throughout these few weeks will be The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter and Max's Words by Kate Banks. Both of these selections will add purposeful and detailed vocabulary to our pieces. Such fun vocab! 

  

A Long Way from Chicago is still pulling them in every afternoon. One sweet boy came and parked himself directly in front of me exclaiming how close he wanted to be because he LOVES this book! You CANNOT beat that! We really focused on visualization and character today as we read my favorite chapter of the book. We anchored and discussed some of our favorite things about character and Grandma Dowdel.

We have not read this next story together, and I am not sure that we will. So I wanted to add something that we did as a group last year with the fun and realistic characters of Tales From a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.

Well the hour grows late, and I should head to my bedroom as it calls me. I am sure I will spend a considerable amount of time at school tomorrow as I get ready for the next week and as I continue to get caught up on responding to Reader's Notebooks. It is so (here I want to add about a million o's to "so" because one does not seem to express exactly how "so" I mean hehe) easy to get behind in responses, but I can honestly say that again, yes again, I am very proud of my kiddos letters to me.

  

I am super sad; however, that I did not get to watch more of Justin's game as I would have liked. Mother Nature had other intentions in mind here at the beginning of the season when thunderstorms and lightning rolled through. No worries though, I am sure I will have plenty more time to watch him ~ it just goes by so fast!

#3 Justin Dunn

Headed off to that room now...Happy Reading!