Native Americans and Birds

This week we kicked off our "Native Americans" and "Birds" units.  We have been reading about Native Americans, discussing what it was like to live long ago and comparing that to how we live today.  I have been amazed by what a wealth of knowledge Pam has about this topic!  We also spent some time practicing walking like Native Americans.  Today we began learning about birds.  Our focus today was geese.  We read a story about a goose and talked about how and why geese migrate.  We will continue to learn about these topics during the month of October.

We are lucky enough to have several parents who have volunteered to do some one-on-one reading during Readers Workshop.  This will be a great opportunity for students to practice their oral language, fluency and comprehension while I am meeting with reading groups.  It is also a great opportunity for children to become more confident readers.  Some parents will also be joining us for Writers Workshop.  This will be a great time for my friends to share their writing and get ideas about how to make pieces they are working on even better.  Many thanks to those parents for this support!

Many of my friends have already handed in their homework.  I have been so impressed with the creativity and effort I have seen with these activities.  It has been great to see many of my friends choose to do the "dessert" options even though they were totally optional.  If you have any feedback or creative ideas for homework, please feel free to share them with me.  My hope is to make homework something that gives them the opportunity to make some of their own choices about how they show their learning and gives them an opportunity to explore their creativiy.