Anchor Charts--2nd Edition

We are a couple weeks into the new school year and everything is going great! Our class of 22 is busy learning routines and procedures and new 4th grade skills. Back to School Night took place this past Thursday and it was wonderful meeting many of our new families. The students were very proud to show off their new classroom to their parents and siblings. I always love overhearing their chatter as they show parents "our meeting area", "my desk and morning work binder", "our classroom library and book tubs", and "the place where we do our attendance and lunch count". They are like little experts already!

One of the new things in our district is the new reading series--Benchmark Literacy. This is far from the traditional basal series of the past. It is always a challenge to get to know something new but I think that once it becomes familiar, it will work well with the balanced literacy framework that's already been in place the last few years. I am no longer following Daily 5 (sad face) but I do think this new program does a good job of setting up the routines and procedures in a way that is similar to Daily 5.

As in the past, this program requires a number of anchor charts to be created and posted in the room for the students to reference throughout the year. If you've followed this blog for awhile now, you know that anchor charts have only become a part of my classroom in the last few years. I would like to share some of the new charts created this past week as part of the new series.

This is a new bulletin board that shows all the Metacognitive and Comprehension Strategies covered in the 4th grade BL curriculum. These are a lot like the CAFE lessons I used in D5. Each week, we focus on one of each. For example, this past week we had whole group lessons on Asking Questions (Metacognitive) and Identifying Main Idea and Supporting Details (Comprehension). We refer to this board almost daily!

The components of Readers' Workshop.

What Readers' Workshop Looks/Sounds Like--
These were things the students came up with and they are pretty spot on. These students are very familiar with the Balanced Literacy framework so they now come in knowing expectations pretty well. We will refer to these often as well.

Turn to your Partner--
These are the prompts and questions we have begun to practice using during our reading discussions. This takes A LOT of practice but it will pay off in dividends later on as the students start to have really rich discussions about what is read!

I'll close this post with a photo of my up-and-coming writing center! It includes posters I began using last year and is still a work in progress--but I'm likin' it so far!

Can't wait to share more information with you soon!

Graphing Chips at the Fall Party

We had a short, 3 day week last week that ended with celebrating our fall party on Wednesday afternoon just before Fall Break! For the party, the students voted on having a chip party. Several students brought in different kinds of chips for everyone to sample. At the end of the party, each student voted on their favorite type of chip. I created this graph on SMART Notebook to share with the students today--

As you can see, Flaming Hot Cheetoh's was the unanimous winner in our "official" taste testing poll, with 9 students choosing it as their favorite. We'll review and discuss the results at the start of math today. I'm sure the results will stir up some interesting conversation and possible debates!

Thank you to all the parents who sent treats and goodies for our fall party! We enjoyed them all! Happy fall!

Into the Second Week

We have made it to the 6th day of school...and it has been a busy six days! First, thank you to all the parents for returning all the important school forms back so quickly. I know it is a lot to sort through and I appreciate the time you spent on them. I especially enjoy reading the parent surveys. YOU are the best expert on your child and I really value your input and any suggestions you give for making each day at Harding a successful one for your student. A few tidbits from the last 6 days--

Every student got a free backpack with school supplies inside! This cute little mascot made a visit with MDWise to provide these items to our students. We were very excited and the kids love the bags!

We spent a good chunk of time on the first day of school answering these questions and share our opinions. We had great discussion! These charts will hang in our room all year to remind us of the expectations we have set for ourselves and our classroom.

As you are already aware, the students are responsible for maintaining their homework planners each night. The homework is always written on the board each day for them to copy and they are reminded several times throughout the day. This may be a new routine for many but it is a very important one that each 4th grade student must learn. Your signature in the planner tells me you have discussed or seen the homework your child has completed. I remind the students it is THEIR responsibility to have you sign it--not mom and dad's to remember!

DON'T FORGET! Back to School Night is tomorrow, Thursday, August 30th. It begins with the PTA meeting at 4:00pm and ends at 5:30pm. I hope you are able to make it! I look forward to meeting our families!