Five for Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for 
Friday.  Another week in the books and I'm so proud of my kiddos... they are working so hard and we're having some much fun together!
  

Here are some highlights from our week! 

ONE: Problem Solving 
We begin every math workshop session with an application word problem.  This week we began using these problem solving work mats.  The kids did a great job using these math tools to help them solve word problems.  I was very proud.  If you'd like more information about how I run my math workshop block, here is a link to a post I did over the summer.  

TWO: Calendar

This week we also began using our calendar workmats.  They were a big hit last year and I was so excited to begin using them again this year.  I waited a few days to introduce them until I felt the kids were ready.  I love how these mats add some math and ELA skills to morning meeting/calendar time.  This is the mat we'll use for now.  As the year goes on we'll add more skills and we'll complete two calendar pages.  We have not attempted the sentence fix it yet... possibly next week... we'll see how it goes!

  

  THREE: Book Logs
In previous years I've tried book logs and it was just something that I didn't think worked very well.  I thought my kids wasted too much time writing titles of books when all I wanted was for them to be reading during our reading workshop block.  After reading the Literacy Teacher's Playbook by Jennifer Serravallo I was determined to make them work this year.  

Using some ideas in the book I think I found a format that will work.  The kids did a great job writing their book titles for the first time this week and I think this will only get easier as the year goes on.  

FOUR: Writing Workshop 

Our writing workshop block is off to a great start.  My kids have really embraced the writer's life and they are so excited to write their own stories each day.  This week we really focused on touching and telling before sketching and writing across the pages.  I'm so impressed by the quality of writing that is produced when the kids use this method.  Next week we're going to focus on zooming in.  This can be difficult for some and something we'll work on all year but I'm so excited to get started.  

Five: Organization Tip

Can I tell you how excited I get when I open up a book to read aloud and I find some lesson ideas or a worksheet we've completed in previous years inside the book.  I have binders full of work and lesson ideas that I use on a weekly basis but there are always those stand alone read alouds that have a lesson or worksheet that go with it.  I was never really sure where to put these worksheets/ideas because they never really fit with the ELA units I have in binders.  

So I came up with this idea... stick the lesson idea or worksheet inside the book so when I pull the book the next time I know exactly how I used the book for a previous lesson.  It's always a nice surprise!  And... the kids love this book!  They couldn't stop laughing!

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!