1st Time MEAPers

The students had an event filled week. On Tuesday they began taking the MEAP for the very first time. This year the state has set the days and times the kids must take each section of the meap, which had them meaping all day long! The kids are doing a great job! As my roll of student teacher, I volunteered to work with the students that would be testing seperately with their resource room teacher. I really enjoyed working with a small group of students and being able to connect with them as individuals. We played math games working on addition and subtraction, practiced focusing their writing using pictures of wild animals as a prompt, and vowel teams and consonant blends. This week the students used the Smart Board for the first time during math. They learned how to count money by sliding the dollars and coins across the board into the rectangle. They were all so excited to take their turn and help other students when needed. The last picture above was taken when the kids went outside to have some fun after a hard day of meaping!

Favorite Fall Things

During writing this week the students went through the entire writing process as they shared their favorite thing about fall. Whether it was Halloween, jumping into a pile of leaves or going to a fooball game everyone was able to create a writing piece they were proud to share. In the picture above, a few students show off their final writing piece before it is published by hanging it out in the hallway. I meant to take more pictures of the students decorating their writing piece, but I was so busy during the class I completely forgot! The time really flies when your in the middle of a lesson. The biggest thing I've learned this week is that everything takes longer than you think it will! It is a neccessity to plan ahead, but be prepared to be VERY flexible!

Excited...Write!!!

This week the class met someone they had never met before, someone with the softest fur in the world, someone to be excited about meeting! No it wasn't my husband, Mr. Jake Stamper, although the kids were interested in meeting him too. The real visitor was a baby chinchillla! The day before the visit the class brainstormed what they knew about a chinchilla, what they wanted to know, and then what they had learned. Their faces beamed as each student was able to pet the little chin. After our friendly little visitor left, the students were then asked to write a letter telling someone all about the chinchila they had just met. It was really awesome to create an authentic experience for the students to be so excited about and then express their excitment through words.