Dear Families,
We have had such a wonderful first full week of school. After a few days of getting to know the room, the procedures, and the brand new teacher I think we were all ready to jump right in to a regular day. While we have accomplished a good deal this week I'm going to use this newsletter to focus on the first two structures of our day, Morning Work/Explorations and Morning Meeting, to help you understand what we do during these times, why we do it, and how it benefits your kids.
First...Morning Work. Each morning as the kids walk in there are instructions for them on the board. The first few are generally to unpack their things and sharpen a pencil or two to help us get ready for the day. After this is complete there are a couple mornings each week where the kids are asked to complete a short piece of Morning Work. This might be a ten-problem computation sheet, a response to a text that has been put on the Smart Board, or an opportunity to finish something they had started the day before. The purpose of Morning Work is to: (1) review skills and strategies, (2) begin thinking about something we'll explore in greater detail later in the day, (3) support one another in our learning, and (4) allow extra time to complete work. You will often see this come home in the form of a half-sheet of paper. There will be some days when it is not completely finished. Don't worry about this. Chances are the kids either came in from Morning Sports Club a bit later than normal or it was something they needed help thinking through.
Once morning work is complete (anywhere from five to ten minutes) the kids are free to make use of their Explorations time any way they choose. We have worked together to create a list of possibilities for this time. They include: reading, writing, playing chess, observing the animals and insects living in our tank, playing a math game we have learned in class, using the microscope to look more closely at everyday objects, writing something in a class journal to share later, finding a news article to read and share out, and playing a language game such as Bubble Talk (you'll see an example of this game at the top of this post). The purpose of Explorations is to allow for time for independent choice and exploration. Today I tallied the choices kids were making during this time and there were six games of chess being played, three people playing a math card game, one other drawing a picture, and a group gathered around the critter tank talking about the chrysalis, toad, cockroach, Darkling beetles, and meal worms. Explorations also offers me a great opportunity to sit and chat with the kids or work with individuals and small groups who might need a little extra help with someone.
The final morning structure I wanted to explain is Morning Meeting (sometimes referred to as Class Meeting or News and Journals). During this time someone in class shares with us the Class History (a summary of yesterday) and then calls on people who want to share something from the news or from a class journal. I've been modeling this over the past eight days. We've talked about butterflies at the Edventure Museum, the proposed plan to move the homeless out of downtown, the Gamecock football game, and the upcoming changes to what sorts of foods schools are allowed to offer students (getting rid of vending machines, etc). After the news we share things that have been added to our three classroom journals: Language Journal, Science Journal, and Social Action (Good Deeds) Journal. These are places the kids can record observations, questions, stories, facts, and so on. I've been modeling these as well. Classroom journals open up our classroom to anything the kids might want to know, discuss, or share. Many of my favorite moments tend to happen during class journals. The kids become so observant and inquisitive during these two years. One of my favorites last year was when a student shared "Why do people always refer to strong animals as a 'he', even when they might be female? It's making being male normal and being female not normal." From this I realized how often I say things to the class such as "Hey you guys..." and it seems natural (even for the girls) yet I could never say "Hey you girls..." without the boys throwing a fit. It's these kind of aha moments that our work around news and journals allow.
Next week the kids will be asked to begin taking over the work of bringing in articles and writing in journals. You'll see on the homework post that our first round of articles will begin on Tuesday. About half of the class is sharing an article next week while the other half will share the following week. This work will eventually be done in the classroom almost exclusively. Explorations is a great time for finding articles. However, I'm asking them to do it for homework this first time around to help support them into this new work.
So, that's it! Be sure to ask your child from time to time what they are doing in Explorations and what sorts of things they are sharing in class journals. You might even think of an interesting idea you could pass along to them.
Chris
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