We have spent a great deal of time building our classroom community, with an emphasis on respect, responsibility and strength of character. We have read many stories and had many discussions about how the decisions we make reflect who we are. We understand that kindness and courtesy are important and worth extending to others. The students have been writing a self-reflective piece on how they want to contribute to making the world a better place, which we will share with families at conferences.
We have worked on some short, fun writing projects as well, including instructional writing detailing how to be a Halloween creature!
The students use math journals for daily problem solving, which provides both assessment to guide learning, as well as assessment of the strengths and needs of each student.
We have also worked on developing our critical thinking skills in responding to literature in order to deepen our comprehension and connect our ideas to the real world.
Sample student response: "I think that they were afraid. And they were being bystanders. They thought that they were gonna be teased too."
