Friday Focus - Dec. 14

Great things I noticed this week:

• 2 students quietly used "rock, paper, scissors" to decide who would read first for "read to someone" during Daily 5.
• Singing/dancing while practicing properties of a square to the "Square Song"  The Have Fun Teaching YouTube channel has a ton of great songs to use in the classroom (great for educational brain breaks). 
• During math time I heard a first grader say, "Uh oh, I have an error." (I never would have though I'd hear a 6 yr old say that!)
• Students wearing a sticker that said "Ask me about what I read..."

Events Next Week:
Monday  - Elementary PD meeting at 3:05 in the Media Center
Tuesday - College shirt day
  I will be out of the building Tuesday afternoon at CESA 6
  K/2/4th grade Music Concert at 6:30 pm
Friday - wear Red and Green (instead of Dodgeland attire) for the holidays
Have a Wonderful Holiday vacation with your families :)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes

• Monday's Staff meeting will include: school-wide ideas to continue building culture of literacy, few notes on observations, volunteers/visitors, and a little fun. 
• We've already seen students starting to have a difficult time focusing on school with Christmas coming up...next week is only getting closer!  Keep in mind that the more you stray from "normal" the more the students will too.  As you're planning classroom holiday parties, make sure they are just a party and not a whole day event. ;) 

You don't want your students to turn into this ;)

• *Planning ahead for the New Year: Upon our return from Christmas break please keep in mind that you  will need to spend at least 2 weeks reteaching/retraining your students.  Please be ready to go over all your classroom routines and procedures and retrain your students
• Re-build/work on stamina in Daily 5
• Hallway behavior – We have all become very relaxed with enforcing Short, Straight, Silent.
• Transitions within the classroom – Be sure to have a transition routine from activity/subject to subject.

Blogs, Pins and Tweets...Oh My!

• Great article from Donalyn Miller: Keep Students Reading Over Winter Break
•  ‏@WonderPhillips
  Can't wait to share & discuss this @Wonderopolis, 'Is It Really Better To Give Than To Receive?' http://bit.ly/YWlxfo  #1stchat #2ndchat   
  If you haven't seen Wonderopolis, it is a really neat site with something new to learn everyday: 

Read the blog post HERE for this lesson