Friday Focus - December 4, 2015

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• I know we told you all not to stress about conferring during writers workshop this first year, but I realized over the past couple of weeks that I saw several of you conferencing with individuals during writing and heard amazing conversations...
• One teacher shared specific praise of what the student included in his writing and then asked questions to hep pull out more details to add to his writing. 
• Another teacher was conferring with individuals to help them narrow in on their topic choices for informative writing. 
• Students writing "like scientists" as part of their informational writing unit. 
• Students playing a quick game of charades to practice vocabulary words in the 3 short remaining minutes they had between math and specials. What a great use of time!

Events Next Week:

Monday - Parent Technology Night 6:00-7:00pm (Officer Borchardt is presenting on student safety online). Please promote with your students...parents get their name in a drawing for an iPad mini each time they come!

Wednesday - Staff Meeting in IMC at 3:10

Friday - Staff Social Lunch (Special Ed/Speech/Cleary)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*For Wednesday's staff meeting, please plan to bring a celebration focused on writing (I know for specials teachers you may have to bring a different type of student celebration) to share. This may be a specific mini lesson that went well or even bringing a piece of student writing to share. 

*The 12 Days of Christmas are coming...more details to come soon. :)

*With the extra play time in the morning for bus duty and winter weather, there have been some questions about protocol for for students. I trust you to make a decision when you're out there and tell the students, when you're on duty. Here are the guidelines we go by for regular recess:

• If there is snow on the woodchips or grass then all snow gear is required to be there.
• If the Grass is wet or muddy, it’s off limits.
• If there's salt, snow or slush then students should have boots to play in it. 
• If the slides are wet from rain (seriously, I thought rain should be over with by December, but I'm not so sure now!)...students shouldn't go down or they'll be all wet!

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!

*Why We Read: Reflections After Completing the Goodreads Book Challenge 2015 You all know I love reading goals and logging books on Goodreads, but I love how this blog post makes connections to leading our readers in the classroom.  

Find more on close reading activities HERE