Another great day in Room 240!

After Independent Reading and Morning Meeting, we had Reader's Workshop. Today the kids chose new books for their book bags ("just-right" books for them, that they can read independently during Reader's Workshop). They also read their new books, and responded to them in their Reader's Response Journals.

After break time, we had Writer's Workshop, in which we had our first Writer's celebration of the year. Each student hasd been working on a 'publishing' piece. We've been working on revising it and adding details for the past several days. Yesterday, each kid chose a fragment of the their story to share with the whole class. Today, we the first part of the Writer's Celebration was to form a circle, and "read in" to to the circle the fragment of their story that they chose. After that, we split up into Reader Groups, and each child read his/her entire story to a small group. they did a wonderful job, every one! I also gave each one of them as certificate of accomplishment - they each came up, one by one, shook my hand, and got their certificate as their classmates were applauding them. After that, we had a toast to writers, with fancy plastic glasses and apple juice. It was very sweet, and the kids were very proud, as well they should be. They will bring their writing home next week.

After that, we headed out for lunch and recess, then back up to our room for Read Aloud (today we started Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig.) After Read-Aloud, we went upstairs for music class with Mr. Hoffman.

When we got back down to our room, we had a very fun Fall Party - thank you thank you thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came to help and who donated supplies. The kids loved it! There was face painting, pumpkin decorating, napkin rings to make, a cool hand-pattern wreath in fall colors, and pumpkin-shaped cookies to decorate with frosting and sprinkles. I think that we all enjoyed ourselves!

After the party, we went outside to burn off a little excess energy, and then it was time to head home!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend - don't forget that daylight savings time is on Sunday night!