Today, after Independent Reading time and Morning Meeting, we went right into Reader’s Workshop. Today, we continued with the story study that we began yesterday. Today we read Gingerbread Girl, which was a fun, new take on the traditional story. Once again, we discussed setting, characters and plot. Then the kids had time to do buddy reading with their ‘just-right’ books, and then write a response in their Reader Response Journals.

After that, we sang Down By the Bay again, and the kids suggested some new (and very clever) verses to add to the song. After our song, we had Writer’s Workshop. We did not start any new stories today – we are wrapping up this second unit of writing. Today we were working on finishing up pieces that we have already started, with the aim to selecting one piece to read for our writer’s celebration next week. (This celebration will be just us in the class again – the next one will be ‘open to the public’!!)

After that, it was time to head down for lunch and recess. After that, we came back up to our room, and we read another short gingerbread boy book. Then we were off to the gym for class with Mr. Hill and Mr. Peterson – the kids all ran for 12 minutes today, in training for the Family Fun Run next Thursday (please come and join us – 12:00 – 12:55).

When we got back to Room 240, we had Math Workshop. Today the kids played a game in which one of them would say a number less than 10, and the other would say the number that ‘goes with’ that number to make 10 (4 and 6 or 8 and 2, for instance).

We then had a bit more handwriting practice – we reviewed the proper way to make the uppercase letters.

After all of that, it was construction time – the big cardboard box that was in our room yesterday has transformed into a 6 foot tall gingerbread house! Some of the kids worked as “roofers” by putting shingles on the roof, and some worked as “siders” by putting brown paper on the outside walls. We will finish the roofing and decorating the outside of the house tomorrow.

With that excitement out of the way, it was time to pack up and head home!