Can you believe it's already Thursday?

Today was another great day in room 402.  We started with a morning meeting, led by our student teacher, Jessica.  She taught us a new greeting that used a bean bag toss to greet friends.  Then we added a new part to the morning meeting:  Sharing!  Jessica shared about a recent trip to the New York Public Library.  We listened well and then asked questions to learn more and shared comments to support Jessica.  After that, we headed to the dance studio with Ana.  We have dance class on Mondays and Thursdays.  On those days, students should wear gym clothes (sweat pants or mesh shorts, t-shirts, and shoes and socks that can be removed).  We don't wear shoes in the dance studio, so please don't wear stockings or tights on those days.

After dance class, we came back to the classroom and talked about our Hopes and Dreams again.  We brainstormed lots of ideas for things we can work towards achieving by the end of second grade.  From improving our reading to becoming a better swimmer, from achieving a higher rank in karate to making new friends, we have lots of goals!  After deciding on our own dream, we came up with a plan to achieve it.  We can't just sit and hope - we have to work this year to achieve our dream!  Tomorrow we'll be finishing our projects to display in the classroom for the year.

Then we went back into our math books.  We are using pattern blocks to cover shapes and then record the different combinations of blocks used to do so.  It is fun work, but it's also challenging us to try things over and over.

Two students cover the same shape using pattern blocks -
but one is using lots of green triangles and the other is using
fewer red trapezoids to cover it.

Then we read another chapter in our book, The Twits, before heading to recess and lunch.  After that break, we had Quiet Time again.  We still have four options for things to do silently and independently: read, write, draw, or rest.  Next, we had a writing workshop period.  We wrote a journal entry about yesterday's math lesson together as a class.  We stopped and thought between each sentence about what we wanted to write, and even said it aloud a few times to make sure our word choices were perfect before recording it.  After we wrote the journal entry together, we went into our own journals and wrote on our own.  Lots of great writers are emerging in our classroom!  For the last period of the day, we reviewed the reading workshop rules we had created yesterday and then we read independently.  All of us focused on our own books for almost 20 minutes without talking to a friend or moving around the room.  Even in the heat we love to read!  Tomorrow is already Friday - can you believe it?