We are readers and we are writers
At the beginning of the week, students worked with the hard th sound (as in feather). We read a fun story called Feathers for Lunch. In math students learned about what happens when zero is added to a number and explored the concept of adding in any order (communicative property of addition). We continued learning about the 4 zones of regulation and we talked about when it is expected that people are in the various zones. We discussed expected and unexpected behaviors for each zone. Their work in writing workshop has been outstanding and they have been so engaged in writing. This week we focused on writing in complete sentences and explored what makes a sentence complete or incomplete.
Soft th
Beautiful oops
The first book, The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes is about a girl named Beatrice who was always perfect. She was so perfect that she never tried new things because she didn't want to make a mistake. After reading this book to the class we talked about how boring it would be if we only did things we were good at. Mistakes are proof that we are trying new things. We should always be willing to try and learn from our mistakes. Beatrice realizes how much fun she can having making mistakes.
Regina's Big Mistake takes us into the classroom with a little girl who is given the assignment to draw a jungle. She gets so frustrated because she doesn't know what to draw. Regina is ready to quit. She finally begins drawing and when she is just about done her crayon slips and her sun looks like a lumpy banana. She makes the best of her mistake by making the sun into a moon. Everyone admires Regina's jungle at night.
Finally I read the book Beautiful Oops to the class. What a perfect story. Throughout the book the author takes mistakes and turns them into something beautiful. I told the students that I was painting and that I made 25 mistakes. I gave them each a piece of paper with a smudge or spot on it. They turned my mistake into a beautiful masterpiece.
It was wonderful to hear the students comfortably pointing out their mistakes throughout the week. Instead of getting upset by mistakes they simply said, "Oops, I made a mistake." This made my heart smile. Hopefully, this message will set the tone for a great year!
"Mistakes are proof that you are trying."
"No one is perfect. That is why pencils have erasers."