One Proud Teacher!

I'm so proud of my first graders!

I need to give you a little background information...go ahead and get comfy...

So I'm really starting to like this whole departmentalizing thing!  I still get stressed out about all of the details sometimes, but I'm really enjoying being the reading teacher!  I have a long way to go with the kiddos yet...but I'm already seeing growth in their abilities!  So...all is well in the world!

During the first few weeks of school I was struggling a bit with my routine and even transitioning the children from their previous class to my class.  In my heart, I wanted to do a read aloud when they first came into my room, but I was worried that I would not have time to read and get everything else done.  I see each class for 80 minutes.  I thought that the read alouds would have to be limited to short picture books due to my time limits.  I struggled for a week or two and then decided that I wanted to expose my children to some quality literature.  I was going through my library of chapter books and came across Junie B. Jones, which I love to read aloud, but I wanted something a little deeper.  Amber Brown...great book...but wanted more content...Magic Tree House Series....okay...but I was really wanting something to talk about...to really connect with....something that might push their thinking a bit....and then I saw my worn out copy of Charlotte's Web.  Without much thought, I took it to school and shared it with my kids.  When they saw it, they said, "It looks old."  So we talked about my worn out copy and I told them that some of my favorite books look like this...because I liked reading it so much that I read it several times.  We compared it to their favorite toys and/or blankets.  I started reading chapter 1, and they were hooked!  You could literally hear a pin drop every time I read it to them.  God forbid I skip a day, or stop in the middle of a chapter.

Today we finished reading Charlotte's Web.  One of the kiddos asked, "Will we read part 2?"  Some felt like there must be a sequel...love it!  So next week we'll be using Jen's "On the Farm with Charlotte and Friends" unit to wrap up everything!  It's such a great unit!

Click Here to visit Jen's TPT Shop!

I thought it would be fun to have the kiddos design their own spider webs and include a word in the web that described them, just like Charlotte weaved "Some Pig", "Radiant", "Humble" and "Terrific" into her web.  Here are a few pictures of what the kiddos created...

AMAZING!

I also wanted to have a little fun on my classroom blog so I decided to offer a giveaway for my reading kiddos!  One lucky firstie will win their own personal copy of Charlotte's Web.  All the children need to do is leave a comment about the book.   Here's the link to take a peek at some of their comments!  I'm so proud of them!

Click here to peek at my classroom blog!

Their comments truly reflect what we read in class...and knowing that they probably didn't type their comment on their own, they also had to communicate to their parent what they wanted to type and their parent had to have faith in their child that what they wanted to say was true and acceptable.  Every comment is right on target!  I am just so proud of them!

They're dying to know what our next book is going to be...I told them they'd have to wait until Monday!

Happy Friday!