A pond is an active place. It is bursting with activity, noise and life. Our little learning pond is
much the same. It is bustling with activity as children make new discoveries about the themselves and the world around them.
The central hub of the learning pad is the pond area (carpet area). Here we hold our class meetings, group lessons, listen
to stories, and share together.
Our day begins with morning greetings and morning work. The children come in, greet their friends (just as we do when
we get to work) and then take care of morning routine work such as signing in, lunch count, frog binders, and then complete
an assigned morning task or book shop.
First off on our agenda is our morning meeting. Our morning meeting is very routine. We do calendar math, read our morning
message, sing songs, and have fun learning through poems, games and puppets. It's a great way to start the day.
Following our morning meeting we dive into Reader's workshop next. It begins with a read aloud and
a group mini lesson, often focusing on a particular reading strategy I want the kids to try out. During reader's workshop
children dive into reading as they work on the Fabulous Four. Kids can choose from read to self, read to someone, listen
to reading, or write about reading. They read from just right books of their choice to better their reading skills. During
this time I confer with children helping them develop reading skills and strategies at their instructional level. The room
is a busy place during reader's workshop. We end reader's workshop with a sharing circle where we share our learning.
Word Work is next. Here we study word patterns, spelling rules, do word building and have fun exploring the
written language.
As you can see, our morning is very busy and we are all ready for brain break (recess) and lunch.
After lunch we have our math FLIP time. We really FLIP over math. We start with a math meeting and group lesson.
FLIP rotations follow the group lesson. FLIP is an acronym for Facts and practice, Learning concepts, Independent
Investigations, and Partnerships in learning. Children complete tasks in each area. The order in which they complete
them is their choice.
Our specials take place after math each day. When we get back from
specials we grab our snacks and get to work on explorations in science and social studies. This is always a fun and
exciting time. We also do work stations during this time block. Work Stations allow the kids to relax a bit and have
fun as they explore a variety of work areas in the room. It gives them a chance to interact and learn with their friends.
Work stations cover a variety of skills and integrate reading and writing with science and social studies.
Writer's workshop brings our day to an end. This is one of our favorite times of the
day. Each workshop begins with a mini lesson that teaches us something about becoming great writers and authors. After the
mini lesson, kids have the opportunity to try out the things we have been learning as they write from self selected topics.
Writer's workshop ends with a share time in which young authors share their work with their classmates.
Our day is
full of fun and learning!
