Rainy Day
Haiku
On Thursday
kids wrote Rainy Day Haikus. It started
when they arrived to class soaking wet.
We turned out the lights and looked at the playground and the rain. Then we brainstormed ideas and images of the
morning; red and white umbrellas, kids running to class, wet hair, a dark
sky. In the afternoon, as the day was
clearing, we took our notebooks outside and observed the aftermath of the rainy
morning; puddles and reflections, fast moving clouds, peeks of blue sky,
raindrops clinging to railings. Back in
class, we wrote in the haiku form, three lines of non-rhyming poetry. The first line and the third line each have 5
syllables and the 2nd line has seven. Most of us adhered to the rule and wrote
beautiful, poignant poems about the power and beauty of nature. Enjoy a few of them now.
Trees shaking off
leaves,
Giant raindrops on my
head,
My clothes are
soaking.
Gage
Clouds steal the blue
sky,
They tell a story to
me,
A storm is coming.
Maggie
Look up at the sky,
Downpour is on its
way,
Everybody run for
cover!
Eva
Rain comes pouring
down,
All the umbrellas go
up!
Raindrops cling to
rails.
Ava
Trees droop as if sad,
Abandoned coat on the
ground,
Twig fails to dry.
Alice
The foggy windows,
Kids running to their
classes,
Water on the slide.
Beck
Raindrops drip off
trees,
Wind races over my
head,
Shoes and socks are
drenched.
Stella
The lonely playground,
Sad, gray and drenched
with raindrops,
The students in class.
Christian
In Reading
Workshop we are working hard to develop the ability to dig deeply into
text. We use the Scott Foresman
Anthology to support learning skills and strategies for comprehension, fluency
and vocabulary development. Kids are
writing responses to the text, a hallmark of the Common Core Standards. Our team has had a lot of discussions around
Walk to Read and have come to the conclusion that the numbers don’t spread out
evenly enough to make it a good experience for third graders. Therefore we are going to continue to
differentiate instruction in the Reading Workshop in our own classrooms. But we will be adding some new things to the workshop. First, I want to add some novel studies to
the mix, but will need some volunteers to help.
Our Reading Workshop is from
11:00-12:00 daily. (except late
openings on Wednesday). If you can volunteer once a week for a book
group or support group, contact me, please!
Conferences
are coming soon. Our first evening of
conferences is next Thursday, the 21st of November. Then we’ll hold the others on the 25th
and 26th. I’ll have reminders
out to you this week. This is our time to
meet please be on time. We are required
to meet for 20 minutes but I book them on the half hour so that we have a
little wiggle room. I look forward to
talking to you about the progress of your wonderful children.
In math
class we are finishing our second unit which has focused on Place Value and
Subtraction. Please continue to practice
math facts with your student. I plan to
have an un-timed subtraction warm up for them every day this week. After this week we’ll begin our unit on 2D
and 2D Geometry.
Play
rehearsals for Portland: The Musical,
are proceeding well. Kids have learned
(not memorized) about half of the songs.
We meet just about every week and Mr. Nelson shares his vast knowledge
of Portland history with our students.
He is a treasure and the kids hold him in high regard.
Thanks for
bring me such a wonderful group of students ready to learn every day. I love working with them.
Valerie
McKenzie
