Four on Friday

I happen to read a Five on Friday over at HipWriterMama and thought I would give a "Four on Friday" a try.

1. I am loving my time in the classroom this year. I have enjoyed beginning to really think about how my first graders are choosing books. These first two weeks have been about what kids want to read and like to read. This week I had kids sharing about why they choose books here are some of their thoughts...they like books with cool pictures, they like the books that have flaps, they like books that are about something they like (Jay picked The Wheels on the Race Car because he loves cars), and they like books that make them feel something (M liked Heckedy Peg because it is scary).

2. I received an excellent article this week from my principal from the journal of Educational Leadership called JOY:Joyful learning can flourish in school if you give it a chance by Steven Wolk. This article spoke to me in a number of ways. Steven says..."what happens inside schools has a deep and lasting effect on the mind-sets that children develop toward lifelong learning." I want my students to love to learn as much as I do. I love to read and write and find it easy to share but other areas do not come as natural. After reading the article, I was inspired to catch a toad I watched hop around my garden and bring it in for the kids to see. We had fun watching the little guy hop and jump in the large bucket. He was great conversation for science and writing but mostly, it was just plain old fun. I want kids to know that learning is catching frogs, reading favorite books and writing about what you love.

3. Debbie Miller's new book, Teaching with Intention, is fabulous and I will say that I love it. I have only made it through the first 3 chapters but I am saying YES! to everything I read.

4. Too tired to think anymore. Fridays are heaven.