Learning Canyon: Share something you are excited about in your classroom

So, our agenda for our meeting this morning came through an email last night.

Item #1: Share something you are excited about in your classroom.

Well, I am glad you asked. It is funny that yesterday I had an exciting and delightful day with Team Awesome 174. So I am happy to share! Some of the things I am excited about?

Fluency-Poetry-Flocabulary-Themes

1. Fluency Practice

I let the students pick a poem from 5 different ones this week. I was curious which ones they would pick. (Would they pick the "easiest" one?) Some interesting results. Many chose the easiest poem. But it was surprising who chose the hardest one. I listened to one boy read his and had to grin from ear to ear. Because of the nature of the poem, he started singing it. (Did you know you can make QR codes for Seesaw posts?)

2. We used the book of poems by Doug Florian (one of my FAVORITE poets) yesterday titled Insectopedia.

One of the members of this book group wanted to record it onto Seesaw. I said sure and he went into the middle room to record. He stayed there for 27 minutes! These poems are not easy. His fortitude amazed me.

3. I 💙 Flocabulary so much! I love raps! I love it when students create! Some of my students have started writing raps with the vocabulary they are learning. Here is one that J wrote:

4. I always get excited when theme is the subject of the hour. We watched the story of the The Monkey King yesterday and talked about the themes in that story (sacrifice, changing behavior, greed). Then later we read Half Chicken (Journeys 2nd Grade Vol. 2) and one of the students notice a part where the fire sacrifices itself for the sake of the chicken. Making connections is VERY exciting, wouldn't you say?