It is a great story that starts out with James and his two hideous aunts. A peculiar thing happens to James, and the peach tree in his yard starts to grow an enormous peach. The tree bends over from the weight of the peach, and soon breaks free and rolls all the way to the ocean. James meets some very strange creatures who soon become his friends (life-sized insects), and they go off on an amazing adventure together.
We learned that...
We discussed the difference between sketching and drawing, and then took five minutes to sketch what has "stuck with us" so far about the book, James and the Giant Peach.
We shared our sketches with the whole group and practiced our listening and sharing skills with the document camera and the microphone. We remembered our classroom rule of "taking care of each other" when someone else is sharing.
Watch the video below to see what "stuck with us" about James and the Giant Peach:
We also took STAR testing for the first time. This 20-minute testing done on the ipad helps me figure out what our focus will be for teaching and learning. It will also be a great tool to track learning across the school year.
We are busy getting ready for our Hopes & Dreams conferences coming up next Tuesday and Thursday. At the beginning of the year we came up with something we hope to learn about in first grade. We revisited these Hopes & Dreams and learned that it's good to revisit and reassess our thinking and learning. After revisiting our original Hopes & Dreams, we decided if we wanted to totally change them, keep them the same, or change them just a little bit. Most of us decided to totally change our Hopes & Dreams. After re-writing them, we used classroom supplies to represent our Hopes & Dreams in some way. Here we are, hard at work.
We can't wait to share our Hopes & Dreams with you!
I can't believe we have been in school for three weeks already!
Enjoy your weekend!
Jill says school is fun; "I like reading."
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