Welcome back! This year is going to be a wonderful year and I am so excited about everything that we have planned for this school year! I wanted to take a minute and share a virtual tour of our room so that you have a better feel for the place your child will spend their next 180 days. Our first stop is the morning meeting area. This is where we will start and end each school day. We will have a morning message to do together everyday and do our calendar time here. Calendar is an important part of our day because it allows us to cover a lot of our math skills and build on what we learn during our math time. Our morning meeting is a special time of our day because it is when we get to build our classroom community. Morning meeting is possibly my favorite time of the day and I can't wait to get to share it with your student this year!
Next, we will stop at the small group table. This is the area where we will have our guided reading and guided math lessons. This is the place where I will work with your student in a small group of peers to provide instruction on their specific level and better meet their individual needs as learners.
Below is a table, this is one of our areas where students can choose to work during independent math and reading or can work with a small group of classmates on projects we will do throughout the year. It is front of our math materials station (which I will also include a closer up picture of below). I try to keep our classroom materials organized to make it easier for students to locate things we need independently. I feel that teaching children to be independent is helpful in aiding them in learning to take more responsibility and ownership of their learning and our classroom environment. It is also fun to see how excited they get when a visitor comes in the room and they are able to show them where everything is. I like them to know that this room is not just mine, but it is our room and we all have a role in helping keep it clean and take care of not only the room but also the materials in the room.
A final area I will share with you today is our classroom library. This is a very active part of our room and I try to keep it. The numbered bins on top are where your student will keep their books and a notebook to use during read to self and independent writing time. The baskets below containing all the books are sorted based on the reading level of the book. Your student will have a reading level that is used based on Fontas and Pinnell reading level and is how students find books that are a good fit for them.
Back to school is one of the most exciting times of the year for students, parents and teachers! Feel free to comment below and share what you are the most excited about for this school year!