I think I got my groove back....

So I am super excited that I feel like me, the teacher me again!!  I had mastered the Mommy me over the last three weeks and had a hard time getting back to the old grind of teaching!  Today it was like clock work, I love the days where we get a lot done, everything seems easy, and the kids seem to have fun too!


We are jumping into Non-Fiction work that we began last week.  I did have two lessons last week that I loved....one was with text sets where one was fiction and the other non-fiction.  They worked with a partner to create a t-chart about what was "story-like" and what was "scientific".  I took a picture of the whole class example but my phone was all silly today, I will try to post that later.  Then, on Friday we went through our local library website databases to the scholastic flix story books on animals.  It was just the same....text sets!!  So they did another t-chart, but this time, independently inside their reader's notebook.  The best part about both these lessons was how engaged they were!!


This week we are beginning the text features introductions and then the students will work on collecting facts about penguins with their partners.  In the end they will practice their paragraph writing with a guided writing activity about penguins.  This work will bridge us into independent research and a great animal informational writing report.  I found an amazing unit on teachers pay teachers that was created by lesson plan SOS!

Partners at work, finding text features and recording examples!!

And now I am at home being mom again.....we read plenty of books tonight....first I read to Caroline....and then Kevin read about 5 books to us (he began only wanting to read one and then when I asked him to read two he got so excited and brought out 5).....after he read each of his little books, Caroline picked them up and "read" them too!  Glad we all share a love of books!  The kids are off to bed now while Kate is at dance with Daddy....I am ready to put on Bachelor while I respond to journals, fill out eagle award certificates, and write thank you notes!!  I am impressed with myself that I brought something home today....last week I just couldn't bring myself to work on school at home, I was so sad to be back at work!!  I guess everyday it will get easier to get back into the swing....until the next vacation!