A great day: a special book, palindromes, money

We had a great day today.  It took a little while to get back into the "groove" of things, but we managed!

We started with writers' workshop.  They had to write in their notebooks, and not ask about spelling or anything.  This is hard for students who want to be correct.  But as I told them, authors don't worry about that sort of thing when they do their initial writing.  They were asked to write about their break.  At this age, it is easier for them to write about something that they have experienced.  Making up stories is very difficult so we stay with what we know.

In Reading we read one of my favorite Christmas books of all time, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston.  Gloria was a friend, and a couple of years ago she sent me a CD of her reading her own story, which is based on stories from her family.  We listened to her today.  Unfortunately, she battled several illnesses, and died a couple of years ago.  Her children wrote me, telling me how happy my students had made her.  Each child wrote a letter, asking about this particular book, or telling her their favorite part.  When she received them, she couldn't see so her children read them to her.  They said she smiled and cried at the same time.  She died the next day.  Knowing the history of a story is special.

We worked with palindromes and other word puzzles today.  Palindromes are words that are spelled the same backward and forward. (tot, sis, mum)  They had fun with these.  This group loves learning something new.  They are little sponges soaking up as much as they can.  I love that!  

Check out the video above for some palindrome fun with your kids.

In math we introduced money.  Many still have trouble naming coins.  So today we watched a song about them.  Then we drew a large version of each one in detail.

Our program is this Thursday.