January 13, 2013

Happy 2013! After twenty years of teaching, we are taking a risk and starting a new adventure with this blog! Let us take a moment to introduce ourselves. I am Kim Lally. I have been teaching in Lombard, Illinois for twenty years. During those years I have taught first grade, second grade, a looping second and third grade, and for most of those years, a multiage second and third grade, with my teaching partner, Anne Brown. What I love most about the students in these grades is their enthusiasm for reading and writing. 

I am Anne Brown. I have also been teaching in Lombard for over twenty years. I have taught second grade, third grade, a looping second and third grade, and the multiage class. What I love most about the students in these grades is how motivated they are to grasp on to new learning concepts. They truly have a love of learning at this age. 

Our passion is to keep this love of learning ignited. We try to do this through thematic teaching, and creating literacy lessons that are hands-on and engaging. We try to make sure our lessons reach all learning styles throughout the week. We decided to start this blog to share our excitement about our lessons and our students' learning with you! We hope to also then engage in meaningful conversations about what successes you have had in your classroom to motivate your students. As much as our students love learning, we too have never stopped loving learning new research theories, new lesson ideas, new motivational tools, and anything else that can help us continue to grow as teachers and learners.

As we kicked off our first week back from winter break, here are a few of the activities that the students loved and we felt were not only purposeful, but fun! Our Monday morning warm-up was the reading of the poem, New Year's Resolution, by Jack Prelutsky. Students had to answer five questions. This was great because it touched on the phonics skill for the week, as well as sequencing, questioning, vocabulary and author's purpose. A fun part of this quick warm-up was the students using the iPads and computers to look up the definition of resolution.

Then, thanks to Amy Lemons, we wrote our own resolutions and made this adorable "craftivity!" We highly recommend you visit her site for some great ideas! Her link is on our sidebar.

Later in the week, we were thrilled with our students' responses to the story, Pear and Wagner: Two Good Friends by Kate McMullan! After doing a shared reading of this story, which our students found to be hilarious, we showed them how to write an extended response, choosing which character they wanted to be friends with, Pearl or Wagner. We held our breaths after modeling because this was the first time they did one on their own. As usual, our students rose to the occasion, and we just want to show them off! Here is one example:

If you would like a free copy of this activity, including our modeling response visit our new store on TeachersPayTeachers. Here is the direct link. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pearl-and-Wagner-Two-Good-Friends-Extended-Response

Day one of our new adventure has been exciting and fun! We would love to hear your comments about our blog, and about your successes in the classroom. We're always looking for new things to try with our classes!