Literacy Centers This Week

This week students became more independent as they explored their interests during our Literacy Centers. Students are getting the opportunity to chose a center that they are interested in and practising a skill or an activity that we are doing in class. Many students mailed letters to Santa this week. They went to the Writing Center to write a friendly letter to Santa telling him what they want for Christmas. They learned how to address an envelope so that he receives it in the North Pole. We are hoping to receive a reply back before we go for holidays. 

Using Tagul, a few students in our room created Word Collages. They are interested in making pretty collages with words that describe Christmas.  A few friends used the Tech Club to work with some Grade 4 friends to create Christmas Word Collages for our upcoming Birthday  Party for Baby Jesus.

Our elf Tallulah kept us busy with many silly antics this week. The students love coming into the classroom each day to find her hiding somewhere in our room. Tallulah inspires our students at the Word Center. We played a making words game using letters in her name. We are writing letters to her and imagining what it would be like if we had an elf of our own. Students got to design their own elf and write about what they would do if they were an elf. 

We help our friends with questions about their KidBlog accounts

Finally, students are really enjoying being experts at using KidBlog. We are blogging from home and during our Literacy Center time. Students are learning how to navigate the website. They are creating blog posts and sharing them with their friends. We are also learning about the comments feature. This week, many students wondered how to comment on a friend's blog. We are currently teaching our friends how to comment and how to write an appropriate response to a friend's post. I am encouraging students to offer effective feedback with a follow-up question. The follow-up questions are meant to encourage more dialogue and authentic conversations. We will continue to work on this in the new year. 

Thank you to all families who blog from home with their child! It is wonderful to see your child excited to blog..and also for you to write together AND comment on your child's writing. This is wonderful for their learning!!

Tallulah made us laugh this week. 

We learn about Christmas eve and we have a class elf her name is Tallulah.DS. CC

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) December 11, 2015

😇 Today I had so much fun learning about Tagul at Tech Club. By: EB

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) December 11, 2015