Saturday, October 24, 2009

Our 1st "BIG" Writing Workshop Celebration













The Bigs have published their first books, from the Writing Workshop: Launching the Writing Workshop Unit of Study. Some of the Minilessons these writers learned during this unit were:

•Writers sit in, and stick to, a “Just Right” reading spot.
•Writers use their strong writing muscles to write for long periods of time.
•Writers write about their life and what they care about.
•Writers add more pages when they have more story to tell.
•Writers use tools such as: paper, pencils, erasers, tape, staples, date stamps, “spacemen,” or fingers, to help make spaces, “strips” to add more writing, alphabet charts, word walls, other resources, etc. They also know how to take care of their tools.
•Writers s-t-r-e-t-c-h out their words, like bubble gum to get all the sounds down on paper.
•Writers have writing partners to support them as writers.
•Writers “fix up” their work, so that others can read it.
•Writers get ideas from other writers.
•Writers write a piece over time, revising as they go.
•Writers write to share their ideas with others.
•Writers publish their work, and celebrate their accomplishments.

To CELEBRATE, the Bigs and Partners toasted to the writers (with sparkling apple juice) and then the writers shared their pieces, that they worked so hard on. Our next Unit of Study? Personal Narrative: Small Moments.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Counting Collections

What kinds of strategies can children use to help them count?

All of the children began counting a variety of collections.



S pointed one-by-one as she arranged the stones in a line to help her keep track.
Candis: “How many stones do you have?”
S: “It’s 43, no 44.”
Candis: “How can you be certain?”
S counts the collection again, from one end of the line to the other.
S: “It’s 44. I know it’s 44.”


L., J., and E. used number lines to keep track of their collections.



S. and R. used 100s boards to help them count a larger collection.


M. began drawing a picture of his collection.


S. made 6 lines of 10 pennies and 1 line of 6.
S: “Look! It’s 66 pennies!”

As the children count higher numbers, which strategies will they continue to use?