2011

The first day back after the Holiday break is always harder to anticipate than it actually turns out to be!  Today we had a great day of getting caught up with what everyone did over break and with getting back into the swing of things in the classroom!  It is a nice fresh start. 

Our first grade writers were eager to write about what they got for Christmas.  During writing workshop today, I introduced them to writing thank you notes.  I wanted to give them a chance to write about something that they received and to express gratitude for it, as well as providing a purpose for their writing.  The class was very motivated to "Give it a go" today!  Some students even wrote more than one note!  I am planning to help with editing and to pop them into envelopes to go home! Hopefully, some parents will still have Santa's address on hand, since a few were addressed to him!  We are going to spend this week working on these and discussing the question: "Why do writers write?"