Most teachers dread coming into school the morning after Halloween. Most years, I fit into that majority, cringing at the thought of the kids’ excessive candy consumption throughout the day, and the inevitable sugar highs and lows that come with it. It doesn’t exactly make for a normal day at school. But this past Thursday morning, I couldn’t wait for the kids to show up. Though many of them were bound to come in bursting with excitement, stories from the night before, and backpacks full of candy, I was so pumped for them to see the surprise bulletin board I had been planning for the last few weeks. Back in September, I got an email from Viola and Will’s mom with a photo of them both engrossed in books on their couch. It was awesome seeing my students in action at home. I love reading, and I love seeing kids love reading, so it led me to an idea. I sent out an email to all our 4th grade parents, asking that they try to discreetly snap a photo of their child reading outside of school, and then send the photo to me. Over the course of 2-3 weeks, I gathered these pictures of my students reading at home, and then got them printed at CVS. After school on Wednesday, I put together a bulletin board with all the photos, and at the top of the board I included a title that says “Look Who Got Caught Reading…” I want the kids to know how important reading is and how much I appreciate an enthusiasm for reading, and I’m hoping this motivates those kids who don’t read enough at home to start doing so. So, getting to see the looks on the kids’ faces upon noticing the board, and the photos of them (and their classmates) engaged in books at home, made for a pretty exciting morning-after-Halloween. 

This week, Mrs. O’Keefe’s homeroom got a chance to do the character trait stop motion animation. Then on Friday, we did stations that focused on various skills and strategies we spent time on during our fiction unit. Two of those stations involved STEAM, made possible (yet again) by Ms. Tosches. She designed one station that integrated character traits with Makey Makey, an electronic tool involving circuits and a connected Chromebook, and another station that used Beebots. The Beebots station required students to show their knowledge of story elements (as well as differentiate between traits and feelings) through coding. These activities, along with the other two stations, served as a review for the fiction unit test we’ll be having next week. Though it’s a test, it’s important to note that our fiction unit isn’t coming to an end just yet. Following the test, we have 1-2 weeks of reteaching that will be based on how they did on the assessment and what areas the kids would most benefit revisiting. While there’ll surely be some common trends, areas of need will vary from student to student, and the test will allow me to determine which students could use further instruction in each standard associated with this particular reading unit.

Our Bucket Filler this week was Mihali. I’ve known Mihali’s family for a few years now, and I was really looking forward to having Mihali in class. It was easy to anticipate that he’d be a pleasure to teach, but honestly, he’s surpassed my expectations. He’s kind to others, hardworking, respectful, and silly, and he’s made me grateful in his own appreciation for the high expectations I set for my students. Go Mihali!