Write the Room = AMAZING!

We're having yet another snow storm. So far, I think we've gotten around 4 inches and it's supposed to continue through tomorrow night. Then the wind's going to kick up, so we'll have drifts too. Fabulous...I'm ready for spring.

Every time I introduce a letter to the kids, I like to have the write the room. They carry around clipboards and write all the words they can find with that letter in them. I've seen this in practice in higher grade levels and was originally concerned that it wouldn't work with my younger kiddos. Boy, was I wrong! At first, it took some patience and modeling to help most of the understand the concept of a word, but most of them have it down now. I can let them go and they'll bring me back lists of four or five words! It's so exciting to see them confidently using writing.

My next step is to introduce inventive spelling. I know for sure that one of my students is ready for that. It'll be interesting to see how ready the rest of them are.

I had the students play Race to the Finish today. They had a blast with it, and it opened my eyes to a couple of things. For example, for the second day in a row, I've realized that I haven't given one sweet little girl enough credit. She started off on the low side in terms of academic skills, but she is taking off. She picks up on almost everything, and it's really starting to show. I need to challenge her more. I think I'll start by pairing her up with my highest learned instead of my lowest. Maybe this will give her a push in the right direction. Also, my list of concerns about the youngest in the class is growing. Today, for the second day in a row, instead of starting to count at 1 she started at 7 or 9 or wherever she felt like starting. It was the weirdest thing. She didn't do that at the beginning of the year... She also has started whining and moaning every time we read a story. I might talk with her mom about whether she has been noticing things like this at home too. She has a history of ADD, so I'm wondering if these are signs of it.

When I was over at the elementary school working with the first grader, his teacher exclaimed her disgust at the fact that he's not being placed in special ed. This bothers me. I don't think he's special ed. I think he missed a lot of kindergarten, and for that reason, he is behind. He's been showing major improvements (he went from three sight words to 31 sight words in a little over a month) and his focus is greatly improved with his medicine. I have a strong feeling that she just doesn't want to deal with him, so she wants someone else to do it for her. It makes me sad for him.