Today was a special day upstairs in the Big Bird classrooms. The students received their blue books, the books in which we do almost all of our work for the year. After a very loud and spirited drum roll, the children got down to the work of numbering pages (240!), creating a title page and designing a name plate.
One of the challenges of a progressive classroom is recording and collecting the work the children do. Without traditional workbooks and worksheets, it is very easy to get to conferences having worked very hard but having little paper to show for it. The Blue Book is our evolving solution. Blank sheets enable students to sketch, web, collect reference sheets or paste in work. Lined pages keep the writing process tamed and grid paper organizes math work. Students look back through their work to reflect and set goals. Some of the pages are carefully constructed scrapbooks that capture a field trip or culminating event. Other pages are very rough drafts, abandoned ideas, the confused beginnings of comprehension. Everything, however, shares a facet of your child as a learner.
The Rookery 
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