The Rookery

When Elizabeth and I were talking last night, she shared all of her careful plans for the Heron's day today.  I went in to the classroom with every intention of following her instructions.  But then… L.B. grabbed the copy of the Robin's Prairie_Creek_News which came off the presses on Friday.  At morning…

His legs flailed, his eyes got big, "Ohhhh!!!"  He dangled, two inches above the ground, holding on to the edge of a rock on the Caron Park waterfall, his big toe in danger of getting damp.  His grin made it plain, he was taking a page out of the Buster…

    Yesterday the Herons began a new read-aloud book: Flush, by Carl Hiassen.  Today we encountered a new character, named Lice ("for obvious reasons"), who smokes despite his promise to quit.  Hiassen's description of Lice inspired a storm of questions from the Herons. While everyone agreed that smoking was "gross"…

    The Herons began their study of geometry last week.  We started by creating and testing our definition of polygons and exploring the properties of squares.  On Thursday we took our knowledge of sides, angles, and parallel lines into an exploration with the pattern blocks. I asked students to complete…

At Prairie Creek, each class spends some time during the first six weeks of school in discussions about how we want to be together as a classroom community. At the younger grades, this often involves creating a set of classroom expectations (rules) and/or a class constitution. The expectations can often…

At the 4/5 level, we use a mental tool that I'm calling (for lack of a better, more concise name) the five point competency scale. We ask students to use it to check in on their own understanding of a concept, strategy or skill. If you're a 1 on the…

      During recess today the Herons played "never-ending tag" with the Doves, a K/1 class.  As we circled up outside, I looked around at the Herons who had spread themselves out amongst the Doves.  Most were holding hands with a younger child, and several were quietly re-explaining the rules.  I…

Today we handed out our "Blue Books."  They're the books we record all of our work in from themes, math, and literacy.  They're beautifully bound and a cheer went up when we showed them to the classes (combined together for the first time).  One fourth grader came up to me…

The Herons had a very successful first day.  The first few hours of a new year always seem horribly quiet as students get a feel for each other and their new teachers.  I always find myself filling the quiet with nervous check ins, "How are you?"  "Doing O.K.?"  Elizabeth and…

Tomorrow we're off.   Last week, Caroline shared a poem with us, "The Woodcarver" by Chuang Tsu, that has a line that for me captures the nervous anticipation of all Prairie Creek teachers on the night before school, "All I had to do was put forth my hand, and begin."…