January Revisit

So January brings all sorts of fun into the classroom.  Sometimes, we return from winter break ready to go like we never missed a beat and other times it is like the first time we have stepped foot into a classroom.  My K buddy D came back from winter break with a class of the latter.  Now, remember she was on maternity leave from the start of the school year until the beginning of December so her kiddos were still adjusting so she wasn't too surprised that her students were struggling when we returned to school.  She came to me and told me that her kiddos were struggling with Daily 5, this was the week that both K and 1 were completing their MAP testing.  I gave her the following advice:

Sometimes you have to walk away from the plan.

Your students have a crazy week this week because of testing,

scrap the plans and reteach procedures.  Oh and hey

my kiddos are awesome (in my humble opinion) with Daily 5,

how about you bring your kiddos down to my room and we 

can pair them up to learn the ropes!

Please note that the MOST IMPORTANT piece of information in that is "sometimes you have to walk away from the plan"!!!  Also, we had a 4 day week that week and I told D that it will be way easier to make up 4 days of material than to struggle the rest of the year.  Here is what happened in pictures:

Working on Writing

Work on Writng

Work on Writing

Listening to Reading

Work with Teacher

Word Work

Read to Someone

Work on Writing

We have now paired our students up twice! It was a great January refresher for my kiddos.  D is noticing that her students have a more concrete idea of what is expected of them! Believe me it was not perfect - students were being pulled for various services, students had to use the bathroom, students forgot what they had to do, I mean how perfect could it be?  We had over 30 students in there!!! But it was a positive experience and one that I think not only benefited the K kiddos but also the firsties!