Craziness & Reading Comprehension

Today was quite a day... I never made it to work.  My own children have all week off, but my district's break ended to day.  Hubby went to work early, as I was bringing the boys with me (crazy kids- they like to come to work and help me!).  Before I left, hubby called to say that he was in a car accident.  No worries- after a short trip to the ER for x-rays, he is all good.  Not the same can be said for our car.  Grrrr...  I live about 45 minutes away from work (and hubby is closer at 30 minutes).  Winter in Michigan is a crap shoot.  It could be a blizzard or 50 degrees, we just never know.  The temps were above freezing, but some nasty black ice developed on the expressway that we both take to work.  He spun out and hit the median barrier.  He asked that I wait.  I fought it and texted my principal (who has no problems getting texts at 6:15am!).  After going back and forth, she decided that I needed to stay home and take care of my family.  I'm so blessed to have her.  She really is the voice of reason when I'm not thinking clearly or clouded by my emotions.  I'm not sucking up- it's true.  My teaching friends pitched in and set up stuff for my sub.  Because I am crazy organized and a planning freak- I have emergency plans for every day of the week that are modified to fit.  Plans emailed in less than 10 minutes.  ((HUGS)) to my K-1 buddies!

Anyway... enough drama.

My kiddos just finished up a comprehension unit of study in readers workshop.  As much as I love our ISD and the plans that they give us for the units, I still feel the need to fill in and beef it up- my kids are ready and they love deep thinking :)  As a supplement, I used Tanny McGregor's Comprehension Connections and some ideas that I've gotten from the bloggy world (check out Holly at Crisscross Applesauce  , she uses it too).  It is a MUST for grades 1-2.  My literacy coach argues with me about it for firsties, but it's my class and she has more important things to do than focus on little old me :)

I love me some anchor charts and was sad to take them down last week.  However, I'm a strong believer in only having up the charts that are being used every day- no need to let them become part of the wall permanently.  I recreate them every time I teach, but I will take a photo to remind myself of the lesson for the following year.  I feel it's more authentic if the students feel that they helped create the chart as we were learning.  I would refer to these through our workshop mini-lessons and use them to prompt and give students the phrases to use during partnership time.  Here are some of them that my class and I created in response to our new learning:

The writing/reflection came from Abby at The Inspired Apple .

Happy ready (and comprehending)!