We have new book baskets that we are loving. Everyone keeps at least 5 book in their basket as well as sticky notes, paper, and chart paper. We are learning to use lots of tools to help us keep track of our reading and our thinking. It's so cool to see everyone using the tools in their basket to sequence, write down important facts, draw pictures, write the author's purpose or anything else they feel is necessary.  Here are a few pictures.

This is what Jake made using tools from his book basket. Sticky notes with captions and illustrations of what he learned about dinosaurs. 

I know it has been forever since I've updated and I promise I will try to do better. We have had very busy first semester. It's hard to believe that 2014 is almost here. Where is the time going? I have the sweetest class and they have all grown so much as first graders this year. Here are some recent pictures of some things we have been doing.

We love to work in groups to solve math problems.

In each group one person is the recorder. This way everyone gets a turn with my "special" markers but each person uses the marker to sign his/her own name.

When each group has finished they sign their name and take their paper to the carpet where the reporter shares the strategies they used to solve the problems.

Almost ready to share with the class.