WONDERing Back into School

Most of my summer was spent reading and thinking about technology and math.  The first part was easy for me because I had a huge pile of books TBR.  I was very fortunate to receive some excellent ARCS from my friend Tammy a few weeks ago so that topped off my summer by reading Counting by 7’s which is at the top of my list. Last week, I turned the corner and started focusing on literacy.  I spent several hours going through binders of information that I had collected and really had not looked at much last year.  I started wondering what do I need and want to transfer to the new school year. Finally after looking through hand written notes, typed written notes (yes from a typewriter) and I even still had a few ditto pages.  I decided I need to start perging.  What was interesting to me as I read through several years of information the BIG ideas are still the same. 
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*Building a community at the start of the year is crucial

*Knowing our students as readers/writers is mandatory.
*Students need choice in their reading and need time for reading.

*In order to write, you must be a reader.

*Words are everywhere and it is important to show relationships throughout the day.

Those big ideas carried right into my thinking today.  I started looking through past wonders that I have used in addition to searching for new ones.  Once again with the new grade level/common core pull down I was able to choose several wonders to begin  the school year.  Leave me a comment and let me know which wonders you will choose to share in your classroom.

Click on Explore Wonders on the left side.

Building Bridges:  First day of school wonder #236 How Long is the Longest Bridge?

Reading Workshop:  #889 What is a Genre?  #254 Why Don't All Books Have Pictures

Poetry Friday:  #575 What is a Poetry Slam? 

Math:  #224:  How Many is a Google?  perfect for Number Sense

Writing Workshop: #761  Can a Word Be Both a Noun and a Verb?  
Word Study:  #821 What is a Metaphor?  #702  Are You Sly as a Fox?