Whatta Week!

I'd like to begin this post with a song that's stuck in my head.


"What a week, what a week, what a week, what a mighty good week!"

A big thanks to my 1990's Salt-n-Pepa love for giving me the ability to translate Whatta Man into Whatta Week, because honestly, wow -- what a week this has been!

On Sunday, I finally managed to be online during Donalyn Miller's monthly #titletalk. So many great ideas flew past on my screen that I'm still pretty sure that I didn't catch them all -- but the small bit I managed to soak up definitely made a big impact on me. I returned to class on Monday ready to share my renewed reading energy with my students.

First thing Monday morning we gathered around with our current books and talked them up. After that, everyone wrote their reading goal for the week on an index card and we posted them to a bulletin board. I previewed the book One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, explaining why I was so interested to get started with it.

And with that, we went on our merry way, diving into a week full of reading goals, writing bootcamp (more to come on that later!), working on World Party projects, and a Read Across America celebration. With so many things going on, I was a little worried that we would be able to keep up with our reading goals this week!

Today I decided to do a mini-check in, just to give everyone a little push in case they were falling behind. I had finished One Crazy Summer last night, and was excited to share a few lines with them. There are many great mentor text possibilities in this book!

After they all oohed and aahed at the words I shared with them, I asked how they were doing, giving everyone a chance to speak up.

Guys! 19 of 21 students had already met their goal, and the rest were on track to be there by tomorrow! I am so pleased with their energy and passion for reading, and can't wait to spend tomorrow celebrating Read Across America with them.

Here's the plan:

1. Read the new pop-up The Lorax book to two of our 4th grade classes
2. Watch the old cartoon
3. Create a Venn diagram comparing the two, and do a smidge of writing!
4. All the kids are bringing their favorite Dr. Seuss books to class and we will go to our 1st Grade buddy class to read to them

Tomorrow I will take many pictures and share how it goes! For now, check out the fun trailer for the new book: