Today was a sitting kind of day.

The snow returned.

It blew in whiffs through the playground leaving a thin, white blanket over everything.

The temperature dropped a bit.

The building of the forts continued. There was a tiff between two groups about whose fort-is-this-anyway?

And, then we sat.

We sat while one girl shared about a trip to Victoria to cheer on her sister who competed in the Junior Pan Am Games as a diver.

We sat while another student presented her PPT about bobcats. She was inspired by a bobcat family sighting in her neighborhood; this family seems to have taken shelter for the winter in my student’s neighborhood. This isn’t that rare since shortly after school started a family of bobcats was sighted in our school playground early in the evening. Could it be the same family?

We sat during writing workshop. Students were working on their #NaNoWriMo novel. Some had to reset their goals as they hit their word count mark already! Great problem to have.

We sat during independent reading. And, again, to jot down the three or four most important events in our book. We put the sticky notes in our notebooks and wrote our thinking so far about our book.

We sat during the #classroombookaday read aloud and the subsequent conversation. This is always a challenge with 28 students and a too-small space. We read Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie. The kids loved this book and we had a lively conversation about what were the important events in this book, not as easy as it seems.

We sat while another student shared about a four-year old neighbor who has facial deformities just like Auggie in Wonder. The little boy’s family is having a fundraiser at a local movie theatre this weekend. Tomorrow my student will share the presentation she prepared about him.

We sat through a conversation of what’s the same/what’s different in two images of dividing fractions here.

Although we sat a lot, we also talked a lot and when we needed to stretch we did. But tomorrow will be an opposite kind of day – more one-on-one student-to-student and teacher-to-student conversations and less whole group. Though I like whole group because it helps build community, it’s also good when we break up to pursue our own interests.

So, tomorrow will be a pursue-your-own-learning kind of day.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. That’s a great way to end the day.

Cross posted to Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Tuesday.