This week the students in 1S performed their version of Spookley the Square Pumpkin, written by Joe Troiano. This is a story about acceptance and tolerance.  The message comes across when all the round and oval pumpkins in the patch discover a square pumpkin amongst them.  After the pumpkins try to convince Spookley that he doesn't belong in their patch, the farmer appears, as he does every Halloween, to choose one pumpkin to sit on his porch.  When the farmer chooses Spookley, the other pumpkins begin to realize that differences are a good thing. The children performed a song celebrating their discovery.  The chorus states, "Everyone is different, it's really no  big thing.  It's the differences between us that make life interesting."  

If you walked into one of the first grade classrooms toward the end of reading workshop, you would see children sitting in pairs, side-by-side, with one book placed in between them. You would hear a productive buzz of children reading and sharing ideas about a book, or discussing which strategy would help solve a tricky word. First-grade students have been practicing good reading habits since the beginning of the school year and now are fully entrenched with partnership reading. The work involved in partnerships varies, but involves trying different word solving strategies, discussing the problem of a story, or sharing a favorite part. Reading together taps into the power of the social aspect of a story and helps children become even more strategic as readers. Partners are taught to remind one another, and  cheer for each other to get stronger.