Back to School

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go!  We are just shy of one month into the new school year and I will just say my class is FULL of little darlings!  I am so thankful that there are a variety of personalities and each of us seem to have found exactly where we fit!  I have found myself saying so much this year with our new math curriculum (Eureka) that we are all the smartest!  There will always be something smarter than you at something and you will always be smarter than someone else at something...so THERE you have it! We are all the smartest. 

Speaking of smartest.....of course we know the old saying....You Can Lead a Horse to Water But You Can't Force Him to Drink.  GROWTH MINDSET!  I remembered this darling book last year that I found in the Scholastic Book Club and ordered, but never really found a good use for it - Rufus Goes to School by Kim Griswell.

This year I was determined to put this sweet story to use.  I just loved little Rufus and his determination to learn and could be adapted to such a large variety of character education lessons!  First, we read the story and had a discussion of course.   All the little, sweet, 3rd graders gathered around the carpet... it was DARLING!!  Then we used Mandy Neals Growth Mindset resources to create a class anchor chart for our learning.

I just DIE for these directed drawing activities so I created my own for Rufus Leroy Williams III!  The students and I worked through the anchor chart, then the directed drawing, and finally added our own speech bubbles to Rufus to display our Growth Mindsets!

So here we are...starting a new year, with new kiddos, and new goals for growth!  You can grab my directed drawing directions for Rufus by clicking one of the four pictures above of Rufus!