Celebration - Getting Lost in a Book!

I snapped these 2 pictures Friday fifteen minutes into a combined writing/reading workshop time.

Due to a school assembly, we had about 50 minutes only for our ELA block. Due to it being a Friday and a day before a much-loved holiday, I forfeited teaching a mini-lesson and gave my 3rd grade class a menu of  choices: write a spooky story for fun, do a math addition color-the-code worksheet, draw scary monsters inspired by Ed Emberly, or read, either a book or an e-book using your ipad. "Off you go..."

The boy in the photo on the left got lost in his book. Through the glass is another boy choosing to read on his ipad and another in the chair listening to a Tumblebooks story using his headphones. The boy pictured on the left, took the window seat and his Big Nate book and got lost quickly in the story.

A few other chose to make scary illustrations. A pair of girls rewrote nursery rhymes inspired by Mary Anne Hoberman's poems in 2-voices. Instead of Jack and Jill going up the hill, it was a vampire and a werewolf! The math lovers solved the addition problems and colored all the squares. For instance, the problems with the answer of 4, 5, and 6, got colored ORANGE according to the key...soon a pumpkin emerged from the colored squares! Two other girls collaborated, one writing a scary story and her partner being the illustrator.

I celebrate that as October comes to an end, my 3rd graders are readers and writers. They can get lost in their book. They can collaborate to create stories and pictures for others to read and enjoy.

And the best part, when I rang the chime to announce it was time to stop, I heard groans! Music to my ears. the sound that no one wanted our workshop time to end. We truly are readers and writers!!