This year our class has a special relation with USC students.  The adults are taking a class on how to teach reading and writing to children.  Their class, taught by Dr. Heidi Mills, meets right here on our campus!

We have already done some great reading and writing activities together.  For our first time meeting, the USC Tall Teachers read one of their favorite books to their Small Teachers.

We also got a chance to share our favorite stories with them.

One of the best parts of having this Tall and Small Teacher relationship is just getting to know an adult who really cares about how we are doing in school.  Our tall teachers are learning the best ways to teach little kids…

And we have the benefit of having an adult friend to be a really good reading and writing coach.

The first time we met we shared a box or bag of artifacts that show who we really are.  It was a fun time and we learned a lot about each other.

The second time we met our Tall Teachers we had written conversations.  This was another way for us to get to know each other and we hardly had to speak a word because we did most of our talking on paper.

We have lots of books in the classroom but they were all mixed up.  The USC Tall Teachers helped us to take all of the books off of the shelves and  make categories for them.  After we decided on categories we made special cards for bins.  The books are sorted out by categories and placed in bins on the shelves so we can easily find the books we want to read.