Swimming Together

On the first day of school I read Swimmy by Leo Lionni. Sometimes I play the video version on youtube The story of the little fish, and the idea of swimming together as one becomes our glue for building class climate and community.  In the past we've been known as The Fishbowl, but this year my pod will be known as The Vermonsters, and my class will be Rainbow Trout, so I've dubbed our new 3rd grade-SS-Writing room The Rainbow Fish.

                        After reading the book, students design a puzzle piece to represent themselves.  They don't see the posterboard I designed, so they are unaware of the final shape.

    As a class, they sit and take turns trying to fit the puzzle together.  We discuss the concept of swimming together and what that means for our class.