Kleinspiration. Unit 1 Launching With Small Moments Resources. HANDWRITING. The Handwriting Fairy! It's time... the handwriting fairy NEEDS to visit our classroom again! The students have been writing longer pieces than they've even written before, but it's so sloppy that it's starting to drive me crazy! I need to address this ASAP! I have to say, I love the Handwriting Fairy Pack from What the Teacher Wants (below) and it is 100% my inspiration for this post! Please be sure to visit Rachelle's blog to get the original pack!
Now, of course... being the tech-addict that I am... I needed to make a digital handwriting fairy to complement this post! I plan on having her visit our class website quite a few times (with different messages, of course!) I also plan on using these labels as stickers for quick notes from the handwriting fairy! Note: This preview is hosted on Google Docs. If you want to download the labels, click the picture above! Update 5/15/2012: I showed this to my kids today and they freaked out! SecondGradeSquad.com / 2nd graders wrote about a time they got hurt (we called them Ouch Stories). We used bandaids as artwork when they published their stories.
Literacy / for stories that pop into our heads during the day. Squiggle Stories! When I did my student teaching in 1st grade, my mentor teacher (who was fabulous!) Had this as a fun little writing project. I have used it every year in 5th grade and my students love it. The 1st thing the students do is turn their squiggle into a picture. Then, they write a story about their picture.
Simple! In this download, I have included a younger grades and an upper grades version, 2 pre-made squiggles, and a blank one for you (or your students) to create your own squiggle. Rachelle and I thought it would be fun to try this out on both our 1st and 5th graders and see how they turned out! 1st grade example from Mrs. Here's some examples from my 5th grade class: This snake is looks almost exactly like Rachelle's example. This one is all about bunnies. Look at the detail in this submarine picture! This is about 2 penguins. P.S. Kindergarten / Quiet writing Love this chart to introduce the expectations for it. Writing. I must say, I LOVE when writing workshop finally comes together. It usually happens right around the same time they have built their stamina for Daily 5 and are ready to start rotations. You know the moment? It's when the lightbulb goes on and the kids realize that they are AUTHORS, and that what they do during writing workshop is special and important and thoughtful.
For me, this finally came together last Friday. I noticed the little conversations had stopped (aside from reading your story to your neighbor) and they all had very serious, thoughtful faces on as they worked. YAY! They all found special places in the room to work and GOT BUSY! J under the easel P and C at the listening table using the crate seats :) K and K at the reading table. K under my desk. J again. J under the sink I standing by her desk T on the floor M, J, and J at their desks A standing at her desk S on the floor in the computer nook Just as a side note...
Sentence Writing Expanding adding who what when where why - Kristin Wilson. Silly sentences/dictionary kites. I’ve been a little MIA lately. In all honesty, I’ve had the blogging “blahs”. Not a whole lot of motivation to sit down and post anything. I’ve just been lovin’ on my boys and spending an insane amount of my “free” time just having fun with my little family of four {and some out of town visitors, too!!}.
Since my last post, things at school have been, ummm…CRAZY. Since Friday, I have… …sanitzed my hands…and the hands of 17 littles…NO LESS than 2,347 times. …successfully cleaned up a few cases of the pukies {talk about gag reflex} …counted 6 kids absent on Friday & Monday…and sent two pukies home today. …cloroxed {yes, it’s a verb ;)} the desks NO LESS than 100,000 times. …immediately came home from school 4 days in a row, stripped off my clothes, threw them in the washer, and hightailed it to take the HOTTEST showers before picking up my boys from the sitter.
Did I mention that our sweet little school is experiencing the CRAZIEST bout of sickness EVER?!?! Happy {almost} end of the week!! Journaling Tips. 1. Write in your journals EVERY DAY! We start on the very first day of school and we continue every day after. I show them how to write the short date and then I give them a sentence like this: I like to eat _____________.
They copy the sentence and sound out a word to fit in the sentence. Then, they draw an illustration. 2. 3. 4. Then, as I've been Pinteresting lately, I found {this} amazing idea to color one end of your stick red and one end green. 5. 6. 7. You can download the journal shares for free {here}. 8. I know that I used to use composition notebooks for journals when I was first teaching. That's all the tips I have for you! If you have already purchased my Journals Through the Year, go and download it again! Collecting writing thru year; GO with squares. Call the cops. High interest word sheets. Word work for us consists of VOCABULARY, SPELLING, PHONEMIC AWARENESS, and PHONICS. Each day I try to have three separate minilessons whole group. We also do a lot of word work during Guided Reading/Writing, Modeled Reading/Writing, Shared Reading/Writing, and Independent Reading/Writing. We use the White Board, SMART Board, and Pocket Chart.
We use magnet letters and letter cards. I use a combination of resources to address these four areas areas: VOCABULARY, SPELLING, PHONEMIC AWARENESS, and PHONICS. This is a great little piece on Phonics and Phonemic Awareness. What is on your walls? Color and Number Word Wall (Kindergarten, 2005-2006)- Based on T.L.C. I decided to create a dual word wall that focus on both numbers and colors, because my kinders were also working on shapes, I wanted to incorporate "TLC-style" art projects. Color Word Wall (First Grade, 2004 - 2005) - Based on Jane Cabrera's Book Cat Colors Alphabet Frieze & Sight Word Wall (First Grade, 2007 - 2008) Portable Word Walls. Burrito Book.
Thinking tables and cinquains. Daily 5 writing journals pic. Daily 5 writing ideas. Can you believe we're just days from November?? I swear time just speeds up. Although at the moment I'm really antsy! Yes, in part because I want to get past the hopped-up on Halloween feeling in my classroom, but I'm also excited to switch out my writing station. It tickles me to see how much the kids are enjoying this! Now that I'm in my 2nd year of doing this, I'm much more confident and things are running sooo much more smoothly (except for Working with Words--don't ask). So here's what we've had goin' on in September: I found these "Create-a-Prompt" flipbooks at Lakeshore. I had the Take-it-to-Your-Seat writing center folders last year (I also have science ones), but this year I got wise and am only putting out 4 or so a month.
One of the main things each month are the journal prompts. (Get the rest of the months' tags and journal prompts here.) The letter and list writing choices are the same as last year. Download Writing list steps Download Writing letter model. Shape-Book Patterns. Scrambled Sentence Freebie. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. We are almost to THE END! My little ones are getting anxious. How about yours? Here is a little scrambled sentence to help keep them occupied. Have a great Wednesday Hump Day! Riddles, limericks, etc. Ouch, video game writing prompts. These are writing prompts and paper that I use throughout the whole year.
There are over 25 of them...all for you! :) I put them in writing centers, sometimes use them in whole group lessons, and even use them as "fast finishers". The kiddos love them! I ALWAYS do an example page for them. Here are some of my favorites {and the kiddos too}! I've also included a writing rubric for you! Daily writing prompts for each month. Sentence strip surgery. Writing paper.
Penmanship small, tall, fall. Show, not tell prompts. Facebook In Your Classroom? About a month ago I got this idea to bring Facebook into my classroom. Is that weird? Actually . . . it's just the idea of Facebook status updates that I wanted to bring in. I would have had this up sooner but the poster maker was out of paper at one point and then I got really busy with grades and all sorts of other deadlines! Anyhow, I decided to create "classbook"! I know 1st graders are pretty young, and if any of my kids were actually on Facebook I'd probably think it was a bad idea.
What I did was create a template that looks like a status update page so that I could make it into poster size for the hallway. Next came the part I was a little worried about . . . would they be able to understand what a status update is? I took a screen shot of my facebook page using some "safe" examples of status updates and projected it onto my mimio board. You would not believe how excited and into this "status update" thing my 1st grades are! Indenting, sentence fragments on sent strips.
Writing process tracker: large pencil. Story starter machine idea generator. Wizard of oz, kites and balloons. Have I mentioned lately that I am LOVING third grade? Because, I am. I mean it. I think kids in third grade are kind of at the best age ever. They are sooooo fun and sweet and independent and into learning. And, they get my jokes. That's huge... because, I joke a lot. Like, for instance, my kiddos are CON-VINCED that I'm obsessed with Justin Bieber. A few years ago when these kids were in first grade, a certain teacher who shall remain nameless told her class that she and I had watched Never Say Never (the Justin Bieber concert dvd, for those of you who actually have lives). Which may or may not be true.
(Okay, it's true.) And wouldn't you know it that I would have the one kid this year who not only remembered this information, but is bound and determined to work it into every conversation he partakes in. Today, we were making bucket lists in writing. I would laugh, too. And, maybe I did. Maybe. We are officially on Fall Break as of right now. Multiplication monsters. Well, let me rephrase that. Oh! What can i write about. Letter reversals. Learning lowercase letters can be really confusing for many children, especially the letters b, d, p, and g. When you think about it, it's not surprising that kids often mix them up. After all, most objects don't change what they are just because you flip them around or turn them upside down! Several years ago when I went to a workshop while teaching, I learned about an awesome tip that really helps with letter reversals. The best part? Your child won't need anything fancier than their own two hands (and a little bit of imagination).
Check it out . . . (thanks to the awesome hand modeling of my 6-year old!) Isn't that cool? The coolness continues... It's the same concept, but now, just think about the word pig for help remembering the letters p and g. There you have it! Sharing our pigs and beds solution at: Writing goals. Sometimes you take the time to make something that looks good, but when it's all said and done you don't use it.
Well, that's not the case with these posters. The "writing goals" poster is a great reminder for me and helps me coach children on the specific areas that they need to work on. When we're reading their story together I can see if they are meeting their goal. The students are using it as well reminding themselves of their focus. If I notice there is another area they need to work on I ask the student to move their name to that area. My students have improved the quality of their writing with this poster.