The Write Stuff - Ten Pin linky

Did you know my undergraduate degree is in writing?  You'd think that would help somewhat with teaching writing- but as it turns out, not so much.  So, like everybody else, I'm always searching for things that can help me out there.  I mean, really- how do you convince an eight year old that "I like it" and "It was fun" are not particularly descriptive.

So here we go with Ashley's Ten Pin Linky party over at Just Reed:

I have eight boards dedicated to writing over on Pinterest. Teaching Writing is my catch all, then I have Book-Making, Word Work, Mechanics, Nonfiction Writing, Letter Writing, Narrative Writing, and Poetry.


1. There are lots of heart map pins out there.  I like this one, since it guides the kids into what actually to put in there in a Give Me Three sort of format.  Structure can be good.  I also dig on heart maps because it can become a dynamic piece to a writer's notebook, and whenever they attempt to say they don't know what to write about, you can rally back with "Don't know what to write? Go look in your heart!"


2. I enjoy making books with the kids.  They dig on having hard covers.  makes them feel extremely professional. I adore Kathy Barbro's blog Art Projects for Kids, and this is a super way to recycle and show kids how easy it is to make a book for themselves.


3. Word Work.  I always feel like I want to do a great job with this and then I never really do.  But this pin got my attention a couple of weeks ago because I'm in the midst of planning my first PYP unit, How We Organize Ourselves, and the social studies connection is to economics.  It's not just about reading sight words, but also spelling them/using them correctly in your writing.  This seemed like a cool way to "pay an author".  So the writing assignment is due, and they swear that they've actually edited their work.  Just look up a the word wall, give them a sight word buck for each one they used and spelled correctly.  Seems pretty simple. Who will become the best-selling author?


4. This is a fantastic visual rubric for revising and editing.  Additionally, I am wanting to do this Three little Pigs deal at the beginning of the year, and this would work in perfectly with - "Is that a straw house story or a brick one?" rubric idea.


5. LOVE this book.  LOOOOOOVE it, I say!  Tony Stead write a great book here, really easy to follow along with, extremely inspirational to my teaching, useful to the core.  I really like how he has the kids do a writing piece about what they THINK it's supposed to look like, and then he can assess the prior knowledge from there and break the kids into needs based groups as well as plan his lessons.  Why teach a lesson on write your materials first on a procedural piece if everyone already knows how to do that?


6. Sandi from Rubber boots and Elf shoes writes an amazing blog that I find something I want to do in my classroom from at least once a week.  If not more.  She did not disappoint with this gem of an idea.  Lots of folks have their class pet write to their kids- but she makes her kids write to her class pet- and they cover all of their revising and editing in it to boot.  I just caught a toad last week, and have set him up in a nice little habitat and am looking forward to working this writing magic come the fall.


7. I realize that the watermelon to seed idea is not anything new or fantastic.  But I do like this visual rubric.  I also like the idea of having a blank one where we can really workshop these sorts of idea together as a class and change up the watermelon ideas whenever I see an author struggling.  Even making smaller ones that are laminated or in sheet protectors in their writing notebooks so they can use them as they plan.


8. Another possible use for a fake Christmas tree in my forest themed classroom this coming year. This site has tons and tons of ideas.


9. I have yet to find a way of storing writing materials that I am pleased with yet- but I like this idea.  I might just give it a go.


10. Bahahahaha! I just had to.



Write on, kittens!

White-Tailed Deer Freebie

I want to share some Virginia love.

My sister made me some white-tailed deer clip art, and I've used it to create a little fact booklet that goes over some lifecycle bits and adaptation bobs.  Here is her clipart package:

And here is my booklet:

 

 

 

 

The booklet is six pages long.  I made it black and white for easy copying for the kids- plus they can color it themselves- and I even fixed it so you should be able to run it front to back and staple together to save a bit of paper.

 

I know it has been hard to find white-tailed deer stuff- so hey!  My favorite number is eight- so the first eight Virginia teachers that give me their email address get one for free, and the first four folks that aren't as lucky to live here may have one too, if they'd like.

 

You don't have to do anything in return- though it would be sweet if you gave it a rating on TpT- but that is completely up to you.  Annnnnd please totally tell me if you see anything that needs fixing.  Yikes! 

 

Animal Research PebbleGo vs. Creature Feature

I've been doing "independent" animal research with the kids this week in a combined writing/science time.  Generally, I've always let the kids choose which animal they want to research, but I don't let anybody do the same animal. Then they happily head off to the library only to discover that since the entire grade level is also doing animal research, either the desired book is already checked out or the library never had such a book in the first place.

Oh, but hey! No problem!  It's all about technology these days so just let them scamper off to the internet and find an article.

Gah.  Never mind that your little Hildegard reads on a kindergarten level.  Never mind that Annoying Andy managed to find the site featuring monkey butts and has now shown EVERYONE.

I have tried to combat the latter by teaching my kids to always add the words "facts for kids" after their search words.  This has helped somewhat- but it is still hard to find a good site where the article is helpful and readable.

So I stumbled on to National Geographic for Kids Creature Feature section this year.

There are hundred of animals available to look at, and as you can see from the tabs, not only can they read the facts with an accompanying photo, there is also video and sound, and a map of their locations around the world.  The Print this Creature tab takes you to a printer friendly version that included one photo, the map and all of the facts. 

At first I thought that this was the jackpot.  And I'm not saying that it isn't all well and good- but then Flamingo Fabulous steered me over to PebbleGo.  Now, PebbleGo is not free.  So if you are interested after the preview they offer, talk to your administration about purchasing it.  It's worth it.  They have more than animals.  2nd Grade Virginia teachers- they've got all of the Famous Americans (YEP- even Jackie and Susan!)

Things that are similar is the interface.  A child can read facts along with pictures.  There is also video and sound, but as an added bonus, if a student clicks the megaphone next to the text, the site will read the passage aloud.  This makes PebbleGo a serious plus for Hildegard, who can't read the information on National Geographic Kids.  Also has a printer friendly version with one photo.  Notice the purple caption beneath the polar bear?  That's a link to a diagram- text feature GOLD!

What puts PebbleGo over the top though, is that it breaks the information into headings- Body, Habitat, Food, Life Cycle and Fun Facts.  making it a lot easier for the kiddos to locate the information they need.

But what I liked about the NGK site was the richness of the info.  The animal research we were doing as a class was relatively simple- What do they eat? Where do they live? How do they grow? Statistics (weight and so forth) and Fabulous Fact.  The statistics information was a bit hit or miss with PebbleGo, some animals offering more than others.  Life Cycle information was not always everything we were looking for either.

We ended up combining when we could.  PebbleGo and NGK feature many of the same animals, so some kids lucked out with double articles.  Not that Hildegard could get a lot of use out of one of them... But next year, I'm going to pre-print these articles and keep them together in a big binder.  I decided that what would make a great nonfiction lesson for my above grade level kids would be to cut apart the NGK article, and separate the information into the PebbleGO categories, making an even richer document that was easier for my not-so-on-grade-level folks to navigate.

You can check my bank account, neither one of these websites offered me any compensation.  I remain on the edge of bankruptcy...

Mash-Up of Mediocre Genius-Ness

First off, I'd like to update my hill-billy shelving organizer doo-dad picture.  So here's the new and slightly improved version:

So, I've got the two magazine files now for the writing and Spanish.  In between those, I have their dry erase pockets, where we insert different graphic organizers and math charts and the like.  In the basket of math workbooks, they worked better turned on their sides, and we wrote the names on the bindings so they could easily see whose was whose as they pulled them out.  The double decker letter tray has dry erase boards on top and clip boards on the bottom.  And then each table has its writing supplies bucket- pens of different colors, crayons, colored pencils and markers for illustrating, a pack of post-its and also a stamp pad and date stamper.  The drawer organizer has glue on top, scissors in the middle, and dry erase pens with felt erasers on the bottom.  So far, it is working splendidly, and the kids desks are staying free and clear of clutter.  I am PLEASED.

My next moment of Mediocre "Genius-ness" is with the dang bathroom.  I have tried everything to keep them from work avoidant trips.  We have signed names, we have put times, we have used sticks...blar blar blar.  So today I put up this:

 I laminated a great-big-giant piece of construction paper and used those 3m command strip hook deals with some yarn and stole some of my mom's clothespins.  Sorry, mom- but I NEEDED them!  The first string is just where everyone's clothespin "lives" at the beginning of any given day.  Then I put up notecards with the numbers 1 through 4 on them.  I did not laminate them, because I haven't decided if I will keep the messages I wrote underneath or not.  #1 says First Trip.  #2 says No Problem. (I don't mind, because after all, that's how many trips I take).  #3 says Ok, then.  (Which is pretty much my defeat phrase.  Our day is in three blocks, and I'm willing to throw them a bone for having small bladders) #4 says Um, I think you might want to see a doctor about that.  (Sounds terrible, but it made my kids laugh- and really! That's four trips in the classroom- we've got our own bathroom- plus I know for a fact that they go during lunch- it's NOT normal.)  Today I only had one girl go past four.  She had to put her clip on me, since we didn't have a fifth string.  And I think she probably SHOULD have that looked into. Seriously.

Anyway, I also made up a little doo-dad for the side to help with knowing if the bathroom was in use and who needed to go next.  I have been forever shooing away lines and having to teach "knock first, before you go in". I took a green piece and red piece of construction paper, laminated them, folded them in half and then glued two sides together.  I used the 3m strips to mount it to the door, and then added velcro tabs to both sides so you could flip the sign up and down.

 The green side is simple enough - Vacant "The bathroom is free to use".  On the red side, I wrote Occupied "The bathroom is being used" and then I made a space for five names.  I leave a dry erase marker and eraser by the sign.  If the bathroom is occupied they sign their name.  After five names are signed no one can sign their name until all five have been erased.  When you exit the bathroom, you check the list- WALK to that person and WHISPER to them that the bathroom is now available.  They go to the door, erase their name and move their clip and continue the pattern until there are no more names, and then that last person flips the sign back to green.  It worked quite well for a first day, I must say.  The only thing I will do different next time is write the words on the paper BEFORE I laminate- because even though it is Sharpie, when the kids have gone to erase the dry erase marker, it's smudged the Sharpie ink and it just looks sorta messy.  Ah well, live and learn.  At least the kids didn't hide in the bathroom all day today.

And for my last Huzzah! for the evening, I've got this little treasure working it over at my Guided Reading Table:

I picked up the child mannequin at a sale from a friend who was getting rid of some no-longer in use store fixtures (Love you, Gael! http://www.bluecanoecrew.com/ ).  I love all things kooky- and this mannequin warmed my heart like a pig roast on Labor Day. Anyhow, I stole some of my daughter's clothes (Wow, I've really been a clepto today, hermmmm.) so that the children would not go into a hysterical hoe-down over a headless naked body being in the room.  Because it serves a PURPOSE I tell you!  When I teach guided reading groups, we always chart facts that we find out, or story events and vocab and all that good stuff.  The only problem has been that I teach five groups, use tons of chart paper, and can't display them all at once so I was constantly hanging and taking down and rehanging and YAR.  So I bought these Elmer's Foam boards, and stapled blank copier paper to them.  I have one board per group, and when we start a new story I just staple on top.  It holds my old work as well as the new.  Perfecto multi-tasking!  

 And my little darling just holds her arms out perfectly waiting to carry the sweet burden of our thoughts...*sigh*.  Yeah, ok. I know.  But STILL! I looooove it.  The board fits nicely on my big table when we're talking about what we want to chart, and then when we're ready for guided writing day, I just pop the chart up and they can reference it for their story summaries.  This particular board we ended up adding a piece of paper to the top middle there on the last day of reading because the kids decided that they would have liked for the author to have included more of an emotional reaction on the brother's part when their father died.  And I was very impressed that they even thought up such a thing, needless to say that they wanted it added to the board.  At least two of them made a point of mentioning it in their summary as well.

Different stories often have different charting set-ups, but all the fiction pieces have a place for character, problem/solution, and events.  This particular story was good for discussing shifting emotions, and it also had some upper level vocabulary that we needed to reference.  Another one of my groups now is reading a story that leans itself to making predictions, but the vocabulary is very basic, so we have a predictions page instead of a vocabulary page.  And on the non-fiction pieces we often use the smaller top two pieces to make labeled diagrams.  It just depends on what your group needs, and how the book is set-up.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I promised the pic of the non-fiction resources library:

Brochures, menus and maps are in magazine files, and then magazines/newspapers, catalogs, and cookbooks are in baskets.  You can kind of tell I don't have a lot of menus yet...will take a restaurant tour this weekend I suppose to remedy that.  I labeled these baskets with letters rather than numbers- I don't really know why.  I think maybe because originally, I started labeling them before I fixed up my library, and I had set them on top of some other shelves and wanted to make sure they were easy to put away- but I was feeling a bit OCD over having the numbers out of order. Yep, just riddled with character flaws. But I like it.  And the kids have been visiting it regularly.  Maps still the fan fave, but cookbooks are coming on strong.  One kid did use the brochure basket today though to find out how to spell the word DOMINION, since he knew there was a King's Dominion flyer in the file.  Good stuff, minds are working, the hamster wheels are turning now! Yee Haw.

Ok, overtired, and wired.  Not a good combo...

Dang if I haven't been productive lately...

I feel pretty proud of myself as far as the To-Do list challenge.  I have managed to finish my library organization. I also got the kids' desks cleaned up and the hillbilly plastic shelves working their magic.  We have finished our peek-a-boo posters.  I added a bunch of neat things to my retelling center, and found that the kids are enjoying it a whole lot- especially with these dinosaur hats I found at the Dollar Tree.  Got half way done with working on some math center organization too.  So I am counting this week as a success. Even though I completely slacked off on the testing and will have to haul butt tomorrow and next week.  Ah well, I am at peace with my mismanagement of time for now.


So, Peek-A-Boo Posters. First off, they really work for any sort of report you want to do, and could actually be used for all sorts of things as well, which I will ramble on about after the pics.  I came up with this idea years ago when I was teaching fourth.  You just need a half size poster board, index cards, tape, and coloring supplies.


I used five cards, because I had five topic areas I wanted the kids to research for their animal.  Habitat, Food, Appearance, Life Cycle, and an Amazing Fact.  You put a strip of tape under the card so it flips up and down like a window or door.


What the kids need to understand is to draw their animal as big as possible to cover up the poster.  And also color in background.  You do all the drawing and coloring OVER TOP of the closed cards.  This way, when you flip them up, there is a perfect white space left beneath to write their research findings.


I did a sample of a panda bear to show them what I was looking for as far as drawing large and then where to put their research.  I put topic labels on the top portion of the card when it was flipped up, and wrote the facts underneath.

 All in all, the research varied on the level of student, but they got to try research in books, going to the library, and also using a computer to find facts.  This one below is from one of my girls who loves vampires- she picked the bat as her animal to research.

I also left a ruler size white space border on the side of each poster so that I can bind them all together into one big book.  We divided up the animals by habitat, so I had four kids on each of Forest, Tundra, Pond, Grasslands, and Desert.  I had the kids also make two- one that I could keep and the other for them to take home.

As far as other uses for a peek-a-boo poster- the sky is the limit.  It works for any topic of research.  You could also use it for math, drawing a large picture on a specific theme, and then writing story problems underneath the cards where they would have to look at the picture to get information.  You can use it in language- displaying parts of speech, writing fictional stories (just number the flaps so they know which card to flip up in what order), ABC poster books (each page is a letter, the drawings are of items that begin with the letter and then poems or facts are written under the cards), riddle books, etc.

Some kids finished earlier than others (isn't that always the case) and they liked the idea enough that they asked if they could do another animal.  Plenty of poster board, plenty of index cards- let the research roll!
 

And the crowd goes Wiiiiiild!

First off, this particular post is dedicated to the fabulous Mrs. Baxter, who sent me a bursting envelope full of non-fiction brochures, maps, and goodies from a trip she took to Germany.

As part of my new found obsession with non-fiction resources due to Tony Stead- I had sent out messages to some facebook friends that I had noticed did a bit of traveling, and asked them if they wouldn't mind sending me a few tidbits here or there.  I've gotten a great response, and wished I had an iPhone at the time I put those finds in the classroom to show the excitement- but this shipment coincided with the new phone.  If you didn't think a kid would get excited over a menu written in German- you have nooooo idea.

I laid out the different brochures and what not one piece at a time in front of the kids when we gathered on the carpet today for Reader's Workshop.  They were dying to touch them, when I put out the movie schedule two kids tried to lay a finger on the edges to call dibs.  We had to go over the rules for treating reading materials with care just to make sure they weren't torn to shreds.

It was a fantastic fifteen minutes, I have to tell you.  They can't wait for me to finish labeling them to put into the library permanently. I am so appreciative of my friends that have already sent materials, and those that say they plan to.  And so are the kids.  It's been a great experience to see how excited they get over the materials and the conversations they start having because of them.  Today there was an excellent moment where they began being critical of an art brochure- the paintings were not to their liking, and I simply said- "Now let's be open-minded, these paintings are worth millions of dollars."  This blew their minds- and a common topic of conversation for the rest of the day was "If you had a million dollars, would you buy THAT?"   It was very difficult not to snort out loud.  But their conversations easily evolved into what they WOULD buy if they had that much money.  And now, THAT was interesting. Here are my kiddos enjoying the non-fiction feast:

I love how close they sat together to share the materials.  Everytime they found a map they'd call out "Map! There's a map in this one!" and then a huddle would form.

They also followed me all over the room showing me whatever they found.  And then there was Maggie- she looooooved the subway system map.  She traced every line color and went over the stops.

These kids are looking diligently for the location of the museum that had the "ugly art".  And then these two girls sang the continent song every time they looked at a map.  So yeah, I should definitely follow up and go back over the difference between continents and countries- but STILL.  They remembered the song from back in OCTOBER.  Score!

And as a final note- found a great blog via Pinterest today, http://crisscrossapplesauceinfirstgrade.blogspot.com/   and I think you should definitely head over and look into the give-away they are having for an Easi-Speak USB recorder from Learning resources.  Don't know what that is?  Well, it's AWESOME, and you can look at it here:

http://www.learningresources.com/product/easi-speak--8482-+usb+recorder.do

And no, I have not been paid to endorse the ad, but by blogging about it I do get an extra chance to win one!  But besides that- it's really a great blog, and also what looks to be a great classroom resource.

Seriously fussy baby cramping my style.

Really, this is going to be short.
I was able to do the following today from my list:
1) Began the great kid's desk overhaul.  It involves plastic shelving, basket wizardry, and a forced paper purge. Learned from experience that I apparently attract hoarders, and that I like cardboard magazine files versus baskets...
2) Boxed up many many fabulous classroom resources that are never used to reduce clutter. *sigh* mixed feelings.  But I had to be hard on myself, because they were gathering dust.  And I can use the shelf space for something else.  Put them in nice clear boxes under the computer counter.
3) Had an actual sub look over my sub folder to give me pointers on what I might be missing.
4) Employed my Teacher Cadet into beginning to cut and cardstock all the delicious teacherspayteachers freebies I got yesterday.
5) Utilized the discussion and model methods from the Daily 5 book to manage behavior during a math lesson.  It worked so well I'm going to do it for everything tomorrow! And also came up with a writing activity for the kids to do related to that...
and
6) *snort* received a "non-fiction resources" packet from an NFL team that I had e-mailed a request to- their contribution: a poster of their scantily clad cheerleaders.  Thank you for displaying your powers of reading comprehension...ah, I'll rant about that more another day.

There is a sudden break in the howling, and a very droopy eyed 13 month old burrowing his nose into my neck.  Time to sign off.

 

My New Love Affair with Non-Fiction

I was taking writer's workshop training this year when my instructors played a clip of a Tony Stead lecture.  If you haven't seen, heard, or read Tony Stead yet- by all means RUN, do not walk, to your closest source of information dispersal and load him up!

My school is very committed to the Lucy Calkins writer's workshop method; it's a school-wide endeavor.  Every teacher is equipped with the books, and it's so embedded in the curriculum that when anyone talks about workshop, Lucy is referred to by her first name.  So why we were played this clip I'm not so sure- because there is a moment where he really sort of hangs personal narrative out to dry- but regardless of that- he had me hooked.

There was this fact about how like, 85% of real-world reading is different forms of non-fiction.  But go look in your classroom library, and you'll probably find that 85% or more of it is fiction.  And then look at the non-fiction you do have, and notice how it's pretty much animals, biography possibly, and how to draw dinosaurs.  His discussion of the process of of teaching children researching and writing non-fiction pieces was mesmerizing.  I got his first book immediately, and then even went and bought the second.

It was an easy read, written in a very conversational tone, and delivered in examples of how it was taught in actual classrooms with all ages of children.  One of the methods I like the best is how you do a pre-assessment with the children by having them write what they *think* that particular form of nonfiction should look like.  Then you lead the workshop and in the culminating activity, they do that project again with all of their new found knowledge and you can compare the two pieces to see how much they actually took in.

So, yes, unequivocally- I love this book.  If I find his address I will be sure to write him my first ever fan letter.  As long as writing to Tootsie Roll Pops about whether or not they really give you a free pop if your wrapper has an Indian Chief shooting a star on it wasn't considered a fan letter...

As far as my personal library goes- I've started branching out to get more nonfiction resources.  At this moment, aside from my animals and biographies, and how-to books, I've added in magazines and newspapers, catalogs, brochures, take-out menus, and maps.  Something I never really thought the kids would want to look at.  But everyday- there goes one of them to pull out that big road map and completely unfold it and five of them gather around it in a little circle and run their fingers over the lines and talk about all of the words next to the "dots".  I went ahead and bought one of those fancy pop out maps of DC and they nearly went into hysterics to be the first to look at it.

And I must mention- with a great amount of appreciation- how my friends have been helping with this endeavor.  I messaged a great many of my Face Book friends around the country and the world asking them to mail in non-fiction samples as they came across them- and they have sent me the most amazing things.  And that is a simple request you can ask anybody you know- Hey, they next time you go out to eat, can you grab me a take out menu?  If you go for a drive this weekend, can you stop at a rest stop and grab me some tourist brochures?  On your trip to china can you pick me up every dang piece of paper you come across?

My kids still look at the fiction.  But I find it newly thrilling to see them get excited over investigating a plant catalog.  I will be expanding on this idea for ages I think, and find new ways to make this non-fiction obsession useful to both them, and me.