Writing

Today I thought I would share a little bit of how I teach writing!!  Of course I start off the year with some handwriting practice.  I usually start with A and work my way through the alphabet.  I teach my students that some letters are tall and some letters dig down below the line. 

 

 

 At the same time I start teaching my students to focus on only one topic at a time.  I LOVE to use beanie babies to help them write.  This also help them practice describing.  During the first week of school we practiced describing this little cutie “Lips”.

picture from amazon.com

 

 

 We also practice writing about animals.  I read an easy reader and my students write what they learned.  During the second week of school I read this little book about frogs. 

picture from scholastic.com

 

Then, we created this anchor chart and wrote about what we learned.

We use Lucy Calkins writing workshop but I like to throw in a few extra lessons here and there.  For the past few weeks we have also practice writing about small moments.  I'll try and post some pictures soon. :)

How do you teach writing in your classroom?

Earth Day In May? And all about BUGS!!

Last week we tracked back in after a four week break!! Boy was it nice to have a month off for Spring Break!!  We missed Earth Day during our Track Out so I decided to start off with that!! I won Cara’s Wonderful Earth Pack!! It is so cute!! One of our favorites was this cute craft!! My students loved it!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 This week we are hard at work learning about insects.  We started off by learning some Fun Facts about bugs.  My students LOVED IT!!  Then I had them choose two bugs to compare and contrast in Work on Writing.  Check out some of their cute work:

 

 

Next, we did a little contraction review in Word Work.  The students had to sort the contraction cards and then they had to record them on this sheet:

 

Also in Word Work, the students could also choose to count syllables in the bug words!! 

  

All of the above centers are included in my Catch the Bug Literacy Pack!! You can check it out HERE!

 

 

In writing I used another FREEBIE from Cara!!  I read Hey, Little Ant to my students and then we completed this little writing craftivity.  The students loved every minute of it!! You can find this activity HERE!

 

Don't you love this one?? If the boy squishes him his female will be sad!!  That cracks me right up!!  Too funny!!

 

 

The insect fun even continued in math where the students practiced measuring in our Math Tubs!! 

 

Measure the Bees

 

  

 

 

Order the Flowers

 

If you want to see more or have this math tubs you can purchase them HERE!

 

Measure the Mustache - I found this activity HERE!
 

 

 

Catch Up Post!!! - Spring/ Easter and Cinderella

Here is a look at a few pictures I have snapped in the classroom over the last few weeks!!

The week before Easter we did a little bunny/ spring unit!!    I had my students write a little sequence story about this page from Teacher Helper Magazine.  I told them a step was missing and they had to add it in for themselves!!! 

Bunny Sequence Story – Teacher Helper April/ May 2007

 

Students’ Work

 

This little sweetie even filled up the back of the page!! I have some great writers!!

  

 

Spring ABC Order!! 

 

 I gave my students a little challenge with 16 words!! They did GREAT!!!  You can find these word cards HERE: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Hippity-Hoppity-Spring-Themed-ABC-Order

Sentence Types – Egg Themed!!

 

  

 

You can find this activity HERE:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sentence-Sorting-Spring-Themed

 

This past week we learned a little about Fairy Tales and read a few versions of Cinderella!! J 

Cinderella Venn Diagrams

 

You can find this activity HERE:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cinderella-Stories-Literacy-FUN

 

Sentence Sorting

 

I’ve been working on a Sentence Sorting Pack! 

This Sentence Sorting Pack includes three sentence sorts:
1. My Lucky Day – St. Patrick’s Day
2. Quit Bugging Me! – Bugs
3. Basket of Treats – Egg Themed

Each sort includes:
3 Headers – Telling, Asking, Excited
4 Asking Cards
4 Excited Cards
4 Telling Cards
1 recording page

I use this pack in my Work on Writing sentence to help my students practice the different sentence types.  If you are interested you can purchase a copy HERE!

The first person to guess my favorite Easter candy wins a FREEBIE!! J

Finding Common Core Objectives, Writing, and Apples

I’ve been working hard this year to match all of my favorite activities to the Common Core standards. I’ve come to love this iphone APP!! 

 

Some nights when I can’t sleep It’s perfect to look up a the standards.  I often take a screen shot of the page and then I can refer back to it later when planning.

 

  

I could go on. . . but I'm sure you get the idea!!

During the 1^st quarter I noticed this common core standard:

 

(On a side note I realized that language is actually part of writing.  Writing is the CONTENT part and Language is the grammar, punctuation part!!  I might be the last one in the country to understand this but just in case I'm not,  I thought I would share that!! ;) 

 

Okay so back to this objective:  Notice the first circle L 1.4 that's the standard number and the second yellow circle is the actual objective that I'm talking about. 

I realized this fit in PERFECT with the animal cards from FARM unit!!

We used the animal cards and described each animal two ways!! My students loved it. However some of them didn't master the skill that first/ only time. So I created this Writing Language these who cards to practice that skill:

 

These are the who cards from the Build a Sentence activity below!!  So you can use the same cards for TWO objectives!

At the beginning of the year my students really struggled with writing several sentences on a topic.  This activities helped my students learn to use more detail in their writing.

 

 AND using COMPLETE SENTENCES!! The loved those mini sentences.  I see a cat.  Or I like the black cat. 

To help my students turn those sentences in to: The black cat was on the porch.  We have been using this activity:

I call it Build a Sentence, the students choose a who card, a position card, and a where card.  Then they put them together to build a sentence!! They LOVE the silly sentences of course, but it really helped them add detail to their writing.  Here are a few samples:

 

 

This is activity is featured in my farm unit and in this mini camp writing pack!

 

I used with Cara Carroll's camping unit!

 

This week we will be working on writing while learning about apples.  I plan to use several of the sheets in this mini writing language pack!! ;) 

 

Here is a look at what we have done with apples so far:

 

This morning we practiced reading this poem:

 

During Work on Writing the students used their NEATEST handwriting to write the poem!! They loved that!! And it helps all students feel successful!

 

 

This afternoon during our "normal" writing lesson we came up with words that describe apples:

 

Then the students sorted the words on to this tree map.

 

 

I had to share these Apple Buddies we made on Friday!! I'm still trying  to do a "little" front load Friday!  I got the pattern from Abby HERE but we I decided to do a little creative writing with it instead!!

 

 

How do you practice writing in your classroom?  Was I the first to understand the language/ writing common core objectives?

 

FALL LITERACY PACK WINNER:

 

Congratulations!!  I'll send it out soon!!