Letters That Matter 2.0 Giveaway

I recently updated this unit to align with CCSS 3-5. 

I am giving away three copies in my TN store.

Giveaway ends Monday, December 2.

The Case of the Missing Snowman

I might be getting a reputation for creating quirky writing lessons.  I think it was about the time I framed the Easter Bunny for B & E, but I'll save that one for another day.

This is an exercise in point of view.  I wrote the writing prompt and had my students consider how the story might be told from different perspectives. 

(Caution: the year I taught sixth grade, some turned my gentle snowman into a creature of horror.  You may want to decide in advance what genres you will allow.)

To download The Case of the Missing Snowman at my Teachers pay Teachers Store, click here.

To download The Case of the Missing Snowman at my Teachers Notebook Store, click here.


As always, I hope you enjoy this lesson with your students.

Update: Here is a post where I update and show bulletin board possibilities.

You can purchase all ten forms I use for creative writing assignments and bulletin boards here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and here in my Teachers Notebook store.  I have included at least two suggestions for each form that are not here on my blog.

Tough Cookie by David Wisniewski

For some reason, I have been hooked on personification lately.  When I found this book at my local library, I knew it was worth sharing.

Tough Cookie is a private eye living at the bottom of a cookie jar.  He discovers that Fingers has taken his partner Chips and decides to settle the score.

Here is a page for students to create their own examples of personification.  I have created it with and without lines.  This is a part of my full Exercises in Personification product in my Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook stores.

This book is recommended for 4-8 year olds, but older students find humor in this spoof.
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In other news, it's almost time for the TPT Cyber Monday Sale.  I just linked up with Learning with Mrs. Leeby.  Visit her post to find other great stores that are participating.



Trapped in a Commercial

I knew from the first moment I saw them, that the AT&T commercials were not scripted.  Anyone who has spent time around grade school children knows that they come up with the strangest things.  Here is an article about how the company made the ads: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-att-got-kids-make-some-years-best-ads-148605.  Beck Bennett's initial questions are scripted, but they let the children respond naturally.

What teacher hasn't had moments like these?

Quote of the Week for November 24, 2013

"The secret in education lies in respecting the student. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Free Editing Checklists Aligned with Common Core

Download Free Editing Checklists from my Teachers Notebook Store.
Download Free Editing Checklists from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

I love teaching writing to upper elementary students.  I originally developed checklists to align with the writing assessment we give here in Washington State.  Now that we are adopting Common Core, I modified this tool accordingly.

I use these lists in three ways:

1. I can assess a set of writing samples and decide what lessons I need to focus on with the whole class, small groups and individual.
2. I can have students edit each others papers with guidance.
3. I can have students assess their own work before they turn it in.

I typically have rubrics as a part of my assignment that I use for grading.  These checklists are a part of my formative assessment.

I have just updated all of my Teaching Genre units with these checklists and other activities.

The Books of Elsewhere by Jacqueline West

The premise for this series is interesting: what if paintings were portholes to other places and times?  In the first book, Olive moves into a strange house and finds that a pair of spectacles lets her enter the paintings and visit the people there.  Many of them are frightened of one of the inhabitants and Olive soon learns that some of these people cannot be trusted.

This series is recommended for fifth grade on up, but I have some fourth graders who are ready right now.


 
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Homework Excuses

This is a photograph of an actual homework assignment recently turned in.  "My cats scratched it up."  I believe her for two reasons.  One, I have a cat that has ripped things up.  Two, she copied it over onto a new piece of paper without complaint.

Over the years, I have had coffee and food stained homework, pages that went through the washer and drier, and, my favorite, the backpack a child through on the roof.  "At least you know where it is," he told me while trying to convince me I should accept it.

What homework excuses have your received?  I would love to read some in the comments.

I'm giving away three copies of my full Imagery unit November 15-18 at my Teachers Notebook store.  Head on over there to win.

Quote of the Week for November 17, 2013

Teachers are like the candles, which consume themselves to brighten the lives of others.
- Author Unknown

I'm giving away three copies of my full Imagery unit November 15-18 at my Teachers Notebook store.  Head on over there to win.

Thanksgiving Prompt with Free Sensory Details Recording Sheet and Giveaway

A year ago, I had my students write a poem called My Unusual Thanksgiving.  We had a guest speaker who shared her poetry so I didn't create a printable for the lesson.

Here is the original prompt:

Write a list poem called "My Unusual Thanksgiving". Try to include images and events that are not typical of a Thanksgiving dinner on TV.  What makes the way you and your family celebrate unique?

This year my students have five days off over Thanksgiving weekend.  I created this sheet to help them record a moment during their weekend.  I plan to have them bring the sheet back to school and do the rest of the writing process in class. 

Here is the link to the Google Doc of the Sensory Details Recording Sheet.

This year I expanded my Imagery 2.0 product to include more graphic organizers and lesson ideas.  This process helps my students show not tell in their writing. Parents at conference were impressed.

Here is the link to Imagery 2.0 in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Here is the link to Imagery 2.0 in my Teacher's Notebook store.

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

 

Melody is in a wheelchair and cannot talk, but she has an amazing brain.  She is rejected by her classmates who don't realize how smart she is.  She convinces her parents to get her a computer so she can communicate with the world.
 Melody's struggle felt personal to me as I know children whose abilities are masked by their so-called disabilities.  I was excited to receive this as a gift from one of my families this year.  I can't wait to share Melody's story with my fourth graders this year.
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Who Do You Teach For?

Like many places, our district is moving to a new evaluation system this year.  This new system requires formal observations of every teacher every year.  Some of us who have been teaching for awhile haven't been formally observed in a decade or so.  I'm happy to report that I successfully made it through my first observation cycle this year.

The week before I was observed, our new assistant superintendent visited our school.  He and my principal spent ten minutes in my room while my students worked on geometry stations.  That lesson was also a success, but these visits made me wonder who I am teaching for.

Although ideally, I am planning lessons every day that move my students forward, lately I've been feeling the pressure to make it more of a show.  I feel like I need to please the administrators with their idea of what a good teacher does.  Sometimes I skip the step where I make sure I'm doing what I think a good teacher does.  I want to use a variety of strategies to meet my students where they are.

I am fortunate to work with a principal who is happy with my work and the assistant superintendent said he enjoyed the time with my students.  I am a people pleaser by nature, so this works for me.

So, now I turn the question to you: who are you designing lessons for?  Do you feel pressure to teach like someone else?  Are test scores so prominent, that you are teaching to the test?  I really want to know.

Quote of the Week for November 10, 2013

 

 

"To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you  you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive."
Robert Louis Stevenson

Quiz Me Division

Last week I posted Quiz Me Multiplication.

I promised I would post the division version of the same activity.  Students review a set of division problems and have another member of the class quiz them.  The person doing the quizzing is looking at the problem and the answers and is memorizing the facts also.

Here is the link to Quiz Me Division.

I also posted these activities on my classroom website so parents can quiz their students at home.  I encourage parents to focus on just one set at a time; threes for example.  We measure our progress with weekly quizzes at school.


Quiz Me: Division is a part of my Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Packet.

Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Pack is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Pack is also available in my Teachers Notebook store.


Happy Friday!

Charlie Joe Jackson Series by Tommy Greenwald

Author Tommy Greenwald must be familiar with reluctant readers.  He has three sons, Charlie, Joe and Jack and he based the main character, Charlie Joe Jackson on them.  Charlie Joe Jackson goes to amazing lengths to avoid reading.  This series is about surviving middle school while trying to avoid academics and not really succeeding.

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Pay No Attention to the Adults in the Front Seat

I love teenagers.  I work with them in my spare time at a church youth group and during the summer at the theater workshop I helped with.

The ones I work with are at various stages of learning how to drive, so I carpool often.

If you hang around with this age group, you know what I'm talking about: the driver becomes invisible.  They talk like I am not there.  I get so many insights this way.  I learn new vocabulary.

I would like to say thank you to the teenagers in my life who inspire me and entertain me with their hope and energy.  I also want to thank them for telling me all about movies and TV shows and Youtube videos I would never have the time to watch.  Then I know when one of my students is trying to pass off someone else's characters or plot line as original work.

November 1-4 I am giving away three copies of Fall Vocabulary Builders in my Teachers Notebook store. 

Today is the last day to enter.

Quote of the Week for November 3, 2013

"Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness. . . . For you see, greatness is a measure of one's spirit, not a result of one's rank in human affairs." - Sherman Finesilver

November 1-4 I am giving away three copies of Fall Vocabulary Builders in my Teachers Notebook store. 

Currently November and Giveaway

I went to bed early last night and didn't see Farley's Currently November post. No regrets I needed the sleep.

I'm listening to the rain that started last night after a week of being dry.
 
I'm loving that I finished my pre-observation conference, observation, and post-observation conference this week.  I'm relieved that it all went well.

Now that I am finished with that project, I need to pay attention to housework this weekend...especially laundry.

My husband and I discovered an Indian food restaurant last evening that was wonderful.  I didn't overeat and brought home leftovers.

And now for the yummy pin:

 

I want to try this recipe tonight.

November 1-4 I am giving away three copies of Fall Vocabulary Builders in my Teachers Notebook store.  Don't forget to enter.

Quiz Me Multiplication & Giveaway

If your students are like mine, they haven't memorized their multiplication and division facts yet.  I had them make sets of flash cards, but managing that was a pain.

I created a station called "Quiz Me: Multiplication" where students set a goal, review a set of problems and have another member of the class quiz them.  It's a quick daily practice where they set their own goals.  We measure progress with weekly quizzes.

I also handed these out at recent parent conferences.  It was nice to have just two sheets of paper (this one and division) to hand parents instead of flash cards.

I originally planned to cut out each set and glue them to color-coded construction paper and have them laminated.  Reality hit and I printed them back to back and put them in sheet protectors.  You can decide, although I highly recommend investing in companies that sell sheet protectors.  I use a lot of them.

Here is the link to the freebie Quiz Me: Multiplication.

Next week I will post Quiz Me: Division.

Quiz Me: Multiplication is a part of my Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Packet.

Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Pack is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Multiplication and Division Fact Fluency Pack is also available in my Teachers Notebook store.


Happy Friday!