Falling in LOVE with books!

Have you ever come across a well-loved book?  You know, the ones where the covers are wrinkled, and the spines are barely holding the pages together?  While it makes me sad that some of my books are falling apart, it is encouraging to know that my students are loving certain books.  :)  I like to think of those wrinkled books as "well-loved".  

I recently had to repair our "Dinosaur Encyclopedia".  It's a class favorite-  a large hardcover book with amazing illustrations.  It has been read so many times, its spine could no longer support it.  :(

With a short visit to the book hospital, this favorite was back on the shelf in no time.  We did discuss how the injured book had to be treated with more care from now on.

Speaking of loving books, Miss Woodward's Class celebrated Valentine's Day by writing about books they LOVE.  It was a really easy project that you can do to spice up your walls ANY time of year!

How cute are my little bookworms?

I gave each student a piece of white card stock and had them think about their favorite book that they've recently read.  They folded it in half (if they do it carefully, they can make two folds in the center to resemble a book spine!)  Then they illustrated the front cover on the right side of the card stock and wrote about why they love the book on the left side of the card stock.

While they were working, I took their pictures.  All they had to do was look down like they were reading a book.  Then I got busy printing and cutting each one out.

Lovely little head shots.

I added two pieces of clear packing tape to each of their armpits and then secured their folded book cover.  I attached it while it was slightly folded, so it would be 3-dimensional.

See what I mean?

To attach them to the walls, I used a piece of tape on their heads, and one on each corner of the book.  I just love how the books pop out of the wall!

Some of their cover illustrations were amazing!  I could barely tell which was the drawing and which was the actual book!   :)

I love doing simple, but eye-catching displays like this!

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Inspired with Writer's Workshop!

Happy Friday Saturday!  I hope your week ended well!  (I tried to write this post yesterday, but fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie with my dad.  Oops!)  Since it is the end of the quarter, students didn't have school yesterday.  Teachers had professional development in the morning, and time to work on grading in the afternoon.

For professional development, we had a group from the University of Minnesota Writing Project come in to teach us about Writer's Workshop and how to implement it in our classroom.  I found it super helpful!  I feel like teaching writing is not one of my strong suits, so I was feverishly taking notes!

After an introductory activity where we learned about the philosophy of writing from the National Council of Teachers of English, we broke into two groups: K-4th, and 5th-8th.  The teacher that presented for us went through the writing process what what to expect in each stage of writing.

For Writer's Workshop, teachers typically follow a basic framework:

1) Mini-lesson (5-10 minutes)
Teachers teach: procedures and organization, strategies and processes, and craft and technique

2) Independent Writing/ Conferencing with Students (30-45 minutes)
Students: write, write, write! Build stamina, and are at different stages in writing
Teachers: 2-4 minute conferences, points out strengths and weaknesses (and uses the information during sharing, small groups, and mini-lessons)

3) Closing/ Sharing (5-10 minutes)
Students and Teachers: modeling student examples, improve speaking skills, and address successes/misconceptions
(can be in the form of an author's chair, partner share, whole group, or individual reflection)



**Right now, I include some "Work on Writing"/ free write time with my Daily 5.  However, it is not as structured as Writer's Workshop, and I don't typically follow the writing process.  The writing process is where I am struggling as a teacher.

Here are some points about the Writing Process that stuck with me:

Drafting:
* Use graphic organizers
* 3rd-5th grade can use lists
*Illustrations! (Yes, even for the older grades!  Think: sketches on the side of notebooks)

Revising:
* Encourage students to NOT erase
* Ask: "Do you have all the information/ details you want?"
* Ask: "How can you make this writing even better?"
* To add a sentence or information, try using a small strip of paper with the new sentence on it, and glue it on the edge of the paper as a flap.

** Give the students the control!  They won't revise everything, maybe just a few parts, and that's OK!

Editing:
*Use checklists and rubrics
* It is NOT your job to edit your students' papers (although it's tempting… don't!)
*For punctuation and mechanics, use mentor texts and read a lot!
*Teach through the writer's lens, not the reader's lens.  (Think: Instead of saying, "Where do you want the reader to stop?" say, "Where do you want your thought to end?"
*Treat your students like a WRITER!


Conferencing:
* Be explicit, name a strength, and explain why it is important (Say, "I love the way you said Walgreens, instead of saying you went to the store, because it really tells the reader exactly where you were."
* If you can, have the student say the skill back to you.  (Say, "What are you going to work on now?")
* Focus on the WRITING (Not, "I see you used a capital letter.")



One AWESOME resource that was shared with us was Mrs. Meacham's Writer's Workshop.  It has great mini-lessons, and tons of printable resources for the writing process, writing traits, writing genres, and printable paper.  Seriously, go check it out!

Here are some of the other resources that were suggested at the workshop:

- Crafting Writers K-6 by Elizabeth Hale

- Writing Workshop the Essential Guide by Ralph Fletcher
(This one was suggested as a good starting point, if you're new to Writer's Workshop.  I will be ordering this one soon!)

- Units of Study for Primary Writing by Lucy Calkins
(Coming from a school without a writing curriculum, I may be suggesting this one to administration!)

When we discussed mentor texts, I instantly thought of this post and Jivey's Mentor Sentences.

Because my students are struggling so much with writing and getting their ideas down on paper, I am going to start with giving them time to free-write, and going through the writing process with those pieces, rather than focusing on specific pieces like narratives or letters.  

I am SO inspired to start a more structured Writer's Workshop on Tuesday!  Wahoo!

How do you tackle your writing time?  What is your favorite part about teaching writing?

Until next time,

- Miss Woodward

Five for Friday- November 14

It's Friday again, so I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the weekly Five for Friday!  Here's what happened this week in Miss Woodward's Class.

1.  Celebrating!

A good friend and coworker, Mrs. Elbert, celebrated her birthday this past weekend!  She is such a special lady, and I was excited to be able to share in her special day.  And now she is expecting her first child, so we had even more to celebrate!

Me, Mrs. Boos, Ms. Eichhorn, and Mrs. Elbert celebrating Mrs. Elber't's birthday.

2.  Pushing through the Polygons

 We started our unit on polygons in math this week.  For my ELL students, learning polygon names and characteristics is really hard.  One of the first things we did with polygons was create a foldable to help remember polygon names and qualities.

On the outside flap, we wrote the name of the polygon (triangle, square, rectangle, rhombus, parallelogram, pentagon, hexagon, octagon).  On the inside flaps, we cut out an example of the polygon, and wrote characteristics of the polygon.

The only materials we needed were large 11" by 17" paper, some shapes to cut out, scissors, glue, and a pencil!  It was a simple project to introduce polygons!

3.  You've Got Mail!

For writing this month, 3rd grade is working on writing letters.  My team and I decided to make the task into a grade-level project.  We set up each student with a pen-pal in one of the other classes.  Their job is to write a letter to their buddy and address it to the correct class.

Each classroom is going to have a mailbox outside their class.  Once students write their letters, they will give it to the "mail carrier" of the class.  The "mail carrier" will deliver the letters to the correct mailbox.  The "mail carrier" will then collect the mail from their class' mailbox and distribute it to the students.  

Here is my class' mailbox.  I made it out of a cereal box covered in paper.  I used velcro squares to attach it to the wall in the hallway.  Isn't it neat?!  Can't wait to see how this writing project turns out!

4.  Dia de los Muertos

At the end of the day, we mix up all of the 3rd graders and have an intervention time.  Some groups get extra help in reading, and some in math.  In my group, we have been reading about Dia de los Muertos lately.  A middle school teacher saw the book laying on my desk and offered to bring in some authentic sugar skulls.  The kids went nuts for them!  Lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" were heard.

5.  Best for Last… Curriculum Night!

Thursday night was Curriculum Night at our school, and I was the representative for 3rd grade.  The idea behind the event was giving students and parents ideas of reading and math activities to do together at home.

Time and time again at conferences, parents tell me that they don't have access to the public library, and don't have books at home.  In my room for curriculum night, I printed off a variety of books from Reading A-Z for parents and students to take to read together.  I made sure to have a variety of levels available.  Some parents took four or five books!

I am also a firm believer in having kids talk with their parents about what they are reading.  To get the conversation going, I had students create a "story cube".  I found it on superteacherworksheets.com.  I printed it on card stock for durability, and had them cut and tape it together themselves.  I also showed them how their parents can roll the cube, and the students can answer the question on the cube using the book they just read together.  I printed off 50 of these cubes, and I had less than 10 left at the end of the night!  At some points, my room was so busy that I couldn't even greet everyone in there!  It was awesome!  I really hope that parents and students start to read together at home.

What happened this week in your class?

Until next time,
-Miss Woodward

Writer's Block... Solution?

I need help.  I don't like teaching writing.  

As you know, my students are all ELL's, and they write like they talk.  I notice three main problems with my students' writing:

1.  They use present tense verbs only.  (Fun Fact: In the Hmong language, there are no past-tense verbs.  Interesting, yes.  But it's sabotaging my littles' writing!)

2.  They omit endings.  For example, they will write, "Yesterday, I walk to the store and bought some apple." (again, present tense verbs, as well as plural endings).

3.  Their sentences are simple.  VERY simple.    I want them to add more and use interesting words. Part of the problem with that, is that they lack the vocabulary to use in their writing.  We're working on the vocabulary.  Read about it in this post.

For ELL's, we work every day to develop their English language proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  Our school uses the SIOP model.  By working with these students, I have come to realize that speaking and writing work hand-in-hand.  I need them to write exactly what they are thinking.  I need them to understand that their writing should sound like fluent speaking.

I know they have great ideas for writing.  I am just stuck as to how teach good writing to such a low group of writers.

But, I may have found a solution to get the ball rolling.  I recently found Jivey's blog, and read her section about Mentor Sentences.

Here she is modeling her use of Mentor Sentences!

I love the idea of showing students what great writing looks like, and getting them to notice all of the great things about it.  For my kids, it will take some practice.  They don't have the knowledge of what plural nouns, vivid verbs, and pronouns are.  But I feel like using Mentor Sentences could be a great start to help my kids write great sentences.

How do you teach writing?  I would love some advice!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Tried it Tuesday: E-mailing Students

Today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday!

I really can't take credit for this idea.  I heard that one of my partners, Ms. Tarah, was doing something like this in her class, and I had to try it!  (Thanks, Ms. Tarah!)  Ms. Tarah uses her classroom computers to give students a chance to e-mail her, and she will e-mail them back.


So, for my Tried it Tuesday, I tried e-mailing with my students!


Here's how I set up my system:

1.  Create an account with Gmail.  You'll need to choose a username and password.  Keep in mind, it will be used by students, so make it kid-friendly.  I made mine without symbols and capital letters.  You'll also have to enter your name, birthday, primary email, and a few other little things to complete the account.

2.  Once you get your account all set up, you need to create e-mail threads for each student.  Click on the "Compose" button to start a new e-mail.  Send it to yourself (your class Gmail username).  In the subject line, enter a student's name.

3.  In the body of the message, type a little something to your student!  To start, I sent them directions of how to send me messages.  Then click "Send" to finish it off.

Other ideas of what to e-mail your students:

- Questions about books they are reading
- Links to game websites
- Links to books they can listen to online

4.  Repeat steps 2-4, creating an e-mail thread for each student.  Once you are all done, they will show up in your class' Inbox.  You can see that all of the messages were sent from "me".  Really, you are just sending messages to yourself.  By creating them this way, you can keep all of your students' e-mails in one spot.  

5.  Then, students can start to e-mail you!  They simply click on their own name from the Inbox page, and click "Reply".  Once they are done typing, they click the "Send" button.  

On the Inbox page, their new message will show up on the top and in bold.  Then I can click on the new messages, and reply to my littles!

I just introduced this yesterday, so we haven't had much practice with it.  But I will update you as we work through the process!  This will be a choice during our Daily 5 time; eventually they will be independent with e-mailing!

What sort of technology do you use in your classroom?

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Halloween Ideas

Does your school celebrate Halloween?  Last year, we were not allowed to celebrate anything.  I'm not usually a Halloween person, but I am happy that this year, students and teachers are allowed to wear costumes!  Halloween is also the last day of the quarter for us, so I'm okay with breaking our usual routine a little bit, to have a little fun.  Here are some of my ideas for Halloween this year!

• Paper Bag Pumpkins

I just LOVE these little bag pumpkins from This Old Art Room.  Kristin made these with her kindergarten students, but I want to try them with my 3rd graders!

• EEK!  Spiders!

I found this cool book on Reading A-Z.  It's a Level M, which is a 2nd grade level according to their system.  Remember, I teach 3rd grade, but actually, this book will be too hard for the majority of my students.  Most of my students are at a 1st grade or early 2nd grade level.  But, I know my kids will be really into it.  So... I will fight through the gross pictures and we will read it together.  And hopefully, learn something new about our friendly arachnids!

• Halloween Treat

Seriously, Pinterest is just loaded with ideas for cute little treats for Halloween!   I'm looking for something simple to make and share with my students.  Last year, I did little treat bags of popcorn, M&M's, and candy corn.  They loved it!  I think this year, I will do something similar.  It was easy to pull together and share.

• Should I play dress-up?

Since we are allowed to wear costumes this year, I should really dress up.  I have cat ears and a tail, so I could wear all black and be a cat.  I also have a witch hat.  The 3rd grade team (four of us), had talked about doing a group thing, but we couldn't decide on what to do.

In the past, I've been...

 A Lumberjack

 A Cat (with Mrs. Elbert, a Ladybug!)

So, serious question-  Do you have any simple (and cheap) ideas of what I could be for Halloween?  Let me know in the comments below!

• Scary Stories...........

Last week, 3rd grade started a project that the kids are just begging to work on all. the. time.  Each 3rd grade class is working with their teacher to write a scary story.  We talked about figurative language (and made a bubble map of how "scary" sounds, looks, feels, smells, and tastes).  Then we voted on a character and setting and started writing!  I occasionally give them ideas, but usually we just listen to everyone's ideas and then choose which one we like best.  Sometimes we are able to combine ideas, too.  Seriously, some of the stuff they have come up with is creepy.

But here's the best part:  This coming week, we are making an audio recording of our scary stories, complete with sound effects by the students and an app on Ms. Meredith's iPad.  On Halloween, we will listen to each class' story and be scared together.  The kids are pumped!

What kinds of activities will you do for Halloween this year?  I would love to hear about it!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

Daily 5 Anchor Charts

I have been using the Daily 5 this year, and so far I am loving it!  My students are loving it, too!  Some of them have even told me that they actually like reading!  :)

If you are unfamiliar with the Daily 5, it is a system that helps manage your literacy block.  Students spend the first month building habits for working independently on reading and writing.  That way, when you are conferencing with students and working with small groups, the other students know exactly what is expected of them, and they can work independently without interrupting your group time.

Setting up the Daily 5 takes about a month.  We are about halfway through the setup, and have introduced Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Buddy Reading (Read to Someone).  We still need to introduce Word Work and Listen to Reading.

As we introduce each new component of the Daily 5, we make a chart as a class, to help us remember behaviors for each component.  The charts tell what the students' job is to do, and what my job as a teacher is to do.

Here are some of my anchor charts.  If you have any questions about them, please ask!  This is my first year doing Daily 5, but I can share my experiences and how I've made it work for my group of kids!

Here are the behavior expectations for Read to Self.  We discuss these expectations before we practice, and also afterwards, to see if we met the expectations or if we can try harder next time.

We also talked about ways we can read a book.  We can read the pictures, read the words, or retell the story using the words and pictures.

I really want my kids to focus on choosing "Good Fit Books" this year.  For example, last week in the library, one of my students insisted on checking out Twilight, because she had seen the movie.  I understand the connection, but that is definitely not a good fit book for a 3rd grader.  To choose a "Good Fit Book", we use "I Pick"

I- I choose a book

P- Purpose (Why do I want to read it?)

I- Interest (Does it interest me?)

C- Comprehend (Do I understand what I read?)

K- Know (I know most of the words.)

These are some of the strategy cards the kids can refer to while they read.  At the beginning of the year, I used a read-aloud to model each strategy.  After practicing Read to Self, I check in with students to see if anyone used a strategy while they read.

After we had a good start with Read to Self, we started Work on Writing.  I gave each student a notebook, and during Work on Writing, their job is to write about whatever they want.  We brainstormed a list of topics, and I sent them on their way.  Now, each day when we check-in, I give them the option of continuing what they started yesterday, or starting something new.

Now on to their favorite (and the most challenging to build stamina for)- Buddy Reading!

For Buddy Reading, students have to sit EEKK (Elbow to Elbow, Knee to Knee).  There are three ways to Buddy Read:

Read 2 Different Books

Check for Understanding

I Read, You Read

(I can go into more detail with these in a later post.  I introduced each one individually, and gave the students a day to practice each one.  On the fourth day, I gave them a choice of which way they'd like to read with their buddy.  It didn't go so well... so we started from the beginning and practiced each one individually before I let them try choosing again.)

My front whiteboard is where I keep all of my anchor charts.  Once we start using Daily 5 independently, I will move these charts to free up my whiteboard space.  But for now, this is like Daily 5 Headquarters.

I am hoping to put together a "Daily 5 Starter Kit" to help teachers who are new to the Daily 5 get started with all of the setup.  Would anyone else find that helpful?  If you have any questions about my anchor charts, please let me know!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward

We Love Our Teeth!

I am SO excited to share with you something that happened in school this week!  I could have put it in my most recent Five for Friday, but I felt it deserved its own post.

Do you remember when we got that large donation of school supplies from Delta Dental?  And they gave us lots of toothbrushes and toothpaste too?  Well, instead of just giving the kids the toothbrushes and toothpaste, I felt like they needed more guidance and instruction.  

My life-long friend Eva is a Dental Hygiene student at the University of Minnesota.  I asked her and some dental friends to come and teach our kids about taking care of their teeth.  It was AWESOME!

First, we watched a short video about our teeth and cavities.  It was very kid-friendly.  Check it out and see if you can use it in your class!

Then they played a game of "good foods" and "bad foods" for our teeth.  So fun!  The funniest part was when they asked about broccoli.  ALL of the kids put a thumbs down, like it is bad for our teeth.  I had to clarify... "No, 3rd graders, not if you LIKE broccoli, they're asking if broccoli is good for our teeth!"  Then we saw thumbs up.  Haha

We talked about the best way to brush our teeth.  And then....

....They took our kids into the bathroom and showed them how to properly brush their teeth!  They gave each student a tablet to chew that dyes plaque pink so students could see how we can't usually see plaque and where exactly they need to brush.

Check out those pearly whites!

While the kids were waiting to go brush their teeth, I read them a story.

You Think It's Easy Being the Tooth Fairy? by Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt

After reading the story and reviewing ways to care for our teeth, we did some writing.

This will be in my TpT store soon!

As always, I love seeing what kids come up with.

"It is important to take care of my teeth because if you clean your teeth your teeth will be white."

"It is important to take care of my teeth because if we don't brush our teeth it will be yellow and it will have cavity."

This little guy drew a picture of himself brushing his teeth.  He said, "Miss Woodward, that little green stuff on my brush is mint."  Gotta love the attention to detail!

It was such a wonderful experience having the U of M dental hygiene students here to teach us about our teeth!  I really think the kids learned a lot!  And they are super excited that they have their own toothbrush to keep!  

Does your school do any type of hygiene programs for kids?  I'd love to hear about them!

Until next time,

-Miss Woodward