Poetry Friday: Leap Year

I’m sure I won’t be the only person posting this poem today:
The Original
Leap Year Poem
by Anonymous
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And that has twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each leap year.
I’ve decided to hand out this poem as my Poetry Friday Poem during Morning Meeting in my [...]

Tracking Chart

I created the Slice of Life Story Challenge Tracker and posted it above my desk, which is oddly located in my classroom’s meeting area, this afternoon. I cannot wait to see how many of my students partake in it this-coming Monday!!!

SOLSC: Student Tracker Spreadsheet

Need a quick record-keeping form to use to track your students’ Slice of Life Stories in March? If so, click here for a spreadsheet I created and published as a Google Document for that purpose. All you need to do is plug-in your students’ names.

Slice of Life Student Challenge Announcement

My fourth grade colleague is going to be doing the Slice of Life Story Challenge with her class as well. Therefore, I made this flier to go home with the students tomorrow. It’s pretty text-heavy (so I split it into two pages for my kiddies), but I figured I’d post it like this [...]

Revision: Dialogue

The active engagement of today’s minilesson ran a little longer than usual since my students felt as though they needed to help me revise my dialogue after studying the way another author used powerful dialogue in another text. I think that their suggestions helped me write something more believable that just needs to be [...]

Writing Space

Over the mid-winter recess I asked my students to sketch out their at-home writing space. Further, if they didn’t have an at-home writing space, I asked them to create one. They came back from vacation with sketches of what they created, which was fascinating. However, the most fascinating was one of the [...]

I don’t have words to describe what I created, so it’s my Wordless Wednesday Submission!

Ceramics Made in Feb 2008

Originally uploaded by teachergal

Ideas for Creating a 3-D Character from Today’s M.L. Active Engagement

First, I have to say that today’s lesson I taught, which was adapted from Session 11 of Calkins & Cruz’s Book on Fiction Writing in Grades 3 – 5 is AWESOME. It’s all about revising with different lenses.
My students read my story yesterday and commented on it, which was helpful to me. [...]

Units of Study

polls – Take Our Poll

A short list of the texts my students went for to help them revise the endings of their stories today…

One of our readers, Kelly, asked me to share the list of texts my students went for when looking for mentor texts to help them revise the endings of their short fiction pieces today. Here’s the list of texts they used:
Fly Away, Home by Eve Bunting
“Josie’s First Allowance Day” by Rosie Perez
Knuffle Bunny Too: [...]

today –

I have just a few minutes before the day starts to really roll, but I wanted to quickly share a quote from Ralph Fletcher’s book, Live Writing: Breathing Life Into Your Words”
We live in a world where many people just go out and buy whatever they want — a mountain bike, basketball shoes, even [...]

Eight Slice of My Life –> Sharing With My Students

This will be the cover page for the eight slice of life stories I wrote this past week. I’m going to be sharing them with my students so that they, too, can take part in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge. (I’m going to discuss this during the News & Announcements Part [...]

Endings

Good thing tomorrow’s minilesson in writing focuses on using touchstone texts to improve the ending of a story. I just finished the ending of my short fiction piece for this unit of study. Quite frankly, I think it’s awful!
Want to give me some feedback before I show this to my class? [...]

Slice of Life Story: It’s in the Blue Bag

My First Sunday Times in RI

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I slid my feet into my flip flops and grabbed my keys from the “Do Not Forget” Key Holder that is around my door knob. I didn’t bother to dead-bolt the door since I knew I’d be back in a couple of minutes.
I walked to the [...]

Slice of Life: Christina

Working on a Weekend

Originally uploaded by teachergal

It took a very special person to fill-in my Grandmother’s Speed Dial Spot on my cell phone after she passed away last year. In fact, I didn’t reassign the #9 spot until mid-summer. I finally gave it to Christina, my former colleague, co-author, and dear friend.
So, this afternoon, I [...]

wn entry: quote challenge.

Stacey challenged a writer’s notebook entry on a quote.  I’ve been thinking ever since then, What quote will I write about?
Funny how Friday afternoons work — I’m selecting one completely different from those I’ve been reflecting on all week.
There is a magnificent artist in you just waiting to be brought forth.  You can reproduce your [...]

We’re hosting a Slice of Life Story Challenge this March!

Learn more about it by going viewing this ten page “slide show.”

Make a scrapbook – it’s easy!

Let us know if you’re planning to take part in the March Challenge by leaving a comment on our Slice of Life Story Challenge Web Page.
Remember:

Literary Essays

I started thinking about the next unit of study, Literary Essays, that I’m going to teach in March (even though my students are only half-way through their fiction unit of study). Therefore, I spent some time creating my students’ collection folders yesterday. Here’s a peek at what they look like:
[...]

Slice of Life Story: Overflow

I decided to make “Jackie’s Coffee” this morning, which is named after one of my cousins who passed away a few years ago. Basically, Jackie’s Coffee is half a cup of coffee + half a cup of milk. I decided to get “fancy” and steam the milk with my Tassimo this morning:

I figured [...]

Poetry Friday: Water

I just learned about World Water Day, which is on March 22nd. Since the closest walk is in NYC that day, I will be doing the virtual walk. That being said, I created a page, which I hope you’ll visit, regarding World Water Day.
Additionally, here’s are two stanzas from a poem [...]

Slice of Life Story: HGTV

Slice of Life Story: Spewing Sink

I pumped the soap bottle and felt the dollop of soap fall onto my fingertips. I rubbed my hands together and got ready for the lather to be washed away. However, when I put my hands on the knob of faucet at Saint-Germain by Molecule nothing came out. I turned it both [...]

Ruth’s Wordless Wednesday: Creative State.

Wordless Wednesday: Original Photograph (This would’ve made for a great slice of life story, but I’ll let you know add your own words.)

Writer’s Notebook Wednesday: Quotations

This is my entry about a quotation that deals with hard work. Please link your entry to this post using Mr. Linky.

Thanks!

WN Entry: John Wayne Quotation

Originally uploaded by teachergal