Small Moment Writing (mentor texts)

During writer's workshop last week, I started to share small moment stories with my class. Writing small moment stories is one of my favorite things to do for writer's workshop. 

We've done three mini lessons to build up to our small moment stories so far. During those mini lessons I shared 3 of my favorite mentor texts for teaching small moment stories. 

The first one, which is my favorite, is called Salt Hands by Jane Chelsea Aragon. Unfortunately, it is out of print. But, if you watch amazon or ebay, you can often get a used copy for around $30. Believe me, it is worth it! It is the kind of story that makes the kids beg to hear it over and over. This year, my students clapped all three times that I read it to them.

Another great story for modeling small moment writing is Roller Coaster by Marla Frazee.  I use this story for word choice and wrap up sentence (closing) mini lessons at different times throughout the year.  It's also a good story to show how an author builds suspense through writing.  But, I'm stashin' that mini lesson thought away in case I ever get transferred to another grade.  

Fireflies by Judy Brinckloe is another great book to include when teaching mini lessons for small moment stories.  I use it to demonstrate the idea of "zooming in" on a small moment in life.  

I'll be sharing other mentor texts that I use for reader's and writer's workshop in my classroom over the next few weeks.  Last year, I hosted a writer's workshop mentor text linky party.  You can find the old linky party here.  When the linky party was finished, I compiled a list of all the books different bloggers shared.  You can find the post with the list here. I'm planning to do that again to add to the list.  So, watch for the linky party to start sometime next week.  I'd love it if you would link up with your favorite mentor texts!

Winter Math Journals and Common Core Morning Work

Happy Saturday! Ahhhh...it is so nice to be blogging in a quiet house, while sitting in my new chair with a fluffy dog at my feet. 

We have a new math program at my school this year. As far as the new (which is really an old program pulled off the shelf) goes, I have nothing nice to say...so I won't say anything at all (in writing). My students do love math time though. Here are some of the things they love (which are not part of our "program", but help kids be successful in terms of the common core standards).

Math Journals

We work in our math journals a few times each week.  The children solve problems in their math journals and are encouraged to show their mathematical thinking in a variety of ways.  We do partner sharing and whole class sharing each time we work in our journals.  This is not the best picture, but as you can see the pages are "bursting" with mathematical thoughts. 

The prompts we are using at this time of the year are from my Winter Math Journal Prompts set.  You can find them at my Tpt store or in my Teachers Notebook shop.  I have a fall and spring set as well.

Monster Math (morning work/daily review)

Right now, we are using pages from my Monster Math Common Core Review pack as morning work, daily review or just warm up at the beginning of math our math time.  The skills we are focusing on come directly from the common core standards (addition, subtraction, telling time, comparing numbers and place value).  You can peek at it in my Tpt store by clicking on the image below.  It is also in my Teachers Notebook shop.  My kids love the cute little monsters on each page.  

Next on the agenda...

planning for adjectives, small moment stories and compound words at school

laundry, sledding and more relaxing at home

Enjoy your day!

 

Put 'Em in the Blender ! (consonant blends)

We're having an unusual week at my school... 

Monday - no school 
Tuesday - MLK assembly
Wednesday 1/2 day for students + professional development for us 
Thursday 1/2 day for students + professional development for us 
Friday - pajama day + another assembly 

 Add all of that to the fact that we have had indoor recess (because of the wind chill being below 0) all week. Oy...

 It's kind of a miracle that we've been able to accomplish anything...but we have been working on consonant blends quite a bit this week. We work on them throughout the year, but I decided to make it more of a focus now that my writers are ready to start demonstrating their knowledge of consonant blends in their writing. 

Here is an anchor chart that we made last week.

 My students made consonant blenders today. They loved making their own blender!

  

I also asked my students to write the definition of a consonant blend (in their own words) and to make a list of examples of consonant blends. They are on display in our "gallery".

Here is the page they used to write their definition and some examples of words with consonant blends.  You can click on the image if you'd like to download it.

 We worked on making a consonant blend book. Each student will take home their own book once they are finished. Here is a sample of one of the covers. 

You can click on the image below if you'd like to check out the blend book in my Tpt store or my Teachers Notebook shop. 

I better go get my pj's ready for school tomorrow!   

 

Consonant Blends Book

Brrrrrr!  This is how my day started.

I love winter...but this is a bit much.  The temp in my Jeep was actually reading -4 for a bit on the way to school, but it warmed up to -3 by the time I could park to take a picture.  With the wind chill, they said it was -20.  We still had school.  :)  We did have indoor recess, which is rare.

We've been working on consonant blends throughout the year. I finally finished the consonant blend book that I've been wanting to make for my students. The plan is for each student to have their own Book of Blends to add consonant blends to throughout the year. You can find it at my Tpt store and my Teachers Notebook shop. Just click on the image below if you'd like to check it out.

In my room, I use a set of adorable consonant blend charts made by Kristen and Ladybug Teacher Files.  You can find them by visiting Kristen here.  Kristen is amazing and so is her blog!

I also recently purchased this great nonfiction set from Scholastic.  It is called Animal Phonics Readers and each book contains words with a different consonant blend.  The books were not leveled by Scholastic yet, but my guess is that they are about a Fountas/Pinnell level E.  The text is not difficult, but the books contain vocabulary that may be unfamiliar for early readers.  I think I'm going to buy an extra set so I can keep one in my leveled reading bins and another set for working on blends during my guided reading groups.

Today... I will try to RELAX for at least 10 minutes (it's my OLW for 2013).  Hope ya'll are staying warm!  Corrina (my Hawaiian friend) - perhaps you have a spare room? :)

We Have Dreams (MLK activities)

I had big plans to watch all the inauguration festivities with my own kids today, right after a quick trip to the grocery store. My plans changed when an old lady smashed into the back of my Jeep on the way home from the store. I'm hoping someday that I'll find some of the very strange things she said amusing. Today...not so much. The good news - I'm ok and my kids were not with me.

 In the middle of a snowy 4 lane road with parts of my vehicle spread all over 2 lanes, here are a few of the strange things she said to me after doing over $10,000 worth of damage to my Jeep.
 1. Can I just tell you all the reasons that I am so sorry? (my response = no)
2. I prefer the S... police department. (My response = Well then smash into someone in that city. This is P...... township.)
 3. What were you planning to do today? (my response = not this!)
4. What are you doing? (my response = wiping snow off your license plate so I can take a picture of it)

So...I will watch the inauguration stuff that I missed online and I will be glad to get back to school tomorrow.

 We will be having a special assembly at my school tomorrow to celebrate the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. My class started our study of MLK last week, to prepare for our special writing/speaking project later this week. By the end of the week, my students will be giving their own "I have a dream..." speeches about making the world a better place. I posted about the activities that we do in a post last year. You can read that post complete with pictures here. My students are very excited to give their speeches!

 

Doubles Addition Rap & Games

I am happy to report that Friday was much better than Thursday. My kids worked super hard and we had lots of fun.  I'm a firm believer that teaching and learning should be fun. I get grouchy when something ruins the fun.

Yesterday, I had one of my surprise "here comes the boss with the iPad" observations.  I think that went well.  I'm working super hard.  My kids are learning and I have data to prove it.  I am honestly doing what I'm supposed to be doing.  We'll see what the boss has to say when I get the "formal written report" next week.  Not gonna stress about it.  My boss was recently named "Michigan Elementary Principal of the Year" for our region.  We're lucky in the boss department.

We worked on doubles addition facts this week.  According to my pre-assessment, my students knew 0 + 0 through 5 + 5 fluently.  They really needed practice when it comes to the doubles facts for 6  through 9.

I taught them the Doubles Rap.  I have no idea who the original source of the rap is...and I changed to the words (at the bottom) a bit.  Here is version we use in my classroom.  We rap the bottom part first and then rap our way through the facts.

My students also played Doghouse Doubles (which is a game that I made to help them practice doubles addition facts).  You can find it at my Tpt store and in my Teachers Notebook shop.

We also played Slides and Ladders Adding Doubles game by Kathy Law (one of my favorite bloggers).  My students loved this version of one of their favorite board games!  You can visit Kathy at First Grade a la Carte.


OLW update...My OLW this year is relax. I started my day today with a 2 mile run (which was relaxing because we are having freakishly warm temperatures for January in Michigan - it was 44 degrees for my run). Then I chose 5 students and sent their parents "happy mail" (a nice email to their parents about how they are doing).  I'm going to limit myself to 1 hour of school work today and them I'm going to take a relaxing walk with my kids to the library.  When I get home, I am going to sit in my new chair and read something fun.  I will not eat the chocolate brownies that my husband received from one of his favorite students.

Happy Saturday!

 

Bring on Tomorrow

Let's talk about today...or maybe not...because the things I really want to tell you about today would be just the kind of things that I'm probably not "supposed to" write. Ughh...it was not a good day at school. I wish I could be more specific or at least show you a picture. I'm sure tomorrow will be better, right?

 And...I don't know about all of you, but this starting the new year off healthy thing is starting to make me bonkers too. Eating a teeny amount of calories, having extra servings of veggies and all this exercising is beginning to interfere with my plan to relax (which is my OLW). After a day like today, shouldn't a girl be able to enjoy some chocolate and her favorite drink? Nope. Not when you are trying to be honest with the things you report to your "Fitness Pal". Blah, blah, blah.

 To make myself feel better, I decided to read some of my favorite blogs (that helped a lot), spend an hour pinning (that helped too) and do some research about buying a Silhouette. To tell you the truth, I've been trying to avoid buying one (just because I am so busy that I'm not even sure I'd have time to use it). I just don't think I can stand it anymore. Is it as dreamy as everyone claims it is?

Cameo? or Portrait? Any opinions? I'd love to hear what you think if you have one.

Crossing my fingers for tomorrow... Happy Friday!