Draft Book Time

This is my first year where I am actually really enjoying teaching writing. 

Yep. Believe it. 

If you read my blog you know that I was always trying to figure out a way to get writing in my day and for me to actually think it was worth while. This new school we use Lucy Calkins and her writing workshop technique. I have had her books forever, but this year having them in our curriculum it is like it all comes to life. :)

This is how it all rolls out:

I start each lesson with a modeling mini-lesson. This is where I go over all the little details that we need in our writing. Right now we are talking about "small moments" those little bits that they can turn into stories. I show how to start with a capital letter, finger spaces, and punctuation. This is also a time where we work on phonics. You can see from my story the other day that I let them sound out the words for me.

 After the mini-lesson, they head to their desks to start working in their own draft book. I put classical music on and leave them to it for about 10 minutes so they can get the creative juices flowing. :)

 Once I see most of them have a good start I conference with one table. I do a different table everyday. I go to each kiddo and ask them what they are writing about and have them read their story to me. We chat for a bit and then I give them a star and a wish.

A star is something I thought they did great with, and a wish is something I would like them to do next time. I always ask them to tell me what their wish is before I give them one. 

 I just put this picture because it makes me smile. "I wish I can be the popstar."

So that is our draft book time. I am really loving it and I can see how much it is helping my kinders!

Can you believe it is almost Thanksgiving!? We have a feast on Friday that I will be gearing up for. I have these babies in my TPT shop right now if you want to check them out! I did them last year with my firsties and they were great writing activities.

Happy Sunday!!

Almost Spring Break!

Yay! This title makes me happy. :) Mainly because I am going HOME! Which I thought I would share with all of you. I finally am ready to move back home to good old Dallas, Texas. I moved for college 8 years ago, and y'all I am ready to be Texan again. I miss being close to my parents, and my family. So, I have been on the job hunt in the Dallas area. It has been slow coming because teacher jobs are hard to come by right now. :( I am still trying to stay strong, and know that whatever happens is part of the plan! If you have any advice let me know bloggy friends!

Anyway, a little update of some classroom happenings....

We did once upon a rainy day writing. These turned out really cute. {When ever I actually have time I will be making this into a writing mini-unit. I promise!}

Love that he said mario kart!

AND!!! We got us some butterflies!!! Funny story, I was keeping the habitat behind my desk while they were still caterpillars and I was fussing at some for being back there. HA. Then, I realized it was because a butterfly was emerging! I apologized, no worries. Then, we got to watch!

They thought it was the coolest thing. I did forget however they release that meconium stuff, which in butterflies is red and I had a few crying thinking it was bleeding. Welcome to first grade. :)

Last but not least we went on a field trip to see the Lorax today! It was so much fun! I highly suggest doing this if your local theater takes field trips!

I will admit, I wanted to sneak into the Hunger Games to see it for the THIRD time. Speaking of which I am deep into Catching Fire, so I am going to go have fun with the kindle!

blog love :)

Oh, writing!

I don't know about all of you but I will admit....

Sometime I have a hard time with writing. 
Emphasis on time. :)

There. I said it. 

I am always reading new books and research on writing. I try different methods and approaches, but I guess I have not quite found the perfect formula! I love the writing process and that is what we use, but I think it basically comes down to TIME. Writing takes a lot of time, and with sixteen little ones all needing help at the same time makes it hard.
Well, my writing workstation had turned into....let's call it a....hot mess. I had to re-vamp it and came up with a little idea. I made a bunch of "mad libs" sheets where most of the writing is there and they fill in the details. I included five of these in my recent Chilly Creative Writing pack. I introduced the first one this week.
They will do one every two weeks, and this is the mandatory assignment they have to do and if they finish they have journal topics they can complete. Here are some pics:

Once they finish this they re-write on nice paper and draw a picture. I thought long about it and know this will be the best way for me to have my kiddos do great writing and they will finally have enough time to complete it! I am excited to see their finished product! I am really loving what they are doing so far, and I am optimistic this will eradicate the "hot mess". :)
And here is a freebie of one of these for you!
Mad Libs Scribd

Happy {almost} Friday!

Time for some chilly writing!

Hello all! Went back today, just for meetings and I had all these grandiose plans to get stuff done......yep....you guessed it. NONE of it happened. Oops?
I did get successful when I got home though. {Even though it is jersday! Yes, I am a fan of the jersey shore. Don't judge!}
Regardless of my awful TV watching, I finished my latest unit! WOOP! It is a pack of FIVE fun winter themed writing activities. I changed them all up around different forms and traits of writing. I also included some thinking maps {our school is looooving these right now, so I figured why not?} There are also five fill in the blank stories {remember mad libs? kinda like that!} I am planning on putting them in my writing work station. Here is preview!

The topics are pretty cute {if I do say so myself}, click the preview to get a look!

First 3 to comment get a FREEEEE copy! 

O and GEAUX TIGERS!

I actually had time to make this!

Last week, I had the patience for writing! YAY! It really is a trek to get writing done and with all the other holiday projects it was hard. BUT, we did and I loved what the outcome was.
Our skill last week in writing was write a silly story. I decided to have my students write a story about a silly snowman. We used the writing process, and after the final copy was done we made a snowman that was silly!

I mean how cute?! I love seeing how they decide to interpret silly!

So, I couldn't sleep last night so I made this into a mini-unit!
It includes: two thinking maps, a writing web, a sloppy copy paper, a final copy paper, a snowman craftivity, a writing rubric, and a reader's theatre play written by moi!
Click below to check it out!

Also, because free is always fun....answer this question right and I will give you a free copy!

I am in the process of organizing my classroom library.....how do you think I am leveling it?

 

How to cook a turkey!

So, I had a few requests from some people to see if I could make a how to cook a turkey mini-unit. I said hey why not?! I just posted it this morning! Go check it out! It is similar to how to make pumpkin pie, so for the impending holidays you can get your kids excited about writing and you will probably be hungry!

Pumpkin Pie Yummm!

This week in writing we are doing how-to writing! I decided that since we were going to be eating pumpkin pie on Monday that it would be perfect to do how to make pumpkin pie! I used some of the elements from First Grade Fanatics "It's a Pumpkin Parade" unit. This was such a cute unit, and we did the pumpkin pie in a bag recipe on Monday to start off the writing unit.

It was so tasty and a great way to kick off our writing! I decided to make a mini-unit for this so that everyone could join in the fun! It includes 3 pre-activities to help students visualize, a writing web, a sloppy copy paper, and a final copy paper. I also included a cute craftivity to make a pumpkin pie to display their writing. Click the picture below to go and check it out!

Also, I am giving ONE away to the person who can answer this question!

What is my favorite Thanksgiving dessert??

Dr. Seuss meet Mardi Gras!

Thankfully, I was able to get my Dr. Seuss activities done! I have been out today and will be tomorrow because my beautiful friend Shannon is getting married and I am a bridesmaid! 

I posted the other day my idea about combining Dr. Seuss and Mardi Gras and it worked wonderfully! The kids loved it! They wrote all about what the cat in the hat would do at a Mardi Gras parade. They were hilarious! Then, we made the cat with a mask on!

To add to it, we watched the brain pop jr. movie on Dr. Seuss and the kids learned about pen names. So, I let them make up a pen name for their writing. They were hilarious! I had Willow Smith (whip my hair!), Dr. Moby, and Mr. JB (Justin Bieber of course!)

We also made a schema poster and added our new learning on Dr. Seuss:

And last but not least Ms. Simoneaux (my teacher BFF) and I decided what other perfect costume could we have other than........ THING 1 and THING 2!

We practically are anyway!

Where ever you may be, happy Mardi Gras!!

Ms. Thomas :)

Penguins! Finally!

I have been seeing fabulous, amazing penguin activities on everyone's blog lately! It was perfect since our reading series' theme last week was birds. So, I decided to focus a little more on the adorable penguin. :)
I kept it simple since, I have been overloading myself trying to do all these amazing activities I see when I just need to accept I can't do everything. :( Booo


So, I started with a chart that had what we already know on it. I gave each kid a post-it note and had them write something down. We had read a story earlier in the year about the emperor penguin, so I knew they would have some background knoweldge. I loved how Babbling Abby and Mrs. Carroll did their charts! I just knew making a penguin that cute was NOT going to happen in the 30 minutes of lunch. LOL
Then, we read some books and learned some new things and then they had to write a fact they learned on a post-it note! 

I have to say I was quite impressed with my kiddos!

So, I have been slacking on the writing lately. Mainly because I have been trying out all these different methods and finally found that a simple writing web is the easiest way to go. I also started writing journals for them. They do the web on one side and the sloppy copy on the backside. This is also great since I don't have to make copies!
We summed it up with writing about what we knew, what we learned, and why we like those cute little guys! They turned out adorable!

I can just picture them waddling!

He wrote so much we put it on two and called them buddies!

Don't mind the leftover green paper from the holidays since I decided to use the hot glue gun to get them up there....oops

That is my penguin quick mini mini unit!

Ms. Thomas :)