Big Smiles and Writing Workshop

Big Smiles:

Even though I am exhausted at the end of the day, almost every day in our three weeks of school have had so many more great moments than bad.  I am having a fantastic year so far!  Great group of kiddos, and I know so much more about what I'm doing this second time around.  It feels great, and I can honestly say this year that I am LOVING being a teacher and am looking forward to work each day.  I am so happy!

Ok, so on to one of those great things going on in my classroom this year:  Writing Workshop

Now, I LOVE writing.  I was a creative writing major.  I was the kid with a notebook full of stories from the time I could write.  And this year's group (at least many) seem to be on that page with me.  Writing Workshop was the last part of our normal routine that I got going.  By Back to School Night, we had only done two days of writing and still about a third of my class wrote that it was their favorite part of 4th grade in their note to their parents.  My kind of kids!

I've been taught how to teach writing to kids by multiple people who have read and/or been trained in Lucy Calkins, so if you're familiar with her writing instruction, I bet you'll see pieces of it in mine!

We stared off making lists of important people, places, and events.  Lots and lots of lists.

Then we talked about Seed Stories and Watermelon Stories.  This lesson went FABULOUS!  They seemed to really get it, even my space-cadet kiddos!  I started by group brainstorming a description of a watermelon.  Then, I told them we were going to focus on two parts of it - that watermelons are big and have seeds (both of which were on our list).  I modeled the beginning of a boring watermelon story (it was about 2 minutes and we didn't even get to Disneyland in the story).  At this point, about eight kids were practically jumping up and down because they got it before I even talked about seeds.  So, I had one of them explain seed stories.  We wrote in our notes just a few things about seed stories and then worked together to find a few seed stories out of our watermelon ideas.  Last, students used the worksheet below to find the seeds in their watermelon ideas.  They wrote the watermelon idea on the rind and then seed ideas in each seed.  It worked great!  They "wrote" for 22 minutes that day - blowing our last stamina record out of the water.  I love that it validated their watermelon ideas and helped them realize they could write about so many different parts of their trip or memories.  I had to make extra copies because they want to keep finding seeds!

Font: Oh {Photo} Shoot by Kevin and Amanda
Watermelon: Coloring page from About.com (© Sherri Osborn - familycrafts.about.com)
Click the picture to go to my google doc!

Now we've mapped out our stories using pictures and started writing descriptive "snapshots."  The kids can consistantly write for about 15 minutes now!

My only challenge with writing is that they are so worried about doing it "right" that a million hands go up as soon as they start practicing.  I'm really trying to get them to just write, but I'm having a hard time getting the idea across to them that if they are writing, it isn't wrong!  Do you have any tips for getting this idea across? 

Heads Down and Planning Difficulties

A quick positive and struggle from yesterday:

On the positive side ...
My students' behavior started slipping yesterday.  I had the whole class put their heads down and talked about how I know how respectful and responsible they can be.  I talked for about a minute about all the great things they usually do to help us learn.  When they lifted their heads, they were great again for the rest of the day!

And a struggle:
I'm really trying to plan earlier this year so that I don't spend my whole weekend planning.  I posted earlier this week about my plan.  I've been ok about following it so far.  Then we had a grade level meeting today and I found out a BUNCH of changes for next week.  Like, to the point that I might throw away the plan pages I started and start over.  I'm really disappointed because I was ahead of things and it just turns out I wasted time making those plans.  I know it won't happen every week, but it's really discouraging during my first week of trying to get ahead!

How far ahead do you get in planning?  What do you do to deal with those changes?

Trying Out Daily 5

Daily 5 has been like a whisper on the wind for a few years now for me.  When I volunteered in a 2nd grade classroom during my undergrad, it was something the teacher down the hall did.  During my credential program, it was something some of my fellow teacher-candidates were experiencing in their placements.  Last year, it was something mentioned at every single district literacy meeting.  I started to get more familiar ... it was a way to do Universal Access.  Then, I started reading blogs and saw how so many of you used it.  Finally, last month, I went to a one day Daily 5/CAFE training/workshop and got the book.  

The training/workshop was super helpful.  It was for 4th-6th grade teachers in my district.  That meant we were all working on adapting it for slightly older than The Sisters teach and dealing with integrating it with the same curriculum.

A brief overview of my "Reading Workshop" last year:

1. I went week by week with the curriculum, except for grammar because I just couldn't find a way to teach what a complete sentence was before I taught what a noun was.
2. I used some activities from the curriculum, but also haphazardly tried to create hands on, fun activities that mostly confused students.
3. Using the theme and strategy for the week, I found more difficult reading passages for my advanced kiddos.
4. I typed out instructions for each station.
5. I made students a checklist.
6. I was exhausted and never actually planned what I would teach small group.

This process took basically an entire day each weekend.  

In the beginning of the year, the kids rotated through the stations, including small group.  Later on, I let them choose the order and just called groups back.  Kids were off task and my small group was tossed together last minute.  It wasn't very differentiated in anything but reading level difficulty.  

Reading was where I felt the worst last year.

Now I'm trying aspects of Daily 5 and so far it is fabulous! I'm still calling it Reading Workshop ... I like that better.  We are working up to doing Daily 4: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Word Work, and Work on Writing.

As most people I know and bloggers I follow do, I give students a bit more structure about what has to be completed than The Sisters do.

Read to Self: This is the one I'm keeping the most open - the kids read what they want and their only recording is the title and author.  I'm playing around with the idea of letting them take one AR test each week during this time, but I'm not sure yet.  Suggestions?

Read to Someone:  This is where I'm having them read stories from our curriculum, but I'm not necessarily going in order.  I'm picking what works best with the strategies I'm teaching and with our social studies and science curriculum.  I like that by using curriculum stories, both partners can have a copy of the same thing to read.  This is also where I'm having kids use graphic organizers based on strategies we're working on.  They will have something to turn in from this station each week.

Word Work:  This station has must-dos and may-dos for grammar/vocabulary.  The must-do so far has been pages from their workbook and the may-do is more hands on.  Again, they have things to turn in from this station.

Work on Writing:  I'm going to introduce this today!  Each week, they will have to write a reading response (a la Book Whisperer meets Notebook Connections).  Then, if they do more Work on Writing, they'll have lots of choices, such as another reading response, continuing what they're working on in writing workshop, writing a letter, writing another story, writing something persuasive ... you get the idea!

I made a recording sheet, but it will look the same each week (I already have the next two weeks photocopied!).  On Mondays, the students and I will fill in the must-dos on their checklists and they'll keep track of their progress during the week by marking when they do what and recording what they read.  The kids are getting a bit confused by all my Must-Do/May-Do categories (because each Daily has them plus some Dailies are must-dos and some are may-dos), so I'm thinking I need to tweak this.

 Click HERE for the google doc!

I also have this pocket chart up with must-dos and may-dos for the kids to reference.  Work on Writing isn't up yet since it isn't a workshop choice yet.  We're practicing whole class this week!  I'm not sure how I'll fit it on there ... going to have to get creative!

I posted these before, but click HERE if you didn't get them the first time!
Another genius idea from Clutter Free Classroom:  Use whiteboard markers on pocket charts!

I'm really enjoying taking the time to set up the procedures and practice stamina, but I am also feeling panicky about not having taught a lot yet during reading.  It's also really hard to keep whole class lessons to 10 minutes, but I'm getting better.

This year vs. last year:

Planning takes less time than last year.

The kids are more on task than last year.

There's less busy work than last year.

There's fewer papers for me to grade than last year.

Yep, I'm loving it!

One Class, Many Cultures - Freebie!

I've mentioned this project/bulletin board a few times, and now that this year's group has done it, presented it, and I've (almost) finished reading their reports, I'm going to tell you more about it!

We tweaked it this year, and I'm so happy with the results!  We tied it into our social studies curriculum by telling the kiddos (and putting it on the instructions sheet for the parents) that we will learn throughout the year how California is made up of immigrants and migrants from many places, so their first task as 4th grade social studies learners is to find out how their family got here and learn about the country/ies their families came from.  This tie-in wasn't as specific last year, and I'm really excited to be able to reference this project throughout the year!

Here are the parts:

1. Report - we give very detailed instructions about what should be in the report.  I modeled for students that if their family has come from many different places, they could start with something like "My family came from many countries, such as ___, ___, and ___.  I am going to focus on my ____, who came from _____."  So that the kiddos with many countries didn't feel overwhelmed.  Most of my students' parents moved here after they got married in another country, though, so they just had one country to write about.
2. Presentation - The students presented on their family history, one interesting fact they learned, and showed their Mini-Me.
3. Mini-Me - I give them each one of these cute little popsicle sticks.  Last year, I let them choose from the boy or girl ones ... which left me with about 25 girl sticks and 8 boy sticks.  One of my fabulous teammates suggested breaking off the skirts.  Yay for not having to buy more!  I broke off the skirts for all of the boys before handing them out and, then had any girls who wanted the skirts taken off raise their hands, and I quickly did theirs.

Click HERE to get them on Amazon
... so much cheaper than they were at the teacher supply store!

Most of the kiddos did fantastic on the presentation, though there were some who just read their report (totally not following directions)!  I did have to have a few re-write their reports for handwriting/neatness issues and a few whose parents clearly helped a bit too much, but overall the reports came out great (especially for the beginning of the year). 

This is such a great project because the kiddos love it, it gives me a great baseline of their writing (and how much their parents help) and presentation skills, and we get to know about each other better!  I'm working on planning some activities for them to compare and contrast their history or country with others.  We're definitely going to do a Venn diagram.  You could also do a lot of things with graphing and data as far as how many kiddos are from where (just look at all my kiddos whose families came from China!).  

It also makes a wonderful board that can be left up all year long!

I didn't do great at planning os the kids were spaced out.
 I'm thinking about putting some flags in the blank areas.

Now for the freebies!  

(Click on pictures to go to google docs!)

**Note: These documents are a collaboration between my grade level team and myself**

My bulletin board letters:

The letters are a bit crazy when you look at the document.  Just print, cut, (laminate), and put them in this order.  It will work, promise!  For those of you who don't want the California flag in there, the font is Oh Photo Shoot by Kevin and Amanda.  I just put it on outline (in the format font menu) and then put the flag image behind it.

Assignment Instructions:

Designating Task Days

I'm loving Clutter Free Classroom's new daily posts, especially Teacher Time Saver Tuesday.  I am working slightly less this year than last, and I feel more relaxed, but I still greatly envy those teachers I know who don't work all weekend long.

This past Tuesday was possibly the most brilliant and "duh" time saving tip possible:

Designate Task Days

Take a look at Clutter Free Classroom's post here.

Basically, figure out what you do every week and plan when you will do it.

So, here is my plan.  I'm going to try my hardest to stick to it starting tomorrow.

Monday:
Before school: Copy things for today and put everything else I need for the week in for copy helpers.
Prep:  Laminate and cut anything I need for this week
After School: Hang student work and/or do something off of my still to be done for my classroom list.

Tuesday:
Before School: Plan Social Studies or Science for next week
After School: Check off homework/classwork (ungraded things), week-specific things
Aide Time:  Grade and enter spelling test from last week, file student work

Wednesday:
Before School: Plan Math for next week
After School: Check off homework/classwork (ungraded things)

Thursday:

Before School: Plan Reading for next week

After School: Check off homework/classwork (ungraded things), week-specific things

Friday:

Before School: Plan Writing for next week

Prep: Update bulletin boards

After School: Check off homework/classwork (ungraded things)

Weekend:

Grade and enter (except spelling tests)

Make any worksheets/activities that I didn't make during planning times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although this doesn't leave my weekends totally free, it leaves them much freer than they have been in the past.  I really feel like this plan is do-able, except maybe when I have meetings with parents before school, which happens about once per month.

Thanks for the tip, Clutter Free Classroom!

Back to School Night

Is there anything that can make a four day week feel longer than Back to School Night?

Last night was the night.  For the second year in a row, I was sick.  As in, I'm only going to school today because it's Back to School Night sick.  And around noon, I lost my voice.  My voice is almost completely back now.  It just took a vacation for the time I had to talk at all of the parents.

Enough of my pity party.

Last year, our back to school night was a full month after school started.  This year, it was two weeks.  It was a very different dynamic.  It also meant making my room perfect way sooner!!!

I wanted to share with you (and document for myself) some things that went well and some things I'll do differently next time.

Went Well:

• Having a power point, but not just reading from it.  I love that this year I know enough of what's going on to not just read from them.  One parent told me this morning that it was the best Back to School night she'd been to for just this reason.
• Side note:  I HATE just talking at the parents the whole time.  It feels so strange to hear my own voice for 40 minutes straight!
• Giving handouts of the powerpoint.  Made it less of a big deal that I didn't get through all of the slides (see below). Also, parents aren't frantically writing.
• Having lots of student work and class made charts on the walls. Most of the parents didn't even try to talk to me before because they were so engrossed with the room!
• Having two copies of everything on my kiddo with divorced parents' desk.  I thought they were going to hug me they were so happy to each have their own copy!

Change:

• Have someone else proofread my power point and handouts.  I found two mistakes during the presentation (embarrassing!)
• Open my door a few minutes earlier so that everyone is in, signed in, and ready to go right when it starts
• Time myself better.  I still had about 7 slides to go when it ended!
• Tell parents that they have to write a letter back to their child.  The kiddos all had letters on their desks to their parents, and there were some sad faces from the kiddos whose parents didn't write back this morning.

Major TGIF this week for me!  :)

Currently and Monday Made-It

Thank goodness for Labor Day weekend!  I got tons of work done and still took half a day completely off from anything school related (except, of course, blogs!).

As my kiddos excitedly pointed out to me on Friday, it is now September.  This is exciting for them because at the end of each month, any unused bathroom passes become raffle tickets.  With only eight days of school in August ... let's just say we have a very full raffle bin!

So, first up .... Currently!

Thanks Farley for hosting!

First off, I have to say that I LOVE this month's currently template.  I am all about bright colors right now.  Let's hope that lasts since my classroom is covered in them! :)

I absolutely adore my class this year!  With the exception of two (aren't there always), they are so well behaved and so excited about what we're doing!  I have quite a few space cadets (Student #1: "Is this social studies or math?" (holding up a worksheet full of addition problems).  Student #2: "Uhhh ... I think we did that one during social studies." No. We didn't. We did it during math).  I prefer space cadets to naughty kiddos, though.

Favorite Things:
1.  I got a Kindle this summer.  I am reading so much more now.  I used to read constantly.  Then college happened.  I was a Literature/Creative Writing major, and I stopped reading for fun.  Being able to instantly get new books on my Kindle is making me love reading again!
2.  Last year's plan binder was plain white (that is, except for the stains on it...).  This year's binder is pretty and that makes me happy every time I take it out!

3.  No, I don't have a new couch.  I just didn't appreciate it all summer like I do at the end of a day of teaching.  So it makes the list!

And now ... Monday Made It! (with freebies for you)

Daily 5 Board
So, I'm not quite done making these, but I created, printed, cut, laminated, and cut.  All that's left to do is arrange them in the pocket chart!  I'm going to post more later about how I am adapting Daily 5 to fit my classroom, but basically I'm doing Daily 4, calling it Reading Workshop, and giving some must-do and some may-do activities for each choice. Here are the labels for you!

Noun Sort
My first Word Work activity!  Students will sort the sentence cards into the four categories, then record the nouns on a recording sheet.  Lots of laminating and cutting here! Here are the sentences and recording sheet for you!

The sorting page.
Their recording sheet doesn't have the "not nouns" category,
 but there will be cards that go in there!

Card baggie is stapled to the back of the sorting chart.
Each set of cards is also a different color.
Crossing my fingers for no supplies lost!
They sort by the underlined words.

Writing Wall Name Tags
Lots of typing, printing, coloring in the parts where my printer was running out of ink, laminating, and cutting.  I think they are going to look great next to the black backgrounds for their writing!

California Regions Fact File
Most of the first chapter of our social studies textbook is on the four regions of California.  The textbook takes three lessons to do this and each lesson talks about all four regions.  By the end of it, I even have details about the regions mixed up!  This year, as we read those lessons, the kiddos are going to organize the info by region.  Here is the document, if you want to use it!  They need to be printed double sided and then folded into a booklet.  Note:  There is one page that I am doing some old fashioned copy-pasting, so it's blank now!  You can put your own map of California there!  Font from Kevin and Amanda!

The page on the right will have a map.

That's all for now!  Have a wonderful week!