Should The Fly Have Dinner with the Spider?

Hi all! It has been a crazy few weeks!!! I feel like I completely missed the month of October and now we are half way through November!

Here are some updates from my class...from October!!! 

We wrote our first opinion piece which needed to tie in letter writing. 

I started by reading Mo Willems...

Then I wrote a letter to the Pigeon, giving him my opinion. My class was great in helping me draft this letter. Several made the connection that the pigeon thought taking care of a puppy was like taking care of a plant. 

I was able to briefly touch on the pieces of a letter as well as opinions and reasons.

Then I read 

Now it was time for the students to write the Fly a letter and explain their opinions on having dinner with the spider. 

We brainstormed a list of opinion statements on the first day. 

I had them choose which one they wanted to use. Then we began our letter graphic organizer.

We had another brainstorming session for reasons...

So after two days, I had a modeled teacher letter, opinion statements, and a list of reasons. 

 The students began drafting sentences for their reasons. In the next lesson, we restated our opinion for the conclusion. 

 For the final lesson, I modeled for the students how to use my graphic organizer to complete a final draft. I first went through and edited my organizer. Then I transferred each sentence onto my chart paper. My students then completed their own final draft. I had a pop-in from my administration at the same time, and it was fabulous! The kids were able to read their pieces to her and several caught their won mistakes with conventions and spelling while they were reading to her. They actually stopped and made corrections right then and there! I was so proud of them. =) 

You can find this writing lesson here... 

 Student work...

 During October, we worked on retelling for our comprehension skill. This year, we are being asked to assess each student one-on-one twice during the nine weeks with a retelling rubric. I have really been trying to hit this hard, and work with my students who are still having trouble retelling a story. 

 I began with a review of beginning, middle, and end. 

Then we moved onto the sequencing words. 

You can see more of my retelling and sequencing activities here...

In my next post, I'll update you about how November is going!