Opinion Writing & Day 13/14 Early!

Thank you for all the wonderfully sweet comments on the My Favorite Ice Cream Opinion writing. It was a hit with my class, and you as well! 

Here is how I finished up the writing lesson. The students transferred their reasons to a final draft. Then we went back for some final revisions.  I modeled creating a final draft for them. I made purposeful errors for them to help me correct. 

The students then went back and made their final revisions. I have to say, the whole lesson was one of the most engaging writing lessons I have ever taught. I really felt like they got it! 

 Here is the boring and basic anchor chart I made. (It needs work!) =)

 This week we started on the Will You Be My Valentine? opinion writing. I started off the lesson reading If You'll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant. The boy tells several characters what he will do if he is their Valentine. After reading the story, we talked about good character traits. These are the traits my students came up with for the boy. 

I then proceeded the lesson (over the past three days) in the same manor as the ice cream lesson.

We began with an opinion statement. The next day, they wrote their three reasons why they would make a good Valentine. 

 "because I am a fast runner. I am a smart boy. I will get you candy." This boy had a little trouble starting off, but then I think he got it! 

"I love my friends. I would take you to the woods. (His favorite place to be.) I would take your phone number." (I guess he knows something about dating! LOL) 

Today we finished up with restating our opinion and creating a final draft. (I forgot to take pictures!) Tomorrow, they will make revisions and share with the class. 

You can find this activity here. 

Moving onto other news...

Here are the links to Days 13 & 14. I hope you have enjoyed our blog hop and all the great freebies! I hope it saved you some time in your planning. We all need all the help we can get with finding extra time. =) Thanks for joining us...and stay tuned! We have some exciting give aways and teaching tools planned in the next few weeks! Make sure you become a "follower" of our blogs and Facebook! 

Head to Teacher's Toolkit for Day 13...

And My Primary Paradise for Day 14...

Thanks to Mel for the great graphics for our hop! 

Synthesizing

One of my first purchases from TPT was from Amanda Nickerson at One Extra Degree. I have to say, it has been my favorite and most used purchase. (You can check it out by clicking the picture.)

 

Each comprehension strategy is tied to a tool.

 This is the toolkit I made using Amanda's instructions. 

(I added the caution boarder. I also labeled each of the tools.)

 

My students loved to use the toolkit. It was great for my visual and tactile learners. 

I ended the year with synthesizing. We learned this cute poem I found on Pinterest. (The link no longer works. =( So if this is your's, please leave a comment so I can credit you! )

I also recreated the toolman. He's from Scrappin Doodles. The kids helped label and define all the strategies.

We read a few poems and charted our synthesizing on this. 

Then to show what their synthesizing, they read a poem and completed their own graphic organizer.

At the end of the week, and after much practice, the students selected their own text. They used this graphic organizer to show their thinking.

 I have gone back and tweaked it some. I added some anchor chart statements to help the students create "I am thinking" statements. 

Grab your copy here!

Making Predictions

Hi there! I was a guest blogger over at Kindergarten Lifestyles this week.

Here's the post in case you missed it!

If your class is anything like mine, we spend a lot of time making predictions. I thought I'd share what I do with my students. 

In my room, I keep my comprehension anchor charts displayed in the library area for the students to use for reference. This is the one I made for making predictions. The original idea came from The Inspired Apple.  (Abby has some amazing ideas!)

 

It will be made its way to my whole group area as we reviewed the skill this week. 

After reviewing what a prediction is and the different language used, I modeled  for the students how to make a prediction. I use 2 or 3 different photos to model making predictions. Then I show the students several pictures and have them make predictions about what they think is going to happen. 

 

This week I used this book.  My kids love Mo Willems!

After reading the bus driver's message, I asked the students to make predictions.

They recorder a picture and sentence on this recording sheet. 

 

After the students shared their predictions.  (I forgot to take pictures! ugh...) I continued reading the story, stopping throughout for the students to confirm their predictions or explain how their thinking about their prediction had changed. There are several different sheets I created for making predictions. You can find them at TPT if you are interested. As we progress through the skill. I use different response forms. My goal is for the students to make an original prediction and then stop throughout the story to think about their thinking. I want them to be able to realize and understand how their thinking has changed when reading. So that's how I teach making predictions. How bout you? I'd love to hear how you teach it!

Spiders...

Hi there! I had forgotten how much time it takes to plan for the holidays. My teaching buddy and I were busy late last night putting together a bat unit from all the great resources on your blogs!

Today I am working on a spider unit. I thought I'd post what I gotten with some of the great activities other bloggers shared!

My kids will be doing making words using the arachnids activity from Swimming into Second.
Click the picture to get her cute making words form.

There is also a cute spider themed writing page.
We are going to create a spider can, have, are anchor chart. The students will create their own as well to use as a prewriting activity.
I also made some anchor chart labels to match!
I found some really cute ideas on Today in First Grade. I will be incorporating those too!

For math, we will be graphing whether or not we are afraid of spiders.
I am still working on other activities.