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! 

How To Make Ice Cream Writing Common Core

Let me start by saying, I'm not crazy! I know that it is snowing and freezing almost everywhere this week. Thankfully, I planned and taught this lesson last week. Let me remind me you,  I live in Florida. Last week we had beautiful, sunny, hot weather! It was perfect for making ice cream! The idea do to do it on a full moon Monday, well, not so brilliant. =) But we did it...

 We began first thing Monday morning reading this book...

Which is hysterical. They loved it. 

Then we read  this cute ice cream poem...I could not find the author, but if you know who it is, please leave me a comment so I can credit them!

From the poem, I told the students it was time to make ice cream. 

Then we made ice cream, step by step! 

 The students were loving this, of course! They got to mix all their ingredients.

 Here they are just a shakin' away!

 After about 15 minutes, we had ice cream! They were beyond thrilled.

(I, with the mess, not so much. But it was so worth it.) 

 After we ate our ice cream, the kids gathered on the carpet and we charted our ingredients and materials. The students then went off to draw and label the list of ingredients. 

The next day, we reviewed how we made ice cream. I modeled for the students how to draw sequenced pictures of the steps to make ice cream. They illustrated the steps on a graphic organizer. Here is my model. 

These are the students illustrated steps. 

How awesome is this one below!?

The next day, we reviewed transition words and a complete sentence. Here is my model. 

The students then went off to write sentences to match their illustrated steps. 

(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step!)

The following day, we reviewed topic sentences. We brainstormed a list of topic sentences they could use for their writing. (At this time of the year, most of my students can develop their own topic sentence. I have a few ELL students who are still struggling. So I find that it's important to brainstorm several and then they have a choice as to which one to use.) 

Here is my anchor chart with my topic sentence. We also read this great informational book about making ice cream. It had a great topic sentence!

These are the students' organizers for their topic and conclusion sentences. 

The next day, we began our draft. 

I was out sick on Friday, so Monday we reviewed the entire process so far. The students finished their drafts. Later in the day, we went back and reviewed conclusions. 

They added their conclusions. The next day, we edited their drafts and created the matching craftivity. They had two choice for a craftivity. 

These are some final pieces. 

This is what my wall now looks like. It is surrounded by the kids' writing. I am so happy with how this writing project turned out. 

You can find this lesson on TPT by clicking the photo below. 

First three people to comment and leave their email will get a free copy! =)

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!