A Little Bit of This and That

We just finished Round One of our state testing which was ELA and Long Composition.  During our test prep sessions, the children used answer sticks when going over their multiple choices.  I used tongue depressors and simply marked A, B, C or D.  It made it a little fun and I could quickly assess the room.

 This was a project that I did last year with the book Many Luscious Lollipops, to teach adjectives.  I did not wrap in cellophane this year…love the tye-die coloring!

 These are a few sample of the kid's opinion essay on Dr. Seuss.  It was their first piece.  I will share our newest pieces soon.  They have made some great gains.

Here are some water bottle wraps wishing each other good luck.  I cover with packing tape and we have used them several days.

I read the book "Under, Over, By the Clover" and had the kids go on a preposition hunt.  I did this lesson using ghosts but tweaked it for the spring.

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We Love Dr. Seuss! (and Freebie)

We celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday every year at my school.  We have middle schoolers come read one of their favorite books to the elementary classes.  I was very lucky to have a former student come to my room.  The Librarian took pictures of classes all week.  

We have been working on "Opinion" pieces in writing.  As a class, we brainstormed reasons that make  Dr. Seuss a popular children's author.  They wrote essays with their thesis statements, reasons and evidence.  I created a sheet for their published writing.  I can't wait to hang them up!

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Love That Dog

I love "Love That Dog"!!!  It is a great book, written by Sharon Creech, that is creatively set up in a narrative poetry journal format. (it sounds crazy) It is a story about a boy who reluctantly learns to love poetry and expresses his love for his dog.  As the story, unfolds the teacher introduces her class to several authentic authors, types of poems and poetry terms.  The story will also bring a few students to tears.  Sharon also published "Hate That Cat."

A sample of a poem in the book.  My children loved creating shape poems.

Free Down load on teacher vision

I bought a unit on TPT that I highly recommend.  It has great response questions and is easy to implement with the whold class or guided reading groups.  The students also write a few poems of their own.  I will be publishing those next week.  (Pictures to follow)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Love-That-Dog-Novel-Study-and-Poetry-Unit-561763