Five for Friday April 15

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey! 

We had lots of fun this week- and here are some highlights.  

 I absolutely LOVE this book!

It is perfect for learning punctuation marks and for Writer's Workshop.  My kids love it.  I should say, "MY KIDS LOVE IT!!!!!"

I had my class each write a  Question Mark book after we read this book, because we're working on those right now. They could use markers and have a ball, so it was extra fun.  My main point was for them to really learn what a question was and practice writing some of them. 

I love how she answered the questions with speech bubbles!

He said, "I already know the answer to this, Mrs. Kisloski- your best friend is ME!"  

We play games on my Writing Prezi all the time. We used to use it on the Smartboard, which I loved, but now we have Smart TVs and I airplay it onto the TV and the kids play on the iPad so it comes up on the TV for all to see.  The kids LOVE these games for making sentences and using punctuation marks. 

Children usually just stick a period at the end of a line of text and call it good.   This activity really helps them to hear when a complete thought ends and when they naturally come to a stop when reading.   I made up a paper with sentences, but no periods. I did this activity in a small group, and it worked beautifully.  Everyone got a pack of Smarties and 6 of these awesome little stickers. 

I found these stickers at a Teacher Store, and they just look like a hand saying, "STOP!"  Perfect for a period!

I tried to write simple sentences that did not always end at the end of the line, but sometimes in the middle of a line, so they could hear when a sentence ended and not just stick a period at the end of the page.  Learning that a sentence is a complete thought- and that a sentence does not always just end at the end of the page- is the trickiest thing about learning to use a period.  (Well, that and remembering to actually USE one! :) 

I have also used Fruit Loops for this activity, but Smarties seemed perfect.  Of course they need to eat one before they begin for Smartie Power!  Then, after we put on the Smarties, we read the sentences together and clap at each period (Smartie).  Next, the child can eat the Smartie and replace it with a sticker. 

We also  played Four Corners with punctuation marks.  I have a bag full of different sentences that require different punctuation: statements, questions, lists of things that need commas, and excited sentences. The four corners of the room are labeled with a paper  that says Period., Question Mark?, Exclamation Point!, and Comma, .  It is played like all Four Corners games.  The children choose and run to a corner. I pull out a sentence and read it.  Whatever punctuation mark it needs, is the corner that has to go sit down.  Then, the rest of the class runs to a different corner, and we keep playing until there is one person left. 

I wrote a post about sentences HERE with a couple other ideas I use to teach how to recognize sentences.  

I posted all about Birds HERE at PreK and K Sharing and HERE with a lot of Bird Nest and Bird Freebies on TpT.  We made our bird nest kits this week and  are  hoping to see some beautiful bird nests with some of our yarn in them.  Wouldn't that be so great?

I really needed our books sorted and organized in our classroom library, so guess what?  We had a Library Center for free choice.  Those books look amazing now.  I got out the calculators, cash registers, old gift cards the kids love to "scan", old phones, paper, pens- and the kids had a ball. Books were everywhere. Kids were reading, sorting them by topics or however they wanted, checking them out, talking about the books. It was great.  When we were done, they put those books back so they looked better than ever.  

Finally, I made these little writing books a few years ago, and I love them for a quick writing lesson. I have pictures of a dog, flower, clown, policeman, farmer, snowman, and doctor.  I took pictures of the children one day, and printed seven small pictures of their face.  I cut the faces out and put them in each picture. This was a little time consuming, but I just did it one day during my break, and it was all done.  You could just print the kids' pictures and have them cut them out and glue them on, too. 

 Every day, we read a story that goes along with the picture they will be writing about, for example we read 3 dog stories yesterday when we wrote about the dog, Chrysanthemum when we wrote the flower, Office Buckle and Gloria for the policeman... and then they write.  They have to tell all about themselves as that picture.  I also read all of the kids' stories the following day before we write the next one.  They love this- and it has really encouraged them to add lots of fun details when they know the class will hear all they wrote. 

(I love her "Warning- do not pick me!)

If you'd like a copy (it's simple- and yes, the cover is comic sans because I've had it a while, so you are welcome to make a new cover if you just cannot stand it... :)    just click HERE or the picture below!

Thank you for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Sentences!

Doesn't it do you so much good to  look back and think about how far your students have come about this time of year?  I remember in the beginning of the year always thinking, "I would give just about ANYTHING for some 'I like________.' sentences. I will NEVER again complain about those sentences if my kids will just write one of them!"  

And then, somehow, day by day, lesson by lesson, those little darlings start writing real, live sentences, sharing their thoughts and ideas, experimenting with words and punctuation, and moving beyond those "I like..." sentences.  

My class now, is needing  a little help remembering when to use a period or punctuation mark.  They use them all the time. It's just that sometimes they are after every. single. word. 

                                     

And sometimes, they are just at the end of a line of writing, whether or not the sentence ends there or not.  

                                    

To start our little sentence recognition lesson, I wrote some sentences on a chart, without any punctuation.  I showed the children some of the different ways I have seen them experiment with periods.  I explained that I LOVED seeing those periods and loved that they were using them. 

But now, they were ready to learn exactly where to use them correctly.  We read this chart together and noticed where we naturally stopped, because it was the end of a complete thought.  We reread the chart and really paid attention to where we stopped.  I reminded the children that we had learned that a period means STOP.  That pause where we stopped when we were reading is exactly where the period should go.  It may be in the middle of a line, or even after one word in a line. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that a period goes at the end of a whole thought that says something.  I had different students come up and put a red magnet circle at the end of each sentence.

I always have the children answer questions and speak during show and tell in complete sentences. Every day they tell me, "The author writes the words." "The illustrator draws the pictures."  We review how they do this- and how they never just say, "Writes words."  They know that a sentences tells someone something in a complete thought. 



After we practice with our chart, I tell the children that I am going to read some groups of words to them.  IF it is a complete sentence that needs a period at the end, they need to push their hand out in front of them and SCREEEEECH (like a car screeching to a STOP!) so I know to stop. They LOVE this. Love. If it is just a group of words and NOT a complete sentence, they stay completely quiet.  You can also do a thumbs up for sentences, thumbs down if it is not a sentence- but it isn't quite as much fun.

I read several groups of words like:

I like to play

I like to

I like to play with

I like to play with my friends

We can go to the

We can go to the park

It is my new

My teacher is

My teacher is nice

Broccoli is

Broccoli is green



After all this practice hearing when to  use a period, it was time to show me their stuff, with a delicious little assessment.  The children each got six mini m&m's in a little cup.  I told them that the mini m&m's were perfect because periods are just miniature.  I showed them how a period is NOT a colored in letter "o" (which I see sometimes), and it is not a practically invisible pencil mark. Even learning to write a period correctly is a skill!

The first job each child had was to decide their favorite color mini m&m and eat it for "Period Power."  I only needed five periods on the paper I made.  The m&m's were now going to be periods.

I gave each child a paper like this: 

If you would like a copy, just click on the picture.  It's simple, but it's already made, so why not! 

Next, they had to read the paper themselves and put an m&m where a period would go, at the end of a sentence.

                                     

As they ate the "periods," they substituted a pencil period for the m&m on their paper. 

Later in the day, the children practiced making sentences and using a period at the end of a sentence with this game.  I have several of the links to different games on my Primary Writing Prezi, so I just click on one for us to use when I have a few minutes throughout the day.  This game is called Simple Sentences.

Have fun writing!  Thanks for stopping by!

Five for Friday- November 1st!

 

I am linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday!  Yesterday at bus time I said, "Oh, I forgot it wasn't Friday today," and one of my little girls said, "That is EXACTLY what my mom said. She said it should be Friday today!" As you can guess, her mom is a teacher, too.

Thank you, Kacey, for hosting!

 

 

I updated my Fun in the Fall Prezi with some of Thanksgiving videos that I love. I also have some Election Day video on there, too.  If you don't have the prezi, you can get it free at my TPT store! It's fun to use for those in between minutes that you want to have something right there to use.

 

 

Here is my favorite turkey video. You have probably all seen it, but in case you haven't, I just love the way he struts. We might as well get right into the next holiday...

 

 

 



 

I added little thought bubbles over Quite Mouse's head - mainly to help the kids remember the "sh" blend.  He makes me smile so I thought I would share him.  He is all over the room- just to remind the kids to use inside voices. (I have a great little group- just a loud one!) Here are a couple spots  he makes an appearance. 

 

 

 

This mess of a view is by my door but I thought I would show/explain it. I put up different  hands with different sight words each week.  The "sh" spray is over the phone.  The alligator and bear groups are the way I send my class to lockers to pack up.  I just put every other child alphabetically into a group so when they open the lockers in the hall (which are in alphabetical order), they don't have someone right beside them.  It works so much better.  

My iPad Class Rules Sign was free from For His Glory TPT store!

 

  

I have a problem with my love of correct punctuation usage. Every time I go through my McDonalds for my happy, large unsweetened iced tea, I see this sign and want to jump out with a sharpie and add a period. Actually, I would probably add an exclamation point because I completely overuse them. I literally go back over my posts and remove exclamation points because I don't want to annoy people by sounding too over-exuberant. (I feel like this was a confessional post of my issues with punctuation marks.)

The ironic thing is that today I did NOT have my $1.08 ready because I was too busy taking a picture. oops. 



We talked about small moments this week as we began our Narrative Writing unit.  I wrote this post about some of my favorite things to do to introduce and teach about small moments, as well as some of my favorite books to use.

My favorite activity was having the children dig a chocolate chip out of a cookie like they 'dig' a favorite small moment out of their life (or day) to write about.

Yum.  These were so good.  I made them using pre-made cookie dough. Tops brand, no less- and they were great!  I added one mini-Hershey kiss to each cookie for an extra special "small moment" to dig out.

Then we made this anchor chart to share the moments we chose for a story.  I just taped on the "chocolate chips" so we can reuse the poster (which is lopsided... I tried to make myself feel better by saying that cookies are all different shapes... but still- how hard is it to make a circle?)

 

 

One of my sweet girls brought me this "treat" for Halloween.  It's a perfect way to end this busy week! Did anyone else think having Halloween on a Thursday was not a good idea since Friday was still out there as a "normal" school day?  WOW! 

 

 

Happy November 1st! :)