Monday Made It ~ I can't stop!!

 

 
I really thought I was done last week.  I had no intention of doing another Monday Made It post.  But I can not stop reading all the wonderful blogs and surfing through Pinterest.  Therefore, I'm back.

First I hopped on the class journal bandwagon and created these super cute journal covers.  On the fifth grade writing proficiency, my students have to write a specific genre with a prompt.  So my journals are labeled with not only a prompt but a genre requirement. (personal narrative, journal entry, persuasive letter, descriptive paragraph, fantasy)


Then I thought I was done.  Until Saturday night when I saw this pin from 4th Grade Frolics.  I have been stressing out about how to best show standards and objectives this year.  (We have never had to do this before, so I'm a bit worried about it.)  This is it!  I {puffy} heart love the way they turned out.  Now I just have to figure out how to hang them.  I'm thinking Command hooks - my favorite!

School starts next Thursday, but my room must be done by Sunday when we have Open House.  So absolutely NO MORE Monday Made Its for me!  (Maybe) 

I have been working on my room, but I want to wait to share until it's all done.  Stay tuned!

I Win ~ You Win {Freebies!}

I won a contest!  As many of you know, Michelle @ Making it as a Middle School Teacher just hosted her big birthday bash, and I was one of the winners!   But that's not the best part - there's more! 

So here's how it went down:

• Michelle gave my email to Tracee Orman who had agreed to gift one of her Hunger Games lessons. 
• Tracee emailed me and offered to swap that out if I wanted. (Since I teach 5th grade in a conservative Catholic (redundant?) school, AND I ♥love♥ her clipart, I was more than thrilled by her generous offer.)
• I emailed Tracee back, and said I would love any clip art she chose to send me.
• Tracee emailed me TONS of clip art - AND, as if all that weren't enough (it totally was), a copy of one of her best sellers Creative Activities & Project Ideas to use with ANY Novel, Story, or Unit!  OMGenius - this thing is chock full of great ideas and templates!  She was over-the-top GENEROUS!! 

People ~ You must go visit Tracee's store and check out her stuff!!  And if you do teach older students, you MUST check out her HGs lessons - she's a rock star! 




 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 

To spread the bloggy love, I've created two new writing aides for my students and can't wait to share them with you as FREEBIES! 

The first was inspired by Emily at I Love My Classroom.  Don't worry, I asked permission first!  I plan to print these on sticky paper and stick them in the students writing folders.  The file prints two to a page, so they'll fit on the pockets very nicely.

I know it's fuzzy, but I promise the real one is crystal clear.

The second thing I want to share I came up with while I was writing the Rainbow Editing page.  Spelling is always a challenge for my students.  And I liked Emily's idea for using spell check, but I don't want my students to rely on it.  So I created the following anchor chart.  Again I will print these two to a page on sticky paper and add them to the writing folders.

Click either picture to download from my TpT store.

BTW - I love to print to sticky paper rather than glue stick things down.  Glue-sticked (love making up my own words!) papers never stay all year; the corners curl up and get gross.  Sticky paper works better for me and is totally worth the investment!

And, since I made these, I'm  thrilled to be linking up with Tara for the first time ever!

 

Let me know if you download these and what you think!

Teaching Voice - Link Up!

I'm linking up with Lifelong Learning to share some of my favorite books to teach my little writers how to find their voice in their own writing.  I have two favorite picture books that I share with my students near the beginning of the year.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with this book, but if you have never read Math Curse by Jon Scieska - you MUST!  When the main character's math teacher, Mrs. Fibonacci (cool name!), says everything can be thought of as a math problem, suddenly everything - from dressing in the morning to lunch at school - becomes a major problem!  I love reading this aloud to my students with increasing panic in my voice.  It is obvious that the Curse causes more and more stress on the little girl as the day progresses, and the panic she feels comes through quite clearly.  I like to share this on the first day of school so my kids will "know what they can expect!" *insert evil laugh here*

This second book I also use near the beginning of the year.  Encounter by Jane Yolen tells of Christopher Columbus' initial meeting with the Taino Indians.  The twist is this story is told entirely by a young Taino boy.  In it, he describes the strange men "who are not men" and their canoes.  He is terrified of the strangers and describes their meeting in a far different way than most people imagine it.  I share this story with my 5th graders after we have read all about Columbus' great adventure and finding a whole new world!  My students are amazed to have their vision of a national hero altered so drastically and so quickly.  We have great discussions about right and wrong, fact and fiction, and point of view.  I love this lesson, and every year, I get choked up when I read Encounter to my class.  (I can't help it; I'm a total sap!)

I could list tons of books that have great voice.  I often point it out as we read aloud or as I'm reading to them.  I recently finished two books (In Between by Jenny Jones and Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt - stay tuned for reviews of both) that aren't necessarily appropriate or interesting for 5th graders, but I can't wait to share parts of the stories with them to illustrate finding your voice. 

So what are some of your favorite books to teach voice?  I can't wait to see what others use and get new ideas!

Clown

 

Clown

illustrated by Quentin Blake

September 1998

This weekend I had a garage sale, and my sister sent a ton of my nieces' forgotten toys and books to sell.  After selling almost all of their old dolls, stuffed animals and most of the books she sent, I was ready to close it up and send everything else to the Goodwill.  That's when I found this gem in the leftover book pile!  I'm soooo stinkin' glad it didn't sell because I {LOVE} it!

Clown is a delightful wordless story about a toy clown who is thrown away with a bunch of other toys.  Determined to save himself and his friends, the clown travels through a city looking for a child willing to help him rescue the other toys.  Despite a series of mishaps,  he and the discarded toys find love with a new family.  Illustrated by Quentin Blake, my students will instantly recognize the artist from his illustrations of Roald Dahl books (always a *huge* favorite in 5th grade!).

Ever since I saw a post using wordless picture books as reading centers, I have been on the hunt for great wordless books.  (Sorry ~ I can't find the post and have deleted the download from the post that led to my fascination!  If you know it, let me know.)  

Anyway... the creative soul from whom I  'borrowed' this idea wrote three writing prompts for each book and differentiated them by color coding them for below level, on level, and above level.  I loved them so much, I made a set of my own for the books I found at my local library.

As soon as I found this book hiding in the stack in my garage, I knew I had to create a set of prompts for Clown, too.  Click the preview to get the preview set for free at my TPT store:

Or click here to get the full version with activity cards for seven wordless books, including my new favorite, Clown.

Buy it at Barnes & Noble

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It

Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It

False Apology Poems

by Gail Carson Levine

Matthew Cordell (illustrator)

March 2012

From the book:

"This Is Just to Say

If you're looking

for an nice

happy book

put this one down 

and run away 

quickly

Forgive me

sweetness

and good cheer

are boring

Inspired by William Carlos Williams’s famous poem ”This Is Just to Say,” Newbery Honor author Gail Carson Levine delivers a wickedly funny collection of her own false apology poems, imagining how tricksters really feel about the mischief they make. Matthew Cordell’s clever and playful line art lightheartedly captures the spirit of the poetry. This is the perfect book for anyone who’s ever apologized . . . and not really meant it."

Each year my 5th graders complete a poetry book.  But at my school, they have done all the formula poems (haiku, cinquain, etc.) in third grade, so I just focus on word choice, figurative language and playing with English.  By the end of the unit (done in April - National Poetry Month), each student has written over a dozen poems and created a cover page which I bind into a keepsake book.  And every year, the best poems are by students who don't get a lot of chance to feel successful!  It's a huge hit.

FORGIVE ME, I MEANT TO DO IT is a great addition to that unit.  The poems I love best are from the point of view of a literary character, like this one:

 This Is Just to Say

I have shortened 

my nose

with your saw

because

honestly

telling lies

is so much fun

Forgive me

I don't care

about becoming

a real boy

Super clever, right?  I know!

I love, love, love the pencil drawings that go with each poem, but the best part of the whole book is the cleverly place Introduction in which Ms. Levine persuades readers to become writers of their own false apology poems!  And isn't that what we all strive for?  Genius.

Buy it now at Barnes & Noble