MLK Day 2014

Freedom Hands

In honor of Martin Luther King and the message of diversity, Crayola has a wonderful craftivity!

This would be perfect for K-8.  The questions suggested are a great start to developing a wonderful lesson!

Add a comprehension passage from Readworks before your craft!

Add some Read Alouds listed here!

Have students choose a favorite MLK quote to write about!

Download Writing Paper Here!

Pumpkin Writing Paper Freebie 2013

It's time to write about pumpkins!  I hope these writing papers are useful in your writing workshop!

Happy Fall!

Download Here!

Try these:

What We Think, Say, and Do

Eight Things Skilled Teachers Think, Say, and Do

by Larry Ferlazzo

This is a great article to read before school starts.  You can find it at ASCD/ Educational Leadership!

Another great ASCD article, Guiding the Budding Writer, by Peter Johnston.  He is the author of Opening Minds, one of my favorite reads!

I think both of the articles are insightful!  They encouraged me to think about teacher and student talk in the classroom.  Students need our feedback to strengthen skills and to see themselves as accomplished learners.  Our words are powerful!

Lucy Calkins Resources and More!

Here is a great resource for Units of Study K-12!  I love that it is all in one place.  

But, don't stop there!  Check out the other literacy resources! 

Do you need help with Word Study?  Check out these Word Study Resources!

If you are using Journey's, the HMH reading series, here is a resource that might help!

Saturday Sayings!

Happy Saturday!  Welcome to Saturday Sayings!

I have joined Tammy at Forever in First, Julie at Lighting a Fire in Third Grade, and Lori at Conversations in Literacy, during the month of April to share our favorite quotes and reflections. This is the final post for our April series.  It has been a great experience.  Thank you ladies for such a great exchange of ideas!  

Please visit all of our blogs and join the discussion.  We would love to hear from you!

My quote today is from Ralph Fletcher...

"I am not a big believer in story starters.  I believe that the best ideas are living inside you.  Your challenge is to dig them out."

I really like Ralph Fletcher's approach to the question, "What should I write about?"  Rather than giving students a topic to write about, he gives ideas to jump-start imaginations.  You can find the ideas HERE.  

We can use his ideas to have conversations with our students that will lead to authentic writing.  Every writer gets stuck and needs a little help to get those creative juices flowing again!

I want to share a video clip that I found this week.  It is a great example of how Writing Workshop can work in a primary classroom.  I hope you enjoy it!

Sandi

Persuasive Writing Freebie

This past week I heard Katherine Bomer as part of our local consortium.  She offered ideas for teaching persuasive writing.  I took my notes and turned it into a PowerPoint that I hope you can use. Just print out the pages where the student writes a response.  I would love to hear from you if you use it with your students!

Download here!

Sandi

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Writing Workshop and the Red Sled

 

Several months ago I purchased the newest book by Lita Judge, the Red Sled.   We decided to use this beautiful book in Writing Workshop for grades K-2.  Each grade decided how they would like to use the book.  I want to share the wonderful writings from each grade level.    Kindergarten and second grade chose to write about what happened the next night!  First grade wrote about what they would do if they found the sled.
This is the only snow we saw down south this year by the way!

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade

Everyone did a great job!  I appreciate their willingness to work together on this project.  I work with wonderful teachers! 

Thanks Lita for such a lovely book!

Sandi

Magical Message from Lita Judge, Author

I am excited to share a little background for the new book "red sled" by Lita Judge.    My last post was to share this little gem, and how happy I was to get it in the mail!  I quickly emailed the author to thank her for such a lovely book. With her permission, I want to share her response with you

Oh wonderful. I’m so happy you like it and thank you for writing!! It’s lovely to hear reader’s reactions. This story was a labor of love, something I think my imagination has been working on much of my life. 

When I was a little, I lived with my grandparents a lot in their old farm house in the Wisconsin woods. Our family had a tradition. If someone left the barn light on by mistake my grandfather proclaimed, “Alphonse must have done it.” If a mitten went missing, or a door was left open we all proclaimed, “Alphonse did it!” I grew up thinking this mischievous little character lived in a mythical cottage near our home. On wintry mornings I’d race outdoors to find tracks left in the snow by woodland animals and I’d search to see if I could find Alphonse’s tracks. I never did, but instead my imagination found a story. The little character in this story with the red hat is how I imagined Alphonse to look. Hope this story adds to your writing workshop.
I don’t think Alphe was really boy or girl, he/she was so mythical in my mind. But I went to sleep at night comforted by the fact that Alphe was out there somewhere, looking over things, even though Alphe seemed to create a lot of mischief. 
Thank you for writing.
Warmest wishes,
Lita


Thank you so much Lita for responding and sharing this wonderful story.  There is a lot of love on the pages of your new book!  I can't wait to share what our children learn from the "red sled" next month!

red sled

You don't want to miss Lita Judge's, red sled.    From the "scrinch scrunch" of the first page, to the "Wheeeee" on the last page, you will be in love!  I can't wait to use this book in Writing Workshop!  Students will have a great time narrating the story.   Even older students can use this picture book to spark their imagination.  I can imagine red sleds and writing all around the room in January!

Writing Workshop

Davidson County Schools in North Carolina has a great site on Writing Workshop!  You can learn the basics and find forms and pictures that will help you start Writing Workshop in your classroom!

You must see the updated (2010) Power Point presentation for Launching Writing Workshop!

You will find anchor charts that you can create with your students!

I really like the Phonics Writing Analysis forms.  One is for consonants and one is for blends.  You can track your students on one sheet.  This will allow you to create mini-lessons for Word Analysis based on need.
They are adapted from the work of Linda Hoyt and the authors of Words Their Way.