Do you ever look at something you've done and think, hmmm, that was pretty good.
I've done some classroom books -- I got the idea from Tammy at Forever in First. She does all kinds of different class books -- telling time, Elf on the Shelf, Reading Makes Me Feel Good --- etc. etc. {You should thank me for this link - Tammy really likes writing and has like 90 posts with that label!!!} And at the end of the year, she gives away the books to the kids.
She started me on a journey of class books -- and the kids do like them! I don't bind mine and at the end of the year, I sort out each students' pages and make them their own book of their own writing for the year.
While I was sorting through the writing, I realized I had done some good things.
Nonfiction writing:
Well, apparently I didn't snap a pic of any of the actual writing -
What I had the kids do is research an animal and write about it. I think they had to have four facts. Then {because we had just finished studying text and graphic features} I had them draw a picture of their animal and label it - I think I asked them to use 4 labels. The first two are actually by the same girl. As I was looking through these as I was putting them in their individual books, I kept thinking what a nice job they had all done.
Narrative writing - some small event that happened to them.
Although this girl's wasn't a small moment - it was when her step-dad proposed to her mom. Very special story.
We also did some writing on the computer, using powerpoint. I am very disappointed in Microsoft -- they've changed the way they do their clip art and it is not as kid friendly as before.
I had kids review books they read. This didn't go as well as I had hoped. I need to figure out a way to tweak it.
I also had an end of the year writing project where they wrote about a book that they liked. No pics on that, either.
I'm happy about these writing samples -- and it helps my end-of-the-year discouragement, thinking we didn't get much done. Yes, we did!
So I'm doing a bit of reflecting and reminding myself of the good things that happened. Next year, we are using Empowering Writers, which will be more structured than what I've been doing. I haven't looked at it yet, but I'm excited about it.
I'm so enjoying my first week of summer. It has been cool and rained several nights. My part of Kansas has certainly needed it. Happy Friday to you!
Spring break officially started at 3:49 yesterday. One of my co-workers volunteered to wait outside with all the 2nd grade kiddos, so I rushed to get my room in vacation order and hurried home because College Girl was there waiting for me!!!!!
I plan to do not a lot of school stuff - I have 2 things I have to do - one of which I wrote on my to-do list and the other I can't remember - LOL, so it just may not get done. And I'm going to have College Girl order some books off of Amazon because she can get them delivered speedy quick!
{Anybody got any good titles I need to add to my wish list???}
I've written before that my afternoons are LOOOOONG. There's only so much a person can do with the schedule they are given. But Thursday afternoon, I was a grumpy bear. And Friday afternoon, ditto that squared. The 4th grade teacher in our building asked if the 2nd grade classes would like to do pen pal letters. Sure, why not. Except when the letters came, we were in the middle of another writing project. When that got done, off we went! We hadn't talked much about letters and the form. But we looked at some mentor text -
I have to tell you that Dear Mrs. LaRue was tough - they are letters, and they do use the correct form - but it's got a lot of inferring and that just wasn't what we were doing. Ack! I read it one day and we just never finished it {Bad Teacher!}
Anyway, we moved through the process. I'd say 16 of my 19 kiddos followed my instructions and wrote an opening, answered questions, asked questions, and did a closing. {We did each step on a single day and then combined it all in a sloppy copy.} Then I had a thought - I have 2 boys whose writing in unreadable - I mean, I can't even decipher - how could a 4th grader? Then I have a second tier of about 3 whose writing is a little tough. So I thought - let's type these letters. Ah, yeah, that will make them nice and readable. Oh, just pull my hair out now!
And I realized last night {after College Girl left to spend time with her friend who is a boy ;)} that my grumpy bearness doesn't have much to do with 2nd graders being 2nd graders - but my unrealistic expectations of what they are able to do and what we as a group of 20 can get done in the amount of time we have.
So yea - I have this week to regroup, refresh and probably {because this silly little brain doesn't seem to ever shut off} rethink.
Happy Spring Break for those of you that are right there with me!
