Read for the Record-Oct. 3

This year the Read for the Record book is Otis by Loren Long.  In the story Otis is a special tractor. He loves his farmer and he loves to work. And he loves the little calf in the next stall, whom he purrs to sleep with his soft motor. In fact, the two become great friends: they play in the fields, leap hay bales, and play ring-around-the-rosy by Mud Pond. But when Otis is replaced with the big yellow tractor, he is cast away behind the barn, unused, unnoticed . . . until the little calf gets stuck in Mud Pond. Then there is only one tractor—and it’s not big or yellow—who can come to the rescue. It is little old Otis who saves his friend. It is Otis who saves the day. (synopsis taken from the back of the book)

My team and I have been busy planning for this special day.  At my school we turn Read for the Record into a whole day event.  Here are some of the activities we have planned so far.

Tractor Cut and Paste.  You can get the free cut outs here.

Barn Yard Labeling.  There are so many different things to label in this picture we decided to make stickers of the words so  that students could just stick the word next to the picture. Then they can color.  Grab a copy of the barn yard labeling activity here and the stickers here. Print the stickers on return address labels.  Note that when printing the barn yard you need to print it on 11x17 paper.

We are also having our wonderful room moms make us tractor sugar cookies that the kids can decorate.  We are going to use Oreo's for the tires and red icing for the tractor.  You can get the cookie cutters from The Cookie Cutter Company. They have tons of different designs for a very low prices.

For more information about Read for the Record visit there site.

No More "I'm Done!"

Normally I do all of my reading over the summer but when my reading teacher showed me this book I just had to read it.  Because I am doing my National Boards this year I have been focusing a lot on writing in my classroom.  This book is great!! It goes through how you should set up your classroom to foster writing. It gives suggestions for tools that you can have available for students to use and best of all it gives you ideas for mini lessons that cover the entire year.

Here is what I have implemented so far from this book.

~I was always a writing journal type (it kept things more organized).  Now each student has their very own writing folder.  In my writing area I have different types of paper for students to choose from.

~Conference board.  When students are ready to show me their work they add their name to the conference board.  After we meet and talk they erase their name.

~After my mini lesson I give students 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to write.  It was hard in the beginning to not hoover and want to make suggestions, but I have found that they do their best writing during that time. After the 10 minutes I start to call students for conferences.  I also try to play classical music during those 10 minutes to keep their brains working.

I will keep you posted on what else I implement...

Fish Eyes A Book You Can Count On!

I love it when I can tie literature into my math lessons!! I left this lesson for my sub to teach on Monday while I was out and the kids loved it.

They read Fish Eyes A book you can count on! by Lois Ehlert

I also love guided drawing.  In this lesson they learned how to draw a fish.

Then they created a class book!

Lucy Calkins

Today I had the pleasure to see Lucy Calkins speak about her new writing units.  I can't tell you how amazing she is.  She is a wealth of knowledge.  I could not believe the stories she told from memory and the experiences she has to share. 

The big thing I walked away with was the Bill of Rights of Writing.  The basic concept is that you need to make writing a prior in your classroom.  If you don't make it a priority students will not excel in writing.  

Here is what Lucy considers Bill of Rights for Writing...

1. Writing is a subject and taught as a subject. Everyone teaches math. It would not be ok for a teacher to say, "I don't teach math in such and such a grade." Writing has to be
2.  During writing time the children actually write. During reading time the children actually read. They are not doing other things (workbooks, or other things).
3. They are writing in genres.
4. We are explicitly teaching them skills and strategies.
5. We teach editing explicitly so our children use their editing skills and punctuation skills.
6. Children will publish at least monthly.

It is not the same but here is a webinar that she gave on her Units of Study in Writing. 

Happy Writing :-)