Better Beginnings

Today we worked on lead sentences in our writing.  I always find the starting of a new writing piece to be a challenge for students who feel like their writing voice does not sound like the author voice in books they read.

We have been working on an animal research project inspired by Jan Brett’s “The Mitten”.  The students chose one of the animals in the book to research on PebbleGo (one of my favorite sites for young learners). Now that they have collected their facts, they are going to start an informational writing piece.

I pulled several non-fiction texts on animals from our classroom library to investigate how published authors start their writing pieces.  We found they used:

• Questions
• Description
• A Story

Then we pretended I was researching frogs (I have a decent collection of frog items in the room). And we thought about how I could begin my writing to capture my readers’ attention. We brainstormed ideas from each of the categories.

Then I had students think about their own animals and share how they thought they would begin their pieces.  This inspire a bunch of thinking about writing!  Students went back to their seats with their writing paper and could ONLY write a beginning sentence. Wow!  Was that tricky! 

Students who wanted to share their beginnings got the *microphone* to share their best beginnings!

I loved this lesson – it was a simple one that didn’t require a bunch of prep work, but it was so effective!  Plus, pulling books from our very own class library show students they can learn something from everything they read – all author’s are mentors!

Five For Friday and Teacher Dollar Days Linkys!

Ready for a little 5 for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching? I think I am!  I am feeling a little random, but beware!  I have been having an awful time with technology this week!

I have been done with school since last Friday and I’m not sure I am ready to do anything constructive yet.  I jumped into summer after moving my entire classroom  my myself. without boxes and then started to tackle long neglected projects at home.  Then I burned out!  It has been super muggy and humid here in NY and I just can’t stand it.  Today it is cooler and raining – which I actually love after all the humidity.  I have so many ideas and projects whirling my my mind that I don’t even know where to begin and I’m not sure I want to!

1. Linky Parties

There are so many linkies going on right now that my head is spinning! First, I'm joining with A Teacher Without a Class for a Dollar Days linky!

I am getting ready to begin a “no buy” summer, so I am not sure if I will be able to link up too often. (If you haven’t heard of a no buy month, it’s literally a month where you do not buy anything. Crazy, but I want to save up for tuition this fall!)

I stumbled across these adorable packages of wooden items and characters at Michaels a few weeks ago. There are 4 items in a package and they cost 99 cents a package.  They are in the wood section. Add on your 15% teacher discount and it is a pretty good deal for a new and motivating writing center! My students went crazy over them!  You would have thought they were scratch and sniff or something!  I put them is a

little tin and they were squirreling the cutouts away in their desks

I created a little writing page for the students to record the three items they choose with a describing word to include in their writing.  Pick it up at my TPT Store for free if you are interested.

Link up and share some great (and cheap) finds!

2. Posts App

A blogger (I’m sorry, but I don’t remember who – sorry!) talked recently about Posts, an app for iPad that allows you to post to your blog.  I have been trying it out and it is great!  I’m notable to do everything I can do on Live Writer, but it is really easy to use and has many features that are similar to other iPad apps.  I have been using it for the more simple posts. It is sooo much better for posting than the Blogger App. 

Check out Posts in the app store.

3. BlogLovin’ App

I am also loving the BlogLovin' App for iPad!  Again, it is very easy to use and very similar to the computer version, so that makes it easy to switch back and forth.  Don’t forget to follow on BlogLovin’!

Also – don’t forget to follow on Bloglovin’! Click below to follow!

4. Chobani Bandwagon

Yes, I finally bought Chobani.  I have resisted, thinking it was a fad, but my local grocery store had a great sale and I picked 10 containers up.  I think I am liking it!  I am not a big fan of the passion fruit flavor – I’m not sure I like chewing on seeds when eating yogurt.  There are some really great flavors and I love adding our honey to a container.  I’m just not sure I can justify the price. Plus, my husband’s dairy company now makes yogurt and  am feeling like I need to support the family business

5. Summer Shopping Spree!

As I had mentioned above, I am going to try very hard not to buy anything new in July and August. I had to have one last little shopping spree before shutting it down!  I justify this by saying that I just got rid of a ton of clothes at a consignment shop.  My style is changing and it has been easy to get rid of a bunch of things!

First, I had a bunch of really pretty a-line skirts, but I am loving the pencil skirt and maxi skirt tends. So, I bought 2 maxi skirts at JCPenny

I have loved the sheer sleeveless blouse trend on fashion blogs.  I think I could wear these to work with a tank top underneath and they would look cute under a jackets.

I still love my heels, but have been into the flat trend lately and I can’t live without good pair of wedge sandals.  These are from Payless and have a nice amount of cushion. I’m still on the lookout for the perfect pair of mint colored flats, but I can’t seem to find a pair that is at my price limit.

Oh, how I love Maurice's!  I find I am wearing so many things I bought there!  I bought white jeggings and a plaid button-down on the clearance rack. I have really jumped into he skinny jeans trend after a few years  I think these jeans will be good for cooler days and the plaid shirt will work in summer if I roll up the sleeves.  I also found a great statement necklace and earrings on sale.

I know it seems like a lot of items, but I think I spent around $150 dollars and I think they are all versatile items. And, yes, this is how I have spent my summer vacay so far!  Hopefully I can get myself going after resting a bit more this weekend!

Work on Writing–Journals (long!)

I’m linking up with Lory from Lory’s Page for her Revising and Revvign Up Linky.

Ahh!  Journals! this is an area I would really like to work on next year.  I feel like journals became a tool for management and a filler last year and this year I didn’t really deal much with them.  I just couldn’t when I was learning all the ins and outs of a new grade.
I plan to add journals back in for second grade next year.  I have used them as a center tool, but I may use more of a writing workshop approach and use journals as morning work.  I can’t wait to see what others are thinking.
For journals, I used 2 different ones that I really liked. The Mead Primary Journal has nice size lines for first and second graders.  It is also pretty thick, so I only had a couple writers who needed second books.  We ordered these through our budgets.  The Roaring Springs books were nice too.  The are much thinner, maybe 40 pages.  I think my kids went through 2-4 in a year, but they were nice to store a trimester worth of work. I see that regular journals are on the supply list for second grade.  While I’m not thrilled about them, I also don’t want myself or the parents to spend extra money on supplies.  So, I think we will just make due.


I have a lot of little tools I like to use during writing to motivating and make it fun.  I stumbled across these adorable packages of wooden items and characters at Michaels a few weeks ago.

I could write about a zebra that follows footprints to a treasure, a dog who sails on a pirate ship to an island, or a cow who rides a bus to school!
I created some papers and put them on TPT for free if you are interested. Click on the image to go there.

I also created Story Dice this year. Click on the image to pick them up.
Prompts in cute containers.The kids went crazy over this! I bought little heart containers for valentine's day at the Dollar Tree. I hand wrote starts and questions about healthy hearts, dental health, and valentine's to put in each heart. The kids used these for writing ideas.For Easter, the stores often have tons of cute little containers – cars, sports, animals. They are fun to put prompts in.

Sticker Stories
I picked up a few packs of stickers in the stationary and craft sections at the Dollar Tree. Students were allowed to choose 3-5 stickers to build a scene in their journals. They then illustrated their scenes and wrote 3-4 sentences. They LOVED this! I have also used the foam stickers. I do give them two days - one to illustrate and one to write, before I expect their work to be complete.

Stamp Stories
I have bought a few stamp sets over the years that correlate with our units. The kids stamp a scene in their journals, color, and then write.
Stencils Stories
Same as the stamp and sticker stories. I keep a look out for stencils at yard sales.
Here are some other ideas that I used later in the year to prompt student writing without providing specific prompts:
Drawing books - During our animal unit I put out some of those step-by-step animal drawing books. The kids LOVED them! They even drew pictures during recess. The rule was that they had to produce a fiction or non-fiction piece of writing with 5 or more complete sentences by the end of the week.

Research – My students ate up research. We have subscriptions to BookFlix and PebbleGo. The kids love to look up facts and I provided them with graphic organizers. Again, the rule is that they must produce a piece by the end of the week.

Story sticks - A while ago a blogger posted about Story Sticks (please let me know if you know who and I will happily credit and link to them). I printed plain old prompts on labels to put on craft sticks for spring. The kids still asked for them late in to the school year.

Squiggle Stories - A blogger also posted this idea with printables, again I don't know who and would be happy to credit them if anyone knows who it is. The printable did not have a name on them. My colleague, who is not a blogger, has been doing this for a few years. You copy paper with a random squiggle on it. The students turn it into a picture and write about it. I made the squiggles on Microsoft Publisher and printed them 4 to a page. Then I just cut them apart. After making 10 or so squiggles, I put all the sheets in a basket. The kids could pick one, draw the picture and glue them into their journals. I didn't have to make copies or redo them each week.
***7/25/11 update - I found the Squiggle Stories on:

Click here to go to the post!

Observations! - We had critters visit our room and the students wrote about them. I had a snail, ants, and crickets. We have also had turtles, birds, and even squirrels (yes, pet squirrels). One of my close colleagues brought in a collection of house plants for the kids to observe and write about. I grew a wonder egg plant, too. This year I bought seeds for a Tickle Me Plant and a Venus Fly Trap. They should inspire some interesting writing!

These are also great resources.  I copied the pages of these books, shrunk them down and laminated them to make cards.  It saved a lot of paper.  I just put out the relevant cards for students to use.
I also like to do art-based writing centers.  Origami and art projects make nice springboards for journals writing.

Whew!  That was a lot!  I never realized I had so many go-to items in my Work on Writing bag!  How to you use journals? Link up with Lori!