Writers Workshop Anchor charts for Small Moments

Hello Everyone!
Wow!! I just have to say that a little bit of "sand in the toes" time does wonders for the mind, body, and spirit! It was a well needed time of decompression and rejuvenation as a family. We did it together and it was wonderful!! 

Now, time to get my teacher hat back on.  We will meet our new little learners on Thursday!! 

I'm sure many of you are starting soon...or maybe you've already started.  I know that as I start my 33rd year, I can say that I am excited about this year! 

Many of you use Lucy Calkins' Units of Study to help guide your writing lessons.  You know how much I love that whole series. We will be using the Grade 1 series this year and I can't wait. I wanted to use her little anchor chart ideas- but have them available in printable form for the classroom anchor charts and smaller ones for the kids' writing tools notebook. So, I came up with these. 

You do have to know that these go along with Lucy's lessons and will make more sense if you are using her books. ( I feel like a walking advertisement for her!!! :))

Anyway, if you would like a quick printable,

CLICK HERE!! :)

Let me know if this is something you can use. 

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back soon! 

Joyfully!

Nancy

Publishing Poetry and Mothers Day Similes

Hello Everyone!
I hope you are having a great weekend.  I don't know about you, but the end of the year is approaching waaaaay to quickly!  I still have so much I want to do with my kiddos. I don't want the year to end yet!!!

 We had fun celebrating poetry and Shel Silverstein this past week. After reading "Lazy Jane" by Shel, we wrote our own concrete poems about water.  To publish we wrote our poems on a raindrop shape, and laminated them to look like real raindrops.

After getting inspired by Shel's poem "Tired" we wrote our own list poems about what makes us tired. 

We published them by writing them on a sweet little sleeping bag with our faces peeking out.

Our Brainstorm anchor

Then we enjoyed the inspiration of Shel's poems "Ouch" and "Bandaids"  and wrote our own poems about times when we say, "Ouch!"  We had fun with bandaids as well!!!

Our Brainstorm anchor

I'm telling you, we have some poets and we didn't know it!!  Thank you Shel Silverstein for inspiring us to discover our inner poets!!! :)

If you want a quick little poetry writing unit inspired by Shel Silverstein, CLICK HERE!!

This coming week we will be celebrating mom by presenting our musical on Thursday night!!  The kids have worked so hard and are so excited!! I am too!!  We will also be celebrating mom by writing a sweet book just about and for her!!  If you are a mom, you know there is nothing like a thoughtful piece of writing by your little sweetie to make Mother's Day so special.   We will be incorporating the use of similes to create our books. 

For your free Mother's Day Simile book printable CLICK HERE!!

There are about 12 different simile pages for the kids to write and illustrate. We will bind them and add some pizzazz to the cover.  We love celebrating our moms!!

Well, Gotta Run!!  Off to watch our Dallas Mavericks beat the Spurs! Go Mavs!!

Have a wonderful rest of the weekend!  We love your support of this little blog. 

 Thanks for stopping by for a peek!! 

 These kiddos are amazing!! 

They love sharing their work with you!

Joyfully!

Nancy

A Whole Lotta Sharin' Goin' On!

Hello Everyone!!
This is my favorite time of the school year.  We are finishing up our testing, the kids have become quite independent with everything, they have become readers and writers, they have become problem solvers, I could go on and on!  I want to share some of their darling work and a couple of free units.  First off, after the big chick hatching extravaganza, I decided to have the kids write about what they would do if they had a baby chick.  From what they wrote, they would make great chick owners!  I then let them create a chick! All I gave them was a yellow circle. They turned out so cute!

The next thing I want to share is the beginning of our poetry unit.  Yes, April is poetry month, but we are getting a bit of a late start. We began by talking about what a poem is, and created a "Poetree" anchor chart. I read some different types of poem including Shel Silverstein's Poet's Tree. We talked about how sometimes a poet has fun with words and makes us really think. Shel does exactly that!!  We decided to take the subject of spring and create a simple list poem that had some flair with how we published it. They turned out so sweet!

CLICK HERE for your free 25 page unit on poetry!!

The last thing for tonight is a new unit I just finished. In science we are studying plants for the next couple of weeks and in math we begin our study of measurement using nonstandard units. Well, put those two curriculum areas together and you get "Splat the Cat, Oopsie Daisy" by Rob Scotton.  The kids looooove Splat, so I decided to use that little guy as our inspiration all next week. this little unit contains cross curricular learning opportunities.  Here's a peek!

 

These are just a few of the over 60 pages in the unit!  I hope you can use at least a few of them.  You have to go get that sweet book if you don't have it yet.  I found some at Target, but of course you can always get on Amazon or go to your favorite bookstore.

If you are interested in the unit, don't wait,

CLICK HERE!!!!

Well, that's all I've got for tonight!! Thanks for stopping by for another peek!!  Hope you can swing by again soon to check out what we're up to!!!  Now off to get my math tubs ready for next week! Can't wait!!

Talk to you all soon!

Joyfully!

Nancy