Lucky's Punctuation Patty-O

Goodness gracious! We have been unbelievably busy prepping for our state writing test... which is {ahem} tomorrow!!!! Like less than 24 hours...tomorrow! Say a little prayer for us tonight! For all of my SC peeps, best of luck! I know with teachers like you, your kiddos will do fabulous!

Well, we have been so busy in fact, that we haven't been able to do anything leprechaun/St. Patty's related. {insert sad face here} Although I am now in a "tested" grade {whatever that means...aren't all grade levels tested in their own *special* way?}, I still try really hard to make things fun interesting magical for my kiddos. I truly think this helps keep their fire burning for school and really makes that knowledge stick. So after seeing all of these cute little punctuation lessons using pasta swirling around Pinterest, I knew I wanted to do something using that idea...especially since our first state test is writing. Plus, we have been working on all kinds of editing skills and strategies, so this would fit right in! When I started thinking about how I wanted to tie this all in to St. Pat's Day, I remembered how Kim Bearden from RCA tied it into a restaurant theme. Perfect! 

So I give you...

When the kids came in this morning, I had the classroom ready to go! 

I made them believe that a little punctuation leprechaun entered our classroom on St. Patrick's Day and he wanted to make sure that we had our editing skills nailed down pat {no pun intended}! :)  

{Ignore the covered walls...we are all ready for testing!}

We even had little "signs" left from our leprechaun friend {see below} to remind us of all of the things that we should search for while editing! 

They were beyond excited and couldn't wait to find out what all of this craziness was about! Too bad they had to wait through a 45 minute activity block. Needless to say, they couldn't wait to get back into the classroom. 

When the returned, they found this...

Along with our "punctuation", we also had Lucky Snack Mix which gives us a huge burst of luck as we begin our editing {a.k.a. our sentences should be perfect}. 

They couldn't believe that our little friend Lucky {who usually trashes our classroom each St. Patrick's Day} turned our punctuation green! 

Can you believe that little jokester! I promise...even third graders love the magic! 

Then, I wrote a whole bunch of sentences that Lucky trashed {instead of trashing our room}. The kiddos had to use the pasta to edit the sentences and make them perfect for publishing. 

After I checked their sentence, they recorded their final editing on their recording sheet. 

Such a fun way to practice {one more time} all of the things that great writer's look for in their writing. After this lesson, we won't need any luck on PASS! {Let's hope!} ;) 

Now let's just pray for some sleep tonight! State testing makes me crazy nervous! 

Hope y'all had your best Monday yet! 

Knuffle Bunny Lovin'

Spring is the perfect time for some Mo Willems lovin'! Especially if your class is not allowed to do anything "Easter Bunny" related, this would be the perfect way to get around all of that, but still do something Easter Bunny just plain bunny related! Plus, these books are the absolute BEST! My kiddos are in third grade, and they still absolutely LOVE them. I am so glad that we did not have time to complete the entire unit last year because now I get to pull Mo back out and they will be thrilled! 

Here are some things that we did last year right around Easter! 

Caldecott Worthy Illustrations and Judging

Our Classroom Winners…

   

Trixie Traits {Character Profiles}

A Little Cause and Effect....

Which I am thinking about revisiting! We could use a *little* more work on this skill! 

During this unit, we also focused on dialogue and quotation marks. The kiddos created their own "scene" from their own story. 

Now for the best part of all....

Knuffle Bunny Glyphs!!!! 

Here is how our glyphs turned out last year! This was a great way for the kids to review data collection and learn a little about their classmates. 

               

We This unit will on SALE since I have a bit of spring fever going on, but only until tonight at midnight!! Check it out below and click on the pictures to check it out on TPT.

I am going out to enjoy this beautiful 76 degree weather! Ahhhhh! Spring is in the air! Happy Saturday, friends! 

Editing to Perfection!

Shew...two more instructional days until state testing and we are oh so ready! My kids couldn't be more excited to knock the socks off of this PASS Writing Assessment. My kids love testing...super weird...I know! Maybe it has a little something to do with our competitive nature and/or something about trying to become the smartest class in South Carolina. :) They will buy into anything...I swear! I love kids! 

We have spent this week really getting our writing "championship ready" and all of our writing practice this year is paying off big time. Praise the LAWD! I didn't want for the kids to become overly bored with writing prompts this week, so we have done a few things to spice them up! I have one more trick up my sleeve for Monday that they know absolutely nothing about. Hopefully that will be the final prep that we need to go into our testing on Tuesday 100% ready and confident. 

One major thing that we have been working on this week? Editing skills...dun, dun, dun! We have talked about rereading your paper and naturally, I have told them they better do this *at least* 1,000,000 times before turning their paper into me. However, I quickly learned that just telling them to read and reread was getting us absolutely NO where. In our reading groups, we have talked about close reading, so I thought...why not make our reading skill also becoming a writing skill? So, I give you...CLOSE editing. 

After analyzing several of our classmates papers, we identified our biggest areas of concern. I mean, you can't go into the championship game with areas of weakness...so we knew we needed to fix these things ASAP! After our analysis, we created five steps to close editing which provided the students with a purpose {duh...right?} for editing their paper each time they reread. Then, we assigned colors to each step and wrote the steps on matching stickies.

Here is how the editing goes down... 

On the first rereading of their paper, they simply reread to correct mistakes that really stand out. Then, they go back to the beginning and reread for spelling. Next comes capital letters. During this rereading, they have to reread and stop at each period, question mark, or exclamation point and highlight the next letter to make sure that it is capitalized along with searching for proper nouns. On the fourth rereading, they check for punctuation. To keep them from just skimming to highlight their punctuation, they have to stop at the end of each sentence and use self questioning strategies to identify the sentence structure and sentence type to check for appropriate punctuation. Finally, they reread for clarity to check for grammar and see if their writing makes sense. I know...I know...seems like a lot! BUT...that is the name of the game! Plus, they love to see their paper transform into a rainbow! 

During each stage of editing, the students collect a highlighter to match that step.  We realized that if our paper did not look like a rainbow at the end of our editing, we clearly had not done our best job of editing. It TOTALLY clicked! A perfect visual right at the perfect time.  

I think that one of the biggest reasons this was so successful for my kiddos had to do with the way that we broke it down. Kids become so overwhelmed when they are looking for everything all at once. By breaking it down to a step-by-step process, they were able to really identify their mistakes and find weaknesses that they need to be cautious of during the writing process. Plus, they totally loved this. I think it was the different colored highlighters, but hey...as long as it makes them happy, happy, happy...I am 100% about it. 

Here is a look at some of our mad editing skills...

Two more days until we show S.C. what we've got! We are working on some more editing skills tomorrow...per their request! 

What are some things that you have found to build strong writing skills in your classroom? 

The ULTIMATE Spring Writing & Craft Bundle

My eyes are seeing double and my brain is fried...but I have writing planned, printed, and ready to go until MAY! I am so excited about all of the writing that we will be doing over the next few months. There are so many opportunities to incorporate everything I love about spring, along with some major science concepts {integration at it's finest!} :) Here is the best part of it all...you can have your writing planned for the next couple of months too! Check out my newest spring writing unit by clicking on any of the pictures below!

This bundle is packed with over 200 pages of resources to help your kiddos build those writing skills. It is also aligned to the new Common Core Standards and includes narrative, informational, and opinion pieces. This resource includes differentiated materials and will be perfect for 1st-5th grade. Since I love crafts {and so do my kids}, each unit includes the templates needed to make a fun craft at the completion of each writing that will be perfect for spring bulletin boards! 

Here are the seven activities included:

   

You can click {HERE} to purchase the bundle on SALE for $13.00. As always, I will keep the unit on sale for 48 hours, so snatch it up fast! 

I hope that your day is as beautiful as mine in SC! Now, I am off to run and plan our Civil War Study for the next few weeks! 

Happy, Happy, Happy SUNDAY! 

Eggs-Ray Vision!

Okay, so I know that chicks grow and develop inside and egg, but I guess I never really stopped long enough to really grasp how amazing that truly is...or maybe it was the fact that today, we saw it firsthand! Today marks day eight of our eggs, so it was time for some candling. Umm....I may never *ever* eat eggs again, but this really is incredible! 

Our babies' progress...

Check that out! Amazing, right?

Our sweet chicks are now developing their feathers and the egg tooth is beginning to develop. We have been following along with our chicks' development at Chickscope. If you plan on having chicks in your classroom, this is a great resource! 

After today's candling, I am hopeful that we will see a few babies in about two more weeks. I am still in awe of nature and all of the amazing wonders that it has to offer. Like...for real! It's just plain crazy! What a cool world we get to observe. 

In other animal news...

Yesterday, we began studying the different habitats that support the life of different species of animals. I divided the students up into groups and gave them about 30 minutes to become experts in one specific habitat and prepare their presentations. Then, we did a little jigsaw and took some time to share our knowledge with others. Rather than having the students present one by one, we did a little gallery walk. Every five minutes, the students would rotate and another group member would be in charge of their "exhibit." The students used sticky notes to leave specific feedback for each presentation.

We talked about the importance of useful and constructive feedback. Their sticky notes had to be specific and something that would help the group improve, as well as something that they did extremely well! 

Here are some of the presentations...

During their presentations, we focused on how to involve the audience through eye contact and responding to questions. They were such engaging little teachers. 

Today, we revisited food chains to match them to the habitats that we studied yesterday. I had the students create actual food "chains" with a twist. 

I laid out colorful paper and we worked to assign colors to specific classification groups within a food chain. The students had to illustrate a specific food chain within a chosen habitat. Then, they had to show how the consumer classification could be broken down into specific types of consumers. Here is what we came up with...

It's a chain within a chain {if you will}. This really helped them understand how consumers can be broken down into herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. Super simple, but a strong visual for those that didn't quite get it the first time around! 

I can't believe it is already Friday {tomorrow}! I hope my teacher friends have had a fabulous week!