Backward Writing Prompts

I found all these old notebooks where I would write ideas down that I wanted to save. Reading through one I saw this, I think I heard it at a training. Since we often give kids prompts to start off their writing, this is a way to do it backwards. Give them the last line! So they have to come up with the beginning and middle to fit what happens at the end. We are still playing with it, but I wanted to share what some of my Little Dragons came up with. The first one we did was "....and then the cookies were gone." One thing I noticed we have to work on, because they are writing more sentences is where to punctuate; we have some serious run-on sentences.

This ending was "....and then we had a pet."

Love the little ending...pssst, this was not a good idea (she said she wanted it to be like whispering-great use of voice, isn't it?).

I love the fearlessness of trying to sound out the longest word she knows! :)

The title: The Worst Way to Get a Pet

I was dying to have a parrot. I saved that I get one soon. I can have a parrot when I'm rich. So when I was 12....finally!

(eerie is one of their favorite words-at the top of their minds this time of year!)

I think it's a great way to switch up their thinking a little bit and do something different. We are definitely working on handwriting (aren't we always!) and conventions like punctuation and capitalization--but I definitely see so much growth in them already this year! One of the most rewarding things about our jobs I think, seeing them grow so much academically.

Dealing With Stress

I came across this video and was very moved by it. When I showed it to my students, they had a very different understanding of what happened than I did (I love it when that happens!).

Our curriculum is full of tons of objectives that we cover throughout the year, but sometimes I think there are gaps we need to fill in. I don't think we talk to kids enough about how to handle stress in their lives-so that was the conversation we had after viewing this clip. I had them write about how they would handle stress like the boy endured--bullies or trouble at home, this is what they came up with. I love how they had plans for how they will handle life's obstacles:

When I get stressed, I'm going to hug one of my toys. (is she an artist or what!?)

I am going to do the right thing and say "why did you do that".

....I can sing.

 I will never worry about the bullies.

I'm going to ignore it.

I'm going to ignore them.

I'm going to get a rock and study it.

I'm going to scream really loud because I get annoyed.

I will talk to them so that bully to be nice to kids.

I'm going to play chess.

I'm going to tell the teacher.

This is one of my students who struggles with writing, but isn't that a perfect illustration of the video!

I'm going to dance and if that doesn't work, I am just going to fight and if that doesn't work I will just run for my life and I will try to run as fast as I can.

I'm going to lay at the beach and relax. :)

Unanswered Questions....in Math!

I love Sandra Kaplan's concept of Depth and Complexity "Unanswered Questions". We use it daily; not only encouraging the kids to jot down questions they have on our Wonder Wall (right now we have "does President Obama ever get nervous talking to people?" and "how do they take the photographs of dangerous animals?". We save those so we can look up the answers at more opportune times than in the middle of a lesson. But also with literature and photography-what don't we know about this story/photograph? Another teacher chuckled the other day overhearing a student of mine in the hallway the other day asking another student "I have an unanswered question-why is it so loud in the gym? What are they doing?"-- Gotta love 'em! Hey, a real-world application, right! :)

So this year, for something different, I am adding this activity to my math warm-up. The kids look at the picture and tell me what math-related questions they have...what don't we know? I have posted before, I love the site : MSNBC This Week in Pictures   to find good photos. They post new ones every week from around the world. I would not let kids just go on the site independently, because some of the pictures can be graphic (like soldiers fighting or ones that are just sad--they had one recently of a poached elephant), but usually find lots of pics to use for this task.

If we are using this photo, for example (which comes from that site):

They can ask: How many balloons are there? Which color is there the most of? How far off the ground do they go? How much does one weigh? What temperature is the hot air? How much does it cost to fly one? And I'm sure they could come up with many others! My kids love this activity and surprise me every day at the way they can think in math terms. I think it has helped them better understand what math is when we talk about that as well.

Higher Level Thinking: The Giving Tree

I found this gem last year and think I enjoy that version much more than my students even do. I love to hear authors read their stories, because I know that's exactly how they were meant to be heard!

I will typically talk about ethics with this story. I ask the students to write about who is right/wrong in this scenario the tree or the boy. They often come up with some good arguments. Sometimes I'll even assign half the class to one side and half to the other.

We also used the Kaplan concept of Depth and Complexity for Over Time. How does the relationship between the tree and the boy change over time? A difficult one for them to think about.

Comprehension questions you can ask:

1) Why didn't the tree ever say "no"? If she had said no, how would that have changed the outcome?

2) What would you have said to the boy if you were the tree? Why?

3) What would happen if all trees were "Giving Trees"?

4) Why do you think Shel Silverstein wrote this story?

5) How could the story have ended differently? 

6) Do you think kids and adults judge this story differently? Why is that?

7) Compare the perspective of the tree and the boy, or the perspective of the boy from both the boy's and tree's point of view.

Charlotte 2.0

It always amazes me how much these little guys know about technology. The other week, we were talking about what is always true about families and one of the students answered "they are all on Facebook". Well, a good number of them probably are! It's a different world today, especially remembering myself in high school typing programs into our TRS 80 so I could play hangman and printing on a printer the size of a table (and that was cutting-edge, my grandfather wrote computer manuals, so they sent him their prototypes. :). It feels like that wasn't so long ago.

So we are reading Charlotte's Web and it occurred to me how long ago that was written-their father gave them change for goodies at the fair and there's no mention of anyone talking to their neighbors on the phone. Since web-writing seems like a pretty old-fashioned method for communication, I asked my kids to write as Charlotte might today--using Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

the Goose said "Wilber is weird".

This is a pic of Wilbur jumping around like he sometimes does trying to look radiant!

.

Changing the Details

One critical thinking exercise I like to do with my students, is to have them change a detail of a story and then think about how that would change other details. For example. what if Cinderella had never lost her shoe? Or what if the Grinch story took place at Easter instead of Christmas--what else would change?

Since we are reading Charlotte's Web right now, we decided to change the setting of that story. I had the students write what details would change if the story had not taken place on a farm.

Ocean-his friends are sharks and whales and he'd live in seaweed.

(love the illustration of God by the way!) Wilbur was in the sky with God, birds would be his friends and God would be with him.

Africa-friends would be camels and snakes.

San Diego

Another ocean setting-talk to a shark and a crab and a fish and a manta ray.

in the woods-he would make new friends.

California-still a spider, but dogs, cats and turtles would be his co-stars

School-he'd go to school and have fun at school. That would definitely change the story a bit!

A spooky house setting-with a ghost as the goose and a bat as the spider.