How to Make a Valentine AND a Friend!

 

I have no input on how to get a valentine date or what to buy for valentine's gifts...but I do know a little about how to make a valentine. Aren't homemade valentines the best!? We were focusing on informational writing so I had my students write a procedural "how to" story...write it like a first grader who has never, ever made a valentine is going to read it and make a valentine.

We talked about sequence words, the sequence of the procedure, transitioning from one step to another, and being descriptive in our directions. We can't just say "cut out a heart", we have to describe HOW to cut out a heart. It really got their gears turning!

They worked VERY hard on this project, and their reward was joining up with a first grade class, making valentines with them, and giving the valentines to a local radio station to give to kids who need a little extra love on valentine's day. They worked so well with their first grade friends, and on the walk back to class they were already thinking of "directions" we could write for a St. Patrick's day project with our new little buddies. My students have such big hearts!

Here is a graphic organizer to help with this project.

Persuasive Writing: OREO....updated with PDF files

I am gearing up to teach persuasive writing. I ran across an Oreo reference for a graphic organizer and being a lover of graphic organizers, acronymns and of course OREO's...I had to work something up.  I'm also working on a powerpoint that I hope to share in a few days!

 

This is the poster to print or to project on the interactive white board. 

 

This is the graphic organizer for modeling and for student use. 

When I view this documents in Google Reader they look wonky, but when I download them and view them, they look great. Let me know if you want them and your copy is "wonky" and I'll reload them as PDF files. 

UPDATE!!!

Here are the pdf's in case you don't have the same fonts loaded that I have used and you prefer the look of what you see here.  Graphic organizer   Poster

Edit to add: I had a problem. I accidently gave people permission to edit, and someone changed the settings so that no one else could download these. I *think* I fixed it. I have the settings now so that anyone with the link can view the docs, but no one but me can edit! I hope that helps and I'm sorry if you needed them and couldn't get to them!

Standards Diaries

I am always looking for ways to make our standards more relevant, more connected, and give my students more ownership of THEIR standards. They are, after all Georgia Performance Standards for 3rd grade students....not 3rd grade teachers. I've been using chart tablets to put our GPS in kid-friendly language, review the vocabulary of the standard, draw picture clues, symbols, and even graphic organizers to help students connect the GPS to their real worlds and their own knowledge.


What I like about this is it's functional. It's pratical. It's interactive, and it's always available. What I don't like is that my science charts look so different from my ELA charts. It still feels like it's "mine", and I want my students to have total ownership of it, to the point that it's part of their own everyday language.

So here is my new idea. Each student will have a folder with only these sheets. I have posters that match that I will fill in with Vis-a-Vis. This folder will be their Standards Diaries. We will write our standards in "I can" friendly language, dissect the verbs, nouns, draw picture clues, etc. Students will make their own learning goals, and use the thought bubble to make connections to prior knowledge or experiences. The magnifying class is to list our essential questions.

The back is for vocabulary, definitions, samples, illustrations, etc. I'm excited to try something new and hope this method leads my students to the level of ownership that will make them more successful.  Get the files here. And here.

Front Page of Standards Diary

Back page of Standards Diary

Learning Focused Strategies

I found a great resource for those of us who use Learning Focused Strategies. It's a simple list of graphic organizers that are ready to print, or ready to be used to create your own version. Invaluable resource for me!

             
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/highschool/bayshore/Documents/L-F_Graphic_Organizers%202.pdf