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.

Author's Purpose Sort

I am loving the cool PIE finds from Pinterest, it's helping my students so much with our study of author's purpose. I wanted to give them a little bit of a review of some information from other subjects and a chance to put their knowledge of PIE into practice, so I made this author's purpose sorting activity. If you want to use it with a young class (1st or 2nd) the teacher will probably have to read it to them, but it's perfect for 3rd graders...especially Georgia 3rd graders! :) Link here!


NOTE: There is an small error...read the comments below for lowdown. :)

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!