3-For-1 Special!

We've done a lot in the past three days. I'll do my best to keep you all caught up! I've been having some issues with my computer so it was a little bit of a struggle to blog this week.

We created a publishing anchor chart to add to our Writer's Workshop wall. We discussed that a published piece of writing is a cleaned-up version of our revised and edited version. When a student is publishing, we should see their sloppy copy, their Quick Word book, and their clean looseleaf paper on their desk. Their paper should be slanted to enable the best handwriting.

We also talked about how to make a cover for a published piece of writing. Our publishing wall has pockets for each student to store his or her writing, so I explained that when you make a cover, you will first want to trace a thin line to indicate the part of the cover that will stick out of the pocket. In this top 2 inches is where the title, author's name, and date need to appear. This allows a reader to easily identify the title of the piece of writing and the writer. The picture for the cover can go on the area below the line. Below you will see Teagan tracing a line to figure out where she needs to put her information for her cover.

We've also been practicing summary writing.

 I modeled again how to use a vocabulary organizer to write my summary.

Finally, this morning we read Tulip Sees America as a mentor text for word choice.

We took a closer look at the language of some of the states visited in the book.

We pulled out the words that were powerful and painted a picture of Iowa and categorized some of the author's language. We decided that good authors use colors and similes to help paint a picture of what they are writing about!

To store this learning, students recorded the powerful phrases from the three states we looked at in the Powerful Words and Phrases section of their Thoughtful Logs.

 Homework:
1. Reading - 15 mins., Pizza Log
2. Math - 10 mins. facts
3. Spelling - Sentences, Test Fri.
4. Social Studies - Poster due Wed.
5. Thursday envelope