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Tag: writing

April 30, 2020
Amy Kincaid
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The Masked Writer Contest

Posted in fun events, grants, and writing

Who is the masked writer? Students send in their guesses via the Jackson Library Google Classroom. Thanks to @MedCityPlano and @PISDEF for library books to reinforce writing strategies! In the fall, I wrote a PISD Education Foundation Grant for library books to use as mentor writing texts. Then I taught a series of writing strategy lessons to grades 3-5 during their library time.  There were certain targeted writing skills they had to achieve in each piece. I chose a few papers for children to read while wearing a mask. (videos)  The other kids in the grade level guess as to who is behind the mask. Fun!    

 

LINK

Some other Masked Writer Contestants:

 

Tiger 2

 

 

unicorn

m w 1

mw 1

mw fox 1

 

mw4

Masked Writer - Beagle

Some mentor texts used:

Twister – Beard

Sergio’s Bike– Boelts

Up North at the Cabin – Chall 

Night Driving – Coy

Strong to the Hoop – Coy

Goal! Javaherbin

My Best Friend – Rodman

 

Tweet

Google Classroom Guesses

mw guesses

 

March 28, 2020
Amy Kincaid
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Dear Basketball

Posted in fifth grade, fourth grade, third grade, and writing

February of this year, we read Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball poem (we used MrsBlewettELA’s TPT Questions) and watched the Oscar-winning short animated movie. Then, third through fifth grades wrote a “love letter” to SOMETHING they love. Check out their awesome work! Then, watch our video and check out the three-pointers!

Kobe Bryant's Dear Basketball
poem

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MrsBlewettELA’s TPT Dear Basketball Poem and Questions

MrsBlewett ELA TPT

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Dear Basketball short
Oscar-winning short

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Student Writing

 

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Student Three-Pointers

This idea came from Mr. Bonner! Check out his site: Bonnerville! 

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Dear BB collage

Harlem Globetrotters

Harlem GT

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Bonnerville

December 16, 2019
Amy Kincaid
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Using Active Voice: A Jeff Anderson Lesson

Posted in bilingual, fifth grade, picture book lesson, Seesaw, and writing

Today in the Jackson Library, fifth graders practiced using active voice during writing. First, we read Chall’s Up North at the Cabin. During the story, I pointed out the author’s use of active voice, personification, and imagery. I used Jeff Anderson’s Patterns of Power book, lesson 6.5. Then the kids used a Seesaw template I created to sort sentences from the story by active or passive voice. After that, I gave them dry erase boards and they wrote an active voice sentence about the school camping trip. As you can see, it rained during most of camp this year! 

active voice

up north at the cabin book

Jeff Anderson – Patterns of Power- 6.5 What Do Verbs Do? Finding Your Active Voice 

“The sunshine sits in my lap…”

“The river spills over rocks and whispers to me…”

“The [boat’s] motor sputters softly, waiting…”

“The boat roars forward…”

“blood thumps through my head…”

“when frosted windows cloud the sun”

 

seesaw

 

 

active voice

Puddles of ink stained the blank paper.

Little dots of paint sketch a beautiful dog.

I just ordered the bilingual edition of the book but it hasn’t shipped yet, so I talked to our bilingual team leader and we guessed at how to translate this lesson for the bilingual kids: 

El libro fue liedo por Juan.

Juan lee el libro.

Patterns of Power

5th shearman

5th kuw

Burkhead's class

December 8, 2019
Amy Kincaid
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Character Traits with Seesaw

Posted in fourth grade, picture book lesson, reading skills, technology, and writing

Last week in the Jackson Library, fourth grade analyzed the actions, dialogue, and personalities of the characters in Helen Lester’s Me First! to pinpoint descriptive character traits of the main characters. They used a Seesaw bubble map I created and chose between Pinkerton the pig or the Sand Witch templates.

Me First character maps

Me First!

Me First review
Publisher’s Weekly Review

ME-FIRST-long questions

Me-First-Character-Mapping

 

MeFirst Reader’s Theater

Helen Lester Unit

November 17, 2019
Amy Kincaid
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Turkey Letter Proofreading

Posted in fourth grade, holiday, technology, and writing

Last week in the Jackson Library, fourth graders proofread a letter from a turkey. They worked in pairs on a Seesaw template I created to find the errors. I threw in a few extra ‘mistakes’ to make sure they were thinking! It was a fun activity and helped me gauge which skills need more reinforcing in the future.

turkey letter

Turkey Writing pdf

Seesaw turkey proofing activity

turkey proofing activity

ANSWER KEY

answer key turkey

 

November 10, 2019
Amy Kincaid
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Show, Don’t Tell with Mentor Texts

Posted in fourth grade, picture book lesson, and writing

Fourth graders used a Seesaw template I created to match dull “telling” sentences with their “showing”, descriptive counterparts. I found the descriptive counterparts in various library books. The kids worked in pairs to match the quality description from the books to their simple counterpart. To prepare them for the lesson, we read Moonlight and admired the vivid imagery the author created. Then we read a story I wrote about camp and discussed the ‘show, don’t tell’ strategy.  For independent practice, they worked in pairs on the matching Seesaw activity.

show dont tell

writing

mentor texts writing

Mentor texts used:

mentor texts

My Camp Story Sample  Sneak in the Setting

October 27, 2019
Amy Kincaid
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4th Grade Color Poems

Posted in fourth grade, picture book lesson, poetry, and writing

Fourth graders were inspired by a read aloud from the Eric Carle book, What’s Your Favorite Color? I found this gem at the last year’s Scholastic book fair. After reading the story, the kids thought about their favorite color and used my template to brainstorm how their color might sound, taste, and feel. I love the imagery they used! As they wrote, we played the video of Hailstones and Halibut Bones for more ideas, since it has a similar theme. 

 

 

4th color poems
color poem

Student Template: Color Poem

Wadin: Hailstones inspired

Green Example: Read Write Think

Hailstones and Halibut Bones

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