Learning is fun!
Posted in writing
Last week when I was substituting in fourth grade, one of the assignments was to write a spooky story! This is right up my alley! I read the bilingual class the opening and closing lines from several spooky stories in the library and they took off with their imagination! They wrote an opening line and ending for a scary story. We had fun!
Posted in bilingual, displays and deco, fifth grade, fourth grade, poetry, third grade, and writing
April is National Poetry Month! Third through fifth grades had fun in the Jackson Library writing Spring poems! Some wrote diamante poems about the atmosphere layers, some wrote acrostics in English, and some wrote Spanish acrostics. We used kite templates (see TPT links below) so we could post them on the library windows. The kids had fun writing the poems!
Posted in fifth grade, games, poetry, and writing
This week in the Jackson Library, fifth grade read Kobe Bryant’s Dear Basketball poem (we used MrsBlewettELA’s TPT Questions) and watched the Oscar-winning short animated movie. Fifth graders wrote a letter to SOMETHING they love. If they wrote a poem, they wadded up some paper to shoot a basket into the trash can. This idea is from Michael Bonner. Fun!
Embedded: Arthur, Garcia classes
scroll down for more
Posted in displays and deco, fifth grade, holiday, how to, picture book lesson, poetry, technology, and writing
Last week, in the Jackson Library, fifth graders had fun writing spooky haikus! This idea is from the book, Boo! Haiku. To get our brains warmed up, I showed the kids some student samples from a couple of years ago and then had them draw a spooky scene. Thinking about how to describe the scene helped the kids to get ideas for their haiku. The bilingual classes chose to write in English or Spanish. Other helpful tips: scatter SPOOKY words1 & spookywords2 on the tables as vocabulary enhancers, don’t ‘require’ use of the form/template- many kids wanted to write their poem rough draft right next to their drawing… Check out their spoooky creations!
MODIFY LESSON: SPOOKY words1
Posted in fifth grade, poetry, technology, and writing
Fifth graders had fun in the library week before last creating selfie acrostics. It was a challenge to think of ways to use the letters in our names but it sure was fun!
Student Work 2021
Posted in fifth grade, holiday, poetry, and writing
This week in the Jackson Library, fifth graders learned about Dr. Martin Luther King’s powerful, peaceful words used to spur change for equality. I asked them to think about things going on in the world and what causes are important to them. They wrote their own ‘I Have a Dream’ excerpts to convey ways they want the world to improve. Check out their poems below!
George Couros
Student Template – short
Student Poems
Posted in fifth grade, nonfiction lesson, picture book lesson, and writing
In the fall, fifth graders had fun sharing their ‘expert knowledge’ on different topics by creating an alphabet book. Since I started taking guitar lessons on Zoom last July, I created a sample ‘book’ to use as a model and then also shared the book, Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet by Chris Barton. They had fun and we all learned so much!
Samples
Posted in poetry, remote learning, technology, and writing
Thanks to Kasey Bell for the Summer Magnetic Poetry template! Jackson Library remote learners loved it! Check out their poems!
Posted in remote learning, and writing
Thanks to Jimmy Fallon for this get-to-know-you remote learning lesson idea! Using only six words, fourth and fifth graders summarized their summer in the Jackson Library Google Classroom.
Inspiration:
Lesson:
+++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!
Some other Masked Writer Contestants:
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
Google Classroom Guesses
