turkey disguises and a white thanksgiving

The week before Thanksgiving is always a toss up.  There are so many kids who leave early to get ahead of the traffic, and this year was especially crazy because, well, this happened.

At one point my husband even asked me if we were going to have school.  Fortunately, the snow didn't start until noon on Wednesday, so no make-up days yet.  Whew.  

One of my teammates is an expert at finding fun projects on Pinterest.  This was a great week-before-Thanksgiving lesson because it incorporated writing and they could also get creative when they decorated their turkey.  I equate this lesson to hiding vegetables in the tomato sauce.

There are lots of these projects on Pinterest if you are interested, and since I'm not sure which site my teammate got the idea from, I have linked the whole board here.  Enjoy!

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the thanksgiving interview project

Teaching writing has never been a strength of mine.  Something about all the lack of rule following just makes me nervous.  I am structured and analytical.  I like order.  Except for my bedroom.  That's a mess.  Laundry everywhere.  But I digress.

This year, I have been concentrating on improving the way I teach writing.  My first thought was, "AHHHHHH, WHERE DO I BEGIN???"  I decided to start with what I know: the assignments I currently have.  I'd make them better.

If you are anything like me, you are reading this and thinking, "Yeh that's great and all, but WHAT DO YOU MEAN?"

Here's what I mean.

Last year, I gave a 4-week writing assignment that spanned over Thanksgiving break.  The assignment was to generate questions, interview a family member, and then reflect on what they've learned.  Overall, this project was a success and the kids enjoyed it.  

Buuuuuuut, it lacked refinement.  And more importantly, it lacked excitement.  Take a look at the layout for example.  

See what I mean?  Ugh.  Just looking at it makes me want to fall asleep.

Here's what it looks like now:

So much better.  And my class was so. so. so. excited.  You know when the kids won't stop asking questions the entire time you are trying to explain, to the point where you have to say "STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS SO I CAN TRY TO EXPLAIN!!!"  Yeh.  That happened.  

I also changed the layout.  I created a page that gives an overview of the project with the due dates for each of the 4 parts.  Now it's easy for the parents kids to stay organized and manage their time.

Then I gave each part it's own page.  No more pages full of language that are hard to follow.

Currently, we are set to begin part 2 of this assignment on Monday.  But I am already receiving lots of positive feedback from parents.  

-My child is excited about her writing assignments.

-There's no anxiety at home.

-My child isn't waiting until the last minute this year.  

-We haven't had one night end in tears.

Assigning this project right before Parent/Teacher conferences was an unexpected bonus!

Psst!  This project is for sale at my TeachersPayTeachers store and IT'S ONLY 3 DOLLARS!

(Note: To save your job ink, I recommend only printing the first page in color.)

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job applications

Each year, my students must write me a letter in order to apply for their classroom jobs.  Whether or not I hire a student for a particular job depends on their strengths (which is why I don't hire them until a few weeks into the school year).

The letter is supposed to state why the student wants the job as well as why I should hire them.  

This is one of my favorite times of the year because I always get one or two hilarious letters.  I will share a couple in hopes that you get a few laughs as well!

1) Planet Fitness Enthusiast

Dear Mrs. E,

I would like to apply for the chair putter-upper because I love putting up chairs and it's always a good time.  I also want this job because I like to pick chairs up and put them down.  I would like this job because it's a blast!  I just don't know why I like chairs but I like them.

2) Personal Offender

Dear Mrs. E,

I would like to apply for the Banker position.  I would be great at this job because I'm good at reminding people things.  Like at the grocery store, I always have to remind my mom to get ice cream.  I don't know why she would forget that because who doesn't like ice cream?  (I'm really sorry if you don't like ice cream so I offended you because I made that comment).  But really, who doesn't love ice cream?

3) Olympic Gold Medalist

Dear Mrs. E,

I would like to apply for the trash position.  I promise I will not forget to do this job every morning and afternoon.  I know you have been teaching for awhile, but if I get this job I will be the best trash person ever in the history of the world!

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classroom court case

The other day I was cleaning my desk (a rare occurrence) and I found a letter from a couple of my students. Now, to understand the letter, I first need to give you a bit of background:

1. We have a classroom economy in my class where kids apply for classroom jobs and then are paid weekly in classroom money.  They can buy homework passes, lunch parties with me, and raffle tickets for prizes.  They can also be fined for calling out, losing worksheets, whining, etc.  
2. Some of my kids have created book companies and are selling their published work to each other for classroom money.
3. LW Books is owned by two boys.
4. NNE Books is owned by three girls.

Okay, back to the letter.

Dear Mrs. Eddy,

We feel we have the right to sue LW Books.  Emily willingly bought one of our "How to Survive School" books.  LW Books writers came up to us and told us that they told Emily to write a bad review on "How to Survive School."  We feel we have the right to sue LW Books for this. We would also like you to know that we have hired Connor as our lawyer.

Sincerely,

NNE Books

Well, at first I told NNE Books that they didn't have a right to sue because Emily has the freedom to write whatever she wants.  But then I thought about it a little.  LW Books hired Emily to write the review and because of this, other kids aren't buying books from NNE.  Well I am no legal expert, and so I emailed my sister (who is a lawyer).  Turns out that NNE Books does have a case!  So I decided that we would wrap up the year by pulling together many of the writing skills we have learned and put together a mock trial.  My sister has volunteered to help each side with preparing their case, and then she plans to come in and oversee the trial.  Ahhhh!  This is going to be great.  I simply cannot wait!

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mcas

Well, it's April, and you know what that means.  No more snow, flowers blooming, birds chirping, warmer weather (it was a balmy 45 degrees today!) and teachers are in full blown MCAS prep mode.  And by prep, I really mean panic.  We all have that crazy look in our eyes, like we are on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  The kids can sense our nerves and smell our fear.  Okay maybe not.  Actually, they are just worried about whether they can have a sleepover during April break next week.  They couldn't give one hoot about MCAS.  And really, that's how it should be.  When can the teachers feel this way too you ask?  Why, that is an excellent question.

Needless to say, we have been incorporating a lot of test prep into our curriculum lately.  Today we looked at examples of open response scores from the DOE webpage.  The students had already tried the open response on their own, and we had gone over the correct answers.  Then each table group was given a set of open responses, and the kids needed to work together to decide each response's score.

Meanwhile, I wandered from group to group facilitating the discussions.  Afterward, they used what they learned to score their own open response and then rewrote it to match what a 4 looks like.

What I loved most about this lesson was that the kids had a lot to say about why they scored the way they did.  And when I challenged their thoughts, they didn't get down on themselves.  They worked through it together and made thoughtful changes.  It makes me so proud to see how much they've grown this year.  Tear.

Gifts of Writing

Every December, I teach my poetry unit where we read and write poetry. We start small with couplets (How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an awesome book to use!) and then move to haikus, quatrains, free verse, shape, and acrostic. I find that December is the perfect month for this unit because the kids have a lot of freedom to take risks and have fun. They also get a chance to create a gift for someone special as their end-of-unit project: a poetry book!

After all the students were finished with their books, we wrapped them.  It was obvious that some had done this before and some hadn't!

This last one is my favorite! That is a wrap job only a mother could love. :)