Bubble GUM inspired writing!

Sequencing Writing - How to Blow A Bubble!

Library Mouse Inspires Writing

Inspired by some great writing ideas shared by colleagues at my Primary Teacher's Writing Study Group, and sparked by Daniel Kirk's book, Library Mouse, a couple of weeks ago I read my students this lovely story.

Sam, the library mouse, lives in the walls of the library.   He enjoys reading the many books and one day decides to write a few stories of his own.  He hides them on the shelves of the library.   The next day some children find his books and wonder who the author is.

Inspired by Sam, the library mouse, each student in the class wrote their own mini-books based on self-selected topics.   On Wednesday during library, the students excitedly hid their books amongst the other books in the library.  We can't wait to hear what other students have to say when they discover our little books.

This past week I read Library Mouse: A World To Explore, also by Daniel Kirk.   Through this cute story Sam the library mouse, learns about places around the world through the books in the library and through students 3-D projects that he plays with.   After reading and discussing the book, my students came to understand that through reading we can "adventure" to new places in the world.  

Next, I had the students look at non-fiction books describing countries around the world.   I told them that I wanted them to read about a place that they would like to visit and then pretend that they had travelled there.   I then handed each student a recipe/index card and had them write me a postcard telling me about all the interesting things they saw and learned on their adventure.   

Dude

I love story books!   Often on the weekends, I can be found at Kidsbooks in South Surrey with my own children reading and buying books.   When I don't have time, I search on Amazon for the latest, greatest books and am often heading down to Point Roberts to pick up my orders!

A new favourite of mine, is Dude by Christopher Aslan.  This book repeats the single word "Dude" on every page but each time it represents a different feeling.

Using the lesson suggestion by Adrienne Gear, in her book Writing Power we read the book and began inferring the character, Dude's feelings.  I tweaked the lesson a little and had my students work either alone or in partners to pick a page from the story and write either what they thought the character was thinking or what he might say.   They recorded this information on either a speech or thought bubble.  Unfortunately I forgot my good camera... so some of these are a little blurry!

Next we played an inferring game, suggested by Gear in her lesson.   One student was "it" and this student left the room.  Then I gave the remaining students an emotion such as "scared".   When the person who was "it" came back into the room, students shared clues about the emotion.   Each student started by saying "I felt this time once when...." and described what they may have been thinking or doing.  The "it" person had to guess the emotion that was being inferred.

Anti-Bully Day Writing

Last week my school participated in the wearing pink to promote anti-bullying day.  Another class created these beautiful pink t-shirt posters as a way to generate knowledge about this powerful day.  Over the week I read some of these great books to my class.   They all focus on the topic of bullying.

Following suggestions from a writing lesson about bullying, from Adrienne Gear's book Writing Power, the students brainstormed answers to the following questions.  

Next they wrote about bullies...  First they jotted some notes in the bullying story box graphic organizer and later transferred these ideas into a story format.  The students wrote outstanding stories that when shared, each was able to connect to.   Additionally, the students were able to transform their thoughts about bullying, learn how to stand up to a bully, and understand why it is important for them to say something when they see it occurring.  

Enemy Pie

Last week I read Derek Munson's book Enemy Pie to my class.  

Here is a general synopsis taken from the Enemy Pie website which is  HERE.


It was the perfect summer. That is, until Jeremy Ross moved into the house down the street and became Enemy Number One. Luckily, Dad has a surefire way to get rid of enemies-Enemy Pie. But one of the secret ingredients is spending an entire day with the enemy!


In this funny, yet endearing story, one little boy learns an effective recipe for turning a best enemy into a best friend. With charming illustrations that bring to life the difficulties and ultimate rewards of making new friends, Enemy Pie serves up a sweet lesson in friendship.   After reading the book the students made up their own recipes for Enemy Pie on index cards (a writing tie-in).   They had to write the ingredients and then the procedure for making the pie.   Sometimes I have also brought in a large pair of men's shoes and have had the students step inside them and we talk about how they would feel if they were Jeremy's shoes or the main character.   I love how they quickly get the moral and message of the story.

The student's really enjoyed writing out recipes for their own Enemy Pies as well, as making a real enemy pie out of mini-tart shells, chocolate pudding (mud), Oreo cookie crumbs (dirt), and gummy worms.   You can also add rock chocolates.   

If You Give A Mouse A Valentine!

 This week my teaching partner, Mrs. Robson had the students write a story called If You Give  A Mouse A Valentine...  These books were inspired by the many Laura Numeroff books, such as  If You Give a Pig a Pancake, and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

What made these books extra special was the unique twist Mrs. Robson added to the illustrations.  Each student coloured their mouse and then she laminated them and added a piece of velcro and a ribbon to each one.

This allowed the students to be able to move their mouse or "main character"from page to page.   The students were thrilled with this novelty and were happy they didn't have to spend so much time do detailed drawing of their characters.

 

Melting Snowman Writing

Several weeks ago I came across a great writing prompt idea on Pinterest.  If you click on Pinterest it will take you to my Primary Writing Board.   I simply love the ideas that I find there and so do my students.

With the wonderful snow that arrived last week and then the terrible rain that came Friday, melting the snow away, I thought this writing idea was aptly suited.   My students could deeply connect and were inspired writers as they watched the snowmen they had built earlier in the week melt away.

Collaborative Digital Write

Last November my class did a collaborative write called "Imagine" using digital media, inspired by John Lennon’s song Imagine.  I have attached the iMovie we created HERE and have detailed an overview of what we did below in case anyone wanted to do something similar with his or her class. 

OVERVIEW

We listened to the song Imagine by John Lennon and discussed the lyrics (each child had a printed lyrics sheet).   Then we had a class discussion, imagining the possibilities for our world.   After that they wrote on a graphic organizer that showed the format I wanted them to follow.

Imagine a world where...                                 (Effect) Everyone would/could/was/had…    

Next, we went to the computer lab and searched images through Google.   They knew that they needed to search two equally powerful, yet possibly opposing images.  I had previously taught a few lessons on searching/saving images but the piece that I needed to add was "what makes a powerful image?" 

We defined the word "powerful" and talked about how our images needed to infer a message.   They found their images and dropped them into the public folder.

Then, back in the class I connected my laptop to the infocus projector and together we created the movie.  Since I don’t have Smartboard, we used our imaginations and each student would touch the screen and pretend to drag and drop.  I followed their gestures with the trackpad.   

The students learned a lot about how to work iMovie from this collaboration and worked really well together.

Bring on the SNOW

Paint Chip Snowmen

Earlier this month, my talented teaching partner, Mrs. Robson created these paint chip snowmen with our students.

Last week, the students wrote "walking stories" (check out Adrienne Gear's Writing Power for more information on those) about winter and designed hot chocolate mugs to go with their writing.


























Tomorrow we are supposed to be waking up to 10 - 15 cm of snow... I sure hope my students come wearing their winter gear!   They did a great job of designing winter apparel!