Persuasive Writing

This year I have been trying out writing workshop. I don't think I'm super successful at it yet but I am working on it. My kids are a lot more independent and creative with their writing than they have been in years past. But I still need to work on the instruction part of my writing especially the revising and proofreading part. The past few weeks we've been working on persuasive writing. This is a common core standard or at least opinion writing is. I started the unit off with showing the kids a few public service announcements from youtube.
I showed this Smokey the Bear one from 2009.

Then a Give a Hoot Don't Pollute one.

And finally an army one. The first time we watched these videos it was not successful. The kids didn't get what was going on at all. But we talked about them and what they were trying to convince you to do. I then went back home that night and searched for some more videos to help explain what I was meaning. I found a few old commercials for Barbie dream house and micromachines. I also showed a wildlife preservation one with the Muppets and a marine one. They did a lot better with them this time. I think they were finally getting that commercials were trying to persuade them of something. Then we brainstormed a list of things that they would like to convince me to do. They came up with some crazy ideas which was good. I talked to them about being realistic and specific in what they were wanting me to do. Here's our list:


We also discussed how they were going to make an argument. They thought that all arguments were bad so we did a little role playing to show what I meant by wanting them to make a argument. The next step was making a graphic organizer. They picked one thing they wanted to try to convince me to do and then tell me four reasons about why they should.

Then they wrote a letter to me. Not all the students are finished and the ones that are done with writing need to revise and proof. This is my down fall but I'm trying to follow through with this project. Here are a few of their examples:

This last one is my favorite. She wants more math homework. So far it is going well. I think our next step will be to work on writing about some school problems and writing letters to our principal and assistant principal. I told them those that wrote compelling arguments I would do those activites. So we'll see which ones I end up doing. We also finished up a little writing from Valentine's day. I gotten a great freebie from A cupcake for the Teacher. It was Love is . . . My kids responses were so cute.

 This one says, "Love is love. Love is kind. Love is nice."

 This one says "Love is a strong feeling about someone or something."

This was one of my favorites. It said"Love is making other feel better when they are sad." This was a cute activity and even though we didn't have time on Valentine's Day I'm glad I made the time to do it today. What are you working on in writing? How do you teach persuasive writing?

Writing Wednesday

Look at me two days in a row with posts that have the day of the week in them and alliteration. I have blogged several times this year about how writing is not my strongest area of teaching. I am working on it this year though and I think blogging about it will help me. If you haven't check out Tammy at Forever in First you should. She has these posts on Saturdays called Saturday Sayings. A lot of them have to do with writing. They give me a lot to think about and inspire me to continue to work on my writing instruction. If you click on her blog title it will take you to this past Saturdays saying post. Tammy is a great bloggy friend. I can always count on a comment of encouragement from her on my blog. Thanks friend!
So as part of my journey to becoming a better writing teacher, here's what we've been doing lately.
I think Daily 5 has helped me to be more intentional with my writing time. I'm not implementing Daily 5 with all the choice that the sisters recommend. We've been working on the same choice at the same time and I try to give choice within the block of time. This is just what is working for me. One of the best parts of having this routine established is that my kids can have time to work on their writing even when I have a sub. I had a sub last week and they were able to continue to work on their writing. I have the greatest assistant and she knows our routines so it helps. She was able to give students the materials they need. As I'm typing this, I realize that I'm keeping control over the materials and should probably work on giving up some of that control. That will be a goal for the week. So far we've been working on narrative pieces. I have some students who do really well with these. They brainstorm and sketch out their ideas and then I give them a book to work on the actually writing. We check in at the beginning and end of each session which I really like. This gives me a chance to see what they are working on and they get use to talking about their writing as a craft. I can also make plans for who wants to share the next day and who I need to meet with. My minilessons are still in need of work. I make these plans and then I don't seem to follow through. I think I need some better resources for mentor texts for teaching about different elements of writing. I would love to hear what you use. My kids that seem to be struggling with sketching out an idea for a story and then turning that into a book are using a sheet that I got from Crystal at Kreative in Kinder. She is a writing workshop guru. The sheet I've been using has three boxes marked beginning, middle and end. It is helping some of kids that need a little more structure.
This week we're starting to work on informational writing. My kids love to read non fiction and they especially love to read books about animals. Our reading series last week and the next week are all about animals, so I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about non fiction writing. I really want them to have choice in their writing so they can make it their own. I'm modeling and using texts about Bats this week to try to get them thinking about non fiction writing. With the emphasis on the common core, non fiction definitely is getting a larger role in my class.
Monday we brainstormed a list of different non fiction topics. They were mostly animals except for the one student who named our PE teacher. Tuesday we picked a topic. I showed them how to make their own bubble map of facts that they knew about the animal. Some of them came up with some really good facts. Then some had to be debunked. One of the boys thought that alligators lived in the sewer. Today I gave them a book about the animal that they had chosen so they could add to their bubble map. My assistant and I have been trying to get them to think about facts rather than opinions or made up facts. Tomorrow I'm going to let them do the writing. This is the most controlled I've been about the order that they are on. But I'm hoping that once we do this together that they will follow this pattern when they want to write non fiction on their own.
What are some good mentor texts to teach about writing? How do you introduce informational writing?

Writing and 500 followers Giveaway day 2

Last week I blogged about struggling with teaching writing. I don't feel like this is my strongest area. But I also don't feel like I can devote as much time to overhauling my instruction in this area this year. I'm working on implementing Daily 5 and math work stations. But for the past few weeks, I've been trying to change things. I have one student who I believe is gifted. He's so stinkin smart. He likes to write stories and they are like books. So I got the idea of giving him 2 pieces of paper and folding them hamburger style to make a book. This inspired the other kids to want to make books too. So slowly we're making books. I made them sketch out their ideas on a paper with labels and then adding sentences. They they told me when they were ready to start the book. In the middle of all this, I decided to purchase Deanna Jump and Deedee Will's writing workshop unit 1. The biggest thing I took from that this week was to have the kids share something. I started the week by reading a Mo Willems book. We're crazy about Mo in my class and he's our author of the month. We read Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. We talked about how the illustrations can show parts of the story. We also talked about how books tell stories and don't just name things. Then they went back to their story and worked some more. At the end of the time, I had them tell me what their story was about. I have some pretty creative kids in my class this year. By listening to them talk, I wrote on the board, the names of students I needed to meet with the next day. The next day I shared some of my own writing. I wrote the beginning of a story about a camping trip. I also included some sentences about what I wanted for Christmas. This led us to talking about making sure only important information was included in our story. This time when we shared, they told me something about the beginning, middle or end of their story. I had 3 students who were finished with this story. I put their names on the board to share the next day. So Wednesday, I started out our writing time letting the three kids share their stories. It was magical. They were listening so intently and then we practiced giving compliments and telling why we liked the story. I think this inspired some of the other kids to finish their stories and to add more details to it. Then the three that shared started new stories. They started sketching out their ideas. So slowly, I'm making progress with my writing. I wanted to share one of my student's stories. This is the one that just amazes me.

This is the cover of the book. The story is called Super Max vs. Robot

" Back at the hideout of super max Jack and Robot were out there doing evil. Lets go said super max. Out into action they went. "

 "Yes yes three days three days yes said robot. we only have three days. So lets go get grony goblin. Just then a zoom! came up the road. Super Max is coming soon he said. "

"Wish went super max's sord as he striked robot down. and with robot back in jail. The city was saved thanks to super max. "

 This was the back. What I loved the most was that he put a barcode on the lower right corner like a real book.
I'm going to try blogging once a week about writing. I hope that they will help me to grow in teaching writing.
Now on to the day 2 of the giveaway.
Here's what you can win today:

• 2 items from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can check it out by clicking on TPT on the right.
• An Apple to Play from Sharing Kindergarten 
• Finger Counting Combo Pack from Kindergarten Smorgasboard

• Any item from Herding Kats in Kindergarten's TPT store

• Fire Safety Math and Literacy centers from My Not So Elementary Life

• I can read alphabet from Crayons and Curls 

• Monster Madness from Miss Kindergarten

You have until Monday October 8th to enter. Check out the rafflecopter below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Daily 5 Book Study

(Just a warning, the post is going to be a little rambly about my thoughts on daily 5)
I have been so slack in posting about the Daily 5.  I missed listening to reading and read to someone completely. I read the chapters and took notes on them but I never did get around to posting about them. I didn't really have much to add to what everyone else posted about the topics. I'm still working through all this is my head. I've sketched out schedules to make sure I can make this work. I think I am ready to give up control and let my students have a go at Daily 5 completely. I still have some questions about which things I want to teach whole group and what I want to teach in small groups. I'll have an assistant for most of the day so that will help with the small group part.
So here's what I'm looking at for a schedule for the upcoming year:
While I don't have my special times or my lunch time, I know that I'll have the mornings to do all my reading and language instruction.
8:00-8:30 - Morning Work time - What I'm thinking for this time is a writer's workshop type time here. We're going to journal time. I just bought Rachelle Smith's Journals through the year pack on TPT. I'm pretty excited about it. They will also have to answer the question of the day and take a bathroom break during this time.
8:30- Morning meeting - This time we go over rules, question of the day, morning message, and calendar. I need to try to squeeze in some language and grammar lessons using the morning message during this time. That's one of those areas I'm not sure what to do about with Daily 5.
8:50 - Minilesson #1 - This one will be a read aloud lesson that focuses on a comprehension skill. Then we will have round 1 of daily 5.
9:20 - Minilesson #2 - This one will be a phonics lesson or spelling. Maybe. I'm still trying to decide if I want to do this whole group or small group. Last year I did my phonics lessons small group and loved that. I'm not sure if I can swing individualized lists or not. I used Words Their Way when I taught in Nashville and liked it but when I looked into purchasing the book, my budget just couldn't take it right now. This is an area I'm still mulling over. Then we will have round 2 of Daily 5.
9:50 - Minilesson #3 This one will be writing and grammar. Then the 3rd round of daily 5.
10:20 Mini lesson #4 I want to still use some of the reading out of the basal so that will be this time. We will use our reading books during this time. Then they will have the last round of daily 5.
The order of the minilessons might vary. I'm not sure that it is important what goes where. During their group time, I'd like to work on phonics, spelling, writing, and reading workshop type lessons with small groups.
As I'm typing this, I'm starting to think maybe I'm completely crazy for trying this. Am I being too ambitious with this scheduling idea?
I realize too that this post isn't about working on reading or word work at all, yet. I feel like having activities for the kids to during that time, is the easy part. I use Deedee Wills's writing workstations and I also use some activities from Caitlin Clabby. She has a pack of writing center activities.

Then I've been working on word work activities to go with our reading series. We use Treasures. If you are interested in checking it out, I've finished unit 1 and am almost finished with unit 2. It's called Words that Pop Up. 
There's a freebie there. I like to use games where my students practice reading the word. Then I've included a variety of activities like a magazine hunt for the word and then popcorn words three ways. This is for high frequency words.
Last time I was in first grade, I had my students sort their spelling words, put them in alphabetical order, write with them. I think these activities that I asked them to do as a whole group would lend themselves to work work time as well. I'm seeing some spelling freebies in my future. I also reorganized my magnetic letters to make them easier to use. So I plan on having the kids use these as well.
Ok I guess I've rambled enough about my thoughts on Daily 5. I have a couple of other pieces of exciting news.
The first is my I just got my first Donor's Choose Project approved and posted. I'm super excited. If you are interested in making a donation, I would love it and so would my kids. The project is to provide my kids with a wider variety of non fiction texts on their levels. I discovered when I was organizing my books and making my classroom library more accessible to the kids. I was lacking in this area. Click here to see my project. If you have done several of these projects and you have some tips or suggestions for ways I can improve my project or get funding, please let me know I'm new to this and very excited about it!
The second exciting piece of news is my blogiversary is coming up next week. Tuesday July 24th to be exact. I've got some good friends helping me with a giveaway that will go up on Tuesday. I'm having a sale in my TPT store from July 24th -28th. Then starting on the 25th through the 28th, I'll be having a flash freebie each day. So be sure to follow me to get your freebies.
Let me know if my daily 5 ramblings made any sense. I'm liking up with Fabulously First. Be sure to check out the other posts on Daily 5.

And now for the Sugar Coma

This is the first year since I've been teaching that I haven't gone over board with the sweets at school. We didn't have an official party so that helps. But my assitant made some toffee hearts and my dad brought me chocolate covered strawberries and my sister made homemade snickers. I had to weigh in for Weight Watchers last night so I was pretty good until after wards. Then I might have overindulged a bit. Anyone else experience a sugar coma yesterday?
I had planned on my giveaway ending on Valentine's day but I read my post and I never put that in the post. So you have until midnight tonight to enter my giveaway. I'll post the results tomorrow.
Did you check out the Kindergarten Expo? It was awesome. Well what I've watched so far has been awesome. Crystal at Kreative in Kinder did a presentation on Writing workshop. I haven't had a chance to watch all of her segments but I got a lot out of the first segment I watched. She talked a lot about interactive writing. I've seen this concept on a lot of blogs and I do a little bit of it. But after watching Crystal, I decided to incorporate this into my writing. I really am wanting to implement a writer's workshop system in my class but it just isn't working for me. So I'm taking some of the ideas that I'm reading abuot on blogs and making it work for me. Starting with interactive writing.
I've always done some interactive writing as part of my morning message. I share the pen. They have to fill in blanks in the message with popcorn words, dates, and other words. I use this to teach some about mechanics and review material we've already talked about. I also take advantage of this time to work on stretching out words and talk about what we do when we don't know how to spell something.
Last week we did a bubble map about our trip to the aquarium. I had the kids write the words and helped them a little with the spelling but mostly I let them stretch the sounds themselves. Then on Tuesday we drew a picture of our trip. I was so excited because a couple of the kids labeled their pictures without me even asking them to. Then the next day they wrote their sentences. We talked about how our sentences should match the pictures we drew. What I noticed by working through writing this way, was they didn't ask me to spell things as much as they have before. They used the bubble map we had created and stretched words out on their own. I was very pleased with their writing.
Here are some samples of there writing. I planned on taking a couple pictures of our chart but my battery died in my camera.

I love his labels.

This student struggles a lot with writing. But he did pretty well with this assignment on his own.

This is one of my ELL students. I didn't have to help him at all.

In a perfect classroom, I would let the kids write about whatever they want to write and they would be in different phases of their writing. But I just can't get that method to work for me. I have my kids for 2 years so maybe next year they will be able to work a little more independently if I can lay some ground work now.
Now I just need to find some time to finish watching all those presentation from the Kindergarten Expo. Maybe Friday when I have the day off.
How do you do writing in your class? Do you use interactive writing?

A hodge podge of a post

I don't know that I have anything really to blog about. I'm participating in the clutter free classroom's challenge but I didn't actually get rid of any clutter this week. This week's challenge was to begin the purge. I don't know what happened this week but it got away from me. I started cleaning one of my counters. But I didn't actually get rid of anything. I did put some things away that were left over from Christmas. I still have a lot of work to do on it. I planned to take some pictures but I can't seem to locate my camera. That's another problem in of itself. I'm hoping it's just fallen out of my purse and is my car somewhere. So my plan is to finish that counter and the shelves above it this week. Maybe if I work on a little bit everyday I can get it done. So I didn't link up with the clutter challenge this week. Hopefully next week I can do better.
I'm feeling a little discouraged because I didn't work on much this week but yet was there late  everyday. I am ready for next week kind of. I realize that the 100th day is Friday and I"m not really ready. I've asked the kids to send in t-shirts so we can make 100 day shirts. But so far on 2 kids have sent them in. I need to gather some ideas for the day. It has definitely snuck up on me. We have only had 1 snow day this year which is unusual.
I am really struggling to get everything in everyday. I wanted to start Daily 5 this semester and I wanted to work on implementing a writer's workshop type time. While Daily 5 is going pretty well, we're up to 6 minutes on Monday, writing is not going as well. We have written a little bit more since we've been back but I'm having a hard time fitting it into my schedule. It is really hard to accomplish all that I need to in 3 hours. I've already blogged about how discouraged I am with my math instruction. We start a unit on measurement this week and I think I could do a lot of great stuff with it. But it's just a matter of finding the time. So here's my schedule as I put on paper:
8:00-8:20 - Table work time, bathroom break, attendance, lunch count
8:20-8:50 - Calendar and morning meeting. We review a lot during this time and I think it's important
8:50- 9:00 - Phonemic Awareness - we work on our poem of the week
9:00-9:25 - Whole Group Reading, snack
9:25-9:45 - Phonics
9:45-10:05 - Literacy center time and reading group time
10:05-10:15 - Sight word work
10:15 -10:30 - Writing time or daily 5 time
10:30 - Bathroom break and then math
10:50 - Lunch
After lunch the kids have specials and then some of them go home at 12:30.
This is what my schedule looks like when I write it down. But in reality at about 10:50 I realize that I only have about 5 minutes to try to teach math.
I would love to have some input on how I can fit things into my schedule. I've tried some different things with my morning work. On Tuesdays that's usually our sight word practice. I have 16 students in my class right now and 6 of them get pulled out for ELL from 9:15-10:15. It leaves me with 10 students. I've considered just having my phonics lesson as part of my reading group time to give me a little more time. But I also use that time for assessment. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

This week in Ms. Kerri's Room

I'm having a much better week this week. I think an attitude adjustment on my part has helped. Last week I was so cranky and the kids were awful. This week (I know it's only been 2 days) has been a lot better. I think it helps that we're doing a review week in reading. We started our Gingerbread Unit this week. This is the first time I'm doing this unit with my kindergartners. I only had the standard gingerbread books, then Stinky Cheese Man and the Runaway Tortilla. But last week I placed a Scholastic order and added to my collection. These are the books we're reading this week: The Gingerbread Man (Jan Brett), The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Stinky Cheese Man, The Runaway Tortilla, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Pirates. We have to go to school 3 days next week so we're going to continue reading them. My kids have been so excited about it. When I told them Monday what books we were reading, one of my more enthusiastic students exclaimed, "Oh Man! This is going to be Awesome!" We're then making a chart to compare the stories. Currently the chart is just a table on my promethean board. But after seeing some really cool anchor charts out there, I might have to spruce mine up a bit.  Friday the kids are going to decorate a real cookie and we're making a bean gingerbread man. I took the foam gingerbread men from the dollar section at target and a bunch of beans I've had for a variety of things and turned into this week's art center. Here's my example:
Elf on a shelf update. Monday Rainbow returned from the North Pole. The kids were worried he wasn't going to come back after they had a rough day on Friday. I had my best inspiration for a place for him yesterday. He was ziplining on a ribbon from the light to the flag pole. The kids went crazy over it when they came in. But during center time he fell. It was awful. The kids were freaking out hoping he was ok. Luckily while they were taking a bathroom break he climbed back up on the flag pole. It was a close one. Tomorrow, my boyfriend thinks Rainbow should be camping in a tent. We will see. He wants to set up his big tent. I think maybe we should just make a small tent for him. We've been writing in our Elf journals everyday and it's a great opportunity to work on some writing skills. I'm trying to train them to be more independent writers and sound words out. It's working out ok. But I can see I need to work more on some writing instruction after Christmas. Does anyone else have a list of things to implement after the break? (I'm thinking that's a whole post in itself.)
Anyway, I leave you with a picture of our Elf Rainbow. How's your week going? We have five more days of school before the holidays and I can't wait.

Starfall on the Promethean Board

One of the other ways I use my promethean board a lot is with other websites. It's so nice to have access to different websites for the whole class to use. One of my favorites is www.starfall.com. If you haven't visited starfall and you teach kindergarten or first grade you need to visit. They have a ton of good games and activities for students this age. I've been reading a lot of blogs about starting writing with kindergartners and starting with labeling. This was part of my lesson plans this week was to work on a picture of animal families and have the students label the picture. Well, we haven't talked about labels at all. When I had my students in the computer lab yesterday, they were playing on starfall. A couple of the boys were using labels on one of the activities. So today as introduction to labels we did this activity together. This link should take you to the labels http://www.starfall.com/n/me/myBody/load.htm?f. It is under the It's fun to read and then the about me tab from there. The kids enjoyed this. We'll see if it stuck in their heads about what a label is tomorrow when we finish the lesson. After using this website, they drew a picture of their family and tomorrow they're going to label it. You can get that page here. When we get finished, we'll make a class book out of it. I try to do a class book a week.