Compliment Can ~ Building Classroom Community with Purposeful Writing!

One thing I do to help build classroom community and encourage purposeful writing is the Compliment Can.  This is a very easy way to encourage even the youngest/beginning writers to write as well as reluctant writers; it gives real purpose to their work.  The Compliment Can encourages students to focus on the positive characteristics/actions of their peers, and it builds a optimistic outlook in each student. 

All you need for the Compliment Can is an old jar/coffee can/plastic tubby/etc.  My first one was an old coffee can covered with contact paper; my current one is an old plastic almond container from Costco.  It doesn't have to be big and any container with a lid will do.  You'll also want a small container to hold slips of scratch paper in, little slips of paper, and the sentence frame title for the jar.  You can print one out for FREE at my teachers pay teachers site - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stephanie-Madison  

Each week, I have students write at least one compliment to someone else in the class.  We usually do this as part of the morning task list (the list of things students work on between the first bell ring at 9:10 when students start pouring in and when school actually starts at 9:30.  I encourage them to compose a specific, detailed compliment in a complete sentence, and there are sentence frames on the actual can to help get reluctant writers, developing writers, and English Language Learners started.  Once they've written their compliment, they place it inside of the Compliment Can and move on to the next thing on the morning task list.  

Every Friday afternoon, we have a Classroom Meeting.  I usually begin this meeting by reading each compliment aloud to the class as we all sit on the carpet in a large circle.  After I read the compliment, we pass it to the student who the compliment is to so they can take it home.  The rule is that if the tiny piece of scratch paper that each student writes their note on doesn't have the name of who it is to, who it is from, and a complete sentence compliment, it goes into the recycling without being read.  I also let students write a compliment to a class pet/class plant/inanimate object in the classroom once a year, just because it's fun and keeps the classroom meeting interesting.

How do you help students recognize positive actions and words of their peers?  What do you do to encourage positive thinking and good behavior in your class?  Please share your ideas in the comments below, and share this post with your friends.

Compliment Can

To:______  From:______

*I like how you _____________.

*When you ____________, I appreciate it.

*You do a great job at ____________.

*One thing I like about you is ______________ because it makes me feel ________.

Teaching the Writing Process- The FUN Way!

I like to make things fun.  It helps my students learn more effectively.  It makes their lives more enjoyable.  It sets a nice tone for our classroom. It makes my job that much nicer too.  That's why I like to do fun things with my class, and teaching the writing process is no exception.

Singing/chanting is a great way to start teaching the writing process.  Anyone who has ever had a commercial jingle stuck in their head knows that songs can really help something stick!  That's why some teacher friends and I made up the following chant while we were at a writing conference:

@ Writing Process Chant ?

By Courtney Thompson, Tabatha Colson, & Stephanie Madison

First you take an idea and you plan it, you plan it!

Then you take your plan and you draft it, you draft it!

Writing…Writing Process!  (Wri-TING!  Wri-TING!)

Next you take your draft and you expand it, expand it!

Now you’re going to want to edit, you edit!

Writing…Writing Process!  (Wri-TING!  Wri-TING!)

Write your final copy and you share it, you share it!

Now you’re a published author so you celebrate, you celebrate!

Writing…Writing Process!  (Wri-TING!  Wri-TING!)

After I model the chant (their job is to listen, follow along on the chant with their eyes as I sing it, and identify important/high level vocabulary), then I have the students sing it with me.  After that, they sing it in small groups and make up hand movements that symbolize each part of the writing process.  What are your favorite educational songs and chants?  Please paste one below, and I'll publish it on my blog for thousands to see! Did you try this song in your class?  Leave a comment below, and make sure to subscribe so you don't miss my new posts!  Happy singing and teaching!

Classroom Pet Free Lesson Plan!

Here's a nice little free lesson plan with a worksheet for incorporating your classroom pet into science and writing!  This lesson is written to fourth grade science and CCSS standards, but it fits a variety of grade levels.  One of my classroom pets is a bearded dragon, so I wrote it for my beardie, but you can easily adapt it to whatever type of classroom pet you have! 

Built to Survive!

Examining how animals’ structures help them survive using your classroom pet!

Lessons for 3-6 Grade

Created by Stephanie Madison

Built to Survive!

Examining How Animals’ Structures Help Them Survive Using Your Classroom Pet

Lessons for 3-6^th Grade Created by Stephanie Madison for Pets in the Classroom

Overview

Part 1- Examining Your Class Pet- Have students take a close look at your classroom pet with magnifying glasses and discuss what they see.  If possible, have them touch the animal and describe what they observe.  Highlight the external body parts of the pet that help it survive (on a bearded dragon, it uses its claws for digging for shelter, its ears for hearing predators and prey, its eyes to track movements, etc.).

Part 2- Watch a Video/Look at Pictures of Internal Structures-  Since we can’t look inside our class pets without hurting them, watch a brief video on YouTube or look at some pictures of the internal structures that are inside your class pet to help students understand what’s in the animal.  Talk about how these parts of the animal help it survive (on a bearded dragon, the heart pumps blood to its body, its tongue helps nab food and move it down the lizard’s throat, its cloaca expels waste/eggs, etc.).

Part 3-  Write about How It Survives-  Use the included worksheet for students to complete individually or in small groups, or create a diagram of your own class pet to label the structures and how they help the organism survive.  Next, have students write about what they learned, using the sentence frames below or your own.

Science & Literacy Standards Met

This particular lesson is linked to fourth grade standards, but it meets literacy and English Language Development standards for many grades, particularly 2-6th.

NCSS 4.LS1.1 Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

CCSS- 4.W.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

4.W.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

4.W.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of sources.

Extensions & Adaptations

*ELD Extensions- For English Language Learners, front load the vocabulary pertaining to your particular class pet (scales, lungs, heart, eyes, cloaca, etc.) and the lesson (structures, organism, survival, reproduction, etc.).  Write them on a paper or board as you introduce them so they can use them in their writing later on in the lesson. Use additional sentence frames at their ELD level to help them expand their explanation.

*Talented & Gifted- Have your TAG students do an independent study on an online encyclopedia/web data base on a different plant or animal.  Help them record their findings and present to the class about another organism’s adaptations.  If possible, have them compare and contrast the structures and their functions on multiple organisms.

*Bodily Kinesthetic Learners- Emphasize the touching, listening, and observing of the organisms, have them make a model of the class pet & label its structures, or create a costume with the adaptations of the animal.

*Musical/Verbal Linguistic Learners- Have students create a rap, poem, or song about the structures on the animal and how they help the organism survive.  Next have them present it to the class and/or your class pet.

*Visual/Spatial- Encourage students to create their own diagrams/detailed drawings of different organisms with their internal/external structures labeled.  Have the students give them to your class pet and post them around the animal’s cage/terrarium.

*Whole Class- Create a Venn Diagram on the board/butcher paper/beneath the document camera.  Place two different organisms on each side, and first compare their external structures and how they help the organisms survive.  Next, compare and contrast how the internal structures on two different living things are the same and how they’re different on a second Venn Diagram.  Then, take it to writing; as a class, write 1-3 paragraphs comparing and contrasting the two organisms, or have students write about it independently.

Name____________                             Built to Survive!         Date _____________

1. Examine our class pet bearded dragon, watch a video about bearded dragons, and/or examine the illustrations on this page.  Label external structures on the photograph of the bearded dragon that might help the animal survive, grow, or reproduce.

  

2.  Label internal structures on the diagram of the bearded dragon below that might help it survive, grow, or reproduce.

  

3.  Discuss how internal and external structures on a bearded dragon help it survive with your class.  You can use the following sentence frames to write a paragraph on the back of your paper.

*The  __ (organism)__ has the external structure the __(structure) __, which helps it survive by __________________________________________________________________________.

*An internal structure in the __ (organism)__ is the __(structure) __, which helps it survive by __________________________________________________________________________________.

Fine Motor Skills Interventions

The dread of every teacher and parent- a whole page of work a student has toiled over for hours, and it's completely illegible!  Fine motor skills can be tricky for students to master, especially with the emphasis on typing.  Parents and teachers can use strategies in the list below to encourage fine motor skills in students of all ages; these have been collected from occupational therapists, teacher friends, and my own classroom experience.  Start with one that sounds the most engaging to your student!

Pencil Pushups

Take a pencil in your hand and  hold it the "correct" or most ergonomically comfortable way for a typical writer.  First, keep your "stop" fingers tucked in, just like when you write.  Then, pull in your three "go" fingers (your thumb, index, and middle finger that grip the pencil) so that each finger is bent and retracted as closely to the hand as possible.  Finally, extend your "go" fingers so that they are completely straight.  You've just done a pencil pushup!  Repeating this movement a few dozen times a day will help build muscle strength of those tiny finger muscles; this will make it easier to have the stamina it requires to write.  It also encourages the "correct" grip on a pencil, which will make it more comfortable for the writer, and will allow them to write for longer periods of time with greater accuracy, and less pain or discomfort.  Teachers can begin or end a certain subject area, like at the end of math, every day that the whole class does pencil push ups.  Set a timer for a few different times during the day to help build pencil pushups into your daily routine! 

Handwriting Levels
I have a set of mini drawers that I keep different "levels" of handwriting in.  The first level is the sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!" on large  handwriting paper.  The second level is the same sentence but on regular lined paper.  Next comes, "THE FIVE BOXING WIZARDS JUMP QUICKLY?" on large handwriting paper.  Level four is the same wizard sentence on regular lined paper.  Level five is the alphabet in cursive and level six is the fox sentence in cursive on handwriting paper.  The fox sentence in cursive on regular lined paper is level seven, and level eight is the student's name in cursive on regular paper.  To pass a level, a student must fill the page with the letters/sentence in legible handwriting.  Then they "graduate" on to the next level.  This set of handwriting levels helps students master basic to more complex handwriting and they feel accomplishment as they graduate from each level.  I used to spend about a half hour a week on handwriting levels, but now that cursive handwriting is no longer part of Oregon state standards, I just pull intervention groups for students who need help with their fine motor skills/printing.

Pencil Grips
There are a wide variety of pencil grips available for purchase.  Through a grant I wrote, I got my entire school a set of the little Steno pencil grips, like these-

 They are inexpensive, help force students to hold their pencil correctly, and provide some cushioning support for smaller fingers.
I also have these available for just my students that  have difficulty with fine motor skills.  They have more cushioning and also help students grip their pencil ergonomically.

Detailed Coloring Sheets
Before detailed coloring sheets became popular a few years ago, the only ones that I could find were created by Dover Publishing.  I love them because I chose pages that correlate with whatever we're learning about, and they each include a little informative paragraph that explains what is happening in the illustration.

Personalized Handwriting Practice
Either use a handwriting font on Word or go to a website like https://handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm to create customized worksheets. My students love pages of their name in cursive, sentences I've written about our class adventures or interests of theirs.  This offers higher levels of engagement because they're interested in what they're writing; it's not just random sentences!

What Works Best for You?
What are your favorite ways to practice handwriting and fine motor skills?  What do your students or your child like the best?  What made the most difference in your own fine motor skill development?  Leave a comment below, share this post, and subscribe to make sure you don't miss any new teaching goodness that comes out!

Add Intervention Time with Wonderful Word Work Ideas!

Independent Language Work
It sounds like a dream, doesn't it?  Your whole class, focused independently on meaningful language development so you have time to pull an intervention group, meet with a behavior student proactively, touch base with your IA so she knows what to cover with her small group today, or any of the thousands of things we do as teachers.  Here is a huge list of ideas to help students develop their spelling & language pattern identification independently.  If you're a parent, you can use these strategies at home to help  your child become a better speller.  Experiment with these ideas, find what works best for your student, and stick with it!  Because there is so much variety, students don't get bored, and many different learning styles are addressed.

*Vocab Ring- Students find challenging vocabulary from their reading & write it and the word’s definition on one side of a note card.  On the other side, they use the word in a sentence, and draw a picture that symbolizes its meaning. Note cards are hole-punched and collected on a metal ring.

*Write a synonym & antonym for each word.

*Body Spelling is something we do in class.  For tall letters, like t, h, and l, raise your hands.  For, letters that go below the line, like p, y, and q, bend over.  Bring your arms to the sides for the rest of the letters.  Practice each word with this method daily for results.

*Stamps/Beans/Wikki Stix/Pipe Cleaners/Scrabble Letters/Alphabet Blocks- Use these or other small manipulatives to spell each word and find patterns between them.

*Read the words aloud, letter by letter.  Then read them aloud as students write them down.

*Write each word 10 times as you say it aloud.

*Stencils-Use stencils to write out each word.

*Rainbow-Use three different colors, and write the word three times, overlapping the colors.

*Ladder Words- Write the word horizontally, then write it vertically from the same starting word.

*Circle the vowels & underline the consonants in each word.

*Keyboards - have an old keyboard laying around?  It doesn't matter if it doesn't actually work or even if it's missing the backspace.  I collected a set of obsolete keyboards for my students to take to their desks to practice typing in their spelling words on.  They simply type the word, then write it on their page.  This also helps with keyboarding skills since the computer lab is always booked for testing from winter-spring!

*Beat/Clap the syllables- Write each word, clap the syllables, then draw lines through the word to show where the syllables start and end.

*Stair Step- write the first letter of the word on the first line, the first two letters of the word on the next line, and so on until the word is spelled completely.

*Sort the words, by length, sounds, vowels, alphabetically, or any other attribute.

*Chalk- Write each word with sidewalk chalk outside or on a chalkboard.

*Alphabetize the words.

*Make flashcards with the correctly spelled word on one side and a picture about that word on the other.  Practice with these by first holding up the word side and having them repeat the word aloud, followed by how to spell the word (“Dog. D-O-G. Dog.”).  Then flip the card over to remind them of the picture they drew that symbolizes that word for them.  Then practice the words by showing them the picture side, having them tell you the word and how to spell it.

*Make the words with play-doh or cut them out of paper.  I get the bag of tiny Play-Doh containers at Target during their Halloween clearance and it lasts my class well for the year.  I organize my Play-doh, pipe cleaners, and beans in a set of drawers for students to easily access.

*Look up each word in a dictionary and thesaurus.  I usually have my students write down the definition or synonyms. 

*Wipe boards- Have your students write each word on a wipe board.

*Use each word in a sentence, or make up a story with all the words in it.

*SpellingCity.com has great ways of practicing spelling on the computer and you can put your own words in for students to manipulate on the website.

Students can grab a bag of letters and go spell!  What's your favorite way to encourage spelling and language pattern skills?  Leave a comment below and share this page with friends.  Don't forget to check out my store at TeachersPayTeachers- https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Stephanie-Madison

Greek Goodness~ A Writing Unit Focusing on Greek Characters

I'm excited to announce that I finally finished writing a new unit that helps students research a Greek mythology character, take notes on their findings, outline an essay, and write a rough draft as well as a final copy.  It also has guidelines for how students can create a high-quality poster and develop a presentation all about their character.  The following 19 fourth grade CCSS are covered in this unit:

4.RL.3, 4.RL.4, 4.RI.1, 4.RI.2, 4.RI.4, 4.RI.9, 4.W.2, 4.W.4, 4.W.5, 4.W.6, 4.W.7, 4.W.8, 4.W.9, 4.W.10, 4.SL.4, 4.SL.5, 4.SL.6, 4.L.1, and 4.L.2. This fits many 3-6^th grade standards as well.  My new unit even includes audience member expectations so that you can keep all your students engaged during presentations!

Below is the unit schedule and general information on audience member guidelines.  You can find the complete product, ready to print & use with your students, on my TeachersPayTeachers account at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-Mythology-Character-Writing-Unit-2185774

Unit Schedule

I usually give my fourth graders about 3-4 weeks for this unit, depending upon how much time we can devote to writing each day and the level of skill & speed of my students for the year.  Generally, I have about a half hour for writing each day.  You can adjust the following schedule to fit the needs of your students and your writing schedule:

Week 1: I introduce the unit with the included materials, students choose their mythology character, gather books from the library, print information from websites like http://www.greekmythology.com/ , and start writing the information into their outlines (blank copies for student use are in the unit).

Week 2:  I introduce the sentence frames included in this unit's rough draft and review editing later in the week.  Students draft their essays with the help of the sentence frames in the included rough draft.  I only let my lower-level students have a personal copy of the sentence frames to actually write on, and I discuss and display the frames on the SmartBoard to assist the rest of my class, but encourage them to write their own sentences.  Students begin editing.  If I’m using this for an official writing assessment, I don’t let them peer edit or use the exact sentence stems in their final copies, but otherwise they work with at least two other people to edit their work.

Week 3: I show students example final copy essays, like the one included in this unit, as well as posters created by former students.  Students finish editing their essays and write their final copies.  They begin work on designing their poster (I have them create them at home as homework over a week).

Week 4:  I introduce converting an essay into a speech (writing the keywords from one paragraph of the essay on each index card for their presentation).  Students summarize their essays on their notecards, practice presenting, and present their character to the class utilizing their posters!  When students are not presenting, they are listening attentively to the presenter to provide feedback because everyone is expected to tell a presenter what they did well on and how they could improve their presentation.  

Audience Expectations during Presentations

Once the presenter finishes, we clap for them as a class, students raise their hands, and the presenter calls on a student of their choice- the first student they call on gives positive feedback, the second gives something to work on.  Once a student has been called on a speaker, they can’t raise their hand again until everyone in the class has gotten a chance to give feedback.  i tell them before hand that I sometimes cold call a student who doesn’t seem to be paying attention to keep them listening to their peer’s presentations and evaluating their work.  After the two pieces of feedback have been given to the presenter, the speaker gets to choose a fun way to be congratulated, like a round of applause, a microwave (students wave to the presenter with just the tips of their fingers), etc.

Again, if you’d like to cover a plethora of standards in one fun writing unit, this is the perfect product!  This unit includes:

*a weekly unit schedule to guide your teaching

*an outline for students to gather information on

*a blank rough draft complete with sentence stems to help students frame complete sentences and flowing paragraphs for the whole essay

*a completed rough draft with sentence frames filled in so students know how to use them

*a sample final essay

*a title page for student’s essays & space for an illustration

*guidelines for a poster

*tips for success presenting orally about their Greek character

*expectations for audience participation

Find it at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-Mythology-Character-Writing-Unit-2185774 Thank you so much for buying this product and supporting my work.  Because of your purchase, a teacher’s request on DonorsChoose.org will be a little closer to being funded, and great new supplies will soon be in the hands of our youth.  Your purchase will also help provide food, clothing, shelter, medicine, or the start to a new small business for the world’s most impoverished people through Food for the Poor  (I give 20% of my profits to charity).  I greatly appreciate your support.

St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Art

This is a fun project that my students enjoy doing a few weeks before St. Patrick's Day.  First I read aloud from a few different St. Patrick/Irish books, like St. Patrick & the Peddler, Jamie O'Rourke & the Pooka, Daniel O'Rourke, etc.
 

Then I start with a mini lesson on some art vocabulary, including line, color, and mediums.  We talk about how we'll only be using one color, green, but that there are many shades of green, like we observed in the Irish texts from the Emerald Isles.  I discuss the different types of lines in art, like dotted, dashed, swirly, and straight lines (I also contrast this with the mathematical definition of line; in math, a line has to be perfectly straight and it goes on forever in both directions).  Last, I talk about the different mediums they'll be using- the paper shamrock, colored pencils, markers, crayons, and glue.


After showing a few examples of how to use a variety of green lines to decorate their shamrock, students are released to start their creations.  We glue them onto a black background for better contrast, and then write one Irish phrase on it.  Students can choose an Irish phrase they remember from one of our read alouds (with teacher check ins), or they can choose one from the list I display on the Smartboard.  Some of the phrases I display include:

It’s easy to halve a potato where there is love.

Mind the pooka!

Laughter is brightest where food is best.

Beware o’ the leprechaun!

Top o’ the morning to you!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

If you don’t know the way, walk slowly.

Saints preserve us!

Luck be with you!

 
There's an easy art lesson for a fun holiday!  What do you do for St. Patrick's Day or other spring holidays?  Leave your idea in the comments below.  Happy St. Patrick's Day to you!