A productive weekend!!

I wish I were blogging about all the school stuff I've accomplished this weekend, but sadly that is not the case.  I do have my lesson plans for this week already done and some fun Thanksgiving things for the two days after that, but I haven't touched the 64 writing projects sitting on my table waiting to be graded.  We used some books from our school library to research a state from the Southeast region.  The students then practiced using the table of contents, headlines, captions, and scanning pages to complete an outline,

used the books table of contents to locate the almanac and  filled out a fact page,

and finally, used their outline to write a 4-5 sentence paragraph about the history, environment, industry, and sites to see of their state.

They did an amazing job, and they were so impressed with their ability to write more than 16 sentences that they were beaming!!!

But, the real worked occurred at my house this weekend!!  I used the laundry soap recipe I found on Pinterest to make another batch of laundry soap.  You can read the original post here.  I love this stuff and it's costs about $4 to make 5 months worth of laundry soap.....BARGAIN!!!

I cleaned my washing machine following these easy instructions.  Ummmm, my washer was beyond nasty in the fabric softener dispenser and a few other areas. It is so squeaky clean right now that I can't wait to wash something in it!

I painted the little ugly, stained wall between my washer and dryer a bright, sunny yellow color and created a cute little sign to brighten it all up.  The sign says "Wash, Dry, repeat, repeat, repeat...."  I'm planning to make a fabric curtain to hide the paint and things that are stored down there and adding a few other touches to make that dark, basement laundry room a happier place to be.


I made the yummiest chicken with cornbread dumplings in the crockpot on Saturday.  You can find the recipe here.

I snagged this photo from the website....mine wasn't nearly this pretty in my old chipped bowls.

Since it was almost 80 degrees outside yesterday I cleared the leaves off the deck, and the porch, threw out the pumpkins that were starting to rot, and put all the chair cushions and flower pots in the shed.  Today it is 35 degrees with the windchill and the deck is bare.....waiting for winter.....and then the fun of putting it all out again next spring!

Finally I made these too cute Christmas trees for my dresser.  Since my bedroom has a beachy sorta feel I think these look darling against my giant piece of drift wood and my shutters.  I got the inspiration from Shauna Mailloux: Make Life Beautiful.  I took her advice and made my tree forms from cereal boxes we had in the recycling bin.

This is Shauna's lovely picture, my camera would not cooperate!  I can assure you mine are super cute, but her's are magnificent!!

I'm feeling so good about all the things I accomplished this weekend that I'm already making a list for next weekend.....that is if I can manage to use my time wisely this week and get those writing projects graded!!

Writing, Writing, and more writing!

I'm just gonna go ahead and admit it....I stink at dealing with busy schedules and stress.  Yep, I turn into a cranky, whinny, pity-party kinda girl.  It's one of the things I desperately need to change about myself.  The stress of the past couple of weeks has really gotten to me.  I've neglected blogging, I've neglected my house, and I've neglected my family.  I've been so tired in the evenings that I just want to crash the minute I walk through the door.

Anyway, I'm hoping this weekend will get me back to feeling like my old self.  I'm planning to get caught up at school (or at least as caught up as a teacher can be....let's face it....this job is never really done....ever!), caught up at home (even get a little fall decorating done), caught up on catching up with family and friends ( my Wildcats are fixin' to kick KU's butt at 11:00 today!!!! :),  and caught up on snuggle time with my two favorite peeps (We're cleaning house after the big game, but I'm thinking if we crank some music and act a little silly we'll have fun....we always do)....yep, life is good!


 On to the truck load of writing we've been doing in my classroom.  Over the past 2 weeks my little 4th graders have been working on writing.  We worked  on a lesson on writing personal letters and they wrote their own personal letters to me about the book they are currently reading. We use this personal letter format...

This was tough for them, and  after careful grading this weekend, I can see that some of them will need lots more practice.  I did have the best time reading their thoughts on their books though.  I just love looking into their little brains and seeing what makes them tick :)


We also finished up our leaf projects.  I got the idea from Doris at Third Grade Thinkers.  I provided an assortment of fall colored leaves for the kids to choose from and a piece of construction paper.  Then I asked them what they thought we would be doing with these supplies.  They all thought we would be doing some type of fall tree or fall picture....wrong!  When I told them they had turn their leaf into something else their eyes went buggy!  I told them they were to glue their leaf onto their page and make a full color picture, but their leaf had to be something else.  They could color it, draw on it and fold it, but they couldn't cut it in any way.

You should've seen their little minds working.  They came up with some super creative ideas!!  They finished the project by writing a descriptive paragraph about their leaf.  We spent some time peer editing and then wrote our final draft.  I wish we had more time to spend on the editing and publishing piece, but this project just got away from me and we ran out of time.

We wrapped up this past week with a full 20 minute Work on Writing session.  I truly thought this was going to be a disaster.  I still have some peeps struggling to do Read to Self for 15 minutes, so I thought writing would be a tragic fail.....not the case!  I found a fun prompt in a book I've had for years and put it on the white board and told them they had to write for 20 whole minutes.  You should've seen their faces.

But guys, they did it!  They really wrote, and wrote and wrote....they didn't want to stop.   They were so proud of the fact that they'd written for 20 minutes, and of the projects they'd created that they were beaming.  They are all begging to share their stories on Monday.  I think the key here was the prompt....they just LOVED it!!

Here's the prompt to try with you own kiddo's.  "September  is the 9th month of the year.  In honor of nines please use this story starter to write a story about nines.  Nine brothers and nine sisters lived in a nine-story house.  On September 9, 2999 they...."

I can't wait to listen to them read these to the class over the next week or two.....I just love it when something works and my students get as excited about it as I do!!!

Writing, writing, and more writing!

I spent most of the weekend creating choice activities for Work on Writing.  Writing is something that I really want to focus on this year, and I felt like the Work on Writing activities I did last year didn't give the kids enough choice time.  Most of our writing was assigned and the kids didn't have enough freedom to choose writing activities they enjoyed.  This year I will probably still have one assigned writing activity each week, but the rest will be student choice activities.  Thanks to blog stalking, my Pinterest addiction, and 2 nights of insomnia I have come up with what I think will be some great additions to our writing!  I'm linking up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her Made it Monday!

I seems every year we do lots of narrative and descriptive writing, but not nearly enough informative writing.  To help with that I created the How to hot tub.  There are 30 how-to writing prompts in this cute little basket I picked up at Dollar Tree!

I would love to share the cards, but the boarders are not mine.  You can pick them up free from Mrs. Fultz's Corner.  Below is a list of the How To's I came up with:
Explain how to make smores.
How do you blow a hug bubble using bubble gum?
Explain how to play your favorite electronic game.
How do you make your favorite after school snack?
Explain how to make a root beer float.
How do you complete your morning routine?
Explain how to write a friendly letter.
How do you choose a good fit book?
Explain how to make a turkey sandwich.
How do you make lemonade?
Explain how to make an ice cream sundae.
Explain to a new student how to get a hot lunch in the cafeteria.
Explain to a stranger how to get to our classroom.
How do you take care of a plant or garden?
Explain how ot make a milkshake.
How do you check out a book in the school library?
Explain how to locate a specific word  in the dictionary.
How do you give a dog a bath?
Explain how to build a snowman.
How do you take care of a pet?
Explain how to carve a pumpkin.
How do you wrap a present?
Explain how to be a good friend.
How do you ride a bike?
Explain how to make a new student feel welcome.
How do you brush your teeth?
Explain how to play your favorite sport.
How do you play your favorite board game?
How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
Explain how to complete your bedtime routine.

Last week I made a little Pick and Persuade jar.  It was full of 100 persuasive prompts. You can check out the post for that here.

The next two ideas came from Tara's blog.  The first one is her Story Stones.  I used stickers and Modpodge on mine instead of creating pictures with scrapbooking paper.  I absolutely love the way they turned our and I can't wait to introduce them to my students! The stones and basket came from Dollar Tree....of course!  The stickers are from Hobby Lobby and were 50% off!!!

Last I took her Book Cover Inspiration idea and created 19 folders with book covers that the kids can create stories for.  I really think they are going to LOVE this one!! Her's a few of my favorites.....had to use Charlie the Ranch Dog since I've got my own little Charlie the Bassett Hound!! This didn't cost a penny.  I had the book covers and I used my own kids old folders from previous school years.  They don't all match, but it was free and I recycled.....what's not to love about that!!

That's it!  I am so excited about getting all of these things into my classroom and introducing them to my new students.  I have a few big writing assignments that we do each year that I just adore, but these new activities will make nice additions to writing practice on a smaller scale.  Since I love getting new ideas from all the blogs I follow, I'll share with you my top 3 favorite writing assignments.

At the beginning of the year we study our names. We start by reading the story Chrysanthemum and use a brainstorming activity to write down all we know about our name and where it came from.  Then the students interview their parents about their name and it's origins.  (I'm in the process of reworking the interview and brainstorming sheet.....if you would like I copy let me know and I can do a post on it later). We use baby books and an internet site I found to identify the meaning of our names, and then we write a paper about what we learned about our names. Last we brainstorm adjectives that describe us and use Tagxedo to create word clouds using our name and the adjectives we came up with.  This is one of my favorite writing assignments all year.  It wasn't my creation....nope, when I was lucky enough to join this 4th grade team, this was something they were already doing.  In the past we created Acrostic Poems using our names, but I decided to incorporate technology and add the Tagxedo activity.

The next one we do in February during Adopt a Pet month.  I don't know who loves this more....my students or me!!!  I print pictures of cats and dogs that are currently up for adoption at our local animal shelter.  The kids get to choose if they want a cat or dog to write about and then I just hand out the pictures (I learned that letting them choose the picture is just WAY too time consuming!).  Their assignment is to pretend they are the animal in the picture and persuade me to adopt them.  We talk about what the good characteristics of a pet are and what we should highlight about the pet to make someone interested in adopting them (ex. Is it a pet for an elderly person, an active person, a person with children, etc.).  I haven't had a student yet who wasn't eager to get started no this one.  We hang them on a bulletin board with a pink background and black boarder .  We decorate it with hearts cut from red construction paper and newspaper.  The title reads "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?"

Last is an idea I got from Mailbox Magazine years ago and it's called "Pickle in a Pickle".  The assignment is to write from the perspective of a pickle who was left in a lunch box at school.  The pickle is trapped in the building and is describing its location with enough detail that someone could find it.  The students write their descriptive paragraphs and then we exchange to see if we can figure out where their pickle is.   This one is hilarious!!  Before we write we get on the floor and try to get the perspective of a pickle (he's low to the ground you know), we walk from the cafeteria to the classroom taking notes of things we notice and can use in our description, and we even illustrate what our pickle looks like.  I've seen cowboy pickles, pirate pickles, hippie pickles....you name it....I've seen it.  I just love this activity!!

What fun writing activities do you do with your students????