Adding "Bling" to Your Writing!

 Need a quick graphic organizer that your students already have "on hand?"  We begin the year with five sentences-a hook, three details, and a closing.  Later in the year, we add some "BLING" to our writing.  After each detail sentence, we add a descriptive "Bling" sentence.  For each "Bling sentence" we add a sparkly ring to our "handy" graphic organizer. This is a great way to organize a paper.  I'm just saying...

The "Coolest" Animals on Earth

We have begun our non-fiction unit on Polar Animals. We read, Poles Apart-Life at the Ends of the Earth, by Dr. Mark Norman, and began a graphic organizer comparing the North and South Poles.

     

   

Wee Read

On the second Saturday of each month, I host "Wee Read," a book club for K-2 students and their parents. We meet at 10:00 AM in the children's section at Edward McKay's Used Books, in Winston-Salem, NC.

My goals with “Wee Read” are to share quality literature, model effective reading strategies, and provide parents with information that can be used at home to help their children become successful readers.  Thanks to our PTA at Ward Elementary, each child who attends takes home a free book. On Saturday, they took home non-fiction books.

This month, we talked about the difference between fiction and non-fiction books. We read and discussed, Penguins, by Gail Gibbons. The children labeled a "Parts of a Penguin" diagram, waddled like penguins, and made floating penguins. A good time was had by all!  I'm Just Saying...