Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Bethany H. for winning the vocabulator/word builder giveaway!  She will receive a customized vocabulator/word builder as shown.

Be a Superstar Word Builder

Thanks to all that entered this birthday giveaway! Have a splendid weekend!

Friday Flashback & Five for Friday!

Linking up for Friday Flashback at Teaching Maddeness and Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching...

Here are just a few things from this week...

We finished up our Earth Day (reduce, reuse, recycle) mobile writing early this week. The kids did a great job--they really have a working knowledge of what THEY can do as kids to help out. 

We also posted our pennants to inspire others in the school to help the earth.  Love this one: "Throw the games in storage. Get outside and play!" Notice all of the game systems on his closet shelf! :0) The kids did a great job choosing a focus and creating a short/catchy slogan.

And we wrote sandwich poems this week, an activity included in a Teacher's Clubhouse product called Poetry Pizzazz. Students chose a theme/topic related to summer and brainstormed a list of related words to get the ideas flowing.  Then we met as a class to write a poem together...

Combining the expression of ideas (that make good sense) and counting syllables was their challenge!  They did a great job and showed a lot of perseverance--after all, writing poetry that follows rules and conveys a clear meaning/feeling is a task that requires flexibility and patience.  I applauded them for a job well done!

Loved the ant craftivity included in the Poetery Pizzazz product! Here are some of my kids' creations...

 

I created a different sandwich to allow for more room to write and lines of different length so the "sandwich" shape of the poem was visible in their final drafts.  We also added pipe cleaner antennae, instead of paper ones, to add dimension to our ants on a table cloth display.  Every time I pass our board, it makes me smile!

Oh!  I almost forgot that we visited Africa this week!!  Well, as close as we can get here in Illinois... The rhino was one of the kids' favorites on our field trip to our local zoo!

I know that's only four... We did a lot more this week, but I honestly don't have an ounce more of energy at this point in time--it has been an eventful and exhausting week. See you on Sunday for Collaboration Cuties mentor text link up...