My First Linky Party

I was so excited to join my first linky party.  This is a party hosted by LaToya at Flying into First.  It is a chance for all of us teacher bloggers to get to know each other.  This Sunday's question was what three things would you have to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island?  Okay, well I am going to assume my family is either out of the question or already with me, and I have the normal practical things... so here goes.

1.  Philosophy Amazing Grace Whipped Body Butter

It would definitely keep my dry, shriveling, leathery skin moisturized and smelling sweet!

2.  Journal and pen

This might technically be two..but I am counting it as one.  I can't imagine not having somewhere to communicate my thoughts and release my creativity.

3.  My scrapbooks

 I could spend days, months just looking at them and reliving all the experiences in my life.  I love not only reliving the experiences I scrapped about, but also the experience of scrapbooking itself. I go through so much to pick just the right color scheme, paper, layout, and embellishments.

Well those are my three, what are yours?  If you would like to link up too, just click on the link below!

http://flyingintofirst.blogspot.com

Have fun and always remember to be second best!

Laura

Interactive Poetry Experience

Although it may be exiting to us, poetry (unless it involves bathroom humor) is usually not exciting to second graders.  When I first read Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", even though I was all a twitter, it was kind of  a yawn fest for the students.  I was so sad!  I remember my mother reciting the poem from memory and listening as her voice would trail off as she repeated "and miles to go before I sleep...and miles to go before I sleep."  I wanted them to have that same awestruck feeling that I had as a child at the pictures Frost had created in my mind.  But how?  I decided to reread the poem as a dramatic reading.  They loved it!  They loved it so much that they said everyone should experience the poem the way they did.  That, of course, got me thinking.  I can't leave something like THAT alone.  So we brainstormed together and decided to create an interactive poetry experience.  I paired the students and gave them each a stanza or two from the poem.  Then they had to create how to make it come alive.  They were so engaged and excited.  The first thing they did was rewrite their stanzas in their own handwriting on sentence strips.  Then they started brainstorming how to make it come to life.  They came up the best ideas.  They glued cellophane onto blue paper so when you walked on it it crinkled like ice and snow.  The had jingle bells hanging for students to jingle at the right moment. They painted a grass skirt white so when you ran a twig through it it sounded like wind.  They took batting and glued glitter all over it.  It truly was amazing.  When we finally finished putting our display together and it was ready to be experienced by others, we included a blurb in the morning announcements that we were open and ready for business.  The students were so excited they were clapping and bouncing up and down in their seats.  I have included pictures even though the pictures really do not do it justice.  The school community had so many compliments for the students and what they had accomplished. Talk about adhering to Common Core!  They asked if we could do it again, so I am certain we will!

I "Mustache" You a Few Questions...

I had seen an idea on Pintrest by Christie (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Mustache-You-A-Question-Writing-Activity-More) where she had the students write a question.  Then she took a picture of them with a mustache and titled it "I Mustache You a Question."  I thought the idea was so cute and I had to do it with my second graders.  Of course it needed some adaptations.  The first thing I did was make it more developmentally appropriate. I told them to pick a character from their favorite book.  Then I asked them to have a topic sentence, ask the character three questions, and to get our higher level thinking skills in, I asked them to tell me why they wanted to know this information.  I especially like how this made wrting a question so concrete for them.  When we were done, they definitely knew the difference between an asking sentence and a telling sentence.  They even knew...wait for it...the difference between a question mark and an exclamation mark.  I know, right?  They were so excited and did such a great job!  I found these straws with paper mustaches so I gave them each their own mustache and took their pictures.  This turned out to be one of their favorite writing assignments...and one of mine too!