Sunday's Words For the Week

I'm hoping everyone made it safely through the storms this weekend!

Nothing left to say. Wishing everyone a peaceful week.

Word Closets

We are having WILD weather this afternoon! Hurricane Irene is on our doorstep and we may be in for a stormy night. Hope everyone on the East Coast is hunkering down, safe and sound!

We've only been in school for two days but we have already begun collecting words. I thought today I'd share an idea that goes well with the EXPAND VOCABULARY section of the CAFE board.
We have a "Word Closet" in my third grade classroom. This is where we hang our collections of word posters. I take a full piece of chart paper and cut it in half and fold it. Then we hang them on hangers. During read aloud, shared reading or guided reading we listen out for what we call "Pizzazzy Words". These are words that we can use to replace tired words when we write. We categorize them and write them on posters.

Here is a picture of my word closet from last year. I will not reuse these but will start fresh ones with this new class. I want these kids to feel ownership..I believe they will use the words more if they are the ones who found them.



Here is the poster unfolded and displayed during Writer's Workshop time. They were writing small moment stories describing a happy time so the "Positive Feeling Words" poster came out of the closet. I love having them on hangers, so easy to pull out different ones when needed.

Other categories of words we collect are: Negative Feeling Words, Movement Words, Texture Words, Taste Words, Instead of Said Words, etc. Many times we also write a child-friendly definition or explanation beside the word so they can remember what it means. Kids really begin tuning into new words. Let the hunt begin!

Earthquake,Tornado and Hurricane, OH MY!

I had no idea how appropriate Sunday's Words of the Week were going to be! Those of you on the East Coast are well aware of the Earthquake we had here on Wednesday. We are located less than an hour from the center of that earthquake. I was in school in a classroom talking with teacher friends when it happened. I know folks in CA think what we had was minor but let me tell you, it was SCARY!! What a bizzare and terrifying feeling!

My highschool son was home alone when it happened. Teachers ran from the building not entirely sure of what to do. As soon as I got outside my phone rang. It was my highschooler saying, "Mom, I think you need to come home, something's wrong with our washing machine!" God, love him! We just don't get quakes here in VA!

Schools stayed closed on Wednesday so they could check for damage. We've already used our first snowday and it's August!! Yesterday we had late afternoon storms and tornadoes. A teacher had a tree fall on her house and boats thrown about! Now we are awaiting the hurricane spinning up the coast! So crazy...what a week!

In the midst of all the weather, we did open on Thursday and I've had two days with my new third graders. I read aloud the first chapter of : Stuart Goes To School and we followed up the reading with this pictograph of our First Day Feelings!

Glad to see many felt excited and happy when they came to school! It's a big class with 26 students but we had a fun day and I am looking forward to the year! Hope your first day went well!

After introducing graphing with Stuart, we will continue to study graphing as we explore the picture graph, bar graph and line plot. You can check out the graphing sets on my TPT store page. 

Click the link below!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Journal-Notes-and-Practice-Pages-Picture-Graphs-Bar-Graphs-and-Line-Plots-3298968

Sunday's Words For the Week

My school year officially begins with children on Wednesday. There is still much to do yet very little time. I pray for strength. Here are words not only for the week but for the year that lies ahead.

Amen.

Back to School Book Idea

I love networking with other teachers and getting inspired with new ideas which is why I love blogging! Recently I got a chance to have lunch with some friends I taught with many years ago. We had a great time catching up but as always managed to let teaching talk creep into the conversation.

We talked about our favorite books to read aloud and I thought about this one. Stuart Goes to School by Sara Pennypacker is a great one for the beginning of the year. I like it because it is a chapter book and I want to teach my readers how to build their reading stamina and maintain comprehension throughout. I use this one to add to my CAFE board too.

This humorous fantasy perfectly captures the child's eye view of elementary school life.
Stuart is excellent at worrying and finds plenty to agonize over as he starts third grade. You will laugh out loud with your kids as you read about Stuart worrying over wearing his father's cowboy shirt and green plaid pants or getting stuck in the boy's room. But Stuart has a magic cape that helps him deal with all his troubles! Your kids will groan when you have to stop reading this one!

After reading the first chapter on the first day I like to talk about our own First Day Feelings. We create a word map with the words they use. This is a great opportunity to expand vocabulary as you introduce them to words like: unsure, nervous, apprehensive, etc. They then draw a picture of just their feeling face on an index card. We then graph our first day feelings on a big poster as our first pictograph of the year. So it ends up being a nice reading to math connection.

Check your school library because we had this one in ours. There are also two other Stuart books in the collection and my kids all want to read the other ones after I share the first!

Sunday's Words For the Week

A teacher friend and I have been sharing what we call "Words for the Week" back and forth for over a year now. It gives us something positive to focus on as we prepare to deal with the demands of a new work week . Today we thought why not begin sharing them with all our blogland friends as well.

Here are the words for the week for this Sunday:

Beautiful.

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