Expert Books

We just finished up our unit on Expert books (also known as All About or Informational books) and I thought you might love to SEE what they look like!  I was so excited at how engaged the children were....ALL of them....with this writing unit...if you would like a copy of the unit/mini lessons please leave me your email in the comments section and I will send it your way!

The following pages are from the two books pictured above...the students chose a topic they knew a lot about and then wrote several different types of chapters using different formats of writing.  They had to have a persuasive, narrative, and "how-to" in their book.

 I have one student (who normally isn't as excited about writing) that wrote 12 chapters and then asked if he could take home more paper and work on other chapters over our spring break...that is so AWESOME!  Below are my anchor charts if you didn't see them before and again, please let me know if you want a more detailed copy of the unit/mini lessons!  

 After break we are going to work on our editing skills as we think about using writing strategies/conventions in our state test prep packets...I am going to throw in some poetry reading and writing to mix it up a bit!!

Information Books

This week (after studying author's purpose) we began a writing unit known as Informational Writing...also known as All About or Expert Books....the kids are so engaged and excited!! 


We began by making lists/webs of things we know a lot about...

Then we created webs with subtopics...

Then we "tried on" our subtopics or chapters by writing drafts of what would go in those chapters.  We tried "how-to", persuasive paragraphs, and narratives...

Once we felt comfortable that we had chosen the right topic we began our drafting on pages to go in our books.  I am writing my expert book about Training for a Half-Marathon.  My class gets so excited to see the new pages I have completed and in turn take great pride in making their own pages for their books during workshop.  I can't wait to see how their books end up....next week we will continue creating chapters and then they will write an introduction to their topic, create a table of contents, and design a cover.

animal research reports

Myclass has been diggin into a very cool animal research project over the last few weeks.  We began by comparing a non fiction animal book to a fiction animal book.  Then they learned all the non fiction text features in readers workshop.  We learned to read like non fiction readers would....once our mind is full of information we stop and jot our learning.  This led us to choose an animal and begin using our skills to read about them.  We used the book and some kids search sites through the local library to gather information for five different paragraphs they would later write.  With the help of lessonplansos.....we had some great tools to guide the students as well as a rubric and self evaluation to use later.

Once the students had gathered the information for their five paragraphs using a box and bullet technique...

   

Then they added a topic sentence and a conclusion sentence before drafting their final paragraphs....these paragraphs will each go into the coordinating section with a drawing or photo they print from the computer.  The final product will also include an about the author section with a book recommendation (my super sweet teaching partner came up with this clever addition) of a fiction book about their animal.

The unit will end with some great oral presentations....which we plan to do in the library to share with our librarian what we have learned.  Then....after using Amanda nickersons chocolate chip cookie rubric unit they will help in grading their work.  Finally we will have a writing celebration which is the most fun.....I guess I better get their realistic fiction narratives graded so we can celebrate that first!

Here are some more pictures of the kids work and them in action....

best part of this project is that they are all in different spots working 

at their own level and pace...

WHEW...this week flew by...time to catch up on EVERYTHING!!

So I realize I have not blogged since Monday but I have so much to share with you all!!  I had quite a busy week....trying to fit in all my reading for my book club book, presenting at the PTA meeting about NYRWP, attending Jury Duty, Book Club, oh yeah and being a teacher and a mom!!!

So first off, I think that the "teacher's prayer" rings so true this week with everything I was trying to fit in with my class in just three short days (I had Jury Duty one day and the Monday holiday).  I feel like I truly fit in a lot and I feel very happy about how this week went.  Here is a sneak peak into the triumphs and successes of this week in Coop's Class...

Today....while the kids were busy painting snowmen and rewriting their How-To-Build-A-Snowman pieces, I got busy with my Clutter Free Classroom Project...

One of my favorite blog loving teacher
 friends enjoying my fancy desk chair....lol!

One of my drawers along the counter cleaned out as well...
I found some amazingly old things in this drawer!

Desk Drawers all cleaned out and re-organized!
 I even found a color ink cartridge for my printer....
a gift from last year's teacher!

Here are some pictures of the art work the students created inspired by deepspacesparkle.com and Snowmen at Night...

I was so impressed by the kids ability to take a small idea from me and then create amazing pieces of work.  The writing portion was a "how-to" that they wrote last week for homework.  They art work was created first with oil pastels to create a night city scene, then they used white and blue paint to create the snowman....each one looks so different, I will have to capture some finished work next week to share!

We are heavy into our Non-Fiction unit of study....the children spent time today on the COWs both researching their animal as well as learning more about endangered animals.  We then worked more on our challenge based learning project....more on that later!! I am loving the Lesson Plan SOS blog and her Animal Research Unit....this is a must buy....head on over to teacherspayteachers and check it out!!

Penguin Paragraphs....

Penguin Tear Art...

Here is our writing wall that changes every few weeks...
Right now it is showcasing the student's New Year's Resolution Paragraphs!!!

The students started the week by thinking about Martin Luther King Junior....we started by listening to Martin's Words on Scholastic Book Flix, then the students wrote down what they were thinking, we read another book and they added to their thinking.  Finally, we read the poem for the week and they added that thinking in the speech bubble and illustrated the poem.  I love this one....sorry the picture is on it's side....by one of my super reading/writing/thinking students...

I felt so successful this week in the teaching department....now I can look forward to a weekend with my littles!!  Tomorrow morning we will start off with Waffles at Momo and Papa's followed by a trip to the Library....a favorite Saturday tradition!  I am hoping to get a couple of good runs in too this weekend....maybe there will be a few hours of no rain so I can get out!!!

TGIF!!!!