Five Minute Friday Writing

So I have been thinking about 5 Minute Friday writing for a while. I read about it in a few blogs, tried it out myself and I think it is worth giving a try from an educational stand point. I have also heard it called “Write to learn “or Free Writing I’d like to try 5 Minute Friday at a few grade levels and see what happens. Stay tuned!!

Hint from adaptive learnin: During Five Minute Friday, you are not supposed to stop to make any edits.  Free writing without stopping is the purpose.  Notice there are errors in my Five Minute Friday writing above.  These errors will not be edited because editing them would defeat the purpose of Five Minute Friday.  Part of the reason I’m featuring Five Minute Friday on adaptivelearnin is to teach students how to write without anxiety.  I want them to see the errors to show them that errors are okay to make during free writing.  I want this to be an educational experience for them.  Feel free to use this or my other FMF posts as examples in lessons if you wish.  Happy Friday!

Oddrey

A 2013 Willow Award Nominee, Oddrey by Dave Whamond  is an appealing read.

Oddrey is an “odd” little girl who is very creative  and ends up using her uniqueness to save her class from disaster. We read it with the grade two class when talking about belonging and acceptance. The students loved the colourful artwork but it was the storyline that also led to powerful discussion on what belonging and generosity actually mean. Similar idea to two of my other favourites Elmer and Leon the Chameleon.

Grade One Elephant Writing

The grade ones were inspired to paint after they created their PWIM sentences. Their teacher read all sorts of mentor text about elephnts. The children were really excited to learn and share about elephants. Thanks J.C. or sharing your class!Here is some of their work:

I Have Taught The Comprehension Strategies-what do I do now???

Stenhouse Publishers ,2009

SO many teachers have asked me this question-“ok I have taught the Super 7-so what? Now what???”

Aimee Buckner spells it out so simply  in page after page of ideas -what you can do with a simple notebook and why it really matters.I just finished this book and have so many ideas to share with my teachers.

I have to admit this book sat on my shelf for several months-the cover is not appealing and did nothing to draw me in. I was skimming through it, as I was packing some boxes and thought it might be a good summer read. It was a great summer read,any teacher from 2-8 would find ideas to try out in their classroom.

It would make a great book for a staff to read together.

Thank you Aimee for pushing my thinking!

Reading With Chopsticks and Spork

Spork 2010
Kyo Maclear

Isabelle Arsenault

“His mum is a spoon,
His dad is a fork
And he’s a bit of both,
He’s a spork! ”

An animated description of feeling left out and finding the perfect way to fit in. This book could lead to the discussion of: “How far would you go to fit in?”

Chopsticks  2012
Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Scott Magoon
Friendship
“Not exactly a sequel to Spoon, more like a change in place setting”
Humorous yet pointed tale of friends who were “joined at the hip” . They learned to venture off on their own without hurting ,only improving the friendship. Standing on their own yet sticking together.

This book could lead to the discussion of: “How far would you go for a friendship?”

Wild About Books

 

 

Wild ABout Books   2004

 

By Judy Sierra

 

Pictures by Marc Brown

 

Primary – could easily be used with older students

 

An entertaining book to start the school year, (as a read aloud) to get kids thinking about what and why  they read.  The  pictures are bright and colourful ,children will recognize Marc Brown‘s art from the popular Arthur series.  The text is rhyming , mentioning many classics children would connect to, in a fun way.  I would follow-up my read aloud by co-constructing the class reading history (Aimee Buckner, Notebook Connections)  I would follow that up by brainstorming a list of “Our favourite Books” or even getting students to pose for a photograph with their favourite book and get a class reading wall and reading community established right away.

 

Elegant Elephants

It was exciting to watch the grade ones create these amazing paintings in their elephant inquiry. Thanks to VS and JC for all their hard work!!

 

Essential Questions

I have started my summer with my daily reading challenge. 1 chapter of a professional book a day😄

I chose this book because I need to work on creating essential questions. Wiggins and McTighe have written a very teacher friendly ,concise book. The examples are clear and I can see myself applying this in the fall.

Take It Outside !!!

 

It has been a particularly long and  difficult winter for many of us. I started thinking about the many months we are cooped up inside classrooms with indoor recess, artificial light and stale air. Conversations with colleagues lead to how can we take the learning outside, yet still make very valuable minute of instruction count!! It is obviously a concern to more people than just those of us here in Saskatchewan, as I found the following links with ideas for getting outside.

 

http://www.creativeeducation.co.uk/blog/index.php/2011/06/learning-outside-the-classroom/

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/take-reading-outdoors