Spring Break Yet?

7 more days are all that stand between me and Ohio! :)

 

I'm so excited!  Is it too early to start packing?

One of the projects I've been working on for my classes is setting individual instructional goals for my students, depending on their independent learning levels.  Aka, differentiation!  Right now we are working on writing our own nonfiction stories on a topic of choice.  I whipped up a little visual to help us with our writing goals.

There is something similar floating around on Pinterest, but with post-its.  I was afraid those wouldn't stay on, so we use popsicle sticks.  I hold writer's conferences with each student, and then they put a popsicle stick in 1 area that they need to improve.  The kids have really taken ownership of their goals.  It's a wonderful motivator! :) 

Spilt Milk

This week marks the start of our holiday and gingerbread units!  But before I got started this year, I wanted to have some fun with "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" by Charles G. Shaw.  If you aren't familiar with this story, each page shows a different white shape (bird, cake, squirrel, tree, etc.)  There is a repeating phrase on each page, "Sometimes it looked like a bird, but it wasn't a bird!"  At the story's end, you find out each of the shapes was a cloud in the sky.  After reading this with my students, we decided to make some of our own cloud shapes.

 

I gave each child a piece of white paper to draw and cut out their cloud design.  We then wrote our own story pages, modeled after the pages in "Spilt Milk".  The kids had a lot of fun with this one!

^ This one might be my favorite!  I love the clown drawing!! ^

Such creativity! =)