Another Snowy Day Review

Earlier in the week, I posted my first grade's Shared Writing on The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats. My second graders also read this book, and I wanted to share their work with you as well. Enjoy!

The Snowy Day
By Ezra Keats

Today we read the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats. It was about a boy who woke up and headed out into the snow. He tried to join a snowball fight, but he was so small that he had to quit. After climbing a big hill, he slid down the other side. Then he built a snowman and angels in the snow. Before going inside, he created a snowball and placed it in his pockets. A warm bath helped him warm up, and the snowball melted in his warm house. When he couldn’t find his snowball, he was sad. While sleeping, he dreamed that the sun had melted all the snow. He was very happy to find that his dream wasn’t true, and new snow was falling down. He headed outside with a friend to have more exciting adventures in the snow.

By Jessa, Kenley & Scott

First Grade Shared Writing

In case you didn't know, I'm not a 5th grade teacher this year. I took a Title 1 position at the same school as it seemed to be a good fit beings I'm working towards my Minnesota K-12 Reading License through Saint Mary's University (a great program to anyone interested in getting their reading license!). As with any new job, there are ups and downs, but one of the things I've really enjoyed is working with students in the grades one through three. It's given me a new perspective on the scope of reading and writing in the elementary school, and I'm learning from these students each and every day.

One thing I've tried to do a lot of this year is 'Shared Writings'. It's very fun to "share the pen" with the students and I'd like to post some of their writing in the coming months. Today's entry will include a shared writing my first grade group did after reading the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats. This book is very appropriate right now as over the weekend we were blessed with around 15 inches of fresh snow. Before I ramble on any more, here is their work. As always, enjoy!

The Snowy Day
By Ezra Keats

Today we read the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats. It was about a boy named Peter and his adventure in the snow. He loved the snow and did lots of fun things that day. He climbed a snow mountain and slid down the other side. He also made a snowman and made snow angels. He found a stick and used it to make a trail. He also dragged his feet to make a trail. After all his adventures, he decided to head inside. He took a warm bath and went to sleep. While he was sleeping, he dreamed the sun melted all the snow away. The next morning, he was happy to see new snow falling when he looked out his window. He headed outside with his friend to experience new adventures in the snow.

By Alexis, CJ, Lauren & Marcela

Happy Holidays to All!

Picture Joy Christmas

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Community Garden Update

The Farmington Area Community Garden

2010 - Year 1

The grand entrance to the community garden in Farmington. There were a total of 10 plots this year. One plot's sole purpose was to provide produce that would be donated to the local food shelf. If you look close enough, you can see the white sign that that marks the food shelf plot located at the end plot on the left side of the center path. Each plot measured 6 X 20 feet.

Luckily I snapped this picture BEFORE the tornado (are we calling it that for sure?) snapped this wonderful sign one early morning in August. This welcoming sign was a great addition to the community garden. Hopefully it will stand proud once again.

The tool shed that was actually picked up and moved during the above mentioned early morning twister. Lots of tools were donated to the garden and this shed was a great touch, and allowed us to store gardening tools on site. I will admit I had some troubles remembering the combination to the lock, but like all kids who enter middle school, I rose above my 'lock' issues and opened it without any major problems.

Early stages of my plot. The green beans are growing quickly and the radishes (or peas) are not too far behind. In the far back are some corn rows (the Iowan in me) and before them a couple watermelon and cantaloupe plants. On September 1st I cut up the first watermelon from the garden and it is tasting great! Not having the greatest luck with the cantaloupe.

A bit later in the summer and the garden is looking a bit more alive. You'll notice my plot is a little weak compared to the 'green thumbs' in the neighboring plots, but I learned lots over the summer and look forward to a more productive season next year. It was a great learning experience and I truly appreciate all the helpful people who advised me with this first time garden.

Our first batch of green beans! I can still remember the night we had our home grown green beans. They were very tasty, and knowing they can from the seeds my wife and I planted a month or so earlier still amazes me a little. A satisfying feeling that all people should experience at least once in their lifetime.

The Community Garden plot has been purchased! As of right now, we have a plot of land that measures 6 feet by 20 feet. Can you figure out what is the area math minds? Six times two is twelve, add the zero ~"Power of 10!"~and that's right, we have 120 square feet of land to work help us become green thumbs. How awesome is that! Now, I know what you might be thinking right now (I do hope you THINK while you read), what is going to be planted in the garden? Well, that's the next step in planning this garden that needs to be worked on right now, and I'm looking to you for some help. True, there are some things I'd love to plant in the garden such as: corn (you knew that had to be on the list!), strawberries, beans, carrots, and various types of peppers, but this isn't just my garden, it's a Community Garden where lots of people have a say to what goes on. So, I bring to you this question. What do you want to see planted in the garden? Planting time is coming quickly, so get your ideas in fast. Look for more updates about the Community Garden to come in future blog posts. Thanks for reading and make your day a great one!

Poetry Month

April is National Poetry month and my students and I are celebrating it by creating poetry books that will include various types of poems. For the past few weeks, we've been learning and reviewing a plethora of different types of poems. We've covered word patterns (a personal & class favorite!), Lanterns, Terse Verse, ABC Poetry, Quatrains, Cinquains, Feustrains (just kidding, wanted to make sure you are THINKING while you are reading), Couplets and more....much, much more! The students are getting quite good at creating the various types of poetry and I hope they respond to this post like never before. I am challenging them (and the other readers of this blog, thank you "others") to create at least 30 different poems in the comment section of this post. Why 30? For the 30 days of April that is National Poetry Month. Need some helped with what types of poetry to create? Here are two websites to help you get started! Just click on them as they are links! Giggle Poetry Poetry for Kids

There are only 17 days of the month left (if you count today). Can the readers of this blog meet the challenge? Only time will tell. Thanks in advance to all who post their poems, and enjoy creating those poems! We can't wait to read them!

Tween Tribune

Exciting news to report! I have just signed up for Tween Tribune and my class and I will see if this website can live up to the hype. Check out the webiste if you wish and come back soon to see if we liked this reading and writing educational website. Until then, make each and every day a great one!

Game Night

Looks like Apples to Apples was the big winner in terms of the blog poll for Family Game Night. Thanks to all those who voted and I hope all who participated in Family Game Night enjoyed some quality time with your family. Now, for the the first time ever, I have a guest writer on the blog. It has been a goal of mine for some time now to include my students' writing on the blog and our first entry will be from current student Lyric. Here is her rundown of Family Game Night. Enjoy!

Every Friday night I have a family game night. Right after my sister goes to sleep, we start playing games. Usually in the winter we would play inside games like Wii, Playstation 2, or three and darts. Thought this weekend, Id did the Wii game called Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. I played my mom in ice skating and I set the World Record! I kept the Word Record the rest of the night and won in the four man bobsled. I wonder what we will do this week?

Thanks Lyric for your scoop on the Family Game Night! Remember, it is very important to spend quality time with your family, and one of the greatest ways to accomplish this is through family games. Thanks for stopping by to read the blog, and stop by soon to see who will be the next student writer. Make your day a great one!

Continued Quatrains

In 5th grade, the students in my class will be creating their own poetry books that will be completed during the month of April. In these wonderful books will be at least 10 original works of poetry created by the student. We've started to get ready for these books by learning some different types of poems. We've done class clerihews (click the word clerihew to see how to create one if you are not sure) and we've just recently learned about quatrains (as it's the form for the poem Casey at the Bat). There was time at school to create some quatrains, and it's now that I ask the readers of this blog to chip in as well. If you need to review the rules of a quatrain, please visit an old blog post on quatrains. And remember, you can string more than one of these quatrains together to create a story. Can't wait to see what you come up with. Thanks for stopping by the classroom blog!

Books, Books, Books

As a teacher, I get the privilege to work with students on a daily basis. One of the things I enjoy most about my job is hearing students talk about the books they are reading and enjoying. In the above picture, I've include some of the better books I've read over the last year or so (Peak,

Flush, eggs, Lawn Boy and The Wednesday Wars) and books I can't wait to read (Dodger and Me and Zen and the art of faking it by Jordan Sonnenblick, my current favorite author!). What I'm really wondering is what are you reading? Please let the readers know by commenting on what you have recently enjoyed and why. Thanks in advance to all those who post. Happy reading to all.

More figures of speech!

Due to the high number of comments on the last "Figures of Speech" blog post (January 8, 2010) , I have decided to post another entry dealing with Figurative Language. This time, I am asking for examples of hyperboles (an exaggerated statement to make a strong effect), personification (giving an inhuman object human characteristics) assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds such as: take, bake, train, way, and say) and consonance (the repetition of consonant sounds like: black, jacket, bracket, track, snack). I can't wait to see all your creative comments and please remember the rules about posting. The blog has been busy the last few weeks and I thank all those who have participated by either just reading the blog, or reading and leaving your comments. I hope you have enjoyed the few minutes you've spent reading this and please feel free to submit your examples of hyperboles, personification, assonance, and or consonance!

Energy Star Award

Today at school we received the prestigious Energy Star Award. The students and staff were very proud of our accomplishment and being "Green" is pretty much the norm at our school. Ways in which we helped become a more energy efficient school ranged from shutting the lights off when we were not in classroom to shutting off computer monitors when they were are not in use. There were many other ways in which we saved energy, but I'd like to see what the readers of this blog are doing to be more efficient when it comes to saving energy. So, what are some of the ways you can think of that can help save or conserve energy? Please post your ideas as we would love to read about them in class. As always, thanks for blogging and make your day a great one!

Figures of Speech:Similes, Metaphors & alliteration

Knowing the figures of speech can really set a writer down a creative and enjoyable road of writing. This knowledge can help you describe a more vivid picture for the audience who is reading your work. In class the last few days, we've reviewed (or learned) a few of the figures of speech including: similes, metaphors, and alliteration. Next week, we'll review (or learn) some more terms and create a few examples as a class, and then create examples of each on our own. For me (selfishly), one of the most enjoyable parts of the day is when we share some of our newly created writings as a whole class after we've shared in small groups. I think it's great to hear their creative writings and share with fellow classmates some of their own ideas and thoughts. We all learn from each other through sharing our writings and the class environment seems very positive. If you are reading this, I'm hoping you might share some of your own examples of awesome alliteration, marvelous metaphors, and sensational similes. I'm sure the other readers would appreciate it as well. Please remember, I will not approve a post that has too much private information. Thanks for taking the time to read the blog. Make your day a great one!