CCSS: Opinion Writing: Squish the Ant?

My students still need to work on opinion writing.  They get the idea that you write your opinion but some still struggle with writing enough details that support your opinion.  There are only some many times I can read an article or book  with them, discuss it, and have them write about their opinion. Luckily, I was looking for fun read alouds in my classroom and found my copy of Hey, Little Ant, which reminded me of an idea I saw on pinterest from Peace, Love, and Kindergarten.

Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose is a wonderful picture book. A boy is about to step on
an ant when the ant starts talking to him to try to convince him not to squish him.  The book ends asking if you think the boy will squish the ant and we never know if the boy does.
After listening to it, we talked about whether we thought the boy did and if he should.  We made a list of reasons to and not to squish the ant.  Then they had to write an paragraph stating
their opinion: should the boy squish the ant? They needed to state their opinion in the first
sentence, include 3 or more reasons that support their opinion, and then restate their
opinion in the closing sentence.  Most of my students wrote that the boy should not squish the ant but I did tell them that it is their opinion, so it can’t be wrong as long as they can support it.  And since they love crafty stuff, I cut paper and made a sample with a head and glasses as a topper (idea from Peace, Love, and Kindergarten).  Not surprisingly, my kids came up with other ideas (I love that they have such great ideas and are willing to ask if they can do something a bit differently.=>)  Some made a giant shoe about to squish the paper and a few others made a giant ant.  I'll post pictures once they are finished.  I made two writing papers.  If you don't want to make the paragraph topper, there is one with a box for an illustration.  I also made a rubric for easy grading.  Students want to get as close to a 4.0 as possible.  I've used rubrics like this all year so the kids know that they want as many 4s as possible. :)

                                                Click here to grab it for free from my TpT store. 

Enjoy and I'll love to hear feedback if you use it!  Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
~Colleen =>

More Diary of a ..... (Life Cycle Writing)

Wow, it's much harder to find the time to blog and post on TpT when it isn't spring break.  The beginning and end of the year is always so busy. We have 28 days left and the kiddos are starting to show that they are done.  (I probably am too).
Anyways, I had a request for a diary of a butterfly, chick, and hamster. (See previous post frog life cycle for more information on the writing activity).  Figured why not post them as well since I made them!  Second grade at my school actually watches butterflies grow so it's perfect for them. They would be able to add a lot of detail since they get to watch it as it happens.  The file includes 3 different cover pages.  Click the link below to download  from my TPT store!

                                   download "diary of a butterfly" for free from my TpT store



And if you want to complete the activity about the life cycle of a chicken, click the link below the picture.

                                      download "diary of a chick" for free from my TpT store


Enjoy!! =>
~Colleen

Multiplication & Division War

My kids LOVE playing War.  My co-worker made a place value war game and the kiddos love it.  If that is in the early finishers game pile, it is always taken.  So I made (and am still making) Multiplication & Division War.  Right now the deck only has x/÷2 and x/÷3 facts in it. I am planning to make more.  I'm doing a different background for each set of facts so I can change out the facts easily and mix them up.  I'm trying out Math Workshop and this game will be perfect for math facts practice with a partner. 

Want to use them?  Click here to download them from my TpT store for Free. :)

~Colleen ❤

Frog Life Cycle

Last year, our 4th quarter science unit was Life Science: Life Cycles.  We studied plant life cycles and frog life cycles.  I wanted to integrate some writing into the science unit so  we read Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider, and Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin and the kiddos had to create a Diary of a Frog.

While learning about the stages in a frog's life cycle, we made charts for the kids to reference all the info we learned.  The first entry had to be as a tadpole and had to include what they looked like, where they lived, and that they had hatched out of an egg.  Some even started the entry as being stuck in an egg and breaking free. =>  Each diary needed 3-4 entries telling about the changes they were going through as they grew into frogs.  Some of the things they included were growing hind legs, growing front legs, tail shrinking, changes in what they ate, lungs growing, needing to go to the surface of the pond to breathe, and living on land instead of in the water. 
I copied the pages front to back and folded it in half to make a book.  Each entry had a place to write and to illustrate.

The books turned out great!  Some kids even took the time to be super detailed with the pictures and then wrote about leaving friends in the pond and how scary going to breathe real air was the first time.

 

Click the pics above to go to my TpT store to download!  or click here.

Enjoy!

~~Colleen ❤

Multiplication Go Fish!

My county is phasing in common core.  Which has been nice because it has meant we have only need to learn one core curriculum a year.  At the beginning of next year, all elementary schools will be core LA and Math.  Last year K started core math and all grades started a new writing framework based on the core.  This year K-2 are core math, 3-5 are teaching core reading.  So as a third grade teacher I've been teaching LA Core and just waiting to go to core math. I am a dork and am looking forward to core math because I feel the curriculum makes more sense. 
Of course the switch to core next year means there may be some gaps.  The not-core does not require the students to know multiplication and division facts through 10 but core expects kids to enter 4th grade with all multiplication and division facts mastered.  So we are teaching transition units once we get back from spring break.

I am very busy looking for and making some multiplication and division games.  I have some for the facts we have taught but that's just  x0, x1, x2, x5, and x10.  To help them learn the facts and to keep things interesting I'm making different games for the rest of the facts.  My kiddos love card games so I decided to make Go Fish for x4.  If they like it, I'll make it for the rest of the facts. 

Click here to grab it!  I'd love feedback if you use it with your class!
~Colleen :)

First Post :)

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I spend quite a lot of time on pinterest and blogs to find ideas for my classroom.  There are so many wonderful things I have been able to purchase or get for free thanks to blogs, pinterest, and TeacherspayTeachers.  I changed grades this year so I spent a lot of time looking for new ideas and decor.  Thanks to Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files (and Haute Off the Printer) I have very cute schedule cards, daily five cards, a craft board, and a curvise alphabet.

Anyway, I decided it was time to start sharing some of my ideas.  Hopefully there will be some ideas you can use. :)

I Speak For the Trees

I was planning to save this for Earth day but my school is reapplying for green school status so I wanted to teach this lesson so we would be able to include it in the application.  I taught it the first week of March.  We did a week of Dr. Seuss read alouds and finished with The Lorax.  After listening to the story, we charted why it's important to take care of the earth and how we can.  Then students wrote a paragraph about how and why to take care of earth.  I have a wonderful tech teacher at my school who allowed my students to quickly take their pictures with the Lorax’s mustache in photobooth during tech class that week. 

The pictures were printed and attached to the top of the students' paragraphs.  Once their paragraphs and pictures were turned in they got to marble paint a circle to be Earth as well.  I’ll post a picture of the final project but it’s spring break and I left the camera at work.   I couldn't get a good picture of the whole board where you can tell what the kids' pictures are but here is part of the board.

Final Copy

Rubric

I made a final copy paper and a rubric for easy grading. Click here to get them for free on my TpT store.


Enjoy!

~Colleen