Bringing our Writing to Life!

The end of the year in room 52 has looked different for the past five years. May rolls around and I think, "Yep! Trying something new again..." This May was no different. 

This year, my students are filled to the brim with creative juices and I wanted to give them an opportunity to showcase their creative skills to wrap up the year. As you can see from this post about science movies, we are really good at being in front of the camera. 

This year, I challenged students to write an original fictional story and then turn it into an iMovie. The catch? They wouldn't be starring in it... They were to make all props and characters using materials around the school.  I must include that my classroom has been a disaster for three weeks and I'm totally-okay-with-it-sometimes. 

To get our wheels  spinning, students swiped through iMovie Trailers to get an idea for the theme and mood of their story. After they decided on a tone for their story, they had to complete a graphic organizer mapping out the beginning, middle, and end. This part was vital to the project being successful. We tend to have REALLY long "middle" parts of the story and then we, "fall off a cliff" (as a good friend calls it) and don't wrap up our story.  I even encouraged them to include a theme at the end of the story. 

I've kind of been flying by the seat of pants from day one, but I think it's working out! Here's the rundown of how the project went AFTER they completed a graphic organizer:

• Students had to write and edit an original story in their writer's notebooks with partners. 
• Students had to create all props. Students had to make (no more) than two backdrops and characters on popsicle sticks. This is where the project took a mind of its own... We have horses, Lego characters, Pizza Steve, and balloon men floating around the room!
• Partners worked to create an iMovie trailer to show on YouTube to get the public ready for their movie!
• The final piece... create an iMovie sharing your original story. 

Behind the Scenes  -- Creating Props

Behind the Scenes  -- Filming 

Right now, students are tying up lose ends and getting ready to submit movies tomorrow. In the mean time, you can check out our trailers on YouTube! 

Reflecting back on the last few weeks.... I have to admit, I've been on a bit of a roller coaster of decision making. At times, I've panicked and thought, "HOLY COW! We won't ever finish!" Then I'm flying high and thinking, "These kids are amazing."  I realized it was important to set daily goals with my students so they had a focus for each class period. It was also important, for me, to give up a bit of control and let the kids be creative! It was loud, noisy, messy, and kids were all over the place.... but they were creating incredible products! 

You can check out all of the trailers for the movies (coming to a theater NEAR YOU!) right here.

Hear Us Out! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Do you ever have grand ideas for a project and then step back from your incredibly elaborate ideas and think to yourself, "how in the heck am I going to pull this off?" 

OR! 

Have you ever continued with the incredibly elaborate project idea.... and then when you're in the thick of it you think, "Oh crud. How are we are going to pull this off?"

Luckily, this was one of those times were I took the advice of my co-collaboraters and we took the project down just a smidgen and it's been in-cred-ible. 

Instead of attempting to manage a full fledged newsroom, we decided to have our classes create original "Opinion Talk Shows".  Our writing focus for this quarter is opinion writing, so what better way to share our opinions than to write it AND share it on YouTube?

To kick off the project, we decided as a class to name our show, "Robertson Rivals". Each week, one small group gets the opportunity to take one of their published opinion pieces and transform it into a script for a talk show. 

Behind the Scenes

Small groups collaborate through Google Slides to write their script and decide on specific "parts" for the talk show. 

Our inspiration for opinion topics come from Scholastic News Magazines. Our more popular debates have been...

Should participation count as a grade?

Does everyone deserve a trophy?

Should students have homework over breaks?

Should schools make up snow days on Saturdays?

We invite YOU and your students to subscribe to our YouTube channel and weigh in on these topics. My students love watching the "views" number spike and hearing feedback from other kids (some even in our building) about their talk show!

Bringing Passion into Science

We always wrap up our year in science with informational writing. For four years (the entire time I've been a 5th grade teacher), I have changed the project. Fourth quarter would roll around and I would get the itch to switch things up a bit and make the project more fun and even better. 

Back in January, I read the book "A More Beautiful Question" and was inspired to structure my informational writing unit around asking an "un-googleable" and more beautiful question. We used the Genius Hour approach to form our research topics and my kids were OFF.  You know you've got your students hooked when they asking to write ALL day.  

I wish I could have bottled that excitement and engagement for writing and sprinkled it throughout the year when we needed a little bit of motivation. Hmm.. maybe I should call Shark Tank?

Fast forward to 4th quarter in science. At this point, we've wrapped up our state testing and my kids were ready for a new project. I used the same approach as earlier in the year and asked the students to focus on a topic (science related) that they were passionate about. 

On day one... I walked through the thinking process myself. I narrowed down my absolute-favorite science subject (solar system) and started thinking aloud to help pinpoint a specific question. Through all of my thinking, I came to the big question: how can humans live on the Moon? Then, I sent my scientists on their merry-thinking way. 

On day two... I introduced our nonfiction magazines. I projected a picture of Sports Illustrated and asked my kids to discuss what kind of information I would be reading in this publication. Hands flew up in the air and everyone told me it was about... sports. I showed a few other magazine covers and had similar discussions. I wanted to illustrate the idea that some magazines are meant for specific audiences. I'm only reading HGTV magazine because I'm super into home improvement right now! You won't find me reading a Sports Illustrated anytime soon.. sorry Scott. Then, I had my students break into small groups based on their passions. These small groups had the task of designing a magazine cover and picking a title. 

From there, students took their passion projects through the writing process and published magazines! 

This may be the project I'll be repeating during year five!

Mentor Text: Voices in the Park

Buy it on Amazon

The book "Voices in the Park" by Anthony Browne has been sitting on my shelf for several years. Until this week, I haven't found a real reason to use it for instruction. I was pacing around my room thinking about perspective and point of view and had that AH-HA moment. I'm almost positive I said, "I'VE GOT IT!" out loud and completely startled my students. By now... they've become used to my outbursts. I knew I had the perfect book to illustrate the difference between point of view and perspective (something we are stuck on in 5th grade). 

I closed my mini lesson on the difference between point of view and perspective by reading aloud and dissecting Voices in the Park. It was a great discussion! However, it wasn't until later that day when the magic happened...

An avid writer in my classroom (such an avid writer that she had to get a NEW writer's notebook this year because her other one was full!) approached me and asked if she could write a "Voices in the Park" story. We brainstormed what her location could be in the story and we settled on the school cafeteria. Then, she was off! Writing a fictional story about the cafeteria from four very unique perspectives.

Last night as I was thinking about my plans for reading time - it hit me! Why aren't we ALL doing what my little writer is doing? What a great lesson!

From there... the lesson was born. We discussed how to brainstorm a location, time of day, or time period in our life. Then, we picked logical "voices" to play the roles in our short stories. 

The lesson lent itself to great extra mini lessons on voice, dialogue, and character development. We pulled Wonder off the shelf as an additional mentor text. One student piped up, "my character is like Justin from Wonder, he NEVER writes capital letters." 

Our finished products will be published on our blogs next week. I'm equally excited for my kids to publish their stories and be able to read and comment on one another's. 

Have a great week!

"I CAN SEE THEM TYPING!" Collaboration Through Google Drive!

I wish I could bottle the excitement and pure joy that was had in my classroom this afternoon. Honestly, at one point I was standing in the middle of the room watching as my students' eyes widened with excitement and wonder as their new pen pals typed a story along with them. 

Now, let me back up! Yesterday, I shared how a friend and I had our students "meet" one another through a Mystery Missouri Skype. Read more on that experience here. 

At the conclusion of our Mystery Skype last week, we (the teachers) informed our classes we would be collaborating on a little writing project through Google Drive. The anticipation set in and we had to wait a few more days until our schedules would allow us to log on at the same time. 

Miss Kazanowski did a little leg work going into the project: chatting about partnerships, logistics of how it work, topics to write about, etc. This morning, Miss K sent me a list of her student's individual Google Drive accounts. Right after lunch, students logged onto our classroom Google account (we only have one for the whole class) and I taught the entire group how to share a document with a new user on Google Drive. Next, students were sharing blank documents and quickly adding snapshots of their cute little smiles to give their new digital pen pal a visual of who they were chatting with. 

While my class was waiting for Miss K's class to return from recess and log on, we were teaching eachother - wait... let me rephrase that sentence, my students were teaching one another tricks with Google Drive and from there the ball was rolling! Students were typing bios about themselves and sharing information for their buddies to get to know them a little better. I even learned the phrase, "my selfie game is strong on IG" - this apparently means you take good selfies. Good thing I have my 5th graders to keep me hip. ;)

Then....

the moment happened. 

The first 5th grader -in another city - in another school district - logged on and started typing. A student shouted, "THEY ARE ONLINE!" Then another student shrieks, "THEY POSTED A PICTURE!" As more students shouted updates around the room, other students were dashing to their computer screens to check out the live update. Within minutes, everyone was chatting live with their new pal. I even threw out a few live tweets myself. I was inspired by Miss K's live tweeter during our Missouri Skype. 

"THEY ARE TYPING! I CAN SEE THEM TYPING MS. FURNELL!" Shrieks of excitement as students are collaborating through Docs with kids in KC!
— Jordon (@furnelly) May 14, 2014

We collaborated with @furnelly class in order to create poetry today. Thanks @googledrive! pic.twitter.com/S9Zj144j8F

— Micaela Kazanowski (@MissKazanowski) May 14, 2014

With the help from Miss K, managing students in her classroom, and myself bopping around to computers in my own classroom, we were able to get students writing in a no time. Honestly, they were so excited to get started I didn't have to remind them twice! Overall, we had students writing wacky stories line by line, limericks, haikus, and even a story about tacos.  

I'm certain the number one question I will be asked in the morning is, "When can write with Miss K's class again?" 

French Connection Opportunity!

Source

Earlier this week, a teacher of 9-10 year old children reached out to me with an opportunity to exchange post cards. I was THRILLED when I saw her email and thought of the amazing opportunities this was for my 5th graders. How exciting to be receiving post cards from France! 

In her email, she mentioned that she has reached out to several teachers and heard from little in response. Her goal is for her students (pupils as she called them) would like to receive a post card from all 50 states. She found us in Missouri and I've made it my mission to help these students out in France. They should have postcards filling their mailbox daily! 

Will you help them? 

Email me at [jordon.furnell@gmail.com] if you wish to connect with eager students in France. Imagine the possibilities for your students! Once you've emailed me, I will pass along the teacher's name and email for you to exchange information. I'm simply the messenger. :)

Stepping Back in Time

Have you heard of the Infinity Ring series? It was brought to my attention by my fellow 5th grade teachers and my kids LOVED IT. We read the first book as a read aloud and they ate it up. I highly recommend it. It's going to be a seven book series - which would be great to get your kids hooked on! I have several in my room reading book number two now. 

In social studies, we're finishing up our study on the American Revolution (so fun!) and I wanted to do a little creative project.  After pulling some ideas from all over the internet, I decided to tie in the American Revolution to the Infinity Ring. I gave my class the prompt below:

Imagine you have an Infinity Ring just like Dak and Sera! Ms. Furnell has asked you to use the device to travel back to 1773 in Boston, Massachusetts. You travel back and realize that you’re a colonist who has a vital decision to make. Will you join the rebels and participate in the Boston Tea Party? Will you decide to stay loyal to the British King? Write a diary entry in which you explain your decision. 

On Friday afternoon, we dunked sheets of white paper in tea and set them out to try for the weekend. Today, my class began writing their final copies of their diary entries. They were so excited! I heard several times that THIS was their favorite project so far. Who knew writing could be so fun? :)

Reading the letters has been the best experience. I'm amazed by their creativity. As part of the prompt, they had to include 4-5 factual reasons why they picked their "side". All of my students took the prompt and RAN with it.. creating an alternate life in the 1700's with family members such as Betsy Ross, Sam Adams, and George Washingtion. One student even took credit for firing that famous, "shot heard around the world". 

Another big highlight of the day was our brand new pencil sharpener. It was a BIG hit. 

It's the little things in life.

Haiku for the New Year

Happy Thursday! Thanks to an inspirational post by Barbara at the Corner on Character, I challenged my students to write a haiku about their New Year's Resolutions last week. I was blown away by their creativity and thoughtful resolutions. I have a class full of students with enormous hearts!

We briefly talked about the structure of a haiku and its origin, then I sent them on their way. The day before we had talked about the word "resolution" and made goals, so each student had an initial idea of what they could write about.

We had haikus about laughter, love, organization, learning new skills, and so on. Several new goals were set for the new year. Now they're proudly on display in the hallway. It was a great activity to jump start the new year on a positive note. 

The Writing Process

Daily, I'm thankful that I paid attention in college and took great notes. Today I was especially thankful when it came to my writing plans. My students and I are working towards writing personal narratives, but first we had to talk about the process of writing! I know my students have heard the language before but we needed a refresher. 

Here's where my handy Writer's Notebook from college came in handy. Oh, that's redundant. Quick think of a synonym for handy. 

Click Here to Purchase.

Anyway, I introduced the story "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle to my students. I was fairly certain they had either read this book or it had been read to them at some point in their educational careers. Although, I was hopeful it hadn't been used for this purpose. As we read the story, we focused on the development of a tiny seed as it conquers mountains, snow, rain, tiny hands and so on.  Near the end of the story, the tiny seed had blossomed into a beautiful flower.  By the end, we watched as more tiny seeds flew from the beautiful flower to create more flowers around the world. The illustrations were absolutely stunning. Would you expect anything less from Eric Carle?

After the story, we opened up OUR writing notebooks and began sketching the writing process. As suggested by one of my fabulous literacy professors, we compared the process of writing to a developing tiny seed. As you can see in the pictures below, each step relates to our little seedling. Throughout the process, our seed grows and blossoms into a beautiful flower. Then, once we finish our final project we're back to square one with more seed stories. 

Above you see my "sketches" of the writing process. Any artist probably wouldn't let me categorize these as sketches. Oh well. Tomorrow, our entry will be "Seed Stories" for our narratives. Using our heart maps, feet maps (future blog post), memories, and various webs we'll begin picking "seeds" to develop.

Check out the incredible creations two of my students made in their notebooks. I had 22 excellent entries, but I limited myself to only picking two. 

I especially love the ultimate party scene that the gentleman above picked to illustrate celebration. He added that on his own. :)

As we venture into personal narratives territory - I ask for advice! What mini lessons or mentor texts do you use in your classroom? Do share! 

Using Mentor Texts in Writing

Slowly but surely, we are starting to add entries in our brand new writer's notebooks. Writing is my absolute favorite time of the day. My entire building is participating in professional development on Writing Workshop. I'm very excited to have a method to my madness. Eventually, my writing time will be a little more structured. For now, I'm working on making meaningful mini lessons. 

Lucky for me, I work with amazing teachers with incredible ideas. My team teacher suggested some great ideas and was more than willing to let me share them on my bloggy-blog. In other words, I cannot take credit for these wonderful ideas!

One of our entries was about our memories. We started our lesson with the read aloud, "Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge" written by Mem Fox. If you haven't read this precious book, stop what you're doing and go read it ...now! Tears started welling up as I read the pages of this story. It's such a beautiful story. 

To get our brains thinking about memories, we reviewed each definition of a memory from the story. I modeled writing in my notebook each memory. The students were able to follow along with me because I was using a document camera. (It's quickly becoming my new favorite piece of technology). 

I started writing down a warm memory of my own. I began to recall the day that my niece Libby was born this summer. Then, I sent the students on their merry way to begin writing.

Another entry in our notebooks was inspired by, "The Important Book" by Margaret Wise Brown. My teammate and I put our heads together and planned for our kids to make an Important Book about our school. We used the format of Brown's book as a guide.

First, we brainstormed the REALLY important characteristics of our school. The kids were shouting out answers left and right. It's evident that we have many important and special qualities at the UE. 

After our brainstorming session, students were given time to write their own variation of The Important Book. We stressed using the same format as Brown's to make the book consistent for our young readers. Soon, the book will be published and available for little eyes and minds to enjoy.

 Have you jumped into writing workshop this year? What kinds of mini lessons do YOU start the year with? Do share!

A Peak Into My Writer's Notebook

Considering that you're reading my blog, you can safely assume that I enjoy writing. You can ALWAYS find me with a notebook in hand to make lists, jot notes, or to doodle with free time. I have even started carrying a "Life" notebook and a "School" notebook. *cough nerd cough*

As a junior in college, I was required to keep a Writer's Notebook. This was my first introduction to keeping a composition notebook as a writing journal. Throughout my junior year, we participated in different writing activities to keep in our notebook. As a senior and throughout my Masters classes, I continued adding to the same notebook. My notebook was a combo of lessons, ideas, and mock mini lessons for kids. 

One of my items on my to-do list in that handy school notebook was to spruce up my Writer's Notebook. I had a few composition notebooks left over from last year, so I snagged one and started to update my notebook. Here are some mini lessons I plan on doing with my kids at the beginning of the year to jump into our Writer's Notebook. 

P.S. Have you heard of this book? Mentor Texts has GOBS of ideas to use in writing. 

A Must Purchase!

Why not make your notebook personal? I added a photo of my adorable pirate nephew and sweet baby niece. 

Here's a Life Map I made back in college. I wrote down several memories of my childhood and growing up in the wonderful city of Sedalia.  Apparently I thought it was important to include my "marble collection....". I'm still wondering what made me even collect marbles.

Life Maps 

As a graduate student, I updated my life map and zoomed in on the street I lived on in middle and high school. My note says, "encourage writing about the little things!" Aren't the little things usually the best memories and stories to share?

Life Maps

I am known for having a camera with me 24/7, so I adore the idea of writing from a photograph. Looking an image and remembering that single moment and writing all the memories that come flooding back. I love this image of my grandparents from a family vacation to Disney World. I am pretty sure I was in diapers, but you can see the happiness and love beaming from them. It's so easy to write countless memories of my grandparents from this one single image.

Writing From a Picture

I believe a lot of powerful writing comes directly from your heart. Often times, I have poured my heart and soul into a piece of writing and felt a wave of relief after expressing myself in the written form. With a heart map, students can jot down everything that they hold close in their heart and refer back to it when they are in need of a writing topic. 

Heart Mapping

As teachers, we are always encouraging our students to zooooom into a specific moment. Instead of talking about playing at the park with your family, find a specific moment that happened at the park. This inverted triangle, helps students slowly narrow down a broad topic. Here, my memory transforms to a family spring break trip into one hilarious moment in the elevator where a new museum was created. Right, Ab? :)

Narrowing Your Topic

Writers block can happen to anyone. It's helpful to have a list of seed stories! The seeds can soon blossom into a beautiful flower, tree, or orchard of a story.

Seeds

Ralph Fletcher is a great resource for teachers, and I love all of his great ideas for Writer's Notebooks. Today, I stumbled upon this idea of writing from an artifact. Lucky for me, I had held onto a basketball ticket from an awesome MU game that I attended in college. I glued it right into my notebook and jotted down the memory of rushing from the bleachers to the court after the buzzer beater victory.

Writing From an Artifact

In my classroom, I want my readers to be writers and my writers to be readers. They are one in the same in my opinion. Anyone can read and anyone can write! What a great idea to write down a list of books that you've read and enjoyed to possibly write about. It's like having a book club with your notebook.

Writing About Reading

Another list idea would be to make a list of things you as a writer knows a lot about. We all have different journeys and experiences, so each list will look differently.  I love giving my students the independence with their notebooks and letting their lists and ideas transform their notebooks into something personal and unique.

Things I Know a lot About

There's a start in my writer's notebook, what do YOU do with your Writer's Notebooks? I would love more ideas! Here's the philosophy I follow, and I printed a copy of this little reminder for my kid's writer's notebooks:

Authentic Writing!

Once upon a time, I wanted to a be a big wig journalist. Quicky, I realized I wasn't cut out for the field of journalism. I barely made it a semester in college, the only "journalism" aspect that stuck with me was my trusty Mac computer. This weekend, my trusty Mac came to my rescue after movie maker failed me. I'm getting ahead of myself.

As an end of the year writing project, I wanted my students to engage in an authentic writing task. I wanted them to create a product for a purpose. So! That's exactly what we did. My students had the task of creating How To videos for the upcoming 5th graders. These How To videos were to give advice on how to survive 5th grade.

Click here to purchase on TpT!

We started as a whole group and brainstormed what information was necessary at the beginning of 5th grade.  As a group, we came up with several bits of information that is important for 5th graders to know. Over the next couple days, small groups of students worked together to come up with a topic and began brainstorming. Groups were instructed to fill out a template (with supplies and step by step directions) to get the ball rolling for their videos. 

Our topics are:

How to Tackle the MAP Test

How to Organize Your Binder

How to Be a Role Model

How to Survive DARE

How to Survive Fractions

Next, we jumped into storyboards and scripts. This was so fun! The students came up with scripts on their own that included humor, costumes, props, and advice! I did have to guide a few groups in a different direction and encourage them to actually SAY the advice they wrote about. Once we got over that hump, we started practicing practicing practicing. 

Once we practiced a gazillion (yes, that's a word) times, we started filming. This was so fun! I wish I could make a blooper reel of all the funny outtakes. My little actors are made for the stage! Although.. I did have to remind them often, that laughing at their own jokes wasn't necessary. I said this line continuously, "You WROTE the jokes, you know they are funny! Don't laugh at them!!" Nonetheless, we made it through.. several... several..several takes. 

Click here to purchase my How To Writing kit on Teachers Pay Teachers! Or you can email me and I'll send it to you for free! :)

We were on a roll, filming everyday and just as I thought this project was going to be a major success - we ran into a little hiccup or two. Apparently, Windows Movie Maker hates Flip cameras and me. Yes, I'm at the point where I'm taking this personally. Let me break this down for you-
Plan A: Edit the clips in Movie Maker and publish to SchoolTube.com
Plan B: Edit the clips in Picassa and publish to Schooltube.com

......did either of these work? No. Keep chugging along!
Plan C, D, E, F: Install new converting software on my computer and edit the clips

Did this work? ALMOST! But no.

Plan W: Load all of the clips on my home computer and edit them at home and publish to SchoolTube.com

Did this work? YES! YES! It worked! God Bless iMovie and my trusty 'ol Mac!

All of my students signed a consent form to have their video published online and viola! You have the final products. Enjoy! Try not to learn too much now! Check out the rest on School Tube. Click the title for the link to the video.

How to Tackle the MAP Test

How to Organize Your Binder

How to Survive DARE

How to Survive Fractions

Hangin' in Brazil with Jaguars

We just wrapped up our literature study on Roland Smith's Jaguar and it was a BLAST! Not only were my students captivated by the story, but they engaged in meaningful discussions about the story. It was an awesome two weeks!

To begin our lit study, I started with a mini lesson on using post it notes. We brainstormed different ways we can use post it notes while reading chapter books. After coming up with a vast list (connections, questions, predictions, etc.), we decided (with my influence) to write a summary after each chapter.

Along with the story, I distributed a packet of comprehension questions and strategies. Each day, or every other day, had a different focus. For example, the first day we discussed questioning. As a group, we brainstormed questions prior to reading Jaguar. Then, I sent them on their merry way. The next day, I had small groups read the assigned chapters and determine story elements. After small groups had time to collaborate, we met together as a group and shared our ideas.

The discussion parts of the day were my favorite! Since I was reading the story with my kids, I was just as into the mystery and drama as they were. Some were begging to read more!! 

Throughout the two weeks, I had students read in small groups, in partners, independently, and I read chapters outloud. I definitely saved the last three chapters as a read aloud. It was so fun to participate WITH my students in the excitement. 

Thanks to my awesome high school teacher friend, Kelley, she helped me with ideas to make my kids "think outside the box". To wrap up our literature study, I gave my kids two different tasks. First, they had to dig deep into character analysis and write a haiku on Jacob, free verse poem about Taw, or create a comic strip detailing Jacob and Doc's relationship. I will admit, they struggled with the comic strip. This is something I would like to try again with a different approach.

As a final task, students were asked to create a new book jacket for Roland Smith's story, Jaguar. Inside the book jacket would contain a summary of the story and a mini bio on Roland Smith (an author my kids have grown to love!!) We can all thank my sweet friend Kelley for this idea as well. :)

I look forward to doing more literature studies similar to this one next year. Have you completed in any lit studies in your room? What types of activities and/or tasks do you assign to your students?

I posted this unit on my TpT account, but if you email me.. I'll send it to you for free! :)

Happy Monday, folks!

Time to Celebrate!

Today was one of those days that makes you want to fall asleep at 5:00! You know what I am doing? I'm laying in my bed catching up with HIMYM. A veteran teacher once told me that if you're not tired at the end of the day.. you're not doing something right. Let's just say, I felt like I had lost my marbles today but I'm 98% sure my students enjoyed every minute of it. I'll be posting about the Metric Olympics on another day. :)

This week, I've been thinking a lot about writing and how I can use my basal to the fullest AND give my students plenty of opportunities to write. Sounds easy enough, right? Ha- yeah okay!

While my brain is writing-centered, I wanted to blog about one of my favorite days in second grade. A professor of mine told our class about hosting a writing celebration in her son's classroom. I knew that I had to do the same thing with my students!

It all started with Gail Gibbons and Lucy Calkins. If you're in the education world, I'm sure those two names ring a bell. With the help of a colleague and a student teacher, we created a month long expository writing unit. In this writing unit, the students used Gail Gibbons books as mentor texts to create their own All-About Books. Throughout the unit, we studied nonfiction text features and elements of expository writing. By the end the month, each student had taken a piece of writing through the writing process and published their very own All-About Book to treasure.

At the end of the unit, I wanted to celebrate! I planned an elaborate Writing Celebration where my students would be transformed into MOVIE STARS! On the day of their celebration, my students would be given gold stars, walk down a red carpet, and read their book on stage.  We invited parents, grandparents, and other classes to join us for our big premier!

It was an incredible day (perfect attendance I must add).   I wish I could show the 100's of pictures taken, but I can't. Lucky for us, Q's sweet mom has agreed to letting her son be our model for this post.

First step: check in with security before walking the red carpet.

Next, walk down the red carpet with PRIDE and show off your All-About Book to the paparazzi! 

Who are you wearing! You're beautiful!

Say cheese! The papparazi is waiting!

Proud Author

After each student had walked down the red carpet we gathered around the stage in our room to listen to each author read. When students arrived that morning, I looked and all 20 students were crowded around the stage reading from their book box. Excited, much?

Karaoke and Props!

Thanks to a few borrowed items and a captivated audience, the Writing Celebration was a hit!

It was a special morning for my students and that's what matters. Their hard work had paid off and they were proud of it! The best part was their favorite representative from THE Writing Company in NYC made a special appearance that day. Who could ask for anything more?