THREE ON THURSDAY @ GLENWOOD PARK

1. I love kindergarten! We made books today in a kindergarten class. They had choices of what kind and size books to use. They had small ones with bright paper or large ones with no lines and large ones with lines. The kiddos couldn't wait to start. I modeled my story and wrote part of my book. When we were done one boy shouted, "I was an illustrator today!" Another girl said, "Well, I was an author and an illustrator!" They were so excited.
2. In third grade we talked about Just Right books. I showed them shoes that I had and how I had a purpose for certain ones. I talked about how I didn't have any soccer shoes because I had no interest in soccer. Then I tried to read a magazine that I found at home and even though I could read all the words I couldn't comprehend it. Then we discussed how important it was to know the words. We ended up with I PICK books. The kiddos were all excited to talk about how they had been in The Reading Zone during Independent Reading that day. I PICK books comes from The Daily 5!
3. This week I have spent two days working with a fifth grade class doing fiction writing. They had just gotten new writer's notebooks and were excited to start using them. On day one we talked about major characters in a piece. Then we created a class character including a sketch, thoughts that make the character tick and a heart full of things the character loves. Today we worked on minor characters. They listed several right along with how they connected to the main character. They are all set to do a few more journal entries before they begin drafting. I am amazed at the things these young authors are coming up with each day!