Writing Reviews

On Tuesday, the students brought home a letter about bringing in a shoe box collection for our writing unit on opinion writing.  In this unit of writing, I will teach the students  that people  sort, rank, categorize, explain, convince, argue, give in, and change.  I will teach the importance of opinion writing.  The first grade standard states that students will compose opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for their opinion, and provide some sense of closure.  This unit will begin with the definition of opinions vs. facts.  I will use the book Duck Rabbit written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.  In this book students are introduced to a character that is either a duck or a rabbit.  In the end it is up to them to decide whether the character of the book is indeed a duck or a rabbit.  They will then form their first opinion of the unit and support their answer by supplying their reasons for their opinion.

We will then begin to use our collections from home to begin forming opinions.  Six and seven year olds often collect items.  They often collect rocks, stickers, bracelets, baseball cards, legos, action figures, Barbies, headbands, etc.  Students will then begin to review their collections and make choices about which item in that collection is the best and defend their judgments.  We will then take the path of writing reviews for various other things such as toys, restaurants, video games, books or kid-friendly places to play.  We will continue to learn about revising and editing our writings as this unit progresses.  

I will leave you with a previous years post on our opinion writing and collections.  There are various pictures of the students in my classroom with their collections.  This might give you a few ideas on the types of items that your child could bring in for their collections.  I will be keeping all collections put away in my locked closet while we are not using them.  They will be pulled out specifically during writing time only.  If you feel the need to take pictures of your collections and to only bring in the pictures that is fine as well.

Thank you all for coming into student-led conferences.  I hope that you enjoyed having your child show you a little bit of what they do everyday in the classroom.  I know the kids were super excited to be the teacher for the evening.  They work so hard throughout the school year.  Thank you for taking a vested interest in their education and for taking the time out of your schedules to pay a visit to our classroom.

**************BELOW IS A PREVIOUS POST ABOUT OPINION WRITING************

SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2015

Last Full Week of School

I know I keep saying it and I'm gonna say it again...man this year flew by so quickly!  Last week we began our 10 Day Countdown and we also began our unit on writing reviews a.k.a. opinion writing.  The students were ever so excited to get out their collections.  The students were asked to bring in a shoebox collection...something they collect at home and have a lot of.  Examples included, Lego's, Barbies, hairbows, necklaces, baseball cards, etc.  The students were to bring in at least 4 but no more than 5 pieces of their collections.  On Thursday, we learned how to judge the pieces in our collection fairly by 1. lining the collection up in a row  2. Comparing the same thing about each piece (hair, fur, face, etc.) 3. Choosing our favorite by saying "I like ____the best BECAUSE..."  Now, the students will learn how to defend their choices for which piece they like best.  In addition, they will begin writing about their 2nd favorite, 3rd favorite, and so on.  We will even get a chance to write about a friend's collection.  This is such a fun way to end our writing in first grade.

Her BEST in Show...

Judging her collection

Judging her collection

Judging his collection

Choosing his BEST in show.

Upcoming Student Led Conferences

Next week, we will hold our annual student-led conferences on Tuesday, March 22nd from 4-8 in the evening.  Last Friday, I sent home a sign up sheet for you to let me know what time block you would be able to come in at during conferences.  If you haven't returned the sign up sheet, please do so as soon as possible.  I will do my best to give you the time block that works best for you and your family.  The blocks of time, will ensure that the conference night runs as smoothly as possible.  We will set up a variety of stations that we have worked on in class.  Your child's job will be to take to each station and explain the work that we do while showing you what they are currently working on.  Your child will show you:

• How to use the Promethean Board,
• Word Work Station
• Language Journals
• Writing Folders
• Their "Good-Fit" books
• How to use a retell rope
• Computer Station

In addition, your child can show you any other item in the classroom that he/she has worked on.  We have some great work samples out in the hallway as well that I hope you take the opportunity to look at and discuss with your child.

If you are unable to attend conferences, please contact me so we can work out another time for you to come see what we are working on.  If you have any concerns or would like to meet with me privately, please contact me for another conference time.

We ROCKED the 120th Day of School

Well the 120th day of school has come and gone.  The kids had a great time celebrating their growth as students on this day.  We counted to 120, sorted 120 snacks, wrote about what we would be like if we were 120 years old, and much much more.   Here are the pictures from our celebration.  Thank you so much to all of the parents who donated items for this fun day.