Writing In The Outdoors

During an informal conversation with a parent, I learned that she and her friend began a writing workshop event for kids 2-5th grade at her farm on the weekends.  Off the fly, I asked her if she'd like to come and do a mini-workshop for our class before the cold, long, dark winter!!:(  Of course, she said.  So, we worked out logistics, what was needed, and we anticipated for the day.  (So thankful it was today and not last weekend, when we got a taste of the winter to come!!)

We made nature journals and fabulatized them, had conversations of descriptive words and adjectives, and finally today was the day.  I was so thankful for the 80 degree weather!!:)  The ladies created 9 different stations outside to use our senses when we thought about fictional and personal narratives.  The kids had soooo much fun.  There was sand and shells, tasting table, caterpillars, mud pies, woods and rocks...so many opportunities to explore, write, and sketch.

After exploring, we all found a spot on the grass and wrote.  We wrote poems, thoughts, feelings...the point is we wrote.  Then, we explored, and we wrote.   What a fabulous day!!!  They offered to come back and create another day in winter.  What a blessing to have parents willing to share their passions.  

We are all one with nature!!  

Cultural Self-Portraits

As I blogged earlier, we used our People in Societies standard as a branching off point to paint our self-portraits and discuss our heritage.   We glued them on 9x18 black construction paper, and then ran them through the laminator.   My thinking is to keep these up all year-long (provided the fire marshall okays it) and add their writing pieces to them.  The plastic bags are for their Author's Statement to reflect and share their inspiration.    Currently, the watering cans are reflections of how they have grown as a writer this year.  Growing Writers... imagine if these are used all throughout the year to showcase student work, what a powerful and authentic message for our Growing Writers.  Thanks, Ann Marie Corgill.

"Watch out! I've got my spy book!"

I love when everything goes right! This week, after over 9 months of planning, children's author, professional writer and unofficial comedian, Lester Laminack came to our school for 2 whole days. As the chair of the Literacy Committee, I helped organize this amazing event for our students and staff. This was a new, scary experience for me, but I am so glad that I took the plunge.

In preparation for his visits, our teachers decorated the hallways like Christmas was a comin'. There were beautiful displays! Little "first grade" snowmen adorn with the kids' photos were tacked up all along the main corridor to welcome our new friend, Lester. There were displays of interesting collections of 100 that included snowflake chains, 100 ways to say "Hello!", equations that equal 100 and much more. Upstairs, there was poetry written by children, life stories inspired by the author, precious "doily" snowmen and even podcasts that were done on student laptops. The school climate was electric!

Lester is a pro! During his time with our Pinney students, he established his expectations right from the start. He crouched down in front of them and looked every student directly in the eye and said with his thick, serious southern drawl, "While I am here, you will be kind to one another. That means you will not be rude! You will not try to talk over someone. You will not prevent someone else from participating. I will not tolerate rudeness!" With eyes as big as saucers, the kids, big and small, nodded that they got the message! Then, as if he had been stung by a bee, he then propelled himself into ACTION. For eight 45 minutes sessions over two days, he preformed. Sometimes he stood on one leg in a yoga pose. Other times his thin legs were turned in pigeon toed and he would sway back and forth like a young child, while he shared, entertained, acted, explained and inspired our students and staff to write!

Although it is difficult to explain his sessions, because most of the time his thinking was like his body, a blur of motion. (He explained to the children that his brain is wired differently. He has A.D.D.). One common theme was carefully, artfully woven throughout his presentations...You can write and I am going to show you how. With all the drama one man can muster up, he whispered to the children that he was going to let them in on a little secret....He's a spy and he has a spy notebook! He showed them how he keeps it in his back pocket and everyone thinks it is his wallet. In his spy notebook with his carefully concealed spy pen, he records real observations about real people. He proceeded to show us all how his spy notes allow him to record observations that he can use later to weave amazing stories.

Watch out! Our students and staff now have Lester Laminack inspired "spy notebooks and pens" (aka $.25 pads from Big Lots and Bic pens)in our pockets. But, more importantly, we have Lester's messages and memories of his visit carefully etched in our hearts.

PS He also did a hour and one half professional development session after school. I will blog about that at a later date. Of course, all I have to do is look at the notes in my "spy notebook."

Connections

We've been working on character development and identification throughout our writing workshops this week and my focus was for them to visualize their characters, then bring their characters to life in their narratives. Each student sketched and colored their characters for a "character museum" we'll share during The WOW Factor.

As with all beginning writing workshops, I'm constantly told "Mrs. Archer, I finished my story. Mrs. Archer, what do I do now? I'm ready to publish." All within 30 minutes of beginning. B was that student today. He was sharing with me his story he wrote on recycling because he looked around the room and saw the recycling bin over-flowing. Without much introduction or development, his character began with, "You must recycle." B understood his purpose and audience, but was failing to recognize the need to bring the reader up to speed with the character's mission. He would go back and write, then ask me another question. But, I could tell he wasn't getting the character development part. He even visited our school secretary, "the resident recycling expert" to ask her questions on why laminating film could not be put in the blue bins.

Later that afternoon, he was reading Loser by Jerry Spinelli, when he came up to me. "Mrs. Archer, I'm understanding what you mean by describing the character. Jerry Spineli described a character in the middle of the book so well, I was able to picture it in my mind. I'm going to try that tomorrow in my story." He got it!! No matter how many different ways I tried to explain my thoughts, he was able to grasp it by looking at a mentor text. B placed a post-it note in the spot to share during creation station (our writing workshop). These are the shining moments! These are special times!