Ms. Tinsley's Classroom Blog : February 15

Week 24

“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave”

~Mo Willems

I love this quote and it’s been on my mind all week as we’ve been in and out of writing and also dealing with some uneasy situations with classmates. When many students are writing they sometimes get what we call “writer’s block”. This has happened to us all at least once. Whether we are stuck while filling out a job application that requires us to tell about ourselves or remember a time in school when we stayed up to the wee hours of the morning because we couldn’t find the words to write…well our kids aren’t any different! They have these great ideas for stories in their head, but sometimes the process of getting them down on paper can be tough. Some kids even struggle with coming up with ideas for their stories. Whenever the kids are in “writer’s block” I always tell them to look for inspiration in other stories that they have written and in a mentor text of their choosing!

This quote also applies to some of the issues and situations that some of the kids have gotten themselves into. Many times a child may get in trouble for arguing or being with another kid when something unfortunate happens. I’ve had conversations with many kids and told them that they are just as much to blame and those involved and that if they don’t like what is being done then they should remove themselves from the situation. I believe that it is important for our kids to understand and be able to effectively problem. Many of them are still working on this!

Conjunctions

In order to enhance their writing, we have been looking at conjunctions! We’ve realized that conjunctions can help us make our sentences longer! So instead of having short sentences, the students have tools to help them create longer, more detailed sentences.

Speaking Dialogue with Mo Willems

Many of the kids have been using dialogue in their writing, so I thought, what a perfect time to discuss the formalities of using dialogue in writing. Understanding that quotations go around what is being said can be quite difficult to understand at first. So we are using the help from one of our favorite authors, Mo Willems, to help us! Willems is famous for his Elephant & Piggie books, which are written in all dialogue and pictures. The kids are currently working on their own versions! I’m excited to see what they come up with. We will use these books to help us understand where our quotations marks should go with the help of speech bubbles.

Fractions, Fractions, and More Fractions

We are still working with fractions. It looks like the kids really have a grasp on the part/whole of a fraction. We will slowly be moving into looking at fractions on a number line, which I’m sure will prove quite challenging! I know the kids are up for it!!!