The children always have news and stories to share. Sometimes it’s difficult to listen to everyone’s stories every day, so I wanted a way in which they could share their news. I’m also always looking for ways to incorporate more reading and writing. The answer was a tweet board. The children may write news on the tweet board several times each week. Their special area teachers and past teachers have really enjoyed reading the tweets too! This was our first day of tweets last week.

We will take some of our writings through the writing process this year. The steps are prewriting, rough draft, revise (organization and word choice), edit (punctuation, spelling and capitalization), and final draft. The first project that we have taken through the writing process is “My Top Ten”. Our prewriting activity included reading Wallace’s Lists. We brainstormed that favorites might include such things as food, places, activities, animals, and people. We discussed our ideas with a classmate and then wrote our rough draft. I had a short editing conference with each child to correct spelling. The final drafts are hanging in the hallway.

We use words when we think and communicate, and they are the foundation of all learning. Having a rich vocabulary is critical for reading comprehension and strongly linked to academic success. Some words are taught through direct instruction, but many of them are learned through independent reading. I used some of my classroom start-up funds to purchase some new vocabulary games. We’ll be learning vocabulary while we’re having fun!

We are learning how to use quotation marks correctly when writing dialogue.
We used macaroni noodles to make the commas and quotation marks.