Building a Writer's State of Mind

We always try to build a positive attitude about writing from day one.  Sharing writer's craft is so crucial to gaining  student's buy into writing as a whole.  So, we try to pick great mentor texts that showcase different teaching points in writer's workshop.  Here is our Top Ten:

1.  Climbing Kansas Mountains by George Shannon.  It is a great mentor text to introduce small seed story ideas to your students.  Also it includes great descriptive language.  We use this mentor text in our narrative leads.

2.  The Best Story by Eileen  Spinelli.  I love how this speaks about telling the story from your heart.  Also, that the story only needs to be important to you.  We use this text to help writers generate ideas for narratives.

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Becoming a Tribe

The first days of school are so important for establishing your classroom's climate. So every year we try to begin with great mentor texts that help build classroom expectations, a positive atmosphere, and contribute to great lessons. This year we decided to change it up and try some new mentor texts. Each of the text will be used at some point later in the year, but for now we will really focus on the goal of building camaraderie, classroom ownership, and strong friendships. Below is our new and improved list:

1. I Like Myself 

by Karen Beaumont

It is a great lesson on appreciating yourself for who you are. We plan on reviewing character traits with our new 4th graders and emphasizing the positive traits and building self-esteem. They must first be strong in who they are before they can become a great friend to someone else.

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Teacher Treasures

One thing that is almost impossible for a teacher to do is turn off the teacher brain even during the summer months. We think about all of the things we want to do better next school year: classroom decor, organization, behavior expectations, read alouds, and so on. You cannot deny that we all have a summer to-do list that is a mile long. So, to help feed that teacher brain - and possibly make that list a tad longer - we are going to share some treasures that we have fallen in love with this summer. Our to-do list is ever growing, so we thought yours should be too! You're welcome!

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