Slice of Life Challenge Winner

My students who participate everyday in the Slice of Life challenge will be entered in a drawing to win a handmade notebook from an Etsy designer. They are adorable and so affordable. If you would like to order one go to Kitt's Krafts. I posted the sign below today after I made the announcement to my class.
SOLC Winner

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Poetry

Poetry is one of my favorite genres to teach. I use poems all year long in my reading curriculum. We wrote "Where I'm From..." poems the week before George Ella Lyon visited. Today we studies Antwone Fisher's poems. Many of his poems repeat phrases or words. We talked about the significance in why writers choose to do this. Students then went to their map of their heart to pick out a topic that was meaningful to them that they knew they could write about. One student dictated to me and I am once again amazed at my writers. They do truly listen to their hearts.

After visiting with my writers as they began drafting their poems, I have my mini-lessons for next week: stanza form, use of white space, poem layout. I hoping to have these published by student led conferences.

Surprise

Monday morning I plan on surprising four of my students with matchbox notebooks. Students who wrote on Sunday will have an opportunity to win one of these. I had fun making them. I used the matchbox template at Mirkwood Designs. They were so easy to make!

Excitement with a slice

My students are ecstatic about our Slice of Life challenge, this morning as I read my slice of life about the student who called my house the excitement about what a slice is rippled through the room.

"So really what your asking us is to write about a small moment that happened today?" a student asked.

"Yes," I replied, "in fact I have another slice I can share with you and it is in a form of a poem."

I shared my poem from the day of the writing test. Silence was all I heard after I finished. Of course, this is when my stomach does a little twirl because I am a writer and I am sharing a piece of my heart.

"Wow, I love the words you used. You are a writer too...just like us"

Priceless moment.

Gearing Up for SOLC

Today was W-Day. The state mandated writing test for all 5th graders. Prompt was good. The kids wrote long and strong. Now we can all breathe. As the students opened their booklets this morning and then began to plan their essay it seemed as if they all let out a collective sigh about 3 minutes in~"We are writers" they seemed to say. This has been my mantra for them. So I wrote this..

Journey of a Writer

pencils scribbling
we are writers
eraser flecks
we are writers
pages rustling
we are writers
minds engaging
we are writers

dream
hope
believe
breathe

WE ARE WRITERS

~LYS~

Slice of Life Challenge

As I busily prepared the girls for bed the phone rang, “Hello?” I asked. I quickly put Emma in her pajamas as I continued my conversation with my friend. While talking with her someone called. Hopefully they will leave a message I thought. A few moments later as I hung up the phone I realized I had a message. The message was from a parent of a child in my classroom. I picked up the phone and dialed.

“Hello, Ms Snow,” my student said, “My mom is not conferring with me like you, so we decided to see if you could help me.”

We discussed the problem he was having in his piece and decided that the stopping point was a good one and he could resume in the morning with me. I hung up the phone, put the girls to bed, propped up my feet, and turned on my favorite show. About an hour later the phone rang again, it startled me. I looked at the clock and quickly answered the phone.

“Ms. Snow, I need to talk to you about the green comet,” the student said.

“Okay, what’s going on?” I asked.

Suddenly I heard a woman ask, “Who are you talking to? You DID NOT call your teacher did you?”

“Yes,” he replied softly, “I needed to tell her something.”

“Tell her goodbye and hang up NOW!” I heard her say quite forcefully.

“See you tomorrow,” he said as he clicked the phone.

I giggled and hung up the phone. I love being a teacher.

Memoir Monday~River Rafting

“Come on!” exclaimed Brandon. “You’re on vacation! You’ve got to do this!”

“It is fun, Lynnelle,” my mother commented.

“Okay! Let’s go!” I replied.

We changed into our swimsuits and loaded the raft into the bed of our truck. We were off! We unloaded at the dam and walked down the tiny trail to the loading area.

Brandon began to explain to me how to get into the raft when I just “gracefully” rolled in. He laughed and jumped into the raft.

The moment we arrived in the middle of the river I noticed the silence. It seemed almost deafening. As we continued the birds sang and locusts buzzed. I could hear the water rippling around the edges of the boat. Suddenly, I hear water rapidly moving over rocks. Our raft dips and cold water splashes over my side of the boat. Then the deafening silence returns.

Brandon and I were just enjoying the quiet and nature sounds, when we felt this heat as if an oven had suddenly turned on. I looked and I could see “wind” coming. Our raft whipped around as dust flew across the river. Then just as the heat suddenly arrived, it was gone. We were once again left with our thoughts and nature.