Family Reading Night

Tonight was Family Reading Night at our school. It was a relaxed well-attended event. For the last two years, I've provided a book-making table. It was a simple way to promote writing at school and at home. This year's theme was Super Heroes so in addition to two sizes of books, I added comic book paper. I also provided some sample sketches of cartoon facial features for eyes, noses, and mouths. Add pencils, crayons, markers, and the freedom to create a book about whatever the kids want to make. The best part is talking with the children about their books. I usually send home blank books with students if they want them. It is amazing how folding a piece of paper and calling it a book can spark young writers of all ages.

Custer Family Reading Night 2013

Family Reading Night

My book making table at my school's Family Reading Night was a hit! As you can probably tell, we had a tropical luau theme to the evening. I was amazed at how many students were so excited to make a book about whatever they wanted. Several of the kids wrote about their parents.  I could tell the adults were quite touched when they read their child's book. Almost every student took extra blank books home to write even more. I think this counts as a writing celebration. Thanks for all of your great ideas! I'm already thinking about next year.

Kids and parents writing books! You can't see it but
there is an author board at the end of the table. After
the writers finished their books, they signed the board.

Ahhh, nothing like a good beach read.

These friends know how to relax at the beach. By the end
of the night, I was ready to take a nap too. :)

They Could Make Books!

Our elementary school of 1200 students is one of the largest in the state of Michigan. So many kids. So many teachers. And so many parents. It is a significant challenge to foster a sense of community and neighborhood in a 2-building campus of this size. Every year during March, our school has several events to celebrate Reading Month. Family Reading Night is coming up this Tuesday. Since last year was my first year in the school, I wasn't quite sure how to contribute to this event so I hung back and sort of watched how things worked. I looked for an activity that I could set up as a station and could accommodate all the kids and their family members that typically attend. I decided to create a book making table. I’ve been busily making simple paper books of various sizes. This has proved to be an excellent activity to do while sitting on the deck during the day and watching basketball in the evening. Since there is a luau theme for the event, I am planning on heading to Hobby Lobby to search for a grass skirt to go around my table. And maybe I could decorate a science board in case anyone wants to display the books they create. Ideas anyone????

Prezi Love

My principal asked me to make a slide show of some writing celebrations happening in two third grade classrooms. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to play with Prezi. And play I did. It is easy, fun to use, and free. Educators are eligible to use an upgraded version of Prezi for free. I love that I can embed images, video clips, or blog posts directly into the slideshow. I like that Prezi slide shows give viewers a sense of the whole and how the parts or individual slides relate to the whole. The biggest thing is to avoid too much panning or it can give viewers motion sickness. In the last slide, I linked a ThingLink image I created with classroom pictures from the celebrations. I put them into a collage using Picasa, saved the collage as a JPG, then uploaded it as a single image. Here is my Prezi. I rather like it. Hope my principal does too. 

Celebrating Writers on Prezi

An Easy Writing Celebration: Gallery Walk

I can’t stop thinking about Tytiana. Right after Thanksgiving, I started a fresh coaching cycle in a third grade class during their writing workshop. We only had a few weeks until Christmas vacation and I wanted the students to have the opportunity to celebrate their writing before the break. The students, their teacher, and I decided to use their quick writes about “hands” and turn them into finished pieces.  Some kids wrote about their own hands, the hands of a parent or sibling, or Santa’s hands. The format for the celebration was very simple. The kids put their fancied-up “hand” writing in the middle of their cleared off desks then stood quietly nearby. We had invited another class, administrators, secretaries, and some teachers to attend the gallery walk the week before.  As guests arrived, they signed in and browsed the pieces at their leisure. They were free to pick up the writing, read it, and ask the writers questions. After about fifteen minutes or so, the teacher and I asked the attendees, as a group, what stuck with them about the pieces they had read or seen.  The guests noticed that even though everyone had written about hands, all the pieces were different.  Many of the visitors noticed that the writers had used similes. Lots of compliments. Lots of smiles.  Then our visitors were thanked and they departed. Quick and painless. As soon as everyone left, the class, their teacher, and I gathered at the carpet to debrief. The kids were bursting with excitement. One little girl, Tytiana, a decidedly reluctant writer, was smiling so wide I thought her cheeks were going to pop.

“Tytiana, you are smiling so much! Are you happy?”

(enthusiastic head nod)

“Did it feel good to share your writing with Mr. P’s class?”

(another enthusiastic head nod)

“Did you want to tell why it felt so good?”

(animated head nod and a big breath in)

“Wellllllllll, this girl read myyyyyyy writing.”

“So, why was this so wonderful for you, Tytiana?”

(big breath in)

“Welllll, she is in my cheernastics class annnnnnnd, usually  . . . she doesn’t even notice me. Today . . . she did!”

I looked over at Tytiana’s teacher biting my lip and swallowing hard. Tytianna continued.

“She never even talked to me before. (pause) Cuz, IIIIIIIII’m like on the bottommmm of the pyramid, yunno, and she’s on top cuz she’s smaller.”

Tytiana struggles in so many ways. But that day was different. Tytiana wasn’t struggling. She was noticed. She was noticed and smiled at and respected. And by the way, her writing has amazing voice!