The One With a Preview of Our Future!

This week we started a new unit in information writing…colleges and universities! I can honestly say I’ve never seen my students more excited about learning! SO many students are wanting to stay in at recess to research more about their university! How great is that?! I’ve had parents come up to me and say, “I hear ________ is planning on going to the University of Wyoming!” Here’s how we started our researching and built the excitement!

  

This is just a preview since we are only in the research phase:

First we thought aloud about what a college and university is. After a few partner and group shares we were able to create good background knowledge on what college is. Since many of my students haven’t thought that far ahead and many will be the first in their family to go to a university we did a preview of about 45 colleges and universities. 

I wanted everyone in the class to be able to identify and feel truly interested in a few different schools. Here were our categories, each had 4-7 universities. 

 

Colorado Schools - Where we are! Each school represented is being researched in our class!

Iowa Schools - Where Ms. Buikema is from! Each school in this category is being researched and MANY wanted UNI! *proud alum*

Near Colorado – Many students picked schools nearby in Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

California – So many of my students take trips to California so it was no surprise that all the schools in this category were picked.

High in Academics – We have a few students researching Yale, Princeton, and MIT!

Related to the Military – This was a category that was quickly scooped up and I had to rush to google and find more schools. I thought about having them choose from the other 20 schools still on the table but I really wanted them to love and be interested in their school.

Football/Basketball Schools – Some big name schools in the country, sports aren’t everything but it’s a first step in getting certain kids interested. Two boys in this category have been in every recess learning more about Duke and Baylor! My evil genius plan worked.

After we received our schools, students also received their new portfolio for this unit. For some reason manila file folders help students feel more like “writers” it also is a better organizational piece for me! Everyone’s folder is kept in a hanging file folder based on their table color. They can pull it outside of writing time independently. Independence + Organization = My Happy Place. 

 

 

The first two days of researching we were all in the computer lab. Before going into the lab I showed an example of a school website and how to navigate. WOW! I have a bone to pick with some school website creators. So many were pretty ridiculous to navigate. BUT the overall objective of learning bits and pieces and getting excited about our schools was still achieved. 

Our last two days of researching students were in the classroom. I printed (in the most tree friendly way) everyone a few pages from their university’s Wikipedia page. I know, I know…Wikipedia. It’s better than it used to be and, to be honest, has more valuable information than some school websites. 

In addition to our printouts students who were researching diligently were able to use the iPads or computers in our class to find information online. As a class I think the interactive maps/campus tours are our favorite! 

Looking Ahead:

A project that I will share another day that coincides with our research is the “Cardboard Challenge.” It’s a STEAM project where students create something out of cardboard and then have a chance to present at a district wide fair. As a class we are participating and choosing one prominent building, statue, or symbol on our college campus to create! Students have started to pick their buildings and do more research on the look and importance of their building.

The One with a Freebie…And a Dog

Today I’m going to try my hand at TpT! For now, just freebies until I perfect my skills. (I did create a literacy center game to pair with Bananagrams a while ago, but that was a copyright issue, oops – I’m new!) 

A few weeks ago I did a mini lesson around the book, The Daythe Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. Amazing book! There are many different writing ideas you can take out of it but since our overall unit is Opinion we went the persuasive route. Recently we jumped into Lucy Calkins with two feet. While my Lucy fandom varies from day-to-day it can be monotonous – cue our crayon mini lesson. 

For us third graders who have been working on voice and persuasion in speeches the lesson took 3 days, for others it may take longer depending on the level of exposure to opinion writing.

In the lesson freebie it goes in to MUCH more detail but I will keep it short and sweet for all of you! 

Day 1

We read the first page of the book with purpose, trying to hear what the crayon was persuading the boy to do. Then we read it again listening to his great voice and examples. I read a few more colors which we added to a chart that organized what the crayons wanted and examples of how they spoke directly to the audience. 

That was all the more time we needed to start brain storming objects in our lives that would want to quit. My class example was our pencils, (something students have knowledge on and something that really would quit in room 21) students came up with their Xbox, tablets, couch, grass, soccer ball and much more! 

After our objects were decided we did many partner brainstorms and class share-outs to decide why they want to quit, examples the object will use, and how they will address the audience (them!).

They did surprisingly well taking on the role of the object and writing to themselves – it’s something we’ve never worked on but they fooled some teachers around the district who came to observe. 

Day 2

Most students wrote more the day before than they have all year. I think that has to do consistently using Lucy and having a motivating activity in front of them. Either way we were done drafting and ready to revise! 

Today students heard three other crayon colors stories (they begged for even more!) and this time really listened to the emotion and vocabulary the crayon used. We took this as an opportunity to add better emotion and vocabulary to our own writing. 

Day 3

We finished the book, The Day the Crayons quit, spoiler – the last crayon is the funniest and will have your class in stiches. Add an extra minute to your lesson so they can come down back to class. 

Today students finished revising, did minor editing, and published their page for our class book. Students who finished early could add a drawing to enhance their writing. 

My kids really enjoyed this lesson and I’m happy to pass the idea along! As promised in the title of this post … a puppy! 

This weekend I had the absolute JOY of dog sitting my 3^rd grade teammate/dear friend’s sweet dog. My dog fix was not satisfied this weekend and instead I’m toggling back and forth between doggie websites. A puppy here I come! Tagdog is a beautiful Alaskan Malamute whose beauty you all need to see. Thanks for sharing him for the weekend, Em! In true Colorado fashion it was 70 all weekend and we got to spend a lot of time outdoors – he also received more compliments at dinner than a supermodel (or so I would suppose) a record 30-40+. Luckily it doesn’t go to his head. 

 

For sticking out the lengthy post, here’s Tag!