One of our last writing projects was nonfiction research and writing. The students enjoyed researching an animal and putting together their information in a final book. We started our research by taking notes on the topics of what the animal looks like, the habitat, what the animal eats, and fun facts. We put our notes into complete sentences. We wrote our complete sentences into our books. We ended with a page about the author. This class did a wonderful job on their nonfiction writing!
We had a lot of fun writing our own Piggie and Elephant stories in the month of April. Earlier this week we visited kindergarten to share our completed stories. Kindergarten had recently written about their favorite Piggie and Elephant books. We knew they would love to hear our own versions of these two loveable characters!
On Friday, the 1st graders invited us to their classroom to listen to the books they just published. You did a great job on your writing 1st graders! Thanks for sharing your books with us!
Over the last month we worked on writing and illustrating 4 different poems in our writing block. The students wrote acrostic poems, portrait poems, haikus, and 2 words on a line poems. After writing at least 3 of each poem, each student picked out their favorite of each poem to publish. The final page in our booklets is "About the Author." On this page the students are able to share more about themselves with their readers. Their books turned out beautiful! We shared our booklets with the first graders once they were finished.
December is a fun month in 2nd grade for many reasons, and one of the top reasons is our letter writing unit! Once we learn how to write our letters, we put our mailbox outside our door and start sending out mail! As the students write their letters each day, they sign up for conferences to review their letters with me before sending them out the door. Each day we have two students deliver mail, and they receive their letters in the classroom that have arrived for them in our mailbox. This unit is so motivating for the students to work on their writing skills!
We've been learning about adjectives all year, and this week we used adjectives to describe ourselves. We started the lesson by bringing up one of our sweet girls who also happened to be a birthday girl that day. As the class brainstormed all sorts of adjectives to describe this student, I wrote them on sticky notes and stuck them right to her. This is always pretty funny to the class, and it gets the students thinking about a variety of adjectives. The students then had to use 5 words to describe themselves and complete their adjective people. They used words such as smart, funny, kind, happy, helpful, artistic, fast, and many more. There are so many wonderful adjectives that can be used to describe this group of students!
At the end of the week we started an art and writing project to go along with Thanksgiving. The students completed a directed drawing of a turkey, used their water colors to paint them, and then wrote about what they are thankful for. It is always so sweet to read about what is important to the students. They sure love their families!
Earlier in October we read "Crankenstein" by Samantha Berger and made our own Crankensteins. We also started working on our own Crankenstein writing. Everyone brainstormed ideas about what makes them cranky. In the book the character gets cranky about waking up early, running out of syrup, when his ice cream melts, and many other funny situations. We shared our ideas and laughed about them as well because we all get cranky from time to time. This class loves to read each other's writing. It is really fun to see!
A few weeks ago we finished up our booklets we started on the first day of school. Based on the book "You're Finally Here" by Melanie Watt, the students started with a bubble map with their ideas of 3 events they did over the summer. These bubble ideas were then turned into complete sentences. These sentences were written in their booklets and illustrated. The final page was about what the students are looking forward to in 2nd grade. These booklets are down on the rug for the students to enjoy reading. They did such a good job!
At the beginning of the year we take time to make our writing binders a special place to hold our writing. The students use pictures of themselves, family, and friends to make collages that will decorate their binders and help them with writing ideas in the future. I also love looking at their pictures and the collages they make to see what is important in their lives. The students will fill up their binders with stories of playing with friends, riding their bikes, going on vacations with their families, playing their favorite sports, details of their pets, and so much more! Writing is a special time of the day. We turn down the lights, turn on our quiet music, and put our thoughts down on paper. They are so proud of what they write!
