Bring a Leaf to School Day

Friday was Bring a Leaf to School Day. Though most of my class forgot to bring a leaf, it was a great success. Now don't leaf me alone. I did maple sure that each student got a leaf. We ran to our school woods and grabbed ten which we sorted, classified and arranged into different leaf creatures.

Then each child chose one leaf to spend the weekend at school. Little did they know, the leaves would not stay just sitting on their desks. They got up and...

I have a whole book that I made about what the leaves did when we all left Friday. I like writing. I haven't always. The more I do it the more I enjoy it. I know that I need to do it, so my students will do it. They will come into school Monday knowing I have a book to share with them. The wonderful, amazing, awesome thing that happens is that many of them have been at home this weekend writing books, too! Making writing fun for you students means they will want to write more and more each day. The more they write, the better they write. The better they write, the more they'll write! Write-on!

If you would like a springboard for your own story or if you would like  a funny story to read with your kids about leaves in school, this book is reasonably priced and you can print it out or just keep it on your computer! Check it out HERE!

Out the Window I Can See...

Next year I'm moving into a room with a window. I'm so excited to be able to look out the window any time.  There are benefits to NOT having a window. I imagine that it is a cloudy rainy day and so I don't mind being stuck inside. We read the "Goodbye Hello Window" last week and decided we needed some windows in our classroom. Why not make our own? We brainstormed about all the things we would want to see if we could see anything at all when opening our curtains. We drew our pictures and then wrote about what was outside. The responses were quite eclectic! I found this one to be the very sweetest...

Wouldn't you love having your child write about how pretty, smart and talented
you are? His mom is quite special! 

This Red Wing hockey fan would love to have a bedroom
that looked out over the ice!

South Africa, anyone? Or maybe...

Paris in the spring!

Tonight when I looked out the window I saw this...

Does this have an effect on your students?

The Next Day...

My first graders were so happy to be reunited with their leaves today! I had them draw a scene around their leaves to make up a new story with their leaf character. They loved the book that I had written for them and asked to read it again and again!

This leaf is on the Titanic...He likes it...It hasn't hit an iceberg, yet!

We have been talking a lot about main idea and details, so I was thrilled to hear them talking to each other about the details they were putting into their pictures. The book study on "In Pictures and In Words" really gave me a new perspective on the illustration process. I used to, and still sometimes do, insist on writing first then illustrating as a reward. Because writing's goal is to express your ideas starting by getting the picture down has helped many of my authors because they can get their ideas down on paper before they have to use mysterious symbols to do it!  They use their illustrations as a springboard for their writing.

This leaf got trapped in Pharaoh's pyramid!

This leaf is a princess and is going to rescue Rapunzel!

This leaf  has the right idea! Time for coffee!!