What Are Mentor Texts and How Can You Use Them?

Are you teaching writing with mentor texts to study and imitate writers? If not, be sure to read below - you're going to want to make sure you start ASAP because they make teaching writing so much more simple! And if you are using them - what would add to this list? Comment below!

The Raft

Scarecrow

More on Writing Conferences

Wondrous Words

Weekly Inspiration for Your Phone

 An oldie but goodie...

Save this image to your phone and set it as your wallpaper!

Making a Mother's Day Gift That's Also Educational

It's almost Mother's Day (May 8th!) and with that being said, it's time to plan a great classroom Mother's Day gift! My favorite gift involves some educational activities too!

Truffula Trees from The Lorax!

If you're doing gifts, why not tie in Earth Day and Mother's Day? I love to read The Lorax and then plant "Truffula Seeds" for the moms (or grandmas or dads!) You can read more about what I've done in the past, here. It's a great time to discuss our impact on the environment and what we can do to be better to our Mother Nature.

We plant some seeds in order to get more plants and flowers into the world! Some fast growing seeds include sunflowers, daisies, or zinnias. They typically sprout within 5-7 days (!!!!). I buy cheap pots, some acrylic paint, seeds, and soil to prepare. Then, I spend a day decorating and painting the pots with my students. The next day we plant our seeds in their pots using the soil and whichever seeds I've chosen!

Using my Plant Power lesson plans, students track the growth of their plant. From there we'll spend a few weeks measuring the growth, and the mean, median, and mode of the plant's height. It always helps my kiddos get more comfortable with these important math ideas and it's fun! Be sure to order your supplies (via Amazon Prime) this week in order to have flowers by Mother's Day!

How To Convert Your Fake Writers Into Real Writers

A few weeks ago I blogged about How to Spot Fake Writers. But once you spot them, it doesn't mean much until you know what to do about it. So here are some simple ways you can move your student from a fake writer to a real writer!

They may need frequent writing conferences and support... but it's a great start!

Weekly Inspiration // Change It

It's nearing the end of the school year and that means it's time to plan what you want to do differently next year. It shouldn't be much... but what change do you want to see? Start planning it now in order to make it happen next year!

Save this phone wallpaper to your phone and set it as your background in order to enjoy it all week long!

How to Demystify the Writing Process for Students

It's important to model how to tie your shoes, when your kids are learning. It's important to model how to brush your teeth, when you're learning. As writing teachers, we have a huge responsibility to model writing. Modeling writing during Writer's Workshop supports your students in ways that just "telling them" will never do. Here are the top reasons that modeling will pay off in dividends!

Why and how does modeling help your writers? I'd love to know - please share in the comments!

Weekly Inspiration

It's Spring! It's Spring! Let your phone wallpaper shout it from the mountaintops!

Save this image to your phone and set it as your wallpaper to enjoy for the week!