Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade is having a Linky Party to celebrate over 1,000 followers. She is giving away not one, but two of the most amazing pencil sharpeners ever! The best part, this pencil sharpener is amazingly q-u-i-e-t! Head on over and link up!

Rock Star Writing....

While shopping for a few organizational items at Wal Mart today, I got sidetracked discovered these....

The picture quality takes away from these sparkly items! They are pencil pouches in the form of a guitar and a pink microphone with sequins galore! I am going to put special pens/pencils in them to help motivate my students during writer's workshop.  I will choose two students per day who did their personal best while writing in their journals. We will celebrate the two students by cheering for our Rock Star Writers and presenting them with the guitar and microphone pencil pouches. They will have the use of the pens/pencils and the pouches for the following day, and then we will celebrate two more writers rock stars.

Hopefully this will motivate them to do their best and to get back in the swing of things after the break.

Tomorrow is a planning day for us and the kiddies come back Thursday.

Table Talk

To encourage participation from all learners, I have instituted what I refer to as "Table Talk" in my classroom. I simply cover a rectangular table with bulletin board paper and let the graffiti begin! Topics for the week for math, science, phonics, etc., are labeled in sections and the students are free to show what they know on the paper. This really helps those reluctant students who may be shy, or lack self-confidence as they do not have to get up in front of the class.

Here are some pics of Table Talk in action:

This was for our Dr. Seuss theme before we went to see Seussical the Musical for our field trip:

This Table Talk was when we decided to compare and contrast various pumpkins:

I have also used it for phonics - example divide the paper into sections to go along with our Imagine It Unit for the week. One week we wrote long i words. The sections were i spelled i, i spelled i_e, and _igh words. One week it was science based and they had to write about what they learned when we were working on food chains and food webs.

The table is by the door so when we line up to go to lunch, special area, or home, we can take a moment and review what the students have written.

What are you waiting for? Grab some paper and throw some markers on the table and let the learning begin! Students feel like they are experts and who does not like a little graffiti?

Happy New Year everyone!

I am back!

Sorry I have been missing in action! I am back and will post more later on today.

Happy 2012!