Veterans Day for Elementary Students

Veterans Day for elementary students can be a great time to instill a sense of pride in our country.  Elementary students (and teachers) can sing patriotic songs in honor of the day, such as "I'm Proud to be an American."  The choir at the first elementary school I taught at was a central part in the town's Veterans Day parade and would nail this song every time.  Veterans Day is also a great time to find out if your students have family members who served in the military.  I love how it makes for such an easy and engaging conversation to build community!

Like most Americans, I am incredibly thankful for the brave men and women who serve(d) our country.   In fact, several men in my family are/were veterans (they served in the Army and sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom).  At my middle school growing up, we had an annual tradition: hosting a Veterans Day assembly in which we invited neighborhood veterans, sang the national anthem and learned about their service.  We even had a Veterans Day Poster Constest each November to help decorate for the event.  I remember learning so much from my own research and feeling proud to see my poster hanging on the cafeteria walls!

 Recently, I discovered the Library of Congress has a wonderful program called the Veterans History Project in which you are able to interview and document the experiences of your beloved member of the military.  Not only that, but it is an excellent online source for your students to practice their research skills through their extensive catalogue of veteran profiles. 

Each year at this time, I play the Veterans Day brainpop video clip during snack time, but that was about it.  Was I really doing this day justice? NO WAY!! So, I created a meaningful computer lab activity (which can also be used as ELA center activity) perfect for Veterans Day.  I took my time to find just the right archive of experiences on the Veterans History Project site, and have it bookmarked on my class website for students to access.  Then, students can select any 3 veterans with photo images to research more about (eventually they choose just 1 to do the biography poster write-up for).  If I need to narrow down the list a little bit more for my students, I'll tell them to focus on learning more about veterans with their same first initial or last initial.
The research note-taking sheet we use is pictured below. 

I like to demonstrate one together as a whole class, so I can show them where I look to find information on the website.  If the student would rather conduct a personal interview outside of school, they can use the same page.  However, they'd just interview the family members/friends they're interested in finding out more about to document their military experiences.  Afterwards, students will turn in this research sheet and indicate their top choices.  I do this to make sure that:

• there won't be multiple posters of the same veteran
• (for me) so I can start prepping a PowerPoint document with photo images of their veteran.  I'll size down the images (if needed) to make sure they fit on the final poster, and print them in color for the students to add to their Veterans Day projects!  

With November being the shortest month of the school year (in my opinion), we normally share with a partner or among table groups, but there isn't typically enough time to share each veteran's story with the entire class.  As a solution, I'll have students set their final posters on their desks and tour their classmates' work as part of a Veterans Day Gallery Walk.  

If I feel extra competitive when assigning the project, I even announce there will be a Veteran biography poster contest for the neatest work.  After completing the initial gallery walk, they'll go around with a small sticky note ripped in thirds (each with a sticky part).  They get to award the 3 posters they believe to demonstrate the "BEST" quality work by placing their sticky on the top edge of the person's poster (it shouldn't cover their work for other classmates to see).  THEY LOVE getting to DO THIS, but you have to make sure to let them know it's not so they can just put a sticky on their friend's poster, they have to be serious art critics!

Want this Veterans Day writing project to accompany research on the Veterans History Project in your classroom? Just, click the link below!

Paragraph Writing

Are you struggling to provide adequate examples of paragraphs when teaching your students how to write?  It takes A LOT of instructional effort to really drill in the craft and structure of writing to your students so they don't resort back to their poor and comfortable habits.  Not to mention, having examples of well-written paragraphs available and anchor charts posted during instruction for students to reference... I've spent far too many prep periods getting creating these materials myself!  What makes teaching & grading WRITING easier?  I'm so excited I finally figured out how to build stronger writers and I'm sharing some of my secret techniques to help you stop pulling your hair out!

#1 - Parts of a Paragraph Writing Anchor Chart!!  

If you don't have transitional phrases available, and you don't constantly reference them, then how do you expect your students to venture out farther then first, next, then, last?!?  My poster really stays up the first half of the year and is probably the most referenced in the classroom, aside from any class goal we are tracking.  As a teacher of developing 4th grade writers, I have learned that many kids passed 3rd grade not knowing how to indent their paragraphs, let alone what a paragraph is.  To find out more about how I scaffold paragraph writing instruction, grab my freebie over at my TpT store.

EXAMPLES of quality paragraph writing is key - because even though it may seem like common sense for students to put a dent at the beginning to match the look of the article they just read from, A LOT of time LIKE 95% of the time - they DON'T!!  Download this free resource to hear what wacky thing I do to help the kids remember to indent each paragraph.

#2 - Teach The STRUCTURE: Topic Sentence, Supporting Details & Conclusion Sentence

During the first part of the school year, we are in WRITING BOOT CAMP!  It's just training the students to know that holes live on the left side of a lined sheet of paper, how to write a proper heading, why we skip lines when we draft.  Beyond these simple mechanics, I break down the basics of quality writing: hammering down what is a COMPLETE SENTENCE and the STRUCTURE of a PARAGRAPH.  After we've gotten the hang of it (and all students have received one-on-one feedback on how to improve their writing from me at least twice during the year - written or verbal), normally by mid-late September - it's time to relinquish some control.   I slowly pull back because it's time to let their INDIVIDUAL WRITING STYLES SHINE!

#3 - Use Writing Frames with Struggling Writers

One of the hard realities I've learned is that grading the writing from my below-level students is PAINSTAKINGLY difficult because it takes me forever to read through them!!  There's just so many gaps, I don't even know where to begin.  Often, these are my ELL (English Language Learner) students and Resource students (those on an IEP for writing).  These guys typically have such a strong work ethic, but they just need that little BOOST to get them going on the writing assignment.

What are writing frames? Well, they begin as a sentence starter, but also include other parts of the rest of the sentence, so that's why it's called a frame instead.  Even though making the frames takes me extra work, it helps me to create my teacher exemplar along the way.  My example above shows that the structure and grammatical syntax has been setup for the student, so they can focus on inserting their ideas.  As time goes on, and their skills progress, this will fade away (especially since they won't get this kind of help on assessments) but it does wonders to boost their confidence and abilities at the onset.  TIP: If you have a non-English speaker who you're unable to communicate with, why don't you modify their assignment and let them complete the writing frame after running it through Google Translate and converted it into their native language?  My Korean students have loved working this way!

#4 - Get Familiar with the Rubric BEFORE Assigning Writing

For the first five years of my life as a teacher, I absolutely HATED rubrics.  I was ANTI-rubric.  Why? Well, it's because I always had to use the ANCIENT, TEDIOUS and WAY TOO LONG rubric required by the district.  Also, for the first four years I taught, I was forced to sit through a Professional Development Day grading three class sets of on-demand writing using this 36 point rubric (6 point-rating-scale for the six traits of writing).  Therefore, I was burned out by rubrics and basically made the executive decision that my students would be happier if they never saw a rubric.

Recently, I took it upon myself to align the rubric I used in class to the ones my students would see later on when we took our state test.  Once again, it was WAY TOO WORDY (we're talking size 6 font). So, I tried my best to create a THOROUGH rubric that would make it EASY-to-GRADE!  At the bottom, you'll notice a spot for students to explain their self-evaluation because I want them to really benefit from reflecting on the quality of work they produce!

Amazingly, once I FELT COMFORTABLE with the rubric we would be using, my students started getting used to them too! (cue the Selena Quintanilla song, "I'm Getting Used to You!")

 Also, my grading turnaround time improved.  I started referencing them more throughout the writing process, and eventually I learned to LOVE rubrics (once they were already made, of course!)  Making them is still a pain, but luckily you can collaborate with your teammates when your brain is fried!

#5 - Give Your Students PLENTY of PRACTICE WRITING

I don't TORTURE myself with 5 paragraph stories or essays except for ONCE or TWICE a quarter.  Instead, I keep it manageable with paragraph prompts to assess my students' abilities in writing (a HUGE THANKS to my principal for this great idea!!)  The trick she shared, is even when you do assign the long-winded assignments, just pull out one or two paragraphs and provide a grade from that evidence.

Branching off my principal's advice to just focus on paragraphs, I began to make it a point to assign writing that kids can CONNECT with and feel MOTIVATED about with just a little bit of persuading on my part.  Whenever I can, I make sure it's an assignment which can be completed when we go to the Computer Lab as a Google Classroom activity.  This lets ME 😀format the font style and look of the final draft, but ELIMINATES the need to decipher illegible or sloppy writing because now it's typed up (what a blessing!)

For Halloween, I challenged my students to convince me they knew the best Halloween costume for me to wear.  Whoever convinced me the best, would win the chance to see me come to school dressed in that costume.  Well, we all REALLY enjoyed this activity, and since I received so many Harry Potter themed costumes, but I was too late in getting to the store before Harry Potter robes sold out, I thought outside of the box.

I LOVE all things gold and all things Harry Potter, so I browsed Amazon Prime for some props to make a DIY Golden Snitch costume.  It was a HIT!

If you're interested in adding the Halloween Teacher Costume Challenge or other Fall Bitmoji Paragraph Prompts into your classroom, click the image above.  Thorough was my goal while making this, so you can use it year after year.  As you might have guessed, I want ALL of the THINGS ready-to-go when I'm assigning writing!!

Top 5 Classroom Must Haves

Have you ever bought something for your classroom and thought it was going to be SO GREAT, but you immediately had buyer's remorse about one week in (or even shorter)? 

Over the years, I've found that these are ESSENTIALS that deserve to restocked in your classroom because they ROCK!

1. Jumbo Paperclips There's just something about the slick quality of these that glide easily over my stacks of papers.  I don't even bother with the standard paper clips anymore, they can't compare!
2. Staples-brand Heavy Duty Pencil Sharpener by far the most precise point time and time again, although it's a little noisy- this sharpener is my FAVORITE, especially since I don't need to use the rotating dial for different diameters.  We're a standard #2 pencils ONLY sharpening classroom here!
3. Magic Erasers Any smudge or leftover paint stain vanishes quickly with this awesome cleaning tool!  This also makes for a great accessory for your class tidy team expert to use when making the classroom look spic and span!
4. Inkjoy gel pens By far, my favorite pen to write notes in!! I can put together my to-do list in this vibrant gel ink from Inkjoy that won't smudge.  My only qualm is the ink isn't waterproof but that would probably mess with their secret formula.  I have had a couple of water spilling accidents that ended in big black puddles of ink on my notebooks, but that was because of my own clumsiness.  Inkjoy really does create joy through their innovative ink products!
5. White Vinegar Although this may seem like an odd choice for a teacher, vinegar has a variety of uses.  When I buy vinegar for my classroom, I invest in the gallon-size jug because it will get plenty of use out of me during the school year.   #1 Science Experiments - mixing baking soda and vinegar is a classic yet engaging activity!  #2 Slime Cleaning Solution - surprisingly, when a fresh batch of red slime plummeted to my classroom carpet, it was not a total game ender.  My student shared with me that if we added vinegar to the clump of slime that attached itself to the carpet fibers, then it would reactivate the slime and she'd be able to clean it all off.  Much to my surprise, she was right! My janitor was happy about this as well. :)

You can find all of these items at Staples, but if you are just out and about at the grocery store, or Target - you'll find everything but the pencil sharpener there!  If you're an Amazon-a-holic, you can get everything using the links above!

(DISCLAIMER: I'm not an affiliate, I don't get paid by any of these brands, I'm just a genuine fan of all these items!)

Happy Shopping!