Back to School Already?

     Has it already been a month since school got out?  Wow, summer is flying by.

     I went to my first summer inservice workshop on Friday (Using iPads in the Classroom... I learned so much!!) and it dawned on me that the back to school season is already upon us.  Have you noticed that now that the 4th of July stuff is out of the stores the shelves are filling up with school supplies?  My brain has been sort of half-processing school ideas all summer, but now is the time to rev it up to full gear.  

     I was on Pinterest the other day collecting ideas for anchor charts, and it reminded me of my favorite one that I made last year.  My munchkins and I were talking about the reason an author writes a book or story (author's purpose), and I was relating their purpose in writing to the books and stories we had read in class.

     I LOVE making anchor charts with the munchkins so they have ownership of the information.  I pre-programed this chart with the definitions and key words, then I wrote titles of stories and books we had read in class on sticky notes as we talked about them.  As a follow-up activity, my munchkins wrote the title of the books in their book boxes on sticky notes and placed them in the proper place on the chart.  Later, we took the titles of the stories we were writing and classified them with the same chart.

      I'm hoping to use more anchor charts this year to help solidify student learning, and I want to make them as interactive as possible.  If it's me up there writing on chart paper, then it is just another poster on the wall. But if the kids help make it and consistently use it to shape their thinking, then it becomes a useful learning tool.

     I would love to hear about any anchor charts you use with your class.  Please share!

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It's the End of the Year as We Know It...

Wow.  I had an entire blog post written, with pictures and links, and it has disappeared.  Grrr.  I guess yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Monday.

Anyway... my missing post was about finishing up the year on a positive note.  I was writing in response to a post on Clutter-Free Classroom about what teachers do to end the school year.

This time of year is always hard because state testing is over, and students and teachers alike are daydreaming about all they'll do over the summer.  Also, after being in a classroom together for more than nine months, we're beginning to get on each others' nerves.  It's hard to see the fraying at the edges of our classroom community, but I like to use it as an opportunity for some reflection and positive interaction.

Friends Forever is a letter writing project that closes out the year in a very positive, uplifting way.  Students write friendly letters to each other, saying only nice, positive things.  The letters are collected, bound, and given to each student on the last day of school.  There are usually lots of tears and laughter as students read their memory books and think back to all the things we've done during third grade.  I always include pages in the back for students to sign yearbook-style, and with questions (What was your favorite....?) for students to answer.

What are some of your favorite ways to end the school year on a positive note?

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