Write About ANYTHING...really?!?!?

this is the way i felt when i found out i could blog about anything this week - shocked, excited, yet a bit apprehensive.  now the day is here...anything, i thought.  that's so....broad. does that mean i don't even have to capitalize?...looks like it  :)  my husband, rushing me to get my work done, has been throwing out random "anything" topics for the past five minutes - including a post about the dairy queen oreo blizzard we just devoured.  between throwing out bright ideas, and truly for the past three hours, he's been singing ONE line of a song he started learning on the guitar today. the line consists of ten words and fifteen syllables. while i love him and his voice dearly, i'd  honestly be better off if i never heard any one of those words or syllables ever again. as retaliation, i started singing the song i've had in my head all day - the wiggle song.  "let's show everybody how we wiggle, wiggle.  let's show everybody we wiggle, wiggle. wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle"...i'll leave the rest of the song to your imagination.  yes, i've obviously been spending WAY too much time with first graders.  ironically when we sing this song in the afternoons it's the only time the kids don't wiggle -- i'm an elementary ed major and the wiggle song is annoying to me - so imagine the effect it had on my husband. i'll tell you one thing - he hasn't sung one time since i started this post ;)

jaguars, toucans, and sloths - OH MY!

'We should use kids' positive states to draw them into learning in the domain where they can develop competencies. Flow is an internal state that signifies that a kid is engaged in a task that's right...you can learn best when you have something you care about and you can get pleasure from being engaged in' (Goleman 1995).

This quote from the Allen and Swistak article is something we talk a lot about in my classes.  We are taught  to carefully observe and listen to students, reflect on lessons, allow student choice within a democratic classroom, and plan thoughtfully to base lessons on student interests - in turn letting the students guide the learning, creating a more engaging classroom environment.

Hence, the reason for my "Save the Animals of The Great Kapok Tree" week-long writing workshop unit.  This book had been read before in Mrs. McCreight's class in relation to the persuasive genre, followed by students firing out multiple questions about the location of the rainforest, destruction of the rainforest, and people and animals of the rainforest.  At the time, teachers were ill-prepared for such questions and unable to take the time to address their curiosities.  So, for my unit I chose to re-read the book and take the first day simply to strengthen student interest by answering all of their questions.  I showed a slideshow of pictures of the tribes within the Amazon, animals that live there, and images of the deforestation of the Amazon.  Students were pulled in, making the next 4 days of my unit so much easier.  When students are engaged, behavior issues virtually disappear, creating more time to teach and learn.  


For the rest of the week, students researched an animal of their choice from The Great Kapok Tree- either sloths, jaguars, boa constrictors, or toucans.  After several days of research and filling out a graphic organizer, students wrote a persuasive letter to encourage others to help save these endangered species.  The class decided that one thing they could do in addition to writing these letters to help these animals would be to share with others the danger these animals are in and things they could do to help.  So, on Friday we did a museum share inviting another 1st grade class and several people from around the school and the community.  To end, here are some pictures from the final day: