I'm Back and Mentor Sentences

Wow!  I can't believe my last post was in June.  My goal was to post several times a week over the summer but that definitely didn't happen.  I'm not completely sure why, but I was very unmotivated to do much this summer.  There were many things that caused this lack of motivation, but that is the past.  Now I'm back and excited about the new things that are happening in my world.

The first bit of big news is that I am now teaching third grade.  I really can't explain how excited I am about this.  After teaching fifth grade for the last four years I am now back to my beloved third grade.  Fifth grade had its advantages, but my passion is working with kids that are a bit younger.  And I must say that I lucked out with my group of 22 students.  I am in love with my class and can't wait to continue their third grade journey as their teacher.

Now to the main purpose of this post...

I ventured into the world of mentor sentences.  I first read about mentor sentences last spring from Ideas by Jivey.  I made the decision then that I would give a try this year.  When I found out that I would be teaching third grade I questioned that decision, but after thinking about it this summer, I decided to jump in.  

I used a sentence from the book, Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes.  The sentence was Lilly's parents were amused when Julius blew a bubble.

I chose this sentence because of the plural noun and possessive noun.  I have already noticed that my students have been mixing up when to use the apostrophe and when not to.

On Monday when the students walked into the room I had them glue the sentence into their notebook.    Together we did the Invitation to Notice.  This is where they notice all of the elements that make this sentence worthy of being a mentor sentence.  This is what we came up with.

I was shocked that one of my students came up with the fact that blew was a homophone.  (He didn't actually use the word homophone but he explained what he meant.). If I hadn't introduced mentor sentences I wouldn't have known that he knew that.  My students have also found several other homophones over the last week which tells me that they are already connecting to what they are learning.

On Tuesday we did the Invitation to Notice-Parts of Speech.  I had the students copy the sentence in their notebook, skipping lines.  Today was very informative for me.  I realized that they knew vey little about the parts of speech.  In fact, they only really knew what nouns were so that is all we labeled this week.  This is what we did.

I will introduce the other parts of speech starting next week.

On Wednesday we did the Invitation to Revise.  I spent some time explaining what it meant to revise.  I don't think many of my scholars had heard the word revise before.  I showed them my example.

Overall I was satisfied with what they came up with.  Most of them just added an adjective to describe the bubbles but that works for me for now.

On Thursday, we had the Invitation to Imitate.  I spent some time explaining what it meant to imitate and that writers imitate others all the time.  I showed them my examples.

We talked about what parts of the sentence was imitated and then I had them get started.  I was very nervous of what they would come up with, but I was extremely surprised by what they came up with.  I checked them as they finished and selected four of the best ones and had them write them on sentence strips. 

Then I hung them and the mentor sentence in our classroom window.

On Friday, I gave them an assessment where they had to correct the sentence and then circle the nouns in other sentences from the book since we focused on nouns this week. We completed this first assessment together so that they knew exactly what I expected.

I can't believe how well my first attempt at mentor sentences went.  I'm excited to see the growth of my students as we venture further into our mentor sentences.  

You can learn more about mentor sentences from Jivey here.   

Tried it Tuesday - Student Treasures Book Publishing

Have you ever wanted to allow you students actually publish real books?

Well there is a company that will publish hardbound books for your students and it is absolutely FREE!!

The company is Student Treasures.

I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tuesday Tried It.




This how the Student Treasures Book Publishing project works:

1. One representative from you school contacts the company to schedule a publishing date.

2. Teachers sign up for the type of book they want.
- Grades K-3 create 1 class book: You will receive 1 free copy of the book
- Students in grades 4-5 each create their own book: Each student will receive the free original copy of their book
- Teachers may choose to order books that are portrait or landscape
- Teachers may choose to order lined pages for students to write the text or blank pages for students to type the text

3. School representative order the number of necessary packets.

4. Envelopes arrive with all necessary materials.

5. Students work on books: writing, editing, and then publishing their books by either writing or typing and printing on the provided pages. Students also illustrate their stories.

6. Prior to completing the project, send home the parent letter. This letter invites parents to purchase extra copies of the book for about $20. Parents must check whether or not they want to buy extra copies, sign it, then return it to school. In order to receive free books ALL parents must sign and return this letter. But don't worry, they provide enough copies of the letters to send home a second form if necessary.

7. About a week prior to the publishing date, all envelopes are collected by the school representative.

8. The school representative boxes up all the envelopes and ships them back to Student Treasures using the provided mailing labels.

9. About 2 weeks after the publishing date, the published books arrive at the school.

Your students are now published authors.

I first tried Student Treasures about nine years ago. At that time students in 3rd grade could each make their own individual books, so my third graders made individual books. I completely fell in love with the company because my students had an amazing experience, their books turned out great, and of course, they were free.

Since then my school has used the company 2 more times. The books pictured above are from the year I taught second grade and made a class book. We decided to do a second grade ABC book. Most of the kids had two letters to contibuted to the book. They typed the text and then did the illustrations. I received the original copy and I had a few parents purchase extra copies.

This year my school has decided to use Student Treasures again. I introduced the project to my students yesterday and they are super excited about it. The idea of becoming published writers has them super engaged in the process. They have come up with some very interesting ideas for books. I'm excited to see their final products.

I am also going to print out all of their research projects which included an essay and PowerPoints. I will create a class book of those. We also wrote essays about Martin Luther King Jr. that I am going to create another class book of. I will be able to use these for examples in future years.

I'm glad that I could share this amazing project with you. I hope you can take advantage of Student Treasures at some point. Check out the website for more information.

Stop by Fourth Grade Flipper and link up.

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with the Five for Friday linky party from Doodle Bug Teaching for the first time.

This was a pretty slow week, but I thought I'd give it a try.

1. On Tuesday evening, the school orchestra had their second concert. This orchestra is sponsored by the Charlotte Symphony and provides students in grades 2-5 to learn to play an instrument. They can select from violin, cello, clarinet, flute, or trumpet. They also participate in chorus and bucket band. Students meet for practice three days a week. The amount of volunteers from the Charlotte Symphony is amazing. They really invest a lot of time into the program and our students are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity. (I recorded the grand finale, but I'm having trouble uploading it. I'll attach it as soon as I figure it out.)

2. Buckeyes - When I was a little girl, my grandmother would make buckeyes for Christmas. Buckeyes is the state symbol of Ohio, which is where I'm from. They are poisonous, however, the edible ones are delicious. You basically just mix peanut butter with powdered sugar and butter, roll them into small balls, place them into the freezer to harden, and finally dip the balls into melted chocolate. Amazing!!!! Well, these are my go to snack to make when I have to take something to share with my co workers. Wednesday was fifth grade's turn to bring snacks for the staff meeting, so I made a batch of buckeyes to share. They were a hit as always.

3. Is it spring break yet? My students definitely have spring fever. This is always the time of the year when fifth graders feel like they are too big to be in elementary and think they are already ready for middle school. That is definitely where my scholars are right now. We have implemented a behavior incentive program to help manage behavior. We had our first activity last Friday. We had a tug of war challenge between the different classes. Even though my class only won 1 out of their four matches they had a blast. The best part was the final competition. Four of the five fifth grade teachers vs one student in each class. Of course we won. We had to or they wouldn't have let us forget about it.

4. Cut and Grow - In writing this week we have been working on revising. Students are revising their Influential African American essays. This has consumed our week because the essays are due next Friday and we are running behind. I wrote a blog about revising here.

5. And finally, this week ends on a sad note. I realized that the man I was dating was not who I thought he was. While I still love him, I know its time to move on. I'm still struggling with the decision, but I know it is the right one for me right now. Now I just need to stay strong and keep busy this weekend so that I'm not spending all my time thinking about him. Wish me luck!!

Caught in a Web of Good Books

I hate changing bulletin boards!! In my opinion it is the worst part of teaching. At my school, we have to change our hallway bulletin boards by the last day of the month, so I have been thinking about what I could put on mine all week. I didn't really have any products planned for this week that would look good on the board so I had no idea of what I would do.

Well, that was until last night. I was scrolling through the pins on pinterest and saw a picture of a bulletin board with a spider web and spiders that read, "Tangled up in the webs of books!" (I didn't pin it so I don't have the website to link to it.) This board was for a school library. I liked the concept, but I still had to think of some kind of work that I could put on the board.

When I walked into my room today, I saw my wall that read, "Book Recommendations". (I haven't had the chance to start using this board yet.) But when I saw it I came up with an idea. Earlier this school year, someone created a post that showed pictures of their students peering over the cover of a book. They had created a book jacket of their favorite books. (Once again, I don't have the link to share.) I knew that I could combine the two ideas.

So during writing today, I had my students write a brief summary/description of a book that they have read this year; similar to what you would find on the back of a book. They also added a statement explaining why they would recommend this book. After they finished writing, I did a quick edit. I don't usually do that, but unfortunately there isn't enough time for them to peer edit. Tomorrow they complete the book jacket.

Here is the example that I made.

Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac is one of my favorite books. I use it for a read aloud every October. I will be starting next week. My students always love it and usually talk about it for the rest of the year.

Here is the bulletin board with just my book on it. Work in progress.

I did one so I can show my students an example. I will be adding the student products tomorrow as they finish them. I will take mine off the board in the morning.

Here is a close up of the title of the board.

We are required to include the Common Core State Standard on anything we place in the hallway. Here are the ones that connect to this activity.

Here is the final board from 2 different views.

Here are a few close ups of the student work.

My scholars loved this activity. I think I will make it a work on writing choice.


How do you feel about bulletin boards? How often are you required to change yours? What is currently on your bulletin board?