Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Kids are people TOO!

Hey there! How are ya? Kids a little wonky as you wind down these last few days? Who am I kidding?! Kids bonkers?! Need a quick pick me up or activity to keep them engaged in accountable talk AND get some great writing in too! Well, I’ve got an activity for ya! We’ve been reading biographies and sharing facts about personalities past and present. We’ve really enjoyed learning about so many different people, BUT guess what?! Kids are people too!

Don’t think that every time you sit down to write or share information about a person that it has to be someone that has conquered the world, landed on the moon or won a championship. Some of the kindest, most talented, inspiring people I’ve ever met have been only 6 years old! Building community and maintaining it throughout the year takes a lot of work…..maintaining it until the very last day will keep away the sibling sillies that develop when the kids have just about had enough of each other!

Slide1

As we began writer’s workshop, we reviewed punctuation {Can you ever really do THAT enough?} and thought of two common things we found in most of the biographies we had read recently. In most of them, we discovered we were told the person’s name and when they were born, soooooooo together we posed the first two questions for everyone to use. Enter….turn and talk…..HERE. Then students turned to each other to think of 2 additional questions they could ask of their classmate to get to know a little more about them.

After discussions were had, students moved to their desks to record the 4 questions on sticky notes. Yes, I know….I’m addicted to them. We use sticky notes for everything. =)

Slide2

Questions were written on the sticky note…..then each set of partners took turns interviewing each other. Did they like this?! Did they EVER! They LOVED it! Underneath each sticky note, students recorded the answer to the question in the form of a statement. Punctuation practice + engaged + happy + talkative + writing kids = 1 HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY teacher! Next, came the illustration. Students were also held responsible for making the illustration look as much like their classmate did on the day we completed the writing as possible. Their drawings were so cute, BUT because we were mostly using complete names, I could only find ONE without a full name to snap a pic of. Isn’t he a cutie? You could absolutely pick him out if you saw him in person right? =)

Slide3

Anyhooo….that’s the gist! The next time you get ready to do a little research, remember…..kids are people too!

Happy writing!

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