Bulletin Board - Sweet - Bulletin Board

We started the school year with a unit on pattern books.  We chose this first unit to get our young first graders back into the habit of writing every day.  We find that our children can write easily and fluently when they are thinking of patterns. It is also the type of books that children typically are reading when they come into first grade.  Below are some of the artifacts and translations for the books above that we featured on our standard-based bulletin board.

About Pattern Books

For the past four weeks our students have been reading and writing pattern books.  Pattern book is not a genre or literary term but a way to talk about the books that our youngest authors write.  A pattern book has a predictable structure with repetitive language.  Understanding pattern books helps a reader predict text.

This unit was four weeks long. The expectation is that all students complete at least one simple pattern book.  Many children finished several pattern books with different patterns and many details. The children have been exposed to many different patterns.  They have also recognized patterns in their own reading and have placed the pattern books they find while reading in the teacher’s chair so that they can be read to the class.  However, they found many more pattern books than we could ever read!

The conventions we expect this time of year (spacing between words, starting with a capital letter, ending with punctuation, sounding out words to write the letters, using the word wall) are practiced daily in the homework and during daily Skills Block.  When children write their stories in Writers’ Workshop they are practicing and applying the skills that they have learned earlier in the day.

The pattern books on the board and hanging under each child’s name represent some of the many patterns that the children have tried using.  They have used their mentor authors from the pattern books they have read to create many interesting pattern books in many different genres.  Enjoy and delight in these adorable examples of the books our children have written!

At Chets Creek

It is Math Workshop at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

It is Science time at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

It is lunch time at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

It is Physical Education at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

It is Skills Block at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

It is Readers’ at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

It is Writers’  at Chets Creek, at Chets Creek.

                                                 It is recess.  Yay recess!

Commentary

Orientation and Context	This student establishes her topic with a cover page and a title, At Chets Creek, which is also her repeating line.
Organization	She uses the pattern phrase, It is ___ at Chets, Creek, at Chets Creek.  The idea for the repeating line comes from a favorite class mentor text, Down on the Farm.  She stays on topic throughout her book.
Closure	This student changes up the pattern with a delightful little twist at the end,  It is recess. Yay recess!
Strategies	Wonderful illustrations provide detail to the text.  She even labels many of the items in her pictures. On the back cover of her book, this student gives the reader a vocabulary lesson, modeled after the vocabulary activities we do in class.  Hi. I am H... and I am going to teach you the word Physical Education.  That word is for PE.  You exercise.  What does the word mean?

Conventions	This student's work is easy to read.  She uses spaces between words and spells sight words correctly.  She spells unknown words phonetically, such as fichuckulijuckashin for Physical Education!  After an editing conference she changed the beginning letter of each page to a capital and added periods at the end of each sentence.
Habits	This student is such a delight to have in a Writers’ Workshop.  She is eager to try new patterns each day and loves writing.  She loves to read her work to an adult and would love to have a conference every single day!  She easily revises and edits her work when given suggestions.

I Said

I said, “Let’s go to Disney World.” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Let’s go to Adventure Landing.” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Let’s go to school.” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Can I go to the store?” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Let’s go to the manatees.” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Let’s go to beach.” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Let’s go to the aquarium.” Mom said, “Okay.”

I said, “Can I go play on your computer?” Mom said, “No!”

                      Commentary

Orientation and Context	This student orients the reader with a cover page and a title for her pattern book, I Said.
Organization	She uses the back and forth pattern of I said… and then Mom said… She stays with her pattern throughout her book.
Closure	There is a delightful little twist at the end of the book.  Instead of always saying, “Okay” to whatever the author asks, on the last page, Mom says,  “No!”
Strategies	This student is quite the artist.  Her detailed illustrations are a wonderful compliment to her text. After a conference she easily added “talking marks” (quotation marks) for the words that were actually said by the author and Mom.

Conventions

This student’s work is easy for an adult to read.  She spells all of the sight words that have been introduced correctly. One of her next lessons will be to spell the word said correctly before she develops a pattern of spelling it incorrectly.  She segments words that are unknown to her and spells them phonetically such as ckunpoodoer for computer.  She adds periods appropriately and is ready to work on question marks.

Habits

Although this student is new to the Writers’ Workshop, she has eagerly taken in the lessons and used them in her writing.  She is quiet and rarely asks for a conference but readily uses suggestions when they are offered by an adult.

Vacations!

On Monday, I went to the circus because funny things happen.

On Tuesday, I went to the zoo because there are lots of animals.

On Wednesday, I went to the beach because I can swim forward in

       the water.

And on Thursday, I just stayed home and took a rest because I felt

       very tired.

On Friday, I went to the farm because I wanted to see all the farm

       animals.

On Saturday, I went to Epcot and bought a book named, “Duffy, the

       Disney Bear.” It was lovely.

On Sunday, I went to the Magic Kingdom and in the night I watched

       a show at the castle.

I like vacations because they are fun!

                               Commentary

Orientation and Context	This student introduces Vacations! as the title of her pattern book.
Organization	We have read many “days of the week” pattern books including the very familiar The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Cookie’s Week.  This student adapted this sequential pattern, On Monday… On Tuesday… for her pattern book about vacations.
Closure	After a conference she decided on a closing sentence that changed the pattern that was a simple summary sentence.
Strategies	Details after each place add dimension to this student's text.  Her illustrations support the text and her labels and commentary in the pictures help orient the reader to what is happening and where each page takes place.

Conventions	This student's work is easy for anyone to read.  She has beautiful penmanship.  She is an excellent speller whether it is a sight word or an unknown word.  She spells words well above her grade level.  She uses punctuation and capitals correctly.
Habits	This student is a joy to have as a writer in class.  She loves to try every new pattern that is introduced and then loves to read her book to an adult or share with the students at Closing.  She is always totally engaged in the writing process and thinks seriously about her work.  We often use her work to illustrate new patterns because she is such a fluent writer.

 

All About Ninjago

This is Sensei Wu.  He is the Leader.  Good.

            This is Zane.  He can hold his breath long.  Good.

This is Cole.  He is a dancer.  Good.

This is Kai.  He is a blacksmith.  He owns a star that is called Four

             Weapons.  Good.

Watch out for the Fangpyre.  They can turn you into snakes. BAD!

Watch out for Venomari.  They spray venom. BAD!

This is Pythor.  He sprays the person’s bones.  BAD!

This is Lord Garmadon.  He has four arms.  BAD!

This is Jay.  He has a girlfriend.  Her name is Nya. Good.

Watch out for Hypnobride.  They hypnotize. BAD!

This is Green Ninja.  He has all four powers.  Good.

We won!  I am bitter at the snakes.  Good.

                                      Ninjago!

                                                   About this Book

                        This book is about ninjas that beat snakes.

                                        Can you read these words?

                                                he                    this

                                                Jay                  Kai

                                                Cole                Zane

                                                Dancer           leader

All About the Author This book was made in Florida, September 10^th through 11^th, 2012.  This author’s hobbies were Ninjas and Star Wars and Harry Potter Epic.  Cool Book!

Commentary

Orientation and Context	This student orients the reader with his cover title, All About Ninjago.  He even added that his writing was non-fiction on the cover, but after a conference, decided that the book was really fiction!  Thank goodness!
Organization	This student uses a pattern that was first introduced by Luke, his classmate, who first wrote about Ninjago and started a movement of Ninjago pattern books in our class.  He stays with his This is… He is…. Good or Bad pattern throughout most of the book.
Closure	He chooses to end his pattern book with a single word, Ninjago!
Strategies	This student peppers each page with art work that is labeled, illustrating his points about each character. At the end of the book, he includes a summary of the book, like the ones you see on the back of published books giving the reader a short synopsis.  Then he includes a feature that he has seen in many of his own leveled books, Can you read these words? with a list of some of the words in his text.  Finally on the back, he includes his About the Author  page.

Conventions

To an adult not familiar with the Masters of Spinjitzu, this student’s work is challenging to read but he has no trouble at all, reading his own work.  In fact, his eyes sparkle as he reads.  He begins to talk fast, because he is so excited about this piece.  He is an excellent speller and spells all taught sight words with no trouble.  The unfamiliar spellings of words and the characters are spelled phonetically.  After a conference, he was able to start each page with a capital and add a capital after each period.  He also added periods which are not yet habitual for him. He incorporates the vocabulary word bitter into his work!

Habits

This student is a joyful and fluent writer.  He loves writing and even asks to work on his writing during times when he could choose other free time activities.  He easily finds topics to write about and, like this pattern book, works seriously for several days to bring a project to completion.

Reviewing Student Work

I brought my writing folders home over the long Labor Day weekend -  all 35 folders! - so I could analyze student writing and get a good idea of how much of the teaching I have been doing is getting through.  I also want to try to learn each author as a writer.  As I go through each folder I have been writing and printing notes on labels to post in our Writer's Notebook under each child's name.  This is an example of one child's note:



Name      9/1/12       Pattern Books 
+good spacing with sight words spelled correctly and phonetic spelling of unknown words
+good fluency
+has started "Have you seen my mom?..." pattern book

-work on finishing pattern and creating a "changed up" ending
-add question mark to "Have you seen my mom?" and capital after the question mark

These notes are a little more thoughtful and longer than I am usually able to write after a conference because we always have a number of children waiting for a conference and the time seems so short... so my jots during the Writers' Workshop are quicker and more to the point.  I do like the + (plus) to indicate noticings and things they already do well and the - (minus) to indicate next things to work on.  Because we have more than one teacher using our Writers' Notebook, we generally write our notes on sticky notes during the Workshop and add them at the end of the day under each child's name.  When you have more than one teacher involved, it is extremely important to make sure you know what the other teacher(s) may have talked to the student about the last time they had a conference so it's important to review the notes before each conference.  The Writer's Notebook becomes our way of detailing the progress of each learner.

I learned so much about these writers... As I was reading the pattern books I came across one student's pattern book that broke my heart.

Translation:
My Dad does not have a job.
My mom does not have a job.
My brother does not have a job.
I do not have a job.
My uncle does not have a job.
Does anyone have a job?

The pattern is perfect.  The message... heartbreaking.

Mem Fox Celebration Day!

We began our Mem Fox Celebration Day by Skyping a teacher in Australia, Amanda Marrinan! It was quite an adventure! It was 1:00 am her time but she stayed up so we could have a conversation. Each class had prepared a question so the children asked everything from if she had known the Crocodile Hunter and if she had been to the Australian Zoo to what she thought of Mem Fox when she met her and her favorite Mem Fox book. She had even prepared some of the Aussie dishes that the children had read about in Possum Magic such as lamington, pavlova, minties and even Australian tim tams. We are indebted to our Technologist Melanie Holtsman for traveling around the world virtually to make the experience available to our youngsters!

Our next adventure was hearing a former Creeker play the didgeridoo, an Aboriginal wind instrument native to Australia. Sam had lived in Australia when was a first grader! He left his college classes to come share with our children. They were fascinated by the handmade instrument and it's sound and the story he told about termites carving the hollow tube of the gum tree !

Then it was back to our classroom to preform Mem Fox Readers' Theatre scripts that the children have been practicing all week. They presented Koala Lou, Hattie and the Fox and Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge to the delight of their classmates. We tasted pavlova and made some Australian crafts. We completed the day by playing Mem Fox Bingo which was a review of all of the books, characters, Australian animals and places that we had learned about throughout the four week study. While the children have loved Mem's pattern books, they equally loved her touching stories. It will be hard to say good-by to this amazing author.

Boo to a Goose

It took Mem Fox ten years to get Boo to a Goose published. It didn't take our class ten minutes to fall in love with the lyrical lines and memorize most of the rhyming text! It is yet another of Mem's pattern books that includes repetition, so it is a natural for an innovation. After reading the book a couple of times - until the children joined in on the last line on each page without any prompting - we told the children that we would be writing our own innovation of Mem's picture book for young children. Since our theme is the farm, we listed all the farm animals that we could name. I chose "duck" as my example and "wrote in the air" my own lines of "I'd sit on a duck if you'd give me a buck... but I wouldn't say 'Boo!' to a goose!" Each child worked with a teacher to help refine his lines before writing them down and illustrating, and before you know it, we had our own class innovation of a Mem Fox book! Enjoy some of the examples below.

The FARM

“BOO!” to a Goose

Adapted from Mem Fox’ Boo to a Goose

by the R&T Farmhands

I'd sit on a cat and I'd give him a hat... But I wouldn't say "BOO!" to a goose.

I'd sit with a pony and marry a phony... But I wouldn't say "BOO!" to a goose.

I'd sit on a dog and I'd croak like a frog... But I wouldn't say "BOO!" to a goose.

I'd sit on a sheep if you give me a jeep... But I wouldn't say "BOO!" to a goose.I'd dance with a bunny if you give me some money... But I wouldn't say "BOO!" to a goose.

Mem Fox Innovation

We started our study of Mem Fox this week by reading her delightful night time story, Time for Bed. In hopes of bridging the curriculum from pattern books to Mem Fox we chose a Mem Fox book that is a pattern book. The children loved this lyrical repetitive book about night time animals going to sleep. Next we decided to take a look at Mem's pattern and write a similar pattern of our own. The children decided instead of writing about going to bed, they would choose a pattern about waking up and since our theme this year is the farm, they wanted to have the animals wake up on the farm. Next we brainstormed all the farm animals we could name. The children divided into partners and each partnership chose one of the animals from the chart. The children decided on the pattern, Good morning little ____, little ____. Next the partners brainstormed all of the real words that they could think of that rhymed with their animal name. Each group wrote a rhyming sentence to complete the couplet. Since this book was going to be a story that all the children would read, the teachers opted to type the couplets with corrected spelling and punctuation.

The second day of this two day project, the teachers talked about matching the words to the pictures before the children went off to illustrate their rhyming couplet. After the pictures were complete, the children came back together to talk about an ending for their book and to illustrate the final page. What a delightful way to begin an author study - by adapting the writer's style to a class story!

The Twelve Hour Day

At Chets Creek we do Standard Based Bulletin Boards which means that we present bulletin boards that follow a certain criteria. Each board includes a title, a task that describes what the lesson or string of lessons was about, the standard and four pieces of student work with commentary. The board is a window into instruction. The boards are not "fluff and stuff" so they take time and thought. Not only do you have to make sure that you have work ready for when the seven bulletin boards come due, but you have to design the aesthetics and write about the work which means you have to reflect on your practice. I had been working with my partner on our board for about a week - reading all of the writing folders in the class, helping students select their best work, having writing conferences with all the students (because even though only four papers will be on the board, all 22 will have their work displayed around the board for Open House), thinking about how to display the work, and writing the task and commentaries, but on the due day, everything had to come together. We started very early in the morning, but it took hours to get it right. As I was walking out of the building around 7 pm, the custodian passed me and said, "Yea, you can always tell when it's bulletin board day." Her reference, of course, was that teachers are always in the building late on that day. As I thought about how much my feet hurt after being on them all day, I couldn't help but wonder, is it worth it?

I have been a teacher for well over 30 years and yes, I think it is worth it. If we don't think about what we are doing and how the children are responding - if don't continually think about how to do it better - if we don't take the time to reflect and then act, then how can we continue to improve in our practice? How can we make a difference? Standard-based bulletin boards are just one of the ways that forces us to stop every now and then and reflect on our practice. It also forces us to look at student work. Below is my bulletin board and one of the amazing pieces of work that was completed during our four weeks of pattern books.

Moo-st Wonderful Writing

Who has big fat shoes?Daddy does! He has flip flop shoes.Who has pretty high heels?Mommy does. Her high heels make her look high.Who has click clack shoes?Sister does! Her shoes click and clack.Who has playing shoes?Me! Yes yes! Me!!!!! My shoes are just right!!!!