Writing Process...Through Play Dough

Before launching our Writing Workshop in second grade, we enjoyed an activity with Play Dough that mirrors the writing process we will be using all year. In the first stage, called Prewriting, students poked, rolled, twisted, pressed, and played with their Play Dough as they began their thinking process about what they would make. In the Prewriting Stage of writing, students illustrate and complete graphic organizers to begin thinking about how their writing will look and sound. In the second stage of the process, the Drafting Stage, students were asked to create something out of their Play Dough. It is in this stage where the creative thought process goes down on paper. In the third stage, the Revision stage, students were asked to add something or take something away from their creation. This is sometimes the toughest part...It reminds us that our work can always be improved from our original plan. We have a saying in class, 'When you think your work is done...it's really that you've just begun!' The final stage of Publishing allowed us to put our creations on display and share them with our classmates. We 'oooohed' and 'ahhhhed' over each other's work and I had the pleasure of watching my student's confidence soar. You should see us on Author Share Days...not only do we enjoy hearing the work of our friends, but we sure enjoy the compliments they pass onto us after we share our work. Happy Writing Second Grade Friends! :)

Second Thoughts...On The Second Day

It's only day two in the second grade, but it is already easy to see that we are in for a wonderful year of learning.  Our class is made up of nineteen students, ten boys and nine girls.  What a wonderful split!  I especially love these first few days when the excitement of all the 'new' can hardly be contained.  It's a new year, a new teacher, a new classroom, new friends, new routines, and all kinds of new learning ahead of us! 

Day three of school rolled around and brought a surprise with it...no school for the students due to power outages from the storm the night before. We were faced with having to apply our Character Word of the Month immediately:  ADAPTABILITY.  It is the willingness to have to change the plans you've made. We did just that!  We'll see you again on Monday...and pick right up where we left off.   

Second Thoughts

It is always this time each year when my mind becomes consumed with 'Second Thoughts.'  I spend countless hours thinking about the new group of second graders that will come pouring through the door on the first day of school.  I think about the preparation, the planning, the implementing, and how to bundle all of that into something that transfers my love of learning to my students.  It is this time of year that I can't help but think of a few of my favorite things... school supply shopping, the shine of a new coat of floor wax, brand new books just waiting to be read aloud, the new shoes that will come zipping through the doorway, and the new friends that I'll spend the next nine months with.  Thanks for being a part my 'Second Thoughts.'  I know there will be plenty more to come!