Class with Mrs. S.

Hello, parents and guardians. Happy holiday season.  There are a lot of exciting things that have been happening in our classroom.

Here is a peek into some of the activities we have been up to these past few weeks.

We have been working on opinion/persuasive writing for the past two weeks.

The students absolutely love debating with one another...perhaps it's the pre-teen just itching to come out early?  Regardless of the reason, they love opinion writing...and I'll take it!

To add some seasonal fun to this writing unit, here are some of the activities I have lined up for the next few weeks.

Would You Rather - Christmas Opinion Writing
These Would You Rather writing cards are intended to be used for quick opinion writing, but I use them as practice for our speaking and listening standards.  These are great little brain breaks to squeeze in throughout the day.

I keep them in a pail at the front of the classroom next to our opinion writing anchor chart.  A student is asked to come up and select a prompt and read it to the class.

Next, that student, along with another, have to argue which they would rather do while using the opinion writing format.



Convince Em' - Winter Edition
These little writing prompts are part of a yearly writing unit I have been working on this year.  They include 17 creative writing journal prompts for students to complete.  Some are Christmas themed, but most are centered around winter in general, making these a great resource to use when the kiddos return from break.

These are hung in my writing center and are an excellent early finisher activity that students can grab and bring to their seats.





Elf for Hire - A Persuasive Writing Project
I love this adorable writing activity.  It comes complete with final draft writing pages, graphic organizers, planning pages, and a little drawing activity.  Since the students are still working up to writing essays, I plan to save this guy as the last bit of practice before we head out on break.



In class, the kiddos have been playing around with my little equivalent fraction snowmen puzzles.  Let me tell ya', these are some real cuties.

On each snowman's nose, I put a fraction in its simplest form.  Next, I cut and labeled each little snowman body piece with larger equivalent fractions to pair with the snowman noses.

The kids worked in small groups to solve each of the puzzles.

What I liked about this activity was that students could work at their own pace.  They could also build different size snowmen depending on their skill levels.  Some students build larger snowmen than others.