Earth Day Writing Freebie

I'm a big fan of Earth Day.  I think looking out for our world is HUGE and it needs to happen now.  Each and every one of us needs to do what we can to help this place be around for our grandchildren and our grandchildren's grandchildren.

I always celebrate every Earth Day with plenty of good literature.  Here are some of my favorite children's books with an Earth Day theme:

          

Earth Day is an ABC book, and makes a great introduction to the concept of protecting the environment.

The Lorax, is classic Seuss!  He tells about a mystical land of fantasy, which, in true Seuss fashion, a much deeper real story.  Even my second graders understand this valuable lesson.

The Wump World is a fun book to read to the children and NOT show the illustrations (even the cover) until the children have had a chance to show the Wumps and Pollutians that they visualized while listening to the story.  Another great story about a fantasy world with very real lessons!

This one is a new discovery to me, and my new "Earth Day Favorite". 

A River Ran Wild is a story that dates back to the days the Native Americans ruled this area, and respected the earth.  It continues through European settlers, the industrial age, and attempts to clean up the river.  This book is based on a local river, which makes it near and dear to my heart, but it's a valuable message about protecting our world.  My students became very upset when they saw what happened to the beautiful river!

See THIS BLOG POST for more about this book, and an art activity to go with it.

You can click the images above for a link to Amazon, to learn more about these books.

After reading, I intend to have the children do some opinion writing and/ or explanatory/ informational writing based on what they have learned about protecting the environment.

Here's a collection of writing paper with the Earth Day theme that I'll be using.  

Come over to Elementary Matters to download this freebie.

How are you honoring Earth Day this year?

Twelve Ways to Celebrate Writing

As a blogger, I know the power of the audience.  It's you readers out there that make me want to blog, and make me want to make quality blog posts!  Don't our children need this same sense of audience to motivate their writing?  I think so!

Here are some ideas for celebrating the children's writing:

1.  Share in Class!  Have one child read his/ her story to the class.  Class is expected to listen and ask questions that "prove they were listening."  This works well when the child is "mid-story" in order to get ideas on where to go from this point.

2.  Small Group Shares! Have children work in groups of 2 or three to share their stories as above.

3.  Share Your Best Sentence!  I like this one because there's usually enough time for each child to share one sentence.  If the children know it's coming, that helps motivate the children to work on the quality of their sentences.

4.  Share With Someone Else in the Building!  There are lots of adults in an elementary school who would be thrilled to "play along" with this one!  It's a great motivator to promise a child that he can read his story to the custodian, or the secretary, or the cafeteria workers.  It's a win-win!

Come on over to Elementary Matters to see more ways to celebrate the writing of your students!

Writer's Workshop and Shopping

Click the image to find this freebie!

The other day I spent several hours updating my Writers Workshop materials.  (And they say teachers have summers off!)  I was happy with most of what I had, but tweaked a few things, and now I'm happy with the whole package.  Come on over to Elementary Matters and see what's been upgraded!

Writing Warm Up

I was struggling with my young writers.  They have great ideas, but for some reason, the writing just wasn't flowin.  I decided it was time for some serious writing warm ups.  Come on over to Elementary Matters to see how I'm going to use this little warm up booklet.


Sally

Writer's Workshop

I'm a big fan of Writer's Workshop in the classroom.  Come on over to Elementary Matters to see some of the materials I've put together!

And be sure to check out my favorite book on Writer's Workshop!
Sally