Sunday, December 8, 2013

A Peek at My Week {12-08-13} & Pen Pals Needed

Welcome to another edition of A Peek at My Week, my weekly linky party where you can share some highlights of your upcoming week!  I am glad you are here!!
Only two weeks left until Winter Break and so much to do!!!  I am so proud of my kiddos who are hanging in there and not getting all crazy for the upcoming break!!

One of the highlights of my upcoming week is some professional development I will be doing on Thursday to spotlight my monthly Writing PD sessions that I will be presenting to interested staff.  Once a month, another teacher and myself will present on a writing topic either before school or after school for an hour.

Our topics are:
         January:  Getting Started with Writing Workshop
         February:  Using Mentor Texts
         March:  Conferring with Your Writers
         April:  Assessing Writing
         May:  Teachers as Writers

Our school goal this year is that there is writing in every classroom, every day!  With the demands of packed curriculum and busy schedules, I want to be able to support my fellow teachers by offering practical tips they can use in their classroom to make that goal reachable.
Turn on your writing faucet. "Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." - Louis L'Amour
Another thing we will be doing this week is writing letters back to our pen pals from Canada!  We are lucky to have partnered up with Lisa from Grade 4 Buzz's 4th grade class.
Grade 4 Buzz
This past week, they sent us letters and a very cute bracelet for each pen pal!  






The kid loved them! 
They talked about their pen pals so much that now two other teachers (5th grade) have asked me to try to find their class another class to pen pal with.  Each class has about 20 students.  If you are interested in becoming pen pals with one of these 5th grade classes, please leave me a comment below and I will pass your information along!  :)


Wishing you a great week!

14 comments:

  1. I agree with you 100% on the importance of writing every day. It is not always easy, but it is so important! I love the idea of pen pals. It is on my list to try next year. I have a little too much going on right now to start something new.

    I can't believe winter break is only two weeks away!
    Have a great week!

    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am doing pen pals in my class for the first time this year and my students are so excited about it! We sent our first letter off and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our letters! How cool that your students were sent bracelets too!

    Bethany
    FabandFunin4th!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the quote you used! Louis L'Amour was my first "grown-up" author that I read. After being home for a month with pneumonia in 3rd grade, I had read my way through Nancy Drew, my dad had "the car," and my mom was desperate. She gave me one of my Dad's Louis L'Amour books; I was hooked before nap time. In the long run, my mom's strategy might not have worked...still looking for Tell or Tyrel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for telling me about the no reply blogger. The good news is that I have now memorized how to fix this problem, so I no longer have to look it up!

    Mary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mary, it's so frustrating! Every couple of months someone emails me to say that I am a no-reply blogger again. It just seems to have a mind of its own!
      -Lisa
      Grade 4 Buzz

      Delete
  5. My children also LOVE pen pals! They will be so excited to know that you are writing back this week. Did you notice that one of my boys wrote to his pen pal "When I get older I'm going to come visit you." So sweet! I'll link up soon...
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

    ReplyDelete
  6. I would LOVE to have pen pals! I have 26 students and teach 4th grade! Email me croftsclassroom@gmail.com

    Tina
    Crofts' Classroom

    ReplyDelete
  7. How often do you write to your pen pals? I think that would be an awesome thing to do! I am in OK and have 27 students. Anyone interested? jamielyn1719@gmail.com

    -Your newest follower
    Jamie
    Life As I Know It

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jamie!

      I'm in New Zealand, and will have 27 kids next year (we finish for the year next Tuesday, but start up again on the 3rd of Feb) I'd be keen to be penpals with your class - if you don't mind sending internationally!

      Erin

      Delete
  8. Hi Jennifer. I love having pen pals. I find them on Proteacher, but maybe next year, I'll be lucky and find a class in Canada. This year our pen pals live in Columbia, SC. Writing to our pen pals = kids want and love to write. I can't complain about that.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love that writing quote-it's perfect! I need to share it with my students. Pen pals are so exciting-I should try to hook up with someone at the start of the year-very motivating for writing!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh my word I would LOVE to do penpals with someone!! I have 27 year 5/6 (grade 4/5) kids. Most of them are grade 5. HOWEVER, we are in New Zealand, and school finishes for the year on the 17th. SO I would only be able to start writing from the start of February. We start again on the 3rd. BUT there is no reason why I can't give the class who wants to write to us our first names and you can start writing first? Then when my kids start we can write back. It takes about 2.5-3 weeks for mail between America and New Zealand. I am really keen. We do have quite a transient school population, so some kids might not be able to write to the same people each time (I can keep in touch with the teacher via email though).

    Please let me know if you are interested!!!!

    Erin
    The E-Z Class/Learning to be awesome

    ReplyDelete
  11. I did pen pals with my 3rd grade class and they LOVED it! It was such a great way for them to practice writing a friendly letter and they were so engaged. We also did Skype chatting with the other class. :) So much fun!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love pen pals!! I have a very fortunate situation this year with pen pals. I spent a year teaching in Costa Rica and this year, my students are writing to the kids I taught there! I was so excited when the Spanish teacher asked me if I knew anyone who she could do pen pals with - of course, I had the perfect match! So far it has been going really well. I wish they could visit their pen pals in the summer and I could go with them!!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time for stopping by! I would love it if you would leave me a comment to let me know that you were here. (Please make sure that you are not a "No Reply Blogger" so that I can email you back.)