Hello Everyone! Happy Spring!!! Some of you are still in the grip of winter with snow and ice! Here in Texas, the temps are warming up, th...
How to write dialogue that is engaging, is natural, and has character! Writing tips for books, stories, comics, novels, film, etc.
Hello Everyone! I love helping first graders express themselves through writing. For me, the first semester of first grade is all about cre...
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How to write dialogue that is engaging, is natural, and has character! Writing tips for books, stories, comics, novels, film, etc.
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Hello Everyone!! Happy New year to all of you! The end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 have been very emotional for me. We started off our winter break visiting my son, Jordan in Indiana. He has made his way into the hearts of the people of southwest Indiana with his amazing storytelling and reporting for the local news station. And...He just bought his first house. We are so excited for him! We loved spending time with him over Christmas. --- On our drive back home, we kept getting texts, phone calls, and e-mails from friends about the 12 tornadoes that ravaged their way through the towns around our home in Texas. Oh my goodness---our emotions went from bliss to absolute heartbreak. So many of our friends lost everything, including a couple of teachers from our district. One of the elementary schools was hit and is now deemed unsafe. And sadly, 11 people lost their lives. The past few days have been filled with helping school and church groups gather needed supplies for those affected by this disaster. Texans do tend to jump in and help whenever needed!! The cleanup and rebuild will take years, but the support will be there. If you would like to help those in need during this time, here's a link to the red cross donation sight. Thank you in advance for sharing your blessings! http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/12/28/how-to-help-tornado-victims/77965462/ These events really put things into perspective for me. What is important? Where should we put our passion? So many of us are blessed beyond measure. We take for granted who and what we have in our lives. Herein lies the resolution. Giving. The more you give, the more you receive. Throughout the coming year, I will continue to share things on this blog for anyone who can use them to help teachers, parents, and kids get excited about learning. Teaching is sharing. Teaching is giving. I will give the best I have. It may not always be perfect, it may not always fit everyone's bill, but, if what I share can help even one person, It is worthwhile!! So, having said all that, I am sharing a new unit. This one is all about Opinion Writing. You all know how much I love Lucy Calkins. This unit is based on her "Writing Reviews" book for first graders. When we get back from winter break, our firsties will be learning all about opinions and how to share them through writing. This unit is a precursor to one we will do on writing book reviews and other type of persuasive writing. It includes everything you need to print and go! Here are a few pics. The unit is about 32 pages. If you think you might be able to use any of this, simply click HERE for the printable download. As always, thanks for taking time out to stop by and read this little blog. I appreciate you! My New Year's wish for you is that you are surrounded by love and joy, and that you are blessed to be a blessing to others. If you are heading back to school next week, have a wonderful reunion with your littles. Give them the best you have!! Joyfully! Nancy
If you are looking for short films to use in ELA lessons that challenge, inspire, and engage your students, then this blog post is for you!
Hello Everyone! I love helping first graders express themselves through writing. For me, the first semester of first grade is all about creating a safe environment for them to feel comfortable putting their thoughts down on paper. We work on all the different ways to incorporate written expression into our day. I just love when one of my little would rather write than do anything else! Well we are now all about making our great writing even better...That means editing. I don't know about you, but it has been my experience that kids do not like going back to fix anything in their writing! Does anyone truly love editing? Hence the challenge, making editing engaging. After researching and trying different things and I think I finally came up with something that the kids can understand, use, and grow. We compared different pieces and rated them. We will use them as rubrics to compare our own writing. We learned about a few first grade friendly editing marks. We modeled editing on an old piece. Then we received out "Editing Super Visors," and special editing pens. I love to have my kids peer edit, so we got with our writing partners right away and picked a piece on which to work our editing magic. TaDah!! Engagement! Our Editing Super Visors I did put all these ideas into a micro unit about editing and rubrics. A quick set of printable rubrics with rating numbers for your own quick print and go micro unit, CLICK HERE!! Or CLICK HERE for a new and improved version of the unit!! I hope you can use some of this!! As always, if you see any typos or anything that should be fixed (or edited!! Ha Ha!) please don't hesitate to holler at me!! Thanks for stopping by for a peek! Stay tuned for more first grade fun!! Joyfully! Nancy
My fab nephew, a budding 10 year old artist (at the time), messaged me all the way from the uk asking me “How do you make a comic?” I thought wow what a question. A quick search later, I struggled to … Continue reading →
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40 Jahre, nach der Ortung eines bislang unerklärten Signal aus dem All haben Astronomen die Quelle des sog. "Wow!"-Signals gefunden.
Creative Writing Worksheet – Occupations (PDF) Nothing defines us quite as thoroughly as the work we spend our lives performing. Occupations are a great shorthand for creating characters too. What do they do? Why do they do it? How to they do it? Did they make the right choice? Use this worksheet to find out;…
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It’s no secret that I’m a fan of story structure. I’ve created several beat sheets and have oodles of posts about the topic. But I’m also not a math person, so the idea of working in Excel for all those worksheets gave me the heebie-jeebies at first. I’m probably not the only one. It doesn’t […]
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Hello Everyone! Friday was one of our favorite days! We finished up learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., and living and nonliving things. I love the passion the kids have for learning about important people from our nation's history. Making it relevant to them can sometimes be a challenge. Our class is so diverse as far as ethnicity goes, the kids can't even begin to imagine what life was like in the 60's. For the past 9 or 10 years, I've been able to use this object lesson to bring home the lesson learned through MLK. Get as many different kinds of apples as you can find, or even have kids bring in their favs. Talk about how different each apple looks in color, shape, size, texture. Then begin slicing the apples in half horizontally. The kids will be amazed at the formation of a star on the inside of each and every one. Just like people- We all look different on the outside and are beautiful stars on the inside!! I am so thankful these sweet kids really understand and that they are the future!! Friendship comes in all colors! For my MLK unit CLICK HERE! Next up was a culminating Sci. Fri lesson on living and nonliving. Kids had the opportunity to compare a gummy worm, a live earth worm, and a rubber worm. Did you hear them all screaming at the sight of a real earth worm??? They were so engaged!!! You can't teach this with pencil and paper. Found these at Dollar Tree Sweet team mate picked these up at WalMart Proud of all these brave learners!!! For a printable living vs. nonliving unit, CLICK HERE!! This coming week we will begin focusing on other important men and women from history, and we will begin writing expository text. That may sound like a daunting task to ask of first graders, but if you take it step by step and show lots of examples, they can do it!!! I have posted my "Write to Teach" unit before, but I've gone through and refurbished to break down the steps even further including starting with having the kids write an expository on the person they know best...themselves!! We will start the process with a bubble thinking map, move to a rough draft, revise, edit, and publish with lots of guidance along the way. When the kids are finished they will have a book about themselves!! For you own 20 page expository writing unit CLICK HERE!! I know that I promised you a unit about hot chocolate, and that is still on deck. I'll post it as soon as it is ready!! Thanks for your patience!! Till then, thanks for stopping by to take a peek through our little window!! We are learning and laughing!! Joyfully! Nancy
A blank novel outline template for use with Google Docs, Google Keep, and Scrivener. The One Page Novel is a simple, memorable structure for novelists.
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A pantser is someone who doesn't outline. You sit down to write without any outlining, barely knowing your own characters and the world they live in. I used to be a pantser; and that's a perfectly acceptable way to write. I remember the boxed in feeling t
Hello Everyone! We had one of the best number sense weeks we've ever had! We worked very hard on number patterns up to 120. Because we were also in the middle of a plant unit in science, I decided to use "Tops and Bottoms" by Janet Stevens, as a theme for some number pattern activities as well. I have shared my Tops and Bottoms unit before, but I've added this math component for you to download and print. Here are a couple of pics. If you are interested in trying these activities with your kids, CLICK here for the printable download. The unit also includes a huge measurement component!!! For the past couple of weeks we have also been busy trying our hand at writing realistic fiction pieces. We are following Lucy Calkins fairly closely. As inspiration, we are reading a lot of realistic fiction literature, and I think the kids are getting the hang of it. I put together a mini unit with posters, planners, and checklists. Here are a few pics. Here's the link to the printable !!! Finally, this coming week we will be working on author's message in stories. I chose "The Empty Pot" by Demi. It is such a lovely story about honesty and bravery. If you have not read this yet to your kids, do it now!! I put together another little mini unit to accompany this story. The unit will help kids see the value in such a piece. I am so looking forward to using this with my kids this week!! Here's the link! CLICK HERE!!! Well, that's all for now!!! I hope you have a wonderful week that is filled with the JOYS of watching your kids learn!!! Thanks for stopping by!!! Joyfully! Nancy
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Hello Everyone! It is so nice to have time to put some finishing touches on a couple of units that we have coming up! Another historical figure we will study after Eleanor Roosevelt is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As a nation we celebrate his life daily! Thank you Dr. King! Officially we celebrate on the third Monday of January. I have posted about our activities before, but I went through and cleaned up, and added to my unit. Here are some pics from the updated unit! If you would like the 30 page free printable unit CLICK HERE!! :) My second offering for today is a unit our curriculum team worked on this summer. We had fun integrating reading and social studies and are finding it a natural way to teach and get everything in. This next unit is about other important historical figures. It includes posters about Alexander Graham Bell, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Garrett Morgan, and Richard Allen along with reading strategy practice activities. It also includes an invention home project packet for kids. The unit ended up to be over 50 pages! I am excited to include this unit in our curriculum in a few weeks!! Here are a few pics from the unit! For your free 52 page Inventors Unit CLICK HERE!! :) So glad I had time to share these endeavors! Hope you can use at least parts of either one! It is my joy to be able to share and help your journey in the classroom or homefront become a little less stressful. As always, please let me know if this is something you can use, if there are any typos or problems, and if you would like to see something else in particular on this little blog. I hear from teachers and parents from all over the world, and I am so grateful for all of you!! Joyfully! Nancy
