After researching Haikus, it was time to have the students write one of their very own. We took the students on an autumn walk and told them to use all their senses while we walked. Listen to the crunching leaves. Feel the wind and the crisp air. Look at the red, yellow, orange, pine, and barren trees. We then filled out a brainstorming sheet, using all our senses. The next day was a rather loud writing time as students clapped out syllables, helped their friends count syllables, and held up fingers as they composed their Haiku poems. There was great excitement as students wrote a line with just the right amount of syllables. It is kind of like a puzzle, moving words around and changing them to get the right amount of syllables. Our next step is publishing them for our classroom book that we are getting bound. You will be able to purchase one for home, too!
There was great excitement in the air today as we journeyed to pool school. The students did a great job reading on the bus and listening during the classroom portion. Students learned basic safety around pools. Students then got changed into their suits and headed into the pool. First up- getting tested to see what group they should be placed in. Before Miss Tracy taught the haiku unit, we first wanted to see what students already knew about a haiku, so she gave them a writing prompt to write an informational piece describing what a haiku is, what makes it special, and where it comes from. It was clear that we have very creative students and that they have no idea what an haiku is. We did tell them to make something up and write about it, if they had no idea, so we got the craziest, funniest answers. The next day, Miss Tracy had the students take a gallery walk of different haikus and write down what they noticed about the haikus. Many noticed that they are short, three lines, poetry, and about nature. With some prompting they figured out that the first line has five syllables, and the second line has seven syllables, and the last line has five syllables again. The next day, students partnered up on Chromebooks to do some reserach to find out exactly what haikus are. They searched and read some books on Epic and took notes using a telling frame. The next day, students color coded their information they gathered to help them put similar things together. Because the prompt had three areas the kids needed to address, we used three colors to sort our information. Next, students were ready to organize their information on their paragraph template. In third grade, students are expected to write an elaborated paragraph by saying more about each reason. Then they were ready to write their paragraphs! As you can see, students learned a lot about what an haiku is!
After a week of hard work and leading their conferences, students earned a pajama reading party on our half day. I loved to see so many kids excited about reading!
We are ready! We have been working hard preparing for conferences. We have made goals, written a script, organized our work, and practiced reading what we are going to present. We are ready to answer questions from our parents too. Here we are role-playing our student-led conferences where students pretended to be parents while their partners practiced. I am so proud of these kids!
After discussing how to be an O.W.L. as you read (see a previous post) and practicing being an O.W.L in our own boos, we had fun creating owls of our very own. I love how different they all are!
Kenneth was our amazing super hero last week! He is such a responsible, respectful and safe student!
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Mrs. Ellis's Class
Learning & laughing our way through third grade. Archives
June 2020
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