Daily 5: Chapter 6 and Summer School Rewind

This week is my first week of Summer! Okay not really, but that is how it feels since I have been teaching summer reading camp. I have to say nothing is quite as nice as sleeping in and having a PJ day! But then....

the bad day virus came around and ruined my plans! That was how I wanted to start my day/ summer vacation yesterday but I guess life had a different plan for me! As I started writing this post and putting all my Daily 5 documents together something awful happened. My program stopped responding and once I finally got it up and running again EVERY-SINGLE-THING  was G-O-N-E! Gone. My husband actually had to e-mail someone {I donno who} to send me my document! Thank you Mark, he really is a life saver and I don't know what I would do without him. So I spent hours upon hours fixing everything in the Daily 5 unit {can anyone say freakout moment}. So if you are wondering why I didn't post yesterday, now you know.

In all the upset I was able to still add my new word work unit to my TpT store as well as add some pages to the Daily 5 freebie. I hate missing a scheduled deadline so I had to figure out how to get everyone their freebies! That was one positive note from yesterday. If you haven't grabbed your new freebies yet, just click on the picture below to head over to my TpT store. If you spot any "oops moments" in the new freebies just let me know, I have been a little scattered.

Anyways onto a much needed subject change! I can now post about chapter 6 of the Daily 5 {well at least some parts of it}! This chapter took me a while to complete because of all the great ideas out there! Seriously, I think it took me a whole day of just looking at pictures and ideas of different writing centers and word work centers. Personally, I think that writing is such an important part of the reading block so naturally I was so excited to read this chapter. Students need to understand the connection that reading and writing play in their everyday lives. It makes the purpose for reading as well as writing more likable and achievable.  So many times I start my year with students that have never seen a plan, have never written a story they feel proud of, or just plane Dread {with a capital D} writing! I know why they dread it, it is because;

1. They have never been able to find tools that help them write.

2. Understood the purpose and joy of writing {which isn't to fill the page to the bottom with meaningless words}.

3. Learned that when you write for enjoyment, you are not just a writer, but a story teller!

I really enjoy teaching the writing workshop and once my kids start to see that writing isn't a dreaded time during the day, they too become wonderful story tellers. They grin from ear to ear when it is their day to share their writing pieces with me. I truly love this one-on-one time with my students. Okay, so I went on a little detour there but I'm back now! =)

Back to chapter 6. This chapter ended up being just another great excuse to squeeze some writing into the day. Currently I have two writing centers in my classroom, both from Lakeshore, which is a teacher supply store that I love. If you click on the pictures below it will take you right to the product listing. I like these two centers for a lot of reasons.

1. I didn't have to create anything myself.  I love to make things myself but let's be honest sometimes grab and pay is the way to go. =)

2.They were easy for the students to read and follow the directions.

3. They held the student's accountable.

The writing pockets have 3 different prompts on each pocket, topic cards with related vocabulary and pictures. This center is great for my ELL and language impaired students.

The Write and Publish center has step-by-step directions, already made templates and writing activities for the students to publish. This is great because they can publish something every time they visit this center.

Sorry for all the number listing. I don't know why I had to do that twice. I guess I had some important points. lol!

So knowing what I have and knowing what I wanted was helpful in this chapter. I wanted the students to be able to edit as well as create common forms of "write communication." I wanted them to feel the purpose for writing at this center.  So check out the materials I have made for "Work on Writing." Like always not everything you see here will be in the freebie. If you are interested in the full unit, it will be available on August 8th! BTW- thank you to all of you that have sent such sweet e-mails and comments to me! You all are the reason why I love to give things away and really why I have made such a large freebie. Thank you.

Okay onto working with words. So this part of the unit I struggled with. I wanted to create materials that could be used in any classroom so I decided to go with common worksheets that are easy to play as a whole class {this is great for the day that you want to teach the class how to play the game} as well as can be used with any words. So I think you will be happy with the worksheets I have made. There is actually 6 worksheets included in the unit but I have to recreate them so you can see 4 of them for now.

In addition to this I have also created a Boggle/Scrabble working with words center game! Let me just tell you that I am really excited to use this in my classroom and to offer it to all of you. I have seen so many of these games on Pinterest I just couldn't help myself.  You play the game like the original Boggle but the letter cards that you use to make words are Scrabble letters {the ones with a number value in the corner} So there are two awesome parts to this game. Students make words using the letters from the Boggle game cards and then add their letter values together to get a word total! Two skills in one!  If you are interested in getting a copy for yourself click on the picture below.

I also have some exciting news for the Daily 5 Freebie! I am creating a Spanish version! Yep you heard right! A Spanish version. Okay so no I don't speak or write in Spanish, however one of my sweet followers and teacher, Christina Lopez had asked if I would be willing to create her a Spanish version if she translated it. So I thought, how cool is this, and said, "Yes" right away! So here is a sneak peak at the cover! So if you are interested in a Spanish version it will be available to download at my TpT store when it is completed. I mean, I just love working with fellow teachers out there. It really is amazing how blogging lets us connect to one another.

I have also made another few additions to the unit through some requests from teachers out there. They are not finished yet since I had to redo them all {deep breath} so they should be ready by next week. If there is anything else that you are wanting and have not seen in the unit previews, please contact me about it and I will see what I can do.

Topic switch! Since I am finished teaching summer school and all of my students finished making their animal research projects I wanted to share with you what they created. They all turned out so great, I am really proud of all their hard work.

These next few pages I have quoted some of my favorite sentences from their work!

Finally, before I call it a day I wanted to Link up with Amy Lemons "Tell Me More, Tell Me More" post to share some random facts about myself! Click on the image below to see who else has linked up! I know I am.

1. I always take a FULL glass of ice water to bed, even though 9 times out of 10 I will only drink a few sips. =) Hey, you never know when you are going to get thirsty when sleeping!

2. I used to rock the bangs when I was growing up! It wasn't until I graduated High School that I decided they had to go. I used to hair spray those bad boys stiff! lol!

3. I don't like to eat ham, apple sauce, cottage cheese, or seafood {I am allergic to shell fish so that is partly the reason for seafood}.

4.I am obsessed with weddings. I loved my wedding so much and I love to look at any wedding photos I can get my hands on.

5. I am scared of spiders. I usually yell for Mark to kill anything that looks, moves, or hangs like a spider.

6. I want to visit all the special places here in the United States. There are so many wonderful things in our country to see and experience. I loved our trip to the Grand Canyon.

Well, I think that is all for today. I hope everyone is having a better start to their week, because I sure had a downer of a day yesterday. Wishing for a better week ahead.