Save My Turkey!

In class we are writing letters to persuade Mrs. Lee to spare our turkeys! Third graders, who is your turkey? What is his or her name? Occupation? Accomplishments?

Our First Author Celebration!

For our first Author Celebration, our third graders shared their Personal Narratives (true stories from their lives) with our kindergarten buddies. Check out the photos below!

The Secrets of the SPY Codes

A short article by Siddharth Pyapali



Have you ever wondered how spies carry secret messages from one place to another? They use a lot of spy codes! Shhh... close your windows and doors, I'm going to tell all the secrets of the spy codes. So, read on to know more! (hint: every code needs a key)


Every spy uses their own spy codes, but there are some famous codes that you can use after reading this article to make your own secret messages. Some popular codes are:

The Pinhole Code

The Undercover Postcard Code

The Wheel Code

The Playing Card Code

The Navajo Code

The Spike Code

The Keyboard Code

Pinhole Code

All you need to make a Pinhole Code is a magazine or newspaper and a safety pin. That's it! The Pinhole Code was invented in England almost 200 years ago. People who could not afford to mail a letter figured out a clever way to write to their friends. They would make pin prick holes above printed letters in the newspaper until they spelled out a message. It didn't cost a cent to send. And that is the secret of the Pinhole Code.

The Undercover Postcard

You can send a secret message by writing in tiny letters in a top right corner of an envelope. Place a gummed stamp on top of it, and mail. Your friend needs to place some water on top of the stamp to easily peel it off to read the secret message.

The Wheel Code

The wheel code is made by using a decoder wheel. The decoder wheel has an inner wheel and an outer wheel. The outer wheel has the alphabet in clockwise order from A to Z. The inner disc has all the letters jumbled up. By lining up the inner wheel with the outer wheel you can make the wheel code.

The Playing Card Code

Pull out two full suits of cards from a deck to make a total of 26 cards. Make each card stand for one letter from the alphabet. This is the key to a code.

The Navajo Code

This is about sending messages in your native languages. The enemy will never know what you are talking about.

The Spike Code

You start with the Morse Code that is made up of dots and dashes. To convert the Morse Code to the Spike Code, use a tall spike to stand for a dash and a short spike for a dot.

The Keyboard Code

The letters on the keyboard are not in A-Z order, so take a blank sheet of paper and order it A-Z. Place it on the keyboard and type your message using the key!

Kaitlin's Treasure Story

Kaitlin would like compliments and suggestions for her story, below. This story is only a draft.

Demi's Concert

One day I went to Demi Lovato's concert. "I had front row seats," I said. "When I walked in, it was so crowded." I walked to the line for t-shirts. I waited in line for 45 minutes. Then finally I got my t-shirt. Then we went and took our seats. "First David Archuleta came out," and sang 5 songs! Then Demi Lovato came out! She sang my two favorite songs, "This is Real, This is Me" and "Here We Go Again," and much, much more! "She rocked!" I said. When the concert was over it was very late and I was very tired. When I got home my dad put me to bed and said, "Did you have a good night?" I smiled and went to bed.

Please leave suggestions and compliments in the comments for Kaitlin!

Wackadoodle Spelling

The truth is, spelling in the English language doesn't always make a lot of sense.

For example, how on earth did "L" end up in the middle of the word "could"?

And given that "again" ends the same way as "rain," "drain," and "Spain," why isn't it pronounced the same way?

Because of their inherant wackiness, many words need to simply be memorized. But memorizing doesn't have to be boring! Here are a few fun ways that we practice spelling our word wall words over and over in class!

Alphabet stamps:

Wikki Stix:

Colored sand:


Play-doh:

Etch-a-sketch:

How do you make spelling practice fun at home?

Third Grade Spelling

On Friday we talked about what to do when we come to a word in our writing that we aren't sure how to spell. I tell students to make their best guess (so that they don't lose the momentum of their writing by stopping to look it up), then underline the word. That will make editing so much easier later on!

Something else that I ask parents to help me do for students is to watch carefully for misspelled words from our Word Wall. If a student misspells any word from the Word Wall at any time, I don't correct the word but instead write a small "ww" next to the word. That reminds the student that it is a word he or she should know, and prompts them to check the correct spelling on the wall.

Creating our Journals

This year we are going to work very hard in writing, but I think you'll be surprised at how fun that work will turn out to be!

Our first step in setting up our writing time was to personalize our journals this week. This is an important step, because we really need to come to see our journals as extensions of ourselves. We will put the stories from our lives, our feelings, and our ideas into these notebooks.

How many of you have read the Harry Potter books? Do you remember Dumbledore's Penseive? The Pensieve is a vessel where a person can put his or her most precious thoughts and memories. These thoughts and memories are stored in the Pensieve, and can be sifted through and revisited anytime. Can you see how our notebooks are like Dumbledore's penseive?

Summer Writing

Hello writers!

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer so far. In this post, I'd like to find out who has begun writing at home already. In the comments section, please tell us:

What have you been writing?

Where have you been writing?

Who have you shared your writing with?



If you would like to share your writing on this blog anytime this summer, you can email me your pieces at emilyellen24@gmail.com!

Writing our Memoirs

A writer named Gore Vidal said that, "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."

Do you agree? What do you see as the difference between a biography or autobiography, and a memoir?

Powerful Ideas in Tiny Packages

For our Poetry Author Celebration, Portable 2 writers decided to publish in a brand new way! We knew that we wanted our poetry to reach as large an audience as possible, so there were a few steps to our publishing.

First, we created posters to highlight our favorite poems. We spent time making the posters bright and attractive to catch as many eyes as possible, while still spotlighting our important words!

Then, we created a movie of our poems. Please watch it below and leave your comments!

Finally, we put up our poetry posters all over Grand Ridge Elementary. Our intent was to fill our school with our strong words and feelings, to share our love of writing with everyone! Our posters will stay up until our final Author Celebration of the year, when we will take them home along with our writing portfolios.

Enjoy!

*Note: I apologize in advance for the audio. This was our first experiment with the Flip Camera, and upon reflection we probably should have borrowed a microphone from someone!

Powerful Poetry

This week our class began writing free-verse poetry. Here are a few of the poems students in our class have already created.


Please leave questions and compliments in the comments!

Creating our Thesis Statements

Writers, today you tested your possible thesis statements by asking these questions:

1. Is this an arguable statement, rather than a fact?
2. Is this statement true for the beginning and the end of the story?
3. Can I support this statement with evidence from the text?

My thesis statement is:

Gabriel is a lonely boy who lets a kitten into his life and then isn't lonely anymore.

What are some of your thesis statements?

Feel free to comment on the thesis statements of others as well!

Just For Fun...

Mrs. Perry showed me this fun website where you can turn photos into shape collages. Just for fun, I turned photos from our October Author Celebration into a collage. Click on it to enlarge. What do you think, writers? :)

Cooperative Strip Paragraphs

Cooperative Strip Paragraph is a GLAD strategy that our class uses when writing expository text about a unit we are studying. As a class, we create a Process Grid, a graphic organizer that sorts information about our general topic (Native American tribes of the PNW) into categories (Location, Social Life, etc.)

Here is the Process Grid we created for this unit (click to enlarge):

Next, we use information from the Process Grid to create sentences that can be grouped into a paragraph. We do this as a class first, with each table group creating one sentence to contribute to the class paragraph (the Cooperative Strip Paragraph). As a class we then revise and edit our paragraph, until it is perfect.

Here is the Cooperative Strip Paragraph we created:

Our final step in this unit was for each table group to create their own Cooperative Strip Paragraph, using the exact same process on a group scale.

Here is the blue table group's paragraph:

Some students took on an additional challenge and created individual paragraphs using this process. In fourth grade, students learn to create several paragraphs in this way and eventually write five-paragraph essays about what they are studying!

Elias' Story

This is Elias' fiction story, The Joe Story. As you read it, look especially for Elias' word choice and use of dialogue. What has he done that you could do as a writer?
(You can click on each page to make it larger)

Peer Conferencing

In third grade we spend a lot of time practicing peer conferencing. Peer conferencing is when a writer asks another writer (called their peer) to conference with them by reading their story and giving feedback and ideas.

Writers, tell about a time that you got some useful or helpful feedback during a peer conference.

• Who were you conferencing with?
• What piece were you working on?
• Tell us exactly what the advice or feedback was.
• What changes did you make after the conference?
  

Short Unit: Native American Legends

This week our class will begin a short unit on writing Native American legends. We have read a few stories from the Pacific Northwest, including Storm Boy, Frog Girl, and How Raven Stole the Sun. We will examine Storm Boy, by Paul Owen Lewis, in depth and use it as a template to create our own legends.

Parents, if you have any Native American (particularly Pacific Northwest Native American) legends at home, or find any online, it would be wonderful if you could read them with your child. Look especially for themes of separation of the hero from his or her village, initiation into a new village, and return to the home village with new knowledge.

The more authentic legends your child is exposed to, the easier it will be for him or her to adopt the voice and word choice used in this genre!

Book Release Party

Portable 2's first-ever book release party was a hit! The morning began before our guests arrived, when Mrs. Lee revealed the new book, Our Sparkling Words, hot off the presses! The book weighs in at just under 100 pages - truly a testament to the dedication and perseverence of the authors.

At 9:30 our guests, the third graders from Mrs. Perry's class, began to arrive. They gathered with our writers in four corners of the room, and the authors began to read excerpts from their stories. There was time for questions and answers, and then the authors led their guests to a table where each member of Mrs. Perry's class got their own copy of Our Sparkling Words. There was plenty of time for discussion, and I heard some wonderful advice being shared. Best of all, our writers were asked to autograph books - something that prompted one student to declare "I feel like a rock star!"

Other overheard comments:

Writer 1: "This looks like a real book!"

Writer 2: "This IS a real book!"

"I'm going to read every story in this book cover to cover this weekend!"

"Mrs. Lee, is it okay if I read Our Sparkling Words instead of doing Fun Friday?"

"These stories are so good! I feel like I'm reading a book from the library."

Well done, authors. You should feel so proud!

Just For Fun Class Story!

The rules:

• Read the story starter carefully.
• Read any comments that continue the story carefully.
• Add a piece of the story in the comments. Your part of the story must make sense with everything that has come before.
• Don't end the story until everyone has had a chance to add!

"Ah-choo!" I couldn't stop sneezing! The basement was dark and dusty, but I was determined to get it all cleaned out over my midwinter break. I was pulling some moldy old boxes out of a corner when my hand brushed something smooth and cool. I gripped the hard object and tugged. It was a bottle, but it looked old and I didn't remember ever seeing it before. It was blue with swirls of purple, and had a cork stopper in the top. It was just as dusty as the boxes I found it behind, so I tried to polish it off a little with the edge of my shirt. Suddenly, the cork popped out and a genie appeared in front of me! Then...

Looking Back

Today every writer in our class turned in a final draft of their story to Mrs. Lee for copy editing over the weekend. Aside from publishing our stories next week, we are done with our realistic fiction pieces! Writers, you should feel very proud. You worked long and hard on your stories, and it will feel good to share them with other writers next week at our Book Release Party.

Mrs. Perry's third grade class (next door) will be starting their realistic fiction stories in a few weeks. What advice would you give them? What should they watch out for? What should they keep in mind when beginning their stories?

Post your advice in the comments, and remember to double-check spelling and grammar before you publish!

Naming Our Stories

Writers, have you ever named someone? A brother or sister? A pet? It is an amazing responsibility.

It is time for you to consider names for your story. It is time to think of a title!

Your title, like Charlotte's Web, might have a double meaning. Charlotte's Web is a book about a spider who weaves a web, but we know that webs are also seen as things that are very cleverly made - like the way that Charlotte cleverly saves Wilbur's life. And Because of Winn-Dixie has one of the main character's names in it, but it also tells us something about the book Things happen to Opal because Winn-Dixie is in her life.

Tonight, spend some time thinking about your favorite titles for books, then try to figure out why you think the authors chose them. After you've done that, don't just take the first title that comes to mind, try to come up with a list of ideas, then choose the one that you think really connects to some big ideas you have in your story, and that will really catch a reader's interest.

Please post some of your ideas in the comments. Be sure to read the other comments as well... you never know where inspiration will come from!

Making Space for Writing

Today in Writer's Workshop we talked about the importance of making spaces for writing in our lives. Figuratively, this means that we find the time in our day to sit down and write, even if it's only for a few minutes. Literally, it means creating a space at home or at school where we feel inspired, where we keep reminders of the things we are working on as a writer, and where we can work without distraction. Sometimes we might keep books or quotes that inspire us in this place, or we might keep objects or sticky notes to remind us of lessons we have learned in the past.

If you could design your perfect writing nook, what would it look like? Where would it be? What books, notes, or objects would you put there?

If you already have a perfect writing nook, tell us about that too!

Revising With A Lens

Today in class we discussed how to reread and revise our stories, focusing on one thing at a time. We compared this focused revision to wearing glasses with different lenses - we read through many times, each time looking for something different. Writers, what is one lens you used today to reread and revise your story? Post your responses in the comments section!

Welcome Writers and Readers!

This year the third grade writers in our class have spent countless hours during our Writer's Workshop generating ideas, narrowing topics, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. I never meant to start a blog for our writing, but the truth is that the stories and essays our class is producing are far too wonderful to keep hidden in our little classroom. Every day I am moved by the writing I see being created by my students, and I want everyone else to have the opportunity to be moved and changed by it as well! Students, this is your place to share works-in-progress for ideas and feedback, to bounce your ideas off of others, and to proudly display your final pieces. It is a place for us all to share our sparkling words. Enjoy!

~Mrs. Lee