Saturday Celebrations

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for hosting this space for celebrations ~ big and small.  Please check her site to read other celebrations.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were big days of celebration for my young writers.  Two and a half weeks later, after a nice holiday and then and extra 2 snow days, we returned to school not quite ready to dive back in full force.  So, we eased in slowly.  And I'm so glad we did.

Let's create!

My kiddos participated in One Little Word.  I shared my word, discovery, and then showed them some other bloggers' posts.  They were so excited to come up with their own words.  At the last minute, I decided to get out the paints and other craft supplies.  (Remember, I was easing into getting back into the groove of school too).  My original thought of letting them illustrate their words with crayons and markers sounded a little boring.  I wanted them to be able to create something fabulous, and boy did they!  They also posted their OLWs on their blogs.  If you have time, would you stop by and leave a comment?  They would be thrilled.

Leaving feedback for each other

We had our writing celebration on Friday afternoon.  We began working on our Persuasive Writing unit in the middle of October and finished final drafts right before break.  There were many days that I thought, "Oh boy, this is going to be hard."  And it was hard.  Sometimes, the things we asked the kids to do was very hard.  But, guess what?  They worked, took risks, listened to suggestions and wow, did they ever make progress.  I asked them to look at their on demand writing we did back in October before we had any instruction on persuasive writing and compare it to their final drafts.  I heard laughter, "oh my gosh," and "I can't believe I wrote like that," spread throughout the room.  The principal, media specialist, and our literacy coach joined us for our celebration.

Cheers!

I'll be writing more in depth about both of these topics, but for today, I wanted to touch on the parts I was celebrating.


And last, but not least, we've been able to spend the day with my husband's family as we celebrated his mom's birthday.  It's been a lovely day of reminiscing as we looked at pictures and read letters that our kids had written to their grandparents when they were little.  Lots of laughter and good food filled our day.

Happy Birthday Shirley!

Here's wishing everyone a new week of celebrations.