Haiku Poems by Grade 2-4

Well, my lovely student teacher was sick today so I actually had to teach!  Ah!  And there were only 6 kids from grade 2-4, because some are away and everyone is getting this flu bug that is going around.

Knowing that the kids have been working on poetry with the student teacher, I decided we would do one of my favourites:  Haikus.

I showed them examples and we looked at the syllable patterns in the three lines and talked about the content before each student wrote their own.  I am so proud of them because EVERYONE wrote one! 

They told me I could put them on my blog so here they are:

The Sky

by Logan

 

The very blue sky

Is always standing up high

It never moves down

 

 

 

The Fish

by Leland

 

The fish swimming in

The big ocean that is blue

The freezing fish swim

Who!

by Alexis

 

Owls fly at night

The owls hunt at nighttime

They don't give a hoot

 

 

 

The Bright Night Sky

by Layne

 



 

The stars flickering

in the bright night sky always

shining bright at night

 

 

 

The Bear Fishing

by Shanda

 

One day a bear is

fishing for fish at the blue

lake he caught two fish

 

 

 

The Shark

by Ash

 

One big blue shark swims

in the big saphire ocean

with wide open jaws

 

 

 

Stars

by Ash

 

Many stars at night

in the big blue sky of light

at the nights' mercy

 

 

 



VOICES Menu

I made up this VOICES Menu a few months ago to use in my class.  The idea is that it is like the CAFE Menu for reading, but the VOICES Menu is for writing and is based on the six traits of writing (Voice, Organization, Ideas, Conventions, Expand Vocabulary and Sentence Structure). 

I conference with my students one-on-one, like with the CAFE, and we read through their writing and decide on 2-3 strategies that they need to focus on in their writing.  We highlight their strategies on their sheet, that stays in their writing folder, and they can pull it out when they are writing and check to make sure they are on track.  Once they're using the strategies consistently, we look at setting new goals.

VOICES – page 1
Voice   I show my personality in my writing	Organization   I arrange my writing so my readers can understand it	Ideas   My writing is clear, focused and interesting.
I can show my unique self in my writing.   I can match my voice to my audience.   I can use dialogue.   I can write from different perspectives.   I can use emotion and show passion.   I can write so my readers can identify with what I write.   I can write so my readers can understand my characters.   I can write so my readers will have strong feelings for my characters.	I can hook the reader with a bold beginning.   I can sequence details in time or in another order.   I can write a story with a beginning, middle and end.   I can organize my writing into paragraphs.   I can write transitions to connect events.   I can write an exciting climax that is resolved sensibly.   I can write an ending that ties up any loose ends.   I can make sure all the events, characters and details fit into the type of writing I am doing.	I can write about something I know.   I can plan my ideas on a planning sheet.   I can write so it makes sense to me and my readers.   I can think small and focus on a moment.   I can add quality details: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Emotions?   I can show, instead of telling what is happening and how my characters are feeling.   I can describe what the characters can see, hear, smell, taste and touch.   I can describe the kind of person my character is and what they look like.   I can describe the setting.

 

VOICES – page 2
Conventions   I show pride in my writing by editing my work.	Excellent Word Choice   I create images and evoke emotions with my word choices.	Sentence Fluency   I vary sentence length, structure and rhythm.
I can use finger spaces.   I can start each sentence, I, and proper noun with capital letters.   I can use a period at the end of a sentence.   I can spell common words correctly.   I can use a question mark at the end of a question.   I can use a comma to separate ideas.   I can use an exclamation mark to show strong feeling.   I can use apostrophes in contractions.   I can use quotation marks when my characters talk.   I can underline words that I think are spelled wrong.   I can edit my rough draft.	I can use colourful and interesting words to make my writing sparkle.   I can use strong verbs to make my writing come alive.   I can use colourful adjectives to write longer sentences.   I can use similes to paint a picture in the reader’s mind. Ex: The boys in the pool looked like dolphins.   I can choose words carefully to grab my reader’s attention.   I can make sure I don’t repeat the same word.   I can use interesting words for said.   I can add adverbs to describe how an action is done.   I can use a thesaurus, the word wall or my word collector to find interesting words.	I can read my writing aloud and check that it flows from sentence to sentence.   I can use different sentence beginnings.   I can write long and short sentences.   I can make my writing flow and sound smooth.   I can use connectives to join two short sentences.   I can control my sentence structure.

Hopefully this is useful to you!  Click HERE to download.

Cree Resources

Exciting news!  I have been having so much fun creating resources, mostly games, for my class to use and posting them to my TPT store.  I've been talking about it all over school, and spending HOURS downloading fonts, clipart, backgrounds and borders, and my student teacher, who used to be the Cree Instructor here for years and years was saying that she always wanted a way to share the materials she had created.

 So I suggested that we work together - if she helps with the Cree side of things, I am willing to package up her material and find a way to sell or distribute it.  So I've been busy the last few days making a Cree version of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear", complete with games, posters and mini books for the students to complete. 

It's been a lot of work, but so much fun, and the nice thing is that I, as a none-Cree speaker, would feel comfortable using these materials in the classroom.  I'm almost done, could even finish it tonight, but I'm waiting for some pictures I purchased on Etsy to be sent through...dum, dum, dum.......

So in the meantime I'm looking up clipart for my next project and thinking about making more clock matching games. 

Oh, what I would do for unlimited high-speed internet.  

Scoot Games

I love SCOOT! games so much, and so do my students.  The idea is that each student starts with one card from the set in front of them.  The teacher gives them about a minute to answer the question on a recording sheet, then yells, "Scoot!"  When yelled, all students stand and move over one spot to do the next question.  They keep going until they are done all the cards. 

Because I have a split grade class, and only five students in grade 4, we don't play in the traditional way.  We tried once, but my lower student struggled and got frustrated at not haivng enough time to complete the questions, while the faster students were done and getting bored with waiting to move.  So instead, I either put the cards all over the room and they have to find and answer them, or I throw them all over the rug at the front of the class and they go at it.  This works well, because once the faster students are done, they know to go and do our Math Build Stations, so no one is waiting around for something to do.

                        

 

Click on the picture above to link to my TPT store and buy!