This is a fabulous idea from Ruth Ayres in which we write about something to celebrate each Saturday. I am looking forward to participating in this link up each week and hearing about the awesome things happening in everyone’s classrooms and lives.
My favorite season is autumn. It is so amazing to see the beautiful colors of the leaves every day. I love the crisp feel of the air and I love the flavors of Fall. The best is when everywhere you turn there is a pumpkin flavored something. I enjoy all the pumpkin treats…if it is pumpkin flavored, I will love it. This week I treated myself to a pumpkin spice latte one morning and my favorite pumpkin beer one night. Yum!
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| If you can get beer from Lakefront Brewery in your area, you should try their beers. They are one of my favorite craft breweries…from Milwaukee |
In my classroom, this week was mind-numbing with the state testing. My poor 8th grade students have to test in all curriculum areas, so we spent ALL WEEK testing in the morning. We are almost done with the tests and just have ELA/Writing left to do on Monday. Woo-Hoo!
This week I was super excited to start NaNoWriMo with my 8th grade students. I prepared them more than I did with last year’s students. It is amazing to start and to see my students get excited about their word count goals. When I stopped my students a few minutes before the end of class, some actually got upset that they had to stop. It was the end of the day on Friday and they did not want to stop writing! I love the momentum that this project gives all my students. (Now, I just need to kick myself in the butt to get writing)
My seventh grade class had the assignment to write a personal narrative about something that has happened to them. I have been working with them on word choice and choosing strong verbs to make their writing more powerful. I was really pleased with the quality of the narratives that I was seeing this week. I can’t wait to share their work with the world. We would love some comments if you have some time. Here’s the Link: Mrs.Payan’s Kidblog
Finally, I will celebrate the fact that I get an extra hour to sleep tonight. Gotta love Daylight Savings Time in the fall!
What are you celebrating this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments.
Ooooo, forgot about the extra hour of sleep. That truly is something to celebrate.
First, thanks for reminding about the extra hour! Wonderful to hear!! I want to say that I admire you for doing all that writing with your students-wow-that's really something to manage. They will not soon forget this experience, Andrea-the year they wrote the book with Ms Payan! And actually I loved writing personal narratives with my students, always such wonderful stories that I might never have heard otherwise. That too is something to celebrate! Have a wonderful pumpkin-y weekend!
Yay, for fall and "fall back!" I'm not doing NaNoWriMo but am making it a goal to write for at least 30 minutes a day this month. I started off with some prompts and then sequed into my own writing. The process is always cool.
Don't you love it when kids don't want to stop reading or writing! The pumpkin beer was first for me. I have never heard of that, but I am often told I live under a rock!
Enjoy your extra night of sleep, I know I will!
Goodbye tests and welcome writing, writing, writing. I celebrated good night sleep and writing.
P.S. I like your elephant word cloud above your profile.
Pumpkin beer – yum! 😉 Exciting stuff going on in your classroom! I, too, am looking forward to sleeping an extra hour tonight! 😉
Good luck with NaNoWriMo to both you and your students!
You have created an atmosphere of celebrating writing in your classes. The Nanowrimo is too daunting for me. I am giving some students the opportunity. I'd love to hear more updates on how it is going. Maybe it's just not appropriate for lower grade students. Or maybe their teacher is too afraid to tackle it.