Lists, Letters, and Cards... the Sequel!

So I've been pondering how to keep the enthusiasm rolling after break with the lists, letters, and cards.  Obviously I will have to move on to other things, but I want to have the resources there for the kids to continue this form of writing if they choose.  It's such a great way to show kids that writing is useful and is a fun form of communication.  Even at age 32 with all the texting and emails, it's still so fun to get "snail" mail!  I have tried to keep up with demand in the past with cards from the Target dollar spot and with parent donations, but the cards disappear so fast!  Plus, in order to make these cards more kid-friendly, I had to run them through the printer to put handwriting lines on them.  I couldn't put more than one in at a time, and that was so time consuming!  Here is my solution...

These are just a few of the samples that I created using my Fonts 4 Teachers and Scrappin' Doodles clip art.  If I print the pages back to back on cardstock, or even just on some thicker white paper, once I cut them in half and fold them, they'll be just like the little Dollar Spot greeting cards!  I'm so excited to print these out and see what the kids do.  I have a feeling there will be lots of cards floating around the room, which means that there will be a ton of writing going on!

If you like these, check out my TpT page... they will be up some time tonight or tomorrow.  Can't be late for my Zumba class!!!

Lists, Letters, and Cards... Oh My!

I'm baaaack!  I was really bad during the holiday season, but things were just so hectic for a while and then, to be honest, I just needed a break from everything!  But I'm back and I've missed sharing!

This is my favorite time of year for writing.  It's so easy to make it not only fun but relevant to the the kids' lives.  December was full of lists, letters, and cards.  Usually I just do the wish list and Santa letter, but I have always felt like that just wasn't enough practice to get the letter writing format down, as well as learning to use voice in the letters and make them sound like conversation.  You know what I mean!  First graders have a hard time understanding that a letter is actually corresponding to someone, not telling a story.  You want to give the reader an opportunity (and reason) to respond.

Opportunity #1: Elf on the Shelf
This year, my classroom got a visit from a very special elf, which we named Cookie.  Cookie had her own email address, Cookietelf@gmail.com, and would email us letters about our behavior and answer any questions we had.  This is how we first started letter writing- writing letters to our little elf to find out more about her and to tell her about us.  The kids had a blast writing to her and were so excited when she would address their questions in her emails.

Opportunity #2:  Reindeer in Training
Next, we read Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and then wrote to Santa pretending we were reindeer.  Now, the kids knew they were writing to me, not the actual Santa, because we know Santa doesn't have time to read our pretend letters about being reindeer!  The kids had to write a persuasive letter to convince Santa why he/she would make the best reindeer to lead the way on Christmas Eve.  I loved reading these letters- they were so creative and so funny!  The kids took word choice very seriously on this one- they wanted their letters to stand out!

Opportunity #3- The Grinch
Of course we had to view my favorite Christmas tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, because reading the book myself just isn't the same!  This is a great story for word choice and voice as well.  I loved that we could work on reading goals (we were working on retelling and story elements) and prepare for writing at the same time!  We discussed the Grinch character and his motivation for his behavior- great character study!  After discussing the story, the kids were to pretend they were a Who in Who-ville and try to convince the Grinch not to steal Christmas.  More persuasive writing!  It was so sweet how some offered for the Grinch to come celebrate with them or told him they loved him.  Some also may have been a bit stern with him, but hey, it's Christmas!  No one should ruin Christmas!

Opportunity #4- Santa Claus
Cookie the Elf offered to drop the letters off to Santa upon her final return to the North Pole.  So here was the ultimate persuasive writing task- convince Santa that you have been good and sweetly ask him for what you want!  First, we cut out pictures of what we wanted and worked on labeling, finding the words in the ads that we needed and copying them correctly.  We don't want Santa to bring us the wrong stuff!  We made lists and hopefully checked them twice, then use the lists to help us write our letters.

After all of this writing, the kids were on a roll.  I put out list paper from the Dollar Spot at Target and they were off making to-do lists, grocery lists, more wish lists, lists of friends, etc.  I also put out donated Christmas and special occasion cards and the kids wrote letters to Cookie, their families, and even to me.  My cards were cute because they were "thank you for the thank you card" or "you're welcome for the gift" cards in response to the thank yous I had written for the thoughtful gifts!  I love seeing how inspired the kids are to write after this unit!  They were writing letters to their own elves at home, too, then bringing in the letters that the elves wrote back to share with their classmates.

I think that these letters brought out my kids' personalities (aka voice) and had some of the best vocabulary choices I've seen in their writing.  Now I have to find a way to connect this to other writing and we are set!  We aren't done with letters just yet, though... we have Inauguration Day on January 21st, so we'll have a chance to write letters to the President finally, as we didn't get a chance to do this after the election.  We will also work on thank you cards for gifts, too.

And the election elation continues...

Well, I didn't plan to keep the election fun rolling, but when your kids are into something, you have to capitalize, right?  On Tuesday, the kiddos colored a campaign poster for their chosen candidate to take home and share what they learned with their families.  Yesterday, they made their own campaign poster and came up with their own platform to run for president.  Here's a sample of their oh-so-cute posters (from PBSkids.org):

What was funny was that some kids had to look in the mirror to draw their face. :)

We revisited our candidate platform comparison chart (see the November 6 post) and also talked about the many hats a president must wear: leader, problem-solver, community builder, etc.  I can't believe how excited the class was about this and how seriously they took it.  I was so proud!  They worked and worked on their speeches and then today began presenting them to the class.  Of course, they needed a podium to give their speech from, so...

Tada!  Old overhead cart transformed!

I will admit that the perfectionist in me did in fact measure out the stripes, as well as correctly placing the stars.  I just had to, okay?  But anyway, the class sat on the rug and the candidates gave their speeches to their supporters.  Well, all the kids said they'd vote for themselves, but they did clap for each other without prompting, which was really awesome.  Again, I am super impressed to hear first graders speak about national defense, Iran, energy, taxes, etc.  Our future is in good hands!

My student from IU Northwest came back today just to hear the speeches and had some big VOTE buttons for them to wear... I will try to snap pictures of that tomorrow.  Super cute!  She really wanted them to have Uncle Sam hats, but couldn't find any.  The kids inspired her to drive all over last night looking... and she works full time while being a full time college student!  I love that she came back to watch the speeches!  She wants to type up their speeches and send them to the White House.  How fun is that?!  We hung their posters and speeches up in the hall while they were at music.  I wish I had a picture of their faces lighting up as they walked down the hall and saw their hard work- priceless!  (This is why I do my job, so when I'm stressed about other work stuff, I just need to remember...I  <3 these kids!!)  Amy (IUN student) says she is totally going back and buying the ballot box- the kids want other people around the school to read their speeches and vote!  I'm also pondering emailing the videos out for teachers/students to watch.  They're only about 30 seconds each, so that wouldn't take too long.  We'll see...
(While proofreading this, I did notice the excessive use of exclamation marks, but it really was that exciting, so they are staying.  Sorry if it is annoying. :))

What's next?  Adding the voice trait (which some students already really demonstrated in their speeches) to the ideas trait we've been focusing on... letter writing.  I have some books of real letters to President Obama from kids around the country:

We will read the letters in reading workshop, focusing on author's purpose and still working on retelling the main idea and details.  Then in writing workshop we will plan and write our own letters to President Obama.  (Thankfully he won, so I can still use these books!)  They can give him advice, ask him questions, or try to persuade him to focus on an issue important to them.  I may just have to record them reading their letters to him.  They watched kids asking the President questions via video on Nick.com and they would LOVE to emulate this.

This is BY FAR one of the coolest writing activities I have ever done, and it was all inspired by the kids and their love of politics.  Who knew?  If only I had written those persuasive letters to the Chicago Cubs, asking them to come to our school!  (It worked for us in 2007.)  This just goes to show that if you give kids something that really sparks their interest, they can really take off with it.  They have truly inspired and energized me this week.  I can't wait to hear more speeches tomorrow!!

Do I really have to wait 4 years to do this again?!?!