Reflection Straws

Along with my synonym word chips, I have also made some food themed reflection sentence starters. I call them my reflection straws.

Each of the straws have a sentence to help the children with their reflection before the work goes into their portfolio.  They have been a real hit with the children, and they have been writing meaningful reflections on their work using the straws!

The four pots are colour coded with different reflection prompts in each one.  They were: "why I liked this work", "how I worked", "why I put this work in my portfolio", and "what I will do next time".  For example, these are the straws in the "why I liked this work" cup:

• I liked ... because ...
• ... was enjoyable because ...
• I will not forget ... because ...
• I enjoyed ... because ...
• I'm really proud of ...

The straws live over by the writing door near the word chips.  I have moved the unit words for the new unit, but this is the general layout.

Also over near the writing door is a writing goal pencil, each of the students have a peg, and since this photo was taken, they have all chosen their own goals.

Each of the goals have a poster that are displayed elsewhere in the classroom.  I really like how the pencil came out, but then I was looking at it one day and realised that the pattern is not how I intended. Never mind, it still serves it's purpose, and is meaningful, interactive, and engaging for the children.

I have a few more things that go over by the writing door, but I don't have photos yet so I'll have to update with those later.

Writing Door - Word Synonym Chips

So this is my inaugural post on my teacher blog, and I'll be starting off with something I have been working on over the last week: our Word Door.

For a while, we have had our unit words over by the unused back door of the classroom, and I have been making some things to spice it up with some interactive displays.

The first of which is our "Word Chips" display, displaying synonyms on french fries, in boxes patterned after McDonalds fries boxes, with a key word on the front.

The children can go and take a chip for the words back to their desk when they are writing.  The boxes I made myself, using laminated coloured paper.  They are stuck to a foam board using velcro, so when I want to change to a different set of words, they will be easy to replace.

I first found the idea on a few pinterest posts, one of which uses pockets, and the other uses envelopes.

 

Also found the pattern for the fries box on pinterest, and may be using the pattern for other things as well!  Some people have been using it for little gift packages and the like, so could come in handy!

 

We have been focusing on synonyms for our words of the day as well, so the children are gaining awareness of them, and we can play different games as well as using the chips as a resource for writing time.