Teaching Students How to SHOW not TELL in Writing

I was scared. I felt sad. I was really happy. Do these sentences sound familiar to you? These are the types of sentences my students were writing a couple of weeks ago when explaining how they were feeling in their writing. Now they are writing sentences such as, "My heart started pounding and my palms were sweaty." and "I jumped backwards and threw my arms up in the air!" Their writing is so much more interesting and they are really showing how they were feeling instead of just telling it.

So how did my third graders make this jump in their writing? Meet my newest unit, Now Showing... {A Unit on Showing not Telling in Writing}

To start off the unit, I showed my kids examples of telling and showing sentences. I asked them which type of sentence was more interesting to read. They all agreed that the showing sentences were more interesting. I then explained that over the next week or two, I was going to teach them how to show not tell feelings in their own writing.

The first activity that I did with my students is called "Feelings Charades." My students LOVED this activity and it really showed them how to describe a feeling in detail rather than just telling it.
Volunteers in our class acted out different feelings while the rest of the class recorded the body language/actions that they noticed (eg. hanging head, shuffling feet, shoulders hunched, etc.) This game helped my students understand how to "show not tell" a feeling in their writing. They loved acting out the feelings and were begging to do more than the six feelings I had planned.

After we finished the activity, I gave each student a "Showing Feelings Chart" to add to their writing binder. I explained that they could use this chart as a resource throughout the year if they needed help with showing a feeling. There are twelve different feelings explained on the chart.

Later in the week, I read many Patricia Polacco books to my students and had them listen for examples of "showing not telling." Patricia Polacco has many examples in one book alone. For example, in Chicken Sunday, there are 8 examples of a feeling being shown not told. Each of my students were assigned a different feeling before I read the book (different feelings were typed on cars and passed out to each student). While I was reading, they had to listen for an example of that feeling being shown. If they heard an example, they held up their card and we stopped the story to discuss how Polacco had described it. I love using mentor texts in writing workshop and Polacco's books are always so enjoyable for the students. Three of the books that I used in this unit are:


                              

For each read aloud, I've included a chart of the "showing not feeling" examples and the page numbers that they can be found on. Also included in the unit are a brainstorming list, practice pages for students to turn telling sentences into showing sentences, and a recording sheet for students to write down showing sentences that they find while reading on their own. If you'd like to check out my unit on TpT, just click the image below!

TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale.... It's Almost Here!!!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! To show you how much I appreciate your support of my blog and TpT store, I am offering 20% off of ALL products in my TpT store for the big sale! From May 7th through Ma 8th, you can save 28% off by using the discount code TAD 13 at checkout. This is a great time to stock up on end of the year items as well as back to school products for next year! My wish list is full and I can hardly wait to snag all of the goodies that I have been eyeing lately!

Here are some recent additions to my TpT store:

Customized Kindergarten Common Core Standards Posters- "Kid Friendly"

 

Customized 4th Grade Common Core Standards Posters- "Kid Friendly"

 

 

These posters include "I can" statement posters for ALL Common Core standards along with Science and Social Studies posters specific to your state. If you're anything like me, you'll love having a matching set of posters for all subject areas!

Mom, You Couldn't BEE Any Sweeter! {A Mother's Day Craft}

This is a cute and easy craft for your students to make for Mother's Day! Three different message boxes, patterns, and directions are included.

This Year ROCKED! {An End of the Year Memory Book}

 

 

 

Celebrate the end of the year with your students using this fun rockstar themed memory book! There are two different versions provided- one features girl rockstars and one features boy rockstars. This book is printed like a booklet and will save you on paper! Just print double sided, fold in half, and staple in the middle.

 

 

I hope you enjoy the big sale tomorrow and Wednesday! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

 

Super Sunday Sale... and a Challenge!

The big sale on TpT is almost here! It's time to discover new products, empty those wishlists, and save yourself boatloads of time with all of the amazing resources available. I'm excited to share that I will be offering 20% off all items in my store on Sunday. You can also use the coupon code SUPER to receive an additional 10% off!

   Here are a few of my seasonal resources for this time of year:

 

 

       

Here are a couple of my personal favorites:

 

 

Last, here are a couple of my best sellers:

 

 

          

Today, we started the Random Acts of Kindness Challenge in our classroom! It was so fun! We kicked it off by talking about what R.A.K.s are and how it makes you feel when someone does something unexpected for you. I then read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud. If you haven't read this book to your class yet, you NEED to!

I then gave them the first daily challenge (of 10). Their challenge for today was to smile at someone in the hallway and ask how they were doing. (We made sure to discuss making eye contact, talking clearly, etc.) Many of the kids tried this challenge during the day and were so excited to tell me about it! It was great to see them feeling so good about themselves for doing a random act of kindness. We are going to continue doing a daily challenge for 10 days, all the way up until Valentine's Day. Some of the different challenges include: holding the door open for someone, sitting with someone at lunch who you normally don't sit with, picking up trash that you see without anyone asking, leaving a little note thanking the custodian at the end of the day, and many more. If you'd like to check out more about this challenge, just click on the image below!

 

Life-Size Famous American Projects

This past Friday morning, I was in a panic trying to think of a project for my students to create on the famous Americans that we've been studying. We had parent-teacher conferences the night before so I didn't have much time to prepare anyting. (That's my excuse at least!) An idea hit me at the last moment and I knew my students would love it! I decided to have my kiddos make life-size famous Americans using butcher paper and construction paper. I wanted them to do some writing as well so I thought that each member of the group could be in charge of a box or bubble showing what that person said (Wise Words), did (Amazing Action), thought (Thoughtful Thoughts), and a trait to describe him/her (Terrific Trait). To be honest, I was a little nervous about this project at first because I'd never done it with my students before and it was going to be a little crazy, but it went so smoothly! Their creations turned out absolutely adorable and it was such a meaningful and fun project.

I first put the kids into groups of 4 and assigned them a famous American. Our six people were Abraham Lincoln, Harriett Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., and George Washington. One person from each group laid down on a large, white piece of butcher paper while another student traced them. They cut the person out and then began using contruction paper to turn it into their famous American. My teammate, Kristin, has this great skin-color construction paper so we used that for the head and hands. I let them use books that we've been reading so they could look at the pictures for ideas of what they looked like. After they finished creating their person, they worked on the boxes/bubbles. Here are some pics of our finished famous Americans:

I love Abe's beard and bow tie!

It's hard to tell in the picture but Susan B. has ruffles around her neck and wrists!

Doesn't this look just like MLK?!

Sojourner was given patches on her dress and glasses... so cute!

Harriett has patches and some fringe on her dress =)

I LOVE George's curled hair and hat!

 Here are some close-ups of faces and the boxes/bubbles:



This project was amazing for me to watch. The kids worked really well together and were so creative! I love how these look in the hallway and best of all- it was SO easy! If you'd like to make these famous Americans, you can download the boxes/bubbles {here}.

Another resource that you can use when teaching about famous Americans is the new product I just posted called My Book of Famous Americans. This product allows your students to create their own non-fiction book complete with a table of contents! They will love being a real author of a non-fiction book. Plus, it's a great way for you to assess what they've learned.

To create the books for your students just print double-sided, fold down the middle, and staple. My students absolutely LOVE making books like this. To see more views of the book or to snag your copy, click on the picture below!

Monday Made-It and My New Blog Design!

Well today was my first official day back to work after break, although it was just an in-service. Let me tell you- it was great to slowly ease into things and have time to work in our classrooms. I feel so much better about starting back tomorrow. I feel like it's the first day of school again- I have little butterflies in my stomach thinking about seeing my kiddos again! I'm going to miss my little man, but also glad to get back into the swing of things.

I'm excited to share several "Monday Made-Its" with you. A few weeks ago, I shared a post about the stools that I made my colleagues for their classroom. I decided to make one for myself and I just adore it. Here are a couple pics of my finished stool...

Seriously, these were so easy to make! I used leftover fabric from my classroom curtains and chair pockets so that everything is coordinating. I love it!

Okay- next up for "Monday Made It" is a project for home that I did over break. My son, Grady, who is 18 months old LOVES to color and draw. My sister-in-law built this adorable table for him on his 1st birthday and I've been dying to paint it and make it all "cutesy." I was inspired by the picture below on Pinterest:

Here are some pics of my little man's finished art area: (sorry for the picture quality!)

He is having so much fun coloring at this table! The chair pockets would be great for a classroom also. I love the bows at the top (can you tell I like bows?!) The curtain rod holds little pails with crayons, markers, etc. So fun! =)

Alright, last up is the Common Core Opinion Writing unit that I created over break. I am so pumped about teaching opinion writing to my students. When I first started searching for ideas, I found a lot of prompts such as "Pretend you are and ant. Write a letter trying to persuade someone not to step on you." I was struggling to find what I was looking for so I decided to make it myself! I started by thinking about times in life when we write opinion pieces. I came up with 8 different types of writing- speeches, editorials, letters, book recommendation letters, book reviews, movie reviews, advertisements, and campaign posters. I'm proud to say that the 8 writing activities included are all authentic writing opportunities for kids. If you'd like to learn more about the unit, just click {here}. You can also check out the unit by clicking on the pic below:

Hope you all have a great week!

Main Idea Madness and Then/Now Freebie

Happy Sunday everyone! I am having such a hard time finding time for everything so I apologize that my posts have been pretty few and far between. I wanted to share a couple of things with you today. First up, I have a FREEBIE for you! This past week, my students learned about how life in the past is different from life today. Two wonderful books for teaching about life in the past are:

Then and Now by Heather Amery

 

If You Lived 100 Years Ago by Ann McGovern

 

 

On Friday, my students did a T-chart partner activity to write and illustrate what life was like in different areas: shops, streets, railways, schools, family rooms, country, beaches, kitchens, garage/smithy, bedrooms, transportation, communication, clothing, games, jobs for women, and jobs for men. The kids worked in groups of two and really had to "synergize" with one another. Here are some pics of my kiddos hard at work =)

 

 

 

I gave my students copies of pages from the books to help with their ideas and illustrations. These turned out really great! I mounted the finished products on construction paper and hung them in the hallway. Check them out!

 

 

Don't you just love 2nd grade illustrations? They are too cute! If you'd like to download your FREE copy of these T-charts, just click on the image below. Enjoy!

 

 

Next up-- I am so excited to share the "Main Idea Madness" unit that I created. We've been using this unit over the past couple of weeks and it sure is helping! In the past, teaching my students about main idea and details is always a struggle. It is just such a hard concept for them to understand. My favorite part about this unit is that it starts out pretty easy and builds up to more challenging activities. In 2nd grade, students have to be able to identify the main idea of a text as well as the main idea in each paragraph of a multi-paragraph text. Whew! That's hard! After using the activities in this pack, they are beginning to understand =) Woo hoo! This unit is packed with reading passages, graphic organizers, and meaningful activities for your kiddos. If you'd like to check it out, just click on the image below!

 



 

Have a great week!