A New Kind of DOL

Many of you probably do Daily Oral Language (DOL) or something similar. When I first started teaching, my school gave me a big DOL book with sentences for me to put up on the board every day that my students then corrected. (The book wasn't big because it was thick; rather, it was big, as in, long and next to impossible to find a convenient place to store, because it didn't fit on any of my bookshelves—what were the publishers thinking?!) There are a couple of problems with traditional DOL, in my opinion. First, there's usually no real and meaningful connection to what the students are learning and, second...it's boring. Not that everything we do as teachers needs to be exciting and fun, but it certainly helps! :)

Enter: The Class Letter. The first change I made to DOL was to turn it into a letter to my students. I write it every morning before the kids come in, and we begin our morning meeting with it. Each letter has a variety of mistakes in it that are targeted at the different levels of my students but with the overall level and learning objective of the class in mind. For example, at the beginning of the year the mistakes will mostly be capital letters and missing ending punctuation. As the year goes on and we learn about different conventions and spelling patterns, the mistakes start getting harder (but I always put in a few "easier" mistakes for students who are still working on those skills).

It only takes me a couple of minutes to write a class letter each morning, but the difference in the engagement of the students is huge! We correct the letter as a whole group. Usually, I call on about five students from my jar o' sticks. If they are stuck, they can call on a friend to help them out. After that, I start calling on volunteers since the mistakes that are left are usually the more challenging ones. Here's an example of a letter (everything in blue is what we edited):

Now, you may be thinking what a great idea this is, but wait! Here's the best part! We add sounds and gestures for our punctuation! I got this idea after taking a great workshop on whole brain and body learning. The class was such a great reminder to incorporate visual, oral and kinesthetic elements into teaching. But how do you do that with something like DOL? Well, I have to give credit to Victor Borge here. Yep, that's right. Victor Borge's famous routine about phonetic punctuation. This video is 4 minutes and 37 seconds, but you'll get the idea after about a minute and a half—although I highly recommend watching the whole thing just because it's funny:

I don't use all the same sounds and gestures as Mr. Borge, but you get the idea. And the best part is that the kids L.O.V.E. it. When I am conferencing with kids during writing time, they can't always say, "Oh, I need an apostrophe there," but they can definitely make the sound and gesture for it!

If you decide to use this idea in your classroom, let me know how it works for you!

One Lovely Blog Award!

Wow! Only four posts, and I've been awarded the One Lovely Blog Award. Definitely encourages me to keep blogging! Teachers are a supportive lot! :) A big thank you to Amanda at  I Heart Elementary:

Summer Bucket List

It's summer. Finally. That time of year where teachers get to do all the things they put on hold the rest of the year, because they were too busy with school stuff. Here's my "bucket list" for this summer:

1. Play with my daughter!

Isn't she adorable?! I have a ton of cool activities pinned on Pinterest just for her. Like this glitter bottle I made yesterday:

The original directions can be found here, although they didn't really work for me. My glitter is no longer settling to the bottom. Too much glue, maybe? I will continue playing around with it until I figure out the right amounts. This might be a good project to make for the classroom as well—especially for those kids that need a sensory break. Even though mine isn't working properly, my daughter doesn't seem to mind:

2. Crafty things. (Again with the pinning on Pinterest. It's like an addiction or something.) Here's my first creation:

Ahh. I love my husband! He deserves a medal for everything he's had to put up with this past year.

3. Relax and read some good books. First up on my list, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn.

4. Blog! I plan on working on this blog as well as my photography blog.

5. Okay, I'll admit it...I am also planning on doing some prepping for next year. I just can't help myself. I am so excited to be at my new school with my new team! :)

6. Did I mention relax already? Yeah, that one is waaaay overdue.

Not a very long list (or a really, really long list if you look at my Pinterest boards!), but a satisfying one.

What's on your summer bucket list?

Butterflies and Life Cycles, Oh My!

Yikes! Time got away from me, and I haven't been blogging. Sorry about that. So here's the scoop: I am leaving my school, where I have been for the last eight years, and I am going to a brand new school! Brand new, as in, they are still building it! I am so excited! I have gotten to tour it twice (the first time I've ever worn a hard hat!), and it is absolutely beautiful. Actually, it's quite messy and full of construction junk, but it's going to be absolutely beautiful. So, along with all the usual end of the year requirements, I have been packing up my room (how did I collect so much stuff?) and working with my new staff to get our beautiful new school off and running to a great start in the fall.

I met with my new third grade team this morning. We looked at our state standards and created a year-long plan for next year. We are starting off the year with a life cycles unit in science. Each student gets a caterpillar to observe:

(We order Painted Lady butterflies from Insect Lore. They are safe to release in the wild in our area, but be sure to check out your area if you decide to do something similar.)

Once the caterpillar has formed a chrysalis, it goes into an aquarium. We hot glue the lids to some poster board like this:

And then leave the poster board on the top of the tank (I usually tape the far edge so that you can lift it like a lid):

The tank is empty in this picture, but I usually put flowers, sticks and yogurt cup lids with sugar water in the tank right before the butterflies come out.

We also give each student a butterfly book so they can learn about and track the growth of their caterpillar. Here is a caterpillar observation sheet which you can have for FREE because I am super happy with all of the awesomeness going on in my life right now and am feeling generous! Oh, yeah, and also because it's SUMMER! :)