Get the creative juices flowing with some “sparks!”

I give my students writing sparks these sparks may be an image, video clip, song, quote, object, words etc… Then I have them write silently for a few minutes. I find that for their choice pieces that I require them to have in writing workshop, many of their ideas for their pieces come from these writing sparks. Here are two images that I thought would be great sparks. I used the golf picture the other day with my kids and we loved looking, writing and talking about all the people in the background!!

This is an image that was recently taken and is known as  the greatest photo that Tiger Woods gave us:

*This is from the Ryder Cup. No, it’s not staged or Photoshopped. That’s really Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball straight at the camera.

How’d it happen? By mistake. The cameraman, Mark Pain of the Daily Mail, was in the proper position on the 18th hole when Woods flat-out duffed his shot. The ball hit Pain’s camera and dropped to the ground. But unlike many instances when Woods and caddy Stevie Williams have taken issue with photographers, Tiger had nothing to say here. He knew he was in the wrong, not Pain.

(Aside: best part of the gallery in this picture? The smiling dude with the cigar on the right side of the frame. He’s the only thing about this photo that looks fake.)

* Taken from Devil Ball Golf.

Here is another picture to remind your kids the importance of proofreading and double checking your work:

 

 

Take the blah out of boring

Good, motivating, interesting nonfiction books are always hard to find for kids. This is the genre that my kids struggle to find a good book that they can get hooked on. I came across some brand new nonfiction books that take the blah out of boring non-fiction- The INSIDE Series.

The books I have are INSIDE Human Body, INSIDE Hurricanes, INSIDE Tornadoes, and INSIDE Dinosaurs.

These books are definitely visually appealing, when you open them up they have horizontal and vertical gatefolds (pages that fold out). The writing is clear with fascinating facts for kids. Included in each book is an index, glossary of words to know, a bibliography and a listing of websties to find out more information.

This is the kind of book that will get kids interested in a topic and then will help them continue their interest  to further their learning. I can’t wait to book talk these books and see their eyes light up when I tell them these are new non-fiction books they can check out!

MUST Reads

My kids are now full swing into their reading challenge books. When they ask for suggestions, I always find myself going to a few “must reads” for everyone to see if they have read one of those books. I decided to create a poster with these must read books on them. I titled it, “Books you can’t leave 8th grade without reading” Here is our list so far:

I asked my kids for suggestions on what other books should be added to the list. I am going to add Among the Hidden (by Haddix)since we were talking about how good the Shadow Children series is, and yes there are still some 8th graders who haven’t read any of these books!

What other titles would you suggest that middle school kids MUST READ??

The Power of Three Words

I had my kids create their own three words the world video a few weeks ago. I put them in groups, had them brainstorm what three words they want to share to the world. Then they had to come up with a creative way to show the world their three words. They loved doing this and ask often if we do something like this again! It honestly took 4 Flip cameras, 1 digital camera, and 40 min. (which includes brainstorming and then filming).

Click on this link to see the compilation of the video my kids did:

Our Three Words Video

– We are the pirate team at school and our team color is blue- hence the Blue Crew and pirate references!