The Conventions Club... Freebie Fall Friday is here again!

Holidays with our family are all about the kids! There is nothing like watching as they experience it all and create memories. It truly is the ultimate blessing. 

Last weekend we took all of these cuties to the pumpkin patch!

Now on to the Conventions Club! I would LOVE to take credit for this one, but I have to give it to my amazing 3rd grade bestie! She is crazy amazing, I'm tellin' ya. 

Last year we really felt like we perfected the way we teacher writing. The focus is on writing projects rather than allowing students complete freedom in writing. We were finding that allowing them too much freedom produced little to no writing and a lot of time wasted during workshop. By working through writing projects each child created a piece that they took through the entire writing process and they did this several times throughout the year. The quality and quantity of writing improved immensely. 

Still, there was one major element of their writing that was not improving. Conventions. We would conference with students, practice editing together, peer edit, use editing kits, songs, the list goes on. Still we would see lowercase letters at the beginning of sentences, missing periods and spelling errors of those no-excuse words. The editing they were doing on their rough drafts was not carrying over. So the Convention Club was established!

The Conventions Club is an exclusive club for students who are meeting or exceeding in the area of conventions on all final copies. 

Here is How it Works:

1. Any time students turn in a final copy that we grade the authors either stay in the club, are made a part of the club or removed from the club. 

2. We keep a poster up with the Club Rules and the names of the members. The members write their names on the laminated poster in Expo marker just in case they have to be erased.

3. When they enter the club they get a members card. If they are removed from the club they have to give up their card. 

4. If members are a part of the Conventions Club they receive the following privileges:

-A pen to write with! THEY LOVE THIS!

-5-10 minutes at the beginning of writer's workshop for a "fun" activity. It was always something simple like drawing or sometimes I will give them a word search or they get to play a partner game. It's also not every day, but when they are given this opportunity other students are working diligently on their editing skills :P

I know that it might seem like a bit much to have a club that kids are added to and removed from and everything is not necessarily "fair", but it has really worked. We have seen a huge difference. By the end of last year every student had been a part of the Conventions Club at one point and the list of names  in the club at the end of the year included almost every student. 

Remember that as the teacher you have the ultimate say in it all. The idea behind it is that authors will show consistent use of proper conventions. When you see them showing consistency reward them by adding them to the Conventions Club! If at any point a member was not showing consistency I would take the opportunity to conference with them and they would be removed from the club until they again showed proper conventions in all writing. We also made sure to make it reachable for all students. I had a couple of kids last year who were working on writing 3 complete sentences with a capital and period in each. If they were meeting this goal they were a member. The club should not be unachievable for anyone. :)

Here ya go! Happy Freebie Fall Friday!!
Click the picture to grab yours.

This comes with two posters and Convention Club member cards!

And because I am the featured blogger this week over at Teacher Blog Addict I have another little something for you!

This is a simple pumpkin glyph for when your littles just can't 

focus any longer on those days before all that candy!!

Continue the hop with All Things Apple

Then go grab more freebies over at TBA!

"I'm just so smart you know... that's why I read to show that I am inferring, inferring until the story's over"

Boy oh boy I hope my kids this year love to sing as much as my kiddos did last year!

I can just hear them belting out the song now!!

I wrote a little song last year to go with this spooky little activity pack. 

The tune goes with Sean Kingston's beautiful girl (don't even ask because I can't tell ya why I picked it <random> ) You can find the entire pack in my TPT store but I want to share the Spooky Inference activity with my followers. 

The kids loved all of the inferring they got to do last year. It go them up and moving all around the school. So. Much. Fun. 

So here is how it goes. I bought a skeleton from the dollar tree and took him apart. I taped up the parts all around the school. As a class, we used each clue to infer where we would find Mr. Bones' body parts. I sent a few kids to that spot at a time and everyone got a chance to go. You could also do this in reading groups. Just have the kids return the parts to the proper place when they are finished so that the next group can do it. The clues should work for any school. 

Here are some pictures of last year's fun!

There it is! Okay they are totally posing for the picture but whatev.

Found it!

Reading the clues and INFERRING!

Click either picture below to grab your copies! :) 

FREEBIE Friday!

Not only do I love me some Friday I love a FREEBIE even more!

Sorry for my absence lately... I would like to say I have a good excuse, but I really don't. I have been reading 50 shades and unable to stop. I can honestly say that I have missed you all so much though and catching up on all you wonderful blogsters has been as amazing and inspiring as ever! :P

It is a bit late, but we had so much fun here on Halloween! This is probably the best Halloween I have ever had at school. We didn't party, there was no craziness but we learned (imagine that) and added some Halloween flair.....

We started with easy peasy Pumpkin Glyphs!

Then we played Don't Rob Bob. This game was inspired by The Teacher Wife. I altered it for my thirds and made it into a mental math game! This picture isn't actually from Halloween. On Halloween we played with Candy Corn pieces and it was the afternoon so I had 38. Pictures just don't happen then. 

You can get your Don't Rob Bob Game by visiting my TPT store. Students take turns saying the answer to a problem on the board. The other player attempts to take the candy or game piece from the spot they believe matches the answer. If they try to take it from the wrong spot they lose that turn. 

After that we Buddy Read our Halloween Joke Books... again super engaged! Success!

I can't find this on TPT but it was a Freebie so I am hoping it is okay to share here.

We then did Laura Candler's Pumpkin Seed Multiplication... it was perfect!

Finally, I ended the night Trick or Treating with this little sweetie. This is a T-Rex costume NOT a dragon. He's reminded me of this several times. We were set on a skeleton until the day before Halloween so of course we had to find a fill in T-Rex! He is already asking why we don't Trick or Treat again.

And now for the Friday FREEBIE. We have been working hard on conventions and sequencing. Using Lucy Caulkins we refer to making a "movie in your mind" and visualizing the story step-by-step. 

Here is a little organizer for ya! The sister and kids just arrived (literally NOW) so I am off to entertain 3 toddlers! Wish me luck ;) 

Spicing up Inferring..... Freebies exclusively for my followers!

I just love my job...

 I love it so so so much! Goodness me what a difference I am feeling over the last few weeks. I just love when all of the routines set in.  I mean I have such a wonderful group of kids. They are so smart and always excited to learn. It is not fun to teach when the kids aren't into it. My kids though, they love to sing, dance, and are always up for a challenging activity! Now that I have bragged my butt off about em' I must show you what we have been up to this week!!! 

 Inferring hmmmm... inferring... well it means to draw a conclusion. Huh? 

You know, like to read between the lines. What lines? 

Like looking deeper at what the author isn't exactly saying (crickets). 

 Why is inferring so easy but so hard to teach!!??? Most kids do it without even knowing they are. I just find it crazy hard to put into words. So... this week we inferred like nobody's biz.

   After reading and inferring, modeling and introducing it to my kids I introduced them to Iggy the Inferring Iguana. They know Iggy, they understand that he reminds them to infer but they needed more practice. Thanks Iggy....

(If you don't do Beanie Baby reading and writing strategies look into it. My kids love them and are always so excited when they see a new one on my desk.) 

Later we got to the juicy stuff. After we were introduced to infer we embarked on a little scavenger hunt. I hid pieces of a paper skeleton ($1 at none other than the dollar tree) all around the school. 

As a class we read the clues, inferred where the piece might be and set off to find it. 

This really clicked with my kids! 

The clue about the principals office was my fave. They assumed the front door (even though it says not the front). Then one of my little smarties said and I quote "Look deeper though! It says..." 

YES YES YES!!! 

Here is a copy exclusive to my followers. Just click the picture below! 

Hand in the office!

Inferring away!

Modeling the leg bone!

Aha!!!

There it is!

So today I gave my students another opportunity to practice their inferencing skills first thing. The night before I taped a smartie to the bottom of each of their chairs. You can use anything an eraser, a sweet note, it doesn't matter. After morning work I handed them each a clue to read. I instructed them to read it, infer what it is saying, but wait to begin looking. After they had time to process and infer we discussed the details and "dug deeper". They concluded that it was under their chair (after a few kids looked under their table and in their book bag, but hey). Then I let them all look at the same time. Of course they found it and inferring is all of a sudden fun and exciting. 

And here is your exclusive copy of the clue!

Finally my favorite part!!!! I wrote a song what what... while getting ready for work this morning it just came to me. My kids came up with the cutest hand motions. We practiced today and they are going to practice tonight. Tomorrow I will have a music video for you, but here are the lyrics. It goes to the tune of Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girl (random, I know but I was looking up inference videos on Youtube and the song was on one of the videos. I though um strange but it's catchy so I decided it was perfect for rewriting the lyrics. 

Look back tomorrow for our exclusive music video!!

Happy inferring friends!