Fired Up About Writing

Whew!!! This post has been written in my mind for about 3 weeks, but time is flying so fast and life is crazy busy!

The week prior to the 4th Grade STAAR Writing test we hosted Camp Write Along in the afternoons. The 4th Grade STAAR Writing test is a huge to kids. We wanted to pump kids up in self -confidence while helping them tie up a few loose ends. We transformed their area to look like a camp.

We had the three cabins to rotate through each day along; there was the Composition Cabin, Revising and Editing Cabin, and Revision Cabin. Plus, each student had the opportunity to visit the Writing Conference Cabin for an individualized conference about their writing. Each cabin was filled with activities to fit each groups special needs. The kids LOVED it! The novelty eased the anxiety and gave them confidence. Even though we were tackling hard skills such as combining sentences and transition words in my cabin, the kids were so pumped up!

We ended the week with a celebration. We read the book Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor. This book is wonderful and would also be great at the beginning of the year when establishing a classroom community. Then, we painted good luck rocks. This turned out to be a powerful activity. There were so serious when painting their special rock, Plus when they had their rocks on testing day, it was obvious the comfort the rock provided. We ended the celebration with a snack of S'more Cupcakes.