Future Stories

Even though I'll be out of the classroom for the next few weeks, I do have a few new things to share with you.  I wish I could claim all of these great ideas, but many of them are from my teaching partner at school.  I really loved one of her beginning of the year writing lessons where she had students write their "future story".   She started the year with this activity to help students think about their long term goals for the future, and then used the goals to motivate students to give their best effort and work hard toward achieving their goals.  Students used their goals to write about their future and illustrated their work with a self-portrait.  Students really enjoyed this activity, and I love how it forced them to think about the importance of hard work and education

Here is the first page of one student's future story.  Many of them were absolutely adorable!  I will warn you....your hallway will have a lot of adult traffic with different people coming to read students' future stories:)

It feels so strange to NOT be teaching during this time of year.  Even though it's crazy, I do love being with my students on Halloween.  However, up until last year I dreaded the day after Halloween, because all of my students were exhausted, cranky, and were on a steady diet of candy.  I finally decided that it would be much easier for all of us to just go with the flow and find a way to make the day fun for students while sneaking in a lot of learning.  I made an entire packet for the day after Halloween, and it was definitely a hit and made the day a success!  You can find the packet <here> if you're interested.