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Jars, Fish, and paragraphs

Oh my gosh...
I couldn't wait to share this with you... I know I just posted yesterday BUT I am full of stuff I just have to get out there....
ok ok ok 
I LOVE JARS
mason jars to be exact
But really any jar that has character...
jars jars jars...
that being said
can you guess that Donavon's Word Jar is one of my
FAVORITE books to read at the start of school...
I know I know I KNOW
I mentioned start of school
ACK I go back mid Aug... yikes
when do you go back?

anyways that was a *******squirrel*******
so since I love jars and




I came up with a super cute
Personal Word Jar Kit...
I am going to start it right away
probably the first week of school
OK maybe the 2nd
and then we will revisit it every 2 weeks or so
the way it is going to work is
Every few weeks we will have a word choice focus and they will be on the look out for the focus in their independent reading...
for example if  the focus is words other than said... then when they come across words other than said they can add them to their jars... I have detailed directions in the kit
but I think you get the gist of it right???

I am super excited about it :)
here is the link
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Personal-Word-Jar
Hopefully you love it too...
and my Mama said she saw plastic jars at the dollar store... how cute would it be for every kid to have their own real jar... Dollar Tree tomorrow... HOLLA for my mama!!!

**************Squirrel***********
OK I told you I had another reason for being absent from blogging... well it has to do with a THREE WEEK TRAINING
I am in ABYDOS training
now don't get me wrong... I LOVE IT
but my summer is slipping away while I am in this writing workshop... BUT I have tons of new ideas
and can't wait to share them with my kids... ONE is this one





this is such a funny story and unexpected FOR SURE
anywho... after you read this
you ask the kids to think of something they traded...
they are thinking in their heads... not sharing
shhhhhh quiet
continue to ask...
was it a good trade?
was it an unwanted trade?
and then you hand them a paper cut out FISH



SO CUTE
and then have them write about their trade on the fish
be sure to tell them they won't have to share
UNLESS they want to
if they know they do NOT have to share they sometimes are more willing to take risks while writing
this was a GREAT activity and I already bought the book
a wonderful way to get a pre-writing started...
so what do you think... have you heard of this book?
the illustrations are AH-MAZING too... go grab you one :)

Speaking of my ABYDOS training...
we are treated like the kids we teach and we go through all of the writing processes as our trainers teach us different pre-writing strategies, editing,  and other amazing things...
we have a giant book

it is FULL of ideas and the processes and
this is the KICKER
all of these are research based
they tell you exactly why you should do it this way or that way...
really if you ever have the opportunity to do this training... YOU SHOULD
here is the link just in case you are curiouser...
http://www.abydoslearning.org/

*******squirrel******

one of the questions we were asked during training is...
what is a paragraph?
how do you teach paragraphs?
is there a standard?

OK now STOP and think about that...
really think about it!!!!
 the way you teach paragraphs... does it look like or sound like how you were taught paragraphs... SHAME
look at different books
are all of their paragraphs topic sentence based?
an indent doesn't mean a new paragraph it could mean emphasis
sometimes there is just ONE word
is that a paragraph?
where did paragraphs come from?
so are you thinking?
is it restricting our young writers to tell them it has to have a certain number of sentences... because does it?
HMMMM???
is it a change in topic or thought???
is it a breather within a large drawn out scene?
what are you thinking?
i don't use paragraphs am I bad?
someone once posted in a forum that she didn't read blogs that didn't have paragraph... what ev
I told her NOT to visit me because i don't even have complete sentences HA

just thought I would share this little question with ya!!!
and I am not going to tell you the answer because there really isn't a concrete answer
so keep thinking about it... it is good to think about HOW WE TEACH!!!

Ok let your mind GROW!!!

toodles