Wow... I can't believe summer is already over and I've been back at school for about 3 weeks! I am loving my new group of 2nd graders and excited to see what this year brings!
One goal I had for myself this year was to really try to "set the stage" for my kids. I've taken much more consideration into decorations (I promise to have a Classroom Reveal blogpost soon :)) and different ways I can truly engage my students.
I know writing isn't a fun thing for most teachers to teach, myself included. It's really hard to get my students to think creatively and put their thoughts down on paper. So for my first writing project with my kiddos I knew I was going to have to get creative.. so we took a trip to the moon!
I know what you're thinking... setting the stage can be so expensive, but thats so not true! I spent $0 during this project. Could I have made it a little more extensive? Of course! But, I was thinking on my feet and just went with the flow. Here's what I did:
First, I cut the lights in my classroom and told my students to close their eyes.
Next, I pulled up a picture of the moon on my Promethean Board.
Then, I turned on some "space music". (I found this by typing in space noise on YouTube)
Finally, I gave my students their prompt. I told them to imagine winning a trip to the moon with their family. I let them think of different questions they would need to ask, things they would need to pack and how they would travel.
They REALLY got into this. I had kids writing front and back on a piece of paper I gave them. Now, I did stress that spelling wasn't that important this time as long as they could get thoughts down on paper. I was really amazed with how it went. Simple, easy and extremely effective!
Now onto the FREEBIE! I've created a simple file for recording their writing. Feel free to download and use! I'm excited to see how this works in your classroom!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone is having a great start to school! (Or enjoying the last few weeks of summer!)
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