*Update!* Guest Post // A Teeny Tiny Teacher
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Hey everyone! I’m happy to be guest blogging for Mrs. Cupcake while she is on vacation! I’m so happy and distracted about it that I can’t think of anything to write about . . . of course.
So after talking to Hadar, she gave me the idea of writing a re-run.
Maybe some of you haven’t seen this before because you don’t know who I am, and this will be brand new for you. And maybe the rest of you have seen it, but you forgot about it, and it will inspire you to create it before the new year begins! And if you fall in the category of “I’ve seen it, I already had it, let’s move on, shall we?” then I apologize.
Centers are always a favorite in my room. If you do the Daily 5, you could use this for Work on Writing. It’s one of the most popular centers in my room every year. It’s the Post Office Center.
My post office center looks like this:
The kids get to write to each other on special stationery (I have 4 choices) or they can even write to kids from other classes. They put the notes in the mailbox and, when I remember, I deliver the mail to the appropriate cubby or class. Some kids like to write to their kindergarten teachers and tell them how much they miss them. (I frown upon that, but I do encourage them to write to me, and I hang a HUGE word bank with ideas right next to the center. Examples include beautiful, smart, adorable, funny, pretty, amazing, You, Are, The, Best, First, Grade, Teacher, Ever!, etc.) Letter writing is not a “standard” in first grade but our second grade teachers seem to appreciate the frontloading (big word!) that we do with this center.
I suggest READING the notes before delivering them. Some first graders think they can tell others that they LOVE them and want to be their boyfriend or girlfriend (gasp!) and others think they can tell their friends that they are stoopid, dum, and uglee. And still, even others think they can tell me that I am SHORT. In all of these instances, the culprits SIGNED THEIR NAMES because I taught them how to do that and so they did that and they incriminated themselves. CSI – FIRST GRADE.
Click on the rocket stationery above to get all of the stationery. (PS I had to trick my Mac with the margins. It looks like you need legal sized paper but you don’t. You just have to be smarter than a Mac.)
Later in the year, I extend the Post Office center by having the students write to Wrinkles. Wrinkles is a very stressed out dog. Man, does he have problems. I mean, look at his little face:
Doesn’t he just look worried? He has big problems. Here are some examples of his problems:
The kids read his problems and then write back to him. They try to come up with solutions and I really encourage them to ELABORATE. Occasionally, I will find this in the mailbox: “Dear Wrinkes, yes. Love, First Grader” or “Dear Wrinkles, no. Love, First Grader”. Wow. Profound. Wrinkles can rest easy now.
The kids end up LOVING Wrinkles. Even WITH all of his problems. Personally, Wrinkles makes me tired. As soon as I help him solve one problem, he’s got another. It’s just never ending. I imagine you could use any kind of stuffed animal that you have around your house or classroom . . . but I’m partial to dogs. And I’ve said it before but I’ll remind you that rule number 3 in my classroom is Must Love Dogs so there you have it. (plus, do you see a cat having this many problems?)
I hope you’ve enjoyed this re-run. Next week, an all new episode will air.
Thanks, Mrs. Cupcake, for me letting be a guest over here!
***Hi everyone!! Teri here 🙂 Kristin was having a teeny tiny {couldn’t resist} problem with her links, so she uploaded them to Google Docs for you!! Click {here} to head to her blog post, and grab your freebies!!! Many thanks to Kristin for guest posting here to keep you company! 😉 I’ll see ya over the weekend! I sure do miss you guys!!***
