Our Latest and Greatest (Project)

After finishing up our Poetry Notebooks (which take Ms. Leom 10-20 minutes per notebook to read and assess ...)

We started our latest and greatest project, Book Publishing.

Way back in the Ms. Leom's first year of teaching, her third graders at the time old her in an end of the year survey that the part they wanted most in third grade was to write and publish books. They did it in first and second grade, and they wanted to do it again. Her students had other great suggestions that year ... Student of the Week ... Ms. Leom learns something new from every group. So for the last eighteen years, she has made it a priority to publish books, with an effort to streamline and improve the process with the materials and opportunities available. The fun part, this project has caught on, and students in all the fourth grade classes are benefitting from this project!

Another important point to make, from the teacher perspective ... at the end of the school year, students come to school with a lot of energy and tired minds and bodies. The sun sets later, the weather warms up, and they are on the move, active, and on the go. We need something motivating to keep students engaged, to keep the learning happening, and students interested. Projects offer opportunities for all students to create and reflect their interests. We want students to have fun in school and be successful.

We started with recording our ideas on our Book Publishing Maps.

The next step is to take your ideas from your map and write with descriptive details. Take one sentence, your basic idea, and write five or more sentences per page.

Let the writing begin!!