Drexler Dialogues

The children are so excited about moving up to 4th grade next year. They have a lot of questions. You can read their friendly letters by clicking on the names on the Blogroll to the right.

Dear Second Graders,

The third grade teachers can’t wait to meet you.  In the meantime, my class decided to write letters to tell you about third grade.  Just click on any of the student names in the column on the right.

Enjoy!

Mrs. Drexler

The children selected writing topics this week.  The goal was to write a first draft on the topic of choice.  Once the draft was complete, the instructions were to change each sentence in some way.  Nouns, verbs, or adjectives could be replaced with stronger, more interesting words.  Sentence structure could be changed to improve sentence fluency.  Or, perhaps the opening sentence was changed to make a more interesting lead.  The writing improved significantly over the first draft.

Have a look at the wonderful poems incorporating literary devices.  Each line of the poem represents a different literary device.  See if you can find the simile, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, and personification.  Have fun!

We’ve been studying explorers and their impact on the Americas and the world.  Ferdinand Magellan was the first explorer to map a route around the world.  Unfortunately, he never made it.  He died on the way.  Only one of his 5 ships returned to Spain three years after the journey began.  This week, the children wrote journal entries from the perspective of Magellan, one of his crew members, or one of the many people associated with his voyage.

The blogs this week focus on ideas. We spent some time reviewing this component of the six traits of writing. The children wrote about good ideas gone bad, bad ideas gone gone, and good ideas that just got better. Enjoy!

Photo credit. 

On March 6-7, 2008 our class will be participating in a 48 hour blog project with children all over the world. Many Voices for Darfur is taking place to inform k-12 students and their families about the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan. Our class learned about this situation through a Darfur scavenger hunt and Skype sessions with children from Mr. Mayo’s class in Maryland. The class wrote press releases to tell others about the 48 hour blog. They are hoping to share these press releases in Skype sessions with other classes to help increase participation. Please visit each of their blogs on the sidebar to the right.

I was fortunate to spend the weekend in the “City of Brotherly Love”, Philadelphia. The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Constitution Center moved me to reflect on our country’s rich (and turbulent) history. Each time I looked at an exhibit, I wished that my class could be with me. A group of middle school children were touring Constitution Center when we were there. I noted how enthusiastically they proceeded through each station, busily filling out the scavenger hunt handed out by the teacher. It occurred to me that I didn’t fully appreciate history at that point in my life. I decided it takes a little personal history to appreciate historical perspective. I also realized that I was building that appreciation as a child. May you all have the chance to build an appreciation of history in your children.

In honor of the America’s Kids Program, the children created diamante poems about one of the 50 states. Enjoy!

Just prior to the winter break, the children had an opportunity to share holiday traditions. Regardless of religious or cultural backgrounds, we found that we had a lot in common. One of my family traditions is to take some time during the break to visit Maine. You will notice that this picture is quite different from the one I posted earlier in the year.

Our class is working with Mrs. Cobb’s seventh graders on a special writing project. This week’s blogs represent the first drafts written by the third graders. Enjoy!