My students need notebooks to record their ideas and monitor their growth! Each student will have a notebook to track their thinking, glue in important reference materials, and improve their writing skills.
A Treehouse is defined as "a structure built in the branches of a tree for children to play in."
There is no irony in the idea fact that my students call my classroom "The Treehouse".
Our structure is a space to collaborate, innovate, and achieve; built on passion and strong relationships. Our branches are a variety of media sources and people who, like the limbs of a tree, reach in all directions to help us grow. And we play... oh, do we play! We use our imaginations, we manipulate endless ideas, we create without fear of failure, we act with respect for others, we pursue with self awareness, and we learn with a love for life...
My Kindergarten through 5th Grade Collaborators are always creating, innovating, and achieving; but they need your help to continue to shatter the glass ceilings above them.
My Project
Listen to one of my 2nd through 4th grade students and you will quickly hear innovative and original ideas spill out of their mouths. However, I consistently hear teachers in the building share that students are struggling during their classroom writing block. Their writing is not matching their remarkable thoughts and spoken ideas. Therefore, in Media Class this year I am activating ideas from Aimee Buckner's "Notebook Know How" professional text.
Every student has a story and through their Writer's Notebook, we'll connect those stories to literature, media sources, and our imaginations to build the best writers possible!
Students will use their notebooks each time they enter The Treehouse. Each student will receive a notebook, labeled with their name, that will be stored in plastic tubs by homeroom class to ensure not a second is wasted to distribute materials. Students will engage in a mini-lesson where they will glue important information to reference in their notebook. Then they will set off to create their own stories and record innovative ideas that connect with the many texts, media clips, and resources at their fingertips! Not only will this project build a love of writing within students, it will allow us to leverage the writing process, as students will draft ideas in their notebook and then be given the opportunity to bring their stories to life through existing classroom technology!
Will you help my students embrace authoring their own story?
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Brinn and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.