History Mystery..the end is near!

All students should have completed their research by now.  We will spend this next week writing our mystery stories.  We have done prewriting activities to help organize the stories.  It is very possible that your child may end up bringing home their rough draft to type or rewrite into a final copy.  It is very tempting for parents to make corrections, but please refrain from this.  Allow your child to type or write his/her own story.  Should you type your child's story, it is okay only if you type the rough draft exactly. Show them how to use the spell check and allow them to do this  and make other corrections on their own.  If you want to give your child some "creative guidance," try asking them questions to guide them to a conclusion.  In the end, it is important that they turn in their own work, even if it isn't up to parental standards. Guide them to do their very best work, but it needs to be truly theirs. When parents help too much, it sends a message to the child that they aren't capable and enables perfectionism, which is a big issue for gifted kids. 

The Poet Tree

I can't believe the end of the term is just around the corner!  This week we are going to be selecting poems to put in our anthology.  Each student will choose one of their original poems and will type and illustrate it. I'll put all the poems together into a book so that each student gets a copy.  In addition, each student will be writing a descriptive paragraph demonstrating the writing tools they have learned.  Some students are still revising poems.  All this has to be completed by Wednesday, November 16! 

The kids are very excited about the upcoming Poetry Cafe.  We are going to have a wonderful celebration of poetry!

Teaching Kids Typing

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/11/typing-adventure-fun-little-typing-game.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

The very long address above will take you to a blog called Free Technology for Teachers.  The entry is about a typing program for students.  Many of  our EER kids are interested in learning to type and it would certainly benefit them to do so.  In addition to the site above, there is a free program on the Internet called DanceMat.  You might take a look at it.