Week 23 "Dear Me,"

Hello Essentials families,
What a beautiful spring day we were blessed with yesterday!  We covered a lot of information in two hours, but the students hung in their and are dashing to the finish line next week.  It seems hard to believe, but the weeks have flown by.  Some students were Memory Master testing or sick at home so I am going to be thorough in today's blog.

IEW Letter Writing Model: "Friendly Letters"  Unit 7 Notes from the Brain
In today's world of email and texting many of us do not take the time to write a letter.  Ending the year on a fun and friendly note, the students are writing a letter to themselves not to be opened until the year they graduate from high school.  Next week they will literally "seal" the letters with a wax seal (to avoid the risk of burns I had adhesive seals made), to insure that they will keep their letters sealed.

When writing this week look at their take home packet for all that you need to have them compose their letter.  This assignment will not be turned in to me and therefore will not be required to underlined, labeled, etc.  On your checklist(mom's packet), you will see that I focused on the structure of a letter over the style elements they have learned.  Encourage them to write with dress-ups and a variety of sentence openers, but allow them the freedom and enjoyment of breaking away from the checklist!  As exhibited in class yesterday when the students created compound-complex sentences, they naturally enjoy putting in those vocabulary words, strong verbs, etc.

Structure:  Each letter should follow the friendly letter format presented in class yesterday.  There are 5 parts the students should include:
HEADING, GREETING, BODY, CLOSING with SIGNATURE, and POST SCRIPT.
This letter follows the Unit 7 "Notes from the brain": Introductory paragraph, body paragraphs (1,2, or 3) and conclusion.  Your child may write a 3, 4, or 5 paragraph letter.

Introductory Paragraph: Background information (for ex. I am writing this letter for my IEW/Essentials class.  I am in the fourth grade and I am ten years old.)  Then, have them state their topic(s) for the body of the letter (A, B, C), "TELL THEM WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO TELL THEM."
Body:  We brainstormed 3 themes in class that they may write about.  Let them choose the details they would like to include in their letter and write 1, 2, or 3 body paragraphs. "TELL THEM"
Conclusion: In the conclusion, the students should restate their topic(s).  Write the most significant idea and why? to conclude their letter. "TELL THEM WHAT YOU TOLD THEM"
******Topic sentence clincher rule should be followed on the body paragraphs!"Look at the example IEW leeters included in thier packet for an example.*****

This letter may be hand-written or typed.  I want them to have fun writing this week.  We did a lot of brainstorming in class, so today have them fill out their KWO and start writing.  When your child gets to the final draft of their letter have them look for those punctuation and spelling errors.  They have done an incredible job in class finding those "FOULS" and now they can apply these skills to their own writing.

Time Capsule:
This is where you can set them loose to create a capsule enclosing all of the things that your child loves and finds valuable to their lives today!  We brainstormed ideas of what to include in their capsules:  Newspaper, gas prices, pictures, CD's, favorite candy wrappers, menus, favorite movie and TV shows, church bulletin, their height and weight, a handmade piece of jewelry, etc.

Bring their completed time capsules, letters, and portfolios to class next week so they can "SHOWCASE" their work for the year.  We will set up and display their time capsules and portfolios on tables(museum style) and allow them to show them off.  We will spend the other portion of our time in Writer's Circle reading their poetry and papers aloud. It is time to celebrate all that the moms and children have accomplished this year!  "Power of the Pen" writing awards will also be given to each student:)!

Celebrate with Sundaes:
We are going to celebrate with an ice cream sundae party next week to close out our year!  In class, everyone signed up to bring a variety of toppings and ice cream.  If you were not in class, just bring a topping of your choice to contribute.

Have a great week, remember to let the children have freedom and fun with this project.  This is supposed to be stress free week for moms! Let them be creative and checklist free in their letters and let them have fun free time fashioning their capsules.

Happy Writing - it's time to celebrate,
Tina:)