Tuesday Writing PaWs: Olympic Tickets

This is the last Writing PaWs of the 2015-2016 school year. Look for more free topics when the new school year returns in late summer. This week's topic is a companion to last week's and continues the theme of the Olympics. Besides providing timely topics, the original Paragraph a Week (PaW) Program attempted to introduce various writing genre to our intermediate grade students. Last week's Olympic topic asked students to write an informational paragraph; this week's asks them to compose a friendly letter. You can download your free topic sheet HERE.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Olympic Sports

One of the goals of the original PaW (Paragraph a Week) Program was to provide timely, engaging topics for our students to write about. A topic that appears in a cyclical fashion is that of the Olympics. With its rich history and multicultural tones, it is a topic our students can really immerse themselves in. Start now to prepare or wait until the new school year begins; the Olympics is set to begin in Rio in August 2016. You can download your FIRST free Olympic PaW HERE.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Memorial Day

This week's Writing PaWs (Paragraph a Week) is just in time for an upcoming patriotic holiday. This particular topic is not found as part of the original Paragraph a Week program, but rather one that I created for this year's group of sixth graders to accompany an art project from Art with Jenny K. that we are currently completing. Watch for an upcoming blog post detailing the finished projects.

You can download your free PaW instruction sheet HERE.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Living in the Past

There is such a wide variety of topics in the PaW (Paragraph a Week) line-up, from stories to letters, narratives to arguments. Some of my favorite topics are those that require young authors to do some research before they can do the actual writing. This week's Tuesday Writing PaWs is one of these. Assign a decade to your class (or allow each student to choose), adjust the controls of your time machine, and set your young authors free.

You can download your free topic sheet HERE.

Tuesday Writing PaWs 4.5.16

I looked back at my posts and discovered that it's been nearly a month since I last shared a Tuesday Writing PaWs. What with Easter break and special linkies that fell on Tuesday I took a brief pause from the PaWs.

When I think of April, I always think of Easter and when I think of Easter, I always think of new clothes. As a child I always received a brand new outfit to wear to church on Easter, including hat, gloves, socks, and shoes. There are countless photos from my childhood of me dressed in my Easter finery. So in honor of Easter and new clothing, here's this week's Writing PaWs. You can download your free topic sheet HERE.

Don't forget: All of the Tuesday Writing PaWs topic sheets are always available for your use. Just click the Paragraph a Week tab at the top of the blog. There you will find more than thirty topics free for you to use in your classroom.

Springing into Learning Blog Hop: Three ELA Freebies

It feels wonderful to be able to start a blog title with the word SPRING! It has been a loooooong winter, my friends. It's even more wonderful to be participating in this terrific blog hop hosted by Kim from Elementary Antics.

After a long, hard winter it is enjoyable to turn our attention to spring; to turn our classroom environment to a fresh look; and to fill our work sheets, anchor charts, and foldables with chicks, butterflies. and flowers instead of penguins and snowflakes.

One ELA activity that I like to do with my class each season and/or holiday is called a Take Three. This is a brainstorming/fluency of thinking activity that can be used as a pre-writing or stand alone assignment. Given a particular broad topic (in our case: spring), students add three details or supporting ideas for six sub-topics. Take Three's are easy to implement, need little instruction, and virtually no preparation. You can copy the worksheet so that each student has a copy, display the Take Three on a screen or board for students to work together, or have students copy the topic/sub-topics onto their own pieces of paper to save printing costs. Ready to give Take Three a try? You can download a freebie Spring Take Three HERE.

Another ELA Spring activity that I enjoy having my students do is adding spring foldables to their Language Arts Interactive Notebooks. INB's are just plain fun to begin with and remove the sting of having to take notes. In our Language Arts Notebooks we frequently look at how words work within a text: How do nouns name? What are the verbs and how do they display the time of the piece? How do the adjectives and adverbs lend to the description and imagery of the text?

Would you like a fun, little Spring foldable to use in your student interactive notebooks or just as a fun ELA activity? Download your freebie HERE.

When thoughts turn to Spring, it's often hard to keep students focused on work at hand. Let's face it- we would rather be outside in the fresh air and sunshine and so would they! So what's a teacher to do? Play a game, of course. One fun game to add to an ELA class is Boggle. Besides the obvious fun factor, Boggle is a super tool for practicing spelling and word recognition.

Here's a Boggle board decked out for Spring. Just download the pic and display it for your students to use. While you're at it, make sure you play along with them... it will help you quell your own Spring Fever!

Not sure how to play Boggle? Click HERE for the original game rules.

Need a Boggle board that you can edit yourself? Click HERE for a free editable board.

Want a blank boggle board template for your students to use with classroom boggle? Click HERE.

How about a variety of editable boards to change with the seasons? Click HERE for a bundle of fifteen boggle boards that you can program yourself.

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Be sure to hop on over to all of these great bloggers where you will find more Spring freebies and tips. Hoppy Spring!

An InLinkz Link-up

The Tuesday Writing PaWs

When I look at all of the topics that were generated for and submitted to the Original Paragraph a Week Project I am amazed! The variety (and number) is rather extensive. From Beanie Babies to the Water Cycle, from friendship to imagination, from junk food to water it can be found as a PaW (Paragraph a Week) topic.

I always have a hard time choosing which topic to feature each week for the Tuesday Writing PaWs. Sometimes I select topics that deal with nearby holidays or seasons. Sometimes I choose a weekly topic because of events that have occurred, and sometimes I select a topic just because I like it.

This week, the inspiration for the PaWs topic is the weather. We have a LOAD of rain expected in the coming days. All I can say is that I'm very happy that the temps are high enough to let it be liquid water rather than solid.

You can download this week's topic sheet HERE.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Reading

As teachers we realize the deep connection between reading and writing. However, our students don't often see the importance or make the connection. That's our job. Paragraph a Week (PaW) was one way that in the late nineties a group of connected teachers developed to help our students increase their writing skills. This week's PaW topic celebrates a favorite author's birthday and asks student authors to write about reading. You can download your free topic sheet HERE.

Do you have any topics that you'd like to see featured here on The Teacher's Desk 6? Leave a message in the comments. I will be glad to create a topic sheet to share!

Thank Goodness for the Tuesday Writing PaWs

As I was checking through the PaWs (Paragraph a Week) topics that I still haven't shared with you, I was reminded of the time so many years ago that I spent collecting and formatting these writing gems. While many were developed by me, just as many were submitted by fellow connected teachers. Thank goodness for all of those dedicated teachers who were so willing to share! "Thank goodness," what an interesting phrase! You can download this week's PaW topic sheet HERE.

If you are using the Tuesday Writing PaWs topics in your class, I'd love to hear from you. Have the topics impacted your writing class? Has PaW changed the way you teach writing? Please leave a comment below or send an email message to me. I'd like to include your impressions and opinions in an upcoming blog post.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Catholic Schools Week

In honor of Catholic Schools Week being celebrated this week, the Tuesday Writing PaWs features a special CSW topic. You can download your free topic sheet HERE.

Out of This World Tuesday Writing PaWs

This week's writing prompt for the Tuesday Writing PaWs is out of this world! You can download your Paragraph a Week topic sheet HERE.

If you are using the Tuesday Writing PaWs topics in your class, I'd love to hear from you. Have the topics impacted your writing class? Has PaW changed the way you teach writing? Please leave a comment below or send an email message to me. I'd like to include your impressions and opinions in an upcoming blog post.

Please note: The Tuesday Writing PaWs will be on hiatus the third Tuesday of each month. I will be joining a BRAND NEW linky party: "SHOW AND TELL" hosted by Stephanie from Forever in Fifth Grade. I hope you will join us for this fun new venture.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Presents

One goal of the Original Paragraph a Week Program was to grow our students' writing skills in a progressive manner. We began with the student goal of independently writing a well-organized, detailed, literate paragraph and gradually pushed our students into writing well-organized, detailed, literate essays. This week's PaWs features a topic for one such essay. You can download your free instruction sheet HERE.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Tuesday Writing PaWs will return with a brand new topic in mid-January.

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Advent Traditions

This week's Paragraph a Week topic draws our attention to Advent, the beginning of the Church year and the time of preparation for the coming of our Lord. I am including a little extra freebie for you and your students that might serve as a brainstorming or preparatory piece prior to assigning the PaW for the week.

Called a Take Three, students are given a topic (in our case ADVENT) and six subtopics for which they must supply three details. Take Threes are terrific pre-writing activities as well as time-fillers, morning work, or just those few minutes left at the end of a class. Here's an Advent Take Three that you can download HERE.

Now for the PaW topic for this week. Please download your free instruction sheet HERE.

Tuesday Writing PaWs

The Tuesday Writing PaWs (Paragraph a Week) returns today after a brief pause with a holiday writing prompt. You can download this week's free instruction sheet HERE.

Don't pause too long on this post, however, or you might miss the final hours of the TpT Cyper Smile Sale! Just click the pic to be taken away to great savings on terrific teaching products. Be sure to enter the promo code SMILE during checkout!

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Holiday Smells

This week's Paragraph a Week features one of my favorite topics: figurative language. I like to read figurative language, I like to craft figurative language, and I like to teach figurative language. It brings reading and writing to life, painting pictures in one's mind, causing one to feel and react to text. After listening to and reading texts with numerous examples of figurative language, students are ready to try their hand at writing it. This week's Writing PaWs features the Smells of the Holiday.

You can download your FREE Paragraph a Week instruction sheet HERE.

For more Paragraph a Week topics visit the tab at the top of the page.

The Tuesday Writing PaWs will be taking a pause from posting next week. A new topic will be posted on December 1, 2015.

Teaching Tuesday: Thankful for The Tuesday Writing PaWs

One of the best things that ever happened to my teaching was Paragraph a Week (PaW). This simple weekly writing program provided a framework for building student fluency in writing, reinforced the writing process, and established a homework routine. Although my students mumbled and grumbled each week as I passed out the topic instruction sheets, they also could see improvements in their written compositions. I can't tell you how many students that I have seen in the past few years who have commented about Paragraph a Week, stating that it really helped them learn how to write. What more can a teacher want?

You can download this week's FREEBIE PaW topic instruction sheet HERE just in time for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

Be sure to stop by HoJo's Teaching Adventures for more Tuesday Teaching ideas!

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Let the Fall Topics Continue

One of the best parts of the original Paragraph a Week program was that all of us teachers who were collaborating on the topics back in the 90's had a wealth of enthusiasm which lead to a plethora of ideas. Seasonal topics were among the most popular and populous, fall being a particular favorite. Last week's Writing PaWs set the stage for a mini-series of topics all centered on the season of fall. The next four to five weeks of the Tuesday Writing PaWs will continue with fall related topics.

This week you can download a PaW topic information sheet about Making Sense of an Apple HERE which will help your students write a five paragraph essay.

Other PaW (Paragraph a Week) FREEBIES currently available can be downloaded below. This list is arranged in no particular manner and contains single and multi-paragraph topics.

Leprechauns
Earth Day
Mother's Day
Finish the Phrase
Nice
National Pencil Month
Favorite Valentine Memory
Bird's Eye View of Spring
Abe and George
Journey of a Snowflake
Color
A Tribute to Johnny Appleseed
School Uniforms
Chocolate Rain
Good Substitute Teacher
Favorite Relative
Allowance
Best Teacher
Signs of Fall

Tuesday Writing PaWs Returns with Signs of Fall

FINALLY, The Tuesday Writing PaWs returns. I promised its return in late August so I apologize to all of you who have been waiting patiently for your weekly dose of writing topic. If you are unfamiliar with The Tuesday Writing PaWs, you can visit this blog post that tells a little about Paragraph a Week (PaW).

This week's PaWs is quite timely since yesterday was the first day of autumn. You can download the FREE topic instruction sheet HERE to use with your students.

Other PaW (Paragraph a Week) FREEBIES currently available can be downloaded below. This list is arranged in no particular manner and contains single and multi-paragraph topics.

Leprechauns
Earth Day
Mother's Day
Finish the Phrase
Nice
National Pencil Month
Favorite Valentine Memory
Bird's Eye View of Spring
Abe and George
Journey of a Snowflake
Color
A Tribute to Johnny Appleseed
School Uniforms
Chocolate Rain
Good Substitute Teacher
Favorite Relative
Allowance
Best Teacher