Star Student Poster

If you have never done Star Student in your classroom before, it might be something to consider taking on. I was diligent in including this activity every year for most of my teaching career but gave it up the last couple of years for the sake of time. I'm going back to it this year. Students really benefit from it and the importance of this activity can't be overlooked.

In case you are not familiar with Star Student, it is an activity in which one student is chosen (usually one per week) to be the star of the week. The privileges can vary depending on how far you want to go with it but might include having this student be the line leader, special helper, etc. The one thing that is always included is a special poster/presentation telling about the student. This is an important way for students to learn to express themselves and speak publicly. Even though the student will only have one chance at this, they continue to benefit from seeing fellow students present.

While I like the benefit of students learning to feel comfortable with sharing in front of the class, the true benefit and the reason I am going back to Star Student is because it is really a chance for teachers to model, not only good public speaking rules, but writing rules as well. As part of Star Student, the class writes a page about this person. As students learn this process teachers are able to model how this should be done. They model and encourage students to use correct capitalization, punctuation, spacing, and grammar. As time goes on teachers also begin to model and encourage students to include more details and adjectives to help their writing grow. The simplicity of Star Student makes this activity a good tool for helping beginning writers.

There are big posters for Star Student available at the teacher's store, but I like having something a little smaller and more portable, so I have created a Star Student set. It includes a student poster, question prompts, a parent letter, a binder page, and book markers, which are in both color and black and white.

Here is the link in case you are interested in seeing it.

Star Student Poster with Question Prompts

Please feel free to visit Anna Navarre's Teacher Pay Teachers Store

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Anna-Navarre

My Summer Writing Journal Packet

This summer writing packet is a great way to have children practice writing skills during the summer break. I like providing my students with this kind activity before they head off for the summer. I will even be using this packet during the summer with my grandchildren. The prompts encourage writing; while at the same time incorporate an activity to help keep them busy over the summer months.

You could provide children with a spiral notebook and have them glue the journal writing label to the front cover; or use individual pages to form a personal journal.

There are two ways to use the writing prompts. One way is to have the child remove a sticker label with a prompt on it and attach it to a page in their journal and then write about it. Another way would be to cut the journal prompting cards apart and put them in a bag. The child draws from the bag and writes about the activity.

This activity is available at my teacher's stores if you are interested in it. The set includes 30 writing labels/cards, a writing reminder page,  a list of adjectives, a journal page, and a journal label. 

Anna Navarre's Teacher Store

TpT Store 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/My-Summer-Writing-Journal-Packet-1269639

or Teacher's Notebook

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/anavarre/my-summer-journal-writing-packet