Giddy Up!

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Lana

The wonderful The Tale of a Dark Horse is about to gallop into our library ridden by the one and only Sarah Brennan!

We managed to secure Sarah during her flying visit to Shanghai for the Shanghai International Literary Festival which ends on March 21st. Sarah will be presenting to our Elementary Students on Wednesday March 19th and I’m especially excited about her session with fourth grade on Nailing the Narrative Curve.

“Writing Workshops: Grades 4 to 6- I also provide colourful and interactive workshops for upper primary children on How to Write A Riveting Story, Nailing the Narrative Curve, An Introduction to Poetry, Books are a Brain’s Best Friend, How to Become a Great Writer and Publishing a Picture Book from Brilliant Idea to Final Product.”

The Tale of A Dark Horse is available for sale, as are all of Sarah’s other books, for 80 rmb starting Monday in the ES Library.

Ten More Sleeps

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Lana

In just ten days from now, our visiting author, Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt, will be hopping on a plane, and making his way to Shanghai….

Why you ask?

To see US??? YES-YOU! We are going to be in for a treat having Kenn ALL TO OURSELVES in the Elementary School for five glorious days. It is a wonderful opportunity for our students, especially considering all of the poetry the students have been creating over the past weeks. Students are still creating lovely pieces, exciting poems and musing lyrically in their classes as we speak… and many have co-ordinated their poetry units around Kenn’s visit.

I really enjoyed looking through the many blogs our teachers work hard on, and browsing through the poetry of our students. Thanks to teachers like Ed Hagen for posting photos of your students at the poetry slam, as well as actual copies of his students’ poetry. Meanwhile across the hall, here are some of Emmy David’s parents and students celebrating the success of 2ED.

Considering the fireworks we’ve all just experienced, I really enjoyed 1EV student Sisi’s poem.

Fireworks

By Sisi

Pop! Like

Some

Popcorn so

Many

Colors

Bursting in the sky

Like a sparkling star

Disappearing in the dark, black

Sky

Little bees falling

From the sky

I must also compliment my daughter Mimi from 1CN for writing about love…

Love by Mimi

Love is special

Love is everywhere

Love is in your heart

and in the air

Love is forever

Book Reviews

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Lana

Rarely do you get the chance to read a story this wonderful, taking you on a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows where you find yourself crying and laughing on the same page.

The Fault in our Stars is that story. John Green delivers in this tale of two sixteen year olds who meet at a Cancer Support Group. Hazel and Augustus, two lead characters who provide us with intelligence, humor and grace, help us navigate loaded issues of death, love and life.

If you like a book that takes you on an unforgettable journey… check out The Fault in our Stars today.

“The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

There are many specific elements that contribute to making a STRONG book review.

*Write a summary of the book that does not give two much of the plot away
*Using quotes from the book is a great way to catch people’s interest
*Make sure your review shares how you feel about the book, and why, and not just what the book is about
*Hook the reader in, perhaps by asking them questions

Here is a scholastic site you can go to and put your own review online for the world to see.

I also love this spaghetti book club page which includes hundreds of reviews written for children BY children ABOUT children’s books. They all follow a pretty clear pattern making it obvious to young learners what is expected of them.

Here is a review provided by A.S., aged 8, taken from here

A 12 year old girl named Mibs and her brothers and sisters have a secret. Mibs’ family, the Beaumonts, have a special tradition. For the Beaumonts whenever they turn 13 they get a savvy, a special power, Mibs is desperate, she can’t wait. It’s only a few days from her13th birthday. Rocket, her brother, can make electricity, Fish, her other brother, can control the weather, what will be Mibs’ savvy? But bad news strikes, something has happened to Mib’s father, but what? Will he ever get out of the hospital? What will happen next? Will Mibs father have to miss her birthday?
I really like this book because it has adventure and a little bit of mystery. As you read this book you might be wondering will Mib’s father wake up? What will Mib’s savvy be? My favorite part was when Mib’s figured out her savvy because it was an exciting moment, suddenly just like that, Mib’s has an awesome savvy. To me this book is both special and unique because it’s not an everyday thing, you turn thirteen and you get a super power. So, what is Mib’s savvy? Well you will have to read this book to find out.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes adventures and a little bit of a mystery because this book will take you on a twisty and turny trip on a big pink Bible Supply Bus with a bunch of crazy kids to who knows where!!!!!

I love that A.S. makes the recommendation to a specific audience and explains why she likes the book so much.
Well done A.S.

Writer’s Workshop News

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Lana

Hello Parents

Below are the teaching points for our current Writer’s Workshop Unit titled “Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing.” By now you have seen your child’s first personal narrative for the school year and I hope you have had a chance to give them some feedback. It is important that your child knows we all have their best interests at heart and just want them to reach their full potential as writers this year. All of us have stories to tell, it is time for your child to tell some of them on paper, and tell them well.

Now that we have started the second narrative for the year, the hope is that the student’s will take the advice and constructive criticism received from peers, family and myself, and together with the following teaching points, their next narrative will be of a higher standard than their first. The idea of the Writer’s Workshop Units of Study is for the students to constantly build on their skills, adding more ‘tools’ to their ‘tool-kit’ as they grow as writers. Today we completed Lesson 3, ask your child about what feelings and emotions they wrote about today; or about yesterday’s lessons on first times, last times, and important times.

Raising the Quality of Narrative Writing

1. Writers make their writing POWERFUL by emulating writing they admire.

2. Writers use the strategies they know and think about FIRST times, LAST times and IMPORTANT times to generate IDEAS for their PERSONAL NARRATIVES.

3. WRITERS choose a STRONG feeling then they write about a time they felt the feeling.

4. WRITERS set goals and review what they’ve learned to improve on their writing.

5. WRITERS ARE STRONG LISTENERS WHO CAN FIND IDEAS IN THEIR OWN.OTHER’S SEED ENTRIES.

6. Writers ask “what is my story really about?”

7. WRITERS USE MENTOR TEXTS TO GUIDE THEM AS THEY DRAFT AND REVISE THEIR LEADS.

8. Writers write from the narrator’s P.O.V.

9. Writers can strengthen their PERSONAL NARRATIVES by highlighting the CONNECTION between EXTERNAL ACTIONS &INTERNAL RESPONSES.

10. WRITERS use scenes from the PAST or FUTURE to bring out the INTERNAL STORY AND ADD POWER TO THEIR NARRATIVES.

11. Writers revise their NARRATIVES to bring out the STORY STRUCTURE.

12. WRITERS DON’T JUST “END STORIES”…they LEARN LESSONS, they SOLVE PROBLEMS AND MAKE CHANGES to end them EFFECTIVELY.

13. WRITERS USE PUNCTUATION & COMMAS IN PARTICULAR TO MAKE THEIR WRITING MORE EXACT.

Sit down with a coffee and some cake to get through this one!!!

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Lana

Hi Parents and Students

Some of this news is repetitive for you if you are up to date with your blog reading and school news, so you may want to skim and scan. Notes have been coming to me from all directions this week and I have saved them up until my desktop was full, so here goes…

Are you ready?

Several members of the class are spending some of their home time working on a piece of writing to enter a competition in Little Star Magazine. I commend their efforts and look forward to hearing of their success. Although many of the students are motivated by the possible prize money and ipad at the end of the rainbow; I am sure they will also have some of their own great moments actually writing their story, titled “The Decision”, and discovering their great writing skills along the way. Good Luck and see below for more details.

In other writing news, our Essays have been published and we look forward to sharing them with Ms. Lau’s class tomorrow morning as her class just finished theirs too. Hooray for S.A.S. writers everywhere!

The K-12 Visual Art Department is having an art magnet sale called “Points to Pakistan”. All art classes K-12 created these magnets with the intent to sell and donate the profits to the country of Pakistan to help them recover from the devastating flooding that occurred in August and that is still destroying lives today. Students can purchase magnets during the week of Mon. Feb. 14th – Friday Feb. 18th.

Each magnet is 25 RMB.

In Math… we are working steadily through Unit 7: Exponents and Negative Numbers. Besides learning about exponential notation and negative numbers, we will also learn the order of operations (PEMDAS).

In Writer’s Workshop… we will start working on our Literary Essays next week; these are essays about reading, and as we have a class of wonderful readers, I believe they will enjoy this unit. They did a terrific job with their first 5th grade essays and I also loved their recent book reports to the class. This unit will be like a combination of both.

In Reader’s Workshop… the kids were excited to choose their book club groups yesterday to study four different social issues books together in groups of four. The novels chosen were A Jar of Dreams, which you can read about in more detail on Kyra’s blog, Red Scarf Girl, Blubber (which I loved reading as a child), Juneboy and Go Fish.

In Social Studies… we are working through migration with Mr. Power. I love the conversations we are having in this unit and I hope your child has told you something about our read-a-loud accompanying this unit, Home of the Brave, if not, please ask them what it is about.

Please also read this note below from Ms. Schroeder, from the S.A.S. Pudong Student Council

My name is Jessica Schroeder, and I am writing to you regarding a school-wide service project that Student Council is hoping to initiate this year. In brief, we would like to get involved with the Lions Club International Eyeglasses Collection Project, which donates used eyeglasses to children who cannot afford them on their own. From February 21 to March 4, we would like to set out a few boxes across the school that will collect eyeglasses for the Lions Club. The Student Council will regulate, empty out, and be responsible for these boxes, but would like to request permission to place them around the elementary building during those two weeks.

Here are the details about the Little Star Writing Competition, it is not compulsory do join up but I encourage you if you wish to.

Theme: The decision

Entry Requirements:
SHORT STORIES: 2500 words maximum (no minimum), the title is NOT included in the word count. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published on any website or public online forum, broadcast nor winning or placed in any other competition.

Eligibility:
The competition is open to all international school students in China, competing in three age groups:
Group I: Under 12 years old;
Group II: 12-15 years old;
Group III: 16-18 years old.

Prizes:
1st = 3000 RMB (prizes), 1 winner in each group.
2nd = 1000 RMB (prizes), 2 winners in each group.
3rd = 500 RMB (prizes), 3 winners in each group.
5 supplementary prizes of 100 RMB (prizes) in each group.

LittleStar Award:
One Apple IPAD for its most favored student writer and internship at LittleStar Magazine.

Entry Format:
All entries must be submitted online: http://www.internationalschool.info/littlestar/competition/shortstory
Entries must be in English, single sided, with pages numbered and a word count noted at the top of the first page. The filename of online entries must be the title of the entry and it must be either a .doc or .docx file.No corrections can be made after receipt. Failure to comply with the entry requirements will result in disqualification.

Deadline for submission:
Closing date for receipt of online entries: February 28, 2011 Receipt of entries will be confirmed by LittleStar via email.

Judging:
This year’s lead judge will be a published author in the US or UK (to be confirmed later), who will also do a workshop on “how to get published?” with the kids on the Award Ceremony. Other judges may include LittleStar editors and international school librarians. Judging is fair and unbiased. Experienced readers assist the named judges in selecting the shortlists for the final. The judges’ decision is final.

Results:
Final results and winners list of the competition will be released on LittleStar website before March 15, 2011. Winners of the competition will also be notified through emails from LittleStar Magazine.

Anthology:
A special anthology of winning short stories will be printed out before the Award Ceremony in March 2011. Each entrant for the competition and participating schools will receive free copies.

Prize Winners/ Award Ceremony:
All winners are invited to and prizes awarded at a grand Award Ceremony in Beijing in March 2011.
The list of prizewinners will be displayed on the Little Star website www.internationalschool.info after the award ceremony.

Copyright:
Worldwide copyright of each entry remains with the author, but LittleStar Magazine will have the right to publish the winning poems and stories, (including runners up), in the annual anthology and any relevant promotional material.

Science, Publishing Parties and Mooncakes

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Lana

Wow, what a busy and exciting time it is here at S.A.S. right now. I really hope that soccer day doesn’t get rained out tomorrow 5KP…keep your fingers crossed…

News Just In…
Dear Parents and Students,

We are canceling today’s games but are rescheduling for Friday the 24th (Tomorrow). Please inform all students to bring warmer clothes and perhaps a second set of dry clothes to put on afterward.

We at S.A.S. PD will take this opportunity to better prepare for Friday’s games by setting up additional tents for cover and remarking the fields.

The weather forecast for today calls for 40% chance of rain while tomorrow is only 20% chance.

Please make sure kids are dressed warm enough on Friday.

Thanks again for your understanding and continued support.

Todd Parham (Athletic Director)

Here is the revised schedule for Friday’s Soccer Day

DON’T PANIC 5KP the math test will NOT be rained out!

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

SPIRIT WEEK is next week leading up to our week off for the October National Day Holiday
Don’t forget to wear your house shirts next Monday for the start of Spirit Walk at 1pm. If you don’t have one you will be able to get one tomorrow or Friday during homeroom time.
We won’t need to wear any twins clothes on Tuesday as we are ALL going to look the same in our soccer uniforms as we head off to our EXPO field trip! (Two volunteers still needed please)
Wear something crazy on Wacky Wednesday
Thursday is GOING TO BE FANTASTIC, Pajama Day is my absolute favorite day of the year!

Continue reading →

News of the Moment

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Lana

Hello 5KP families

The class are enjoying preparing their first personal narrative for publishing. Using some of the new tools I was taught about at the Mac conference last Thursday and Friday we have been reading each others work, saving the work as a Pages Document and then using Voice Candy to give feedback to our writing partner. Ask the kids about it, they really worked hard. We will hold our first publishing party next Monday. It would be great if we could have some volunteers to send in a few treats for the kids. Please mail me if you are able to make brownies or cupcakes or send in some juice, pop-corn or potato chips, we would really appreciate it and then we will celebrate by sharing our stories aloud with each other.We are about half way through our second math unit and I anticipate having our second unit test first thing on Thursday the 23rd of September. That week is a busy week with our publishing party on Monday, school photos on either Monday the 20th or Tuesday the 21st (times to follow), an elementary assembly at 2 pm on Tuesday (you are always welcome to attend), our day off from school on Wednesday the 22nd and our first soccer day of the year on Thursday the 23rd, starting out on the fields at 10 am, please join us if you are able, we play about 5 matches between 10 am and 1.30 pm (details to follow).

All of these dates are in the google calendar at the left of this screen and are updated regularly.

All new students have now been put into their school houses, either Puma, Dolphin, Bear or Falcon so check out who is where.

names

Finally, if you are anything like me, you will sometimes find it difficult to get your child organized in the morning. Some of the students have been coming to school without their writer’s or reader’s notebooks, their study-links or other things they need for the day. I found this link handy in my own life and wonder if it may be helpful in yours. The site, unclutterer.com is in my useful sites category too on the right of the screen as I have followed it for a few years; there is always something handy on there to help me or my family/my class become more organized.

I look forward to perhaps seeing some of you at the S.A.S. swim meet of the P.T.S.A. barbecue this Saturday. Over and Out!

The countdown has started…

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Lana

Hello and Welcome all future 5KP Students and fond hellos to my lovely 5KP class of 2009-2010 as I know that you are more likely to read this first.

For those of you that know and love Ralph Fletcher, you may be interested to read an interview he did recently about the new book he has written, ‘Pyrotechnics on the Page’ that I found on one of the blogs I follow, “A Year of Reading“. Check it out here

Here is something Ralph Fletcher says in this article that I strongly agree with:
“First, I think strong writing contains an element of surprise. Wordplay–the surprising, unexpected effect that happens when words rub together–is a great way to create surprise.”

If you would like to read more about Ralph Fletcher, or a few other favourite 5th grade authors, check out by blogroll under authors.

I look forward to getting to know my new students in just

6 more sleeps!!!

Stickers for Erin…

Posted on September 26, 2009 by Lana

Congratulations to Erin Zhang who was the first student to correctly identify the literary device I used in my headline on the last post.

Great job Erin for being the first one to tell me it was alliteration. Students try and write your next blog post using some alliteration. There

were many examples of it in the story I started reading to you recently “Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street” and you will have used it before

writing tongue twisters and the like in poetry lessons. It is a great devise to catch a reader’s attention.

Well done also to Sam Tucker and Nicole Tang who responded to my post with very good answers, just not the exact word.

the barefoot librarian

Kimbra Power

Category Archives: Writing Workshop